Hit Dice Dungeons Initial Playtest - Version 0.1.1

What's going on here?

 I'm writing an RPG that spun out of the idea of using Usage Dice to track HP.

What changed from the original blog post?

Following on from my blog post where I outlined the basic idea, I developed it into an actual RPG system. Compared with that original idea, I fully abandoned any effects that modify the range of  numbers that cause the Die to step down, and locked it at 1-3 for all situations.

Where weapons in that original version shifted the range that stepped down, weapons for my first playtest instead dealt a static amount of damage to their target. For each point of damage, you roll your Hit Die once, stepping down for each failure. This also solves the problem that the original idea had of Hit Dice capping the worst case scenario of a powerful attack to stepping down a single time. With damage causing individual rolls, a powerful attack can now step down your die multiple times and kill you outright.

Armor also had to be changed (it could no longer shrink the 'threat range') and now lets you reroll a number of failed "damage rolls".

I wrote up a small handful of backgrounds, in the style of Electric Bastionland's failed careers or Troika! backgrounds, to run a playtest with one of my usual groups. My original intention was to also have GLOG style classes, but I both didn't finish them in time and also wanted to test the core systems before I started layering things on top.

The Playtest

My players rolled (off of my expansive d8 table) an Exiled Neriad, a Rat Catcher, and a Traveling Salesman. Very early on in the night the Traveling Salesman player asked if he could be a Minotaur, which seemed like an excellent idea and was immediately added to the background itself.

For the module, I ran Tomb of the Last Tyrant from Dissident Whispers (technically now the 7th Dissident Whispers module I've run, although this won't get the whole micro review treatment I usually do) with the possibility of spinning it out into a sandbox hexcrawl to keep testing the system as it develops.

I won't give a whole play report here, than than to highlight a few fun moments:

• Yeeting "serpent guards" off of rain slick cliffs.
• Taking advantage of thunder to pick off guards from the back of the group.
• Interrogating terrified cultists as to why they were called the Serpent Guard if none of them were actually snakes.

The main takeaways I got from running the game, and talking with the players afterwards, is that although none of us like "to hit" rolls having no roll when you make an attack and just waiting for the GM to roll the enemy's Hit Die to see how it went is pretty unsatisfying.

Changes Made

I've made two changes to the system I intend to test to try and address this. First, instead of weapons dealing a static number of damage, they have damage dice that get put through a filter. This is soft of halfway between Troika! damage tables, and the Scarlet Heroes damage system.

 This adds a bit of fiddly-ness to the game I would have liked to avoid, but it adds some agency to attacks and hopefully doesn't cause much frustration. One other benefit of this damage dice system is that it let me add my Living Grimoires magic system almost unchanged to Hit Dice Dungeons, which is nice.

The second thing being changed isn't actually a rule change as such, simply that when you attack an enemy you are the one to roll their Hit Die to see if they get injured. This is really just a perception thing, but I'm hoping it makes players feel more connected to the results of their actions.

A couple also small changes were made:

• Added a temporary advancement system (until I get those GLOG style classes off the ground) based on collecting accomplishments that would go into your Eulogy.
• Allowed clever, fun, or daring attacks to be "enhanced" (similar to Into the Odd/Electric Bastionland) by stepping up the die that would be rolled for the attack. I may switch this from stepping up the die to giving a +2 to the damage die roll, but we'll see how it feels in play.
• Added some guidance for how to track different equipment (the cowardly way of presenting three systems and letting the GM choose, hopefully I'll zero in on what works well to make a definitive statement).
• Added the concept of "Clock Dice" which is a blend of Macchiato Monsters encounter usage dice, BitD clocks, and Dungeon World fronts.

The Game Itself

 https://awkwardturtle.itch.io/hit-dice-dungeons

Check it out if you're interested, it's even got a character sheet! Expect things to change a ton as I get more playtesting and development in though.

Hit Dice Dungeons!

While running Macchiato Monsters the other night, one of my players joked about how we should be tracking hit points with a Risk Die, since everything else in the game uses those.

But then we stopped, thought about it, and realized that it actually sounded like a good idea.

So here's a combat system using only a usage/risk die for tracking harm. It's designed to slot into something like ITO, but I included some potential ways to expand this into a full system at the bottom (or just go use Jason Tocci’s 2400 which is better than whatever I'll come up with).

Hit Dice Combat

Combat occurs simultaneously. Everyone involved declares their intent for the turn (usually moving a short distance + attacking, taking an action). The GM declares NPC actions first, but everything is resolved simultaneously.

Attackers do not roll dice to resolve attacks, instead every attacked creature rolls their Hit Die to avoid harm for each attack.

If the Hit Die rolls a 1-3 (the Threat Range) the Hit Die steps down in size. If the die cannot step down (i.e. it's a d4) the creature is incapacitated. They're bleeding out and will die in an hour if left unattended.

Armor and Weapons

Deadly attacks expand the Threat Range (e.g. if attacked with a +1 Sword take harm when rolling 1-4). This is written as +X, where X is the amount the Threat Range is expanded.

Armor shrinks the Threat Range, written as -X where X is the amount by which the Threat Range is reduced (e.g. wearing Scale Mail (Armor -1) means you take harm only when rolling a 1-2).

The Threat Range cannot be smaller than 1.

Example Items

Poison, apply to a weapon for +2 to the next attack.
Great Axe, two handed, +1.
Firebomb, blast, +1
Crossbow, slow, +2

Chain Mail (Armor -1)

Helmet (Armor -1)

Plate Armor, bulky, clumsy, (Armor -2)

Shield, sunder to prevent stepping down Hit Die when hit.

 (This doesn't read wonderfully. Positive numbers always increase the Threat Range, while negative numbers always decrease it. However it's sorta messy that +1 on weapons is good, but +1 on armor would mean it's easier to hit you.)

Healing

If you took harm during a combat, a few minutes and a drink of water lets you roll the Hit Die. A result of 4+ will restore one Hit Die level (e.g. d6->d8). This only works once per combat, and only if you were damaged during that combat.

Resting overnight with food and drink automatically restores one Hit Die level, then you may roll to restore a second level (as above).

Your Hit Die cannot exceed its original size through healing.

Example Enemies

Goblin Guard, d4, Dull Stick -1
Lizard Bugcatcher, d6, Spear, Net Throw +1 (On hit tangles rather than reducing Hit Die size)
Fungal Warrior, d6, Spore Cloud +1
Giant Toad, d8, Thick Skin (Armor -1), Tongue +2 (On hit the target is grabbed and swallowed).
Crystal Mimic, d4, Fragile (Armor +1), Shard Stab (+2 if attacking from hiding)
Iron Golem, d10, Iron Construction (Armor +2), 2 x Pneumatic Fists +2
Werewolf, d8, Bite+2, 2 x Claws +1, silver weapons force Hit Rolls at disadvantage.

Ideas for Expansion

Death and Dying

Look at the final Hit Die roll to see what happens when someone goes down:

1: Dead
2: Bleeding out with minutes to live.
3: Bleeding out with an hour to live.
4: Knocked out.

Morale

Roll an NPC’s hit die for morale, on a 1-3 they flee or surrender. Enemies roll Morale whenever their Hit Die steps down (in addition to the usual times). This is basically just how Macchiato Monsters morale works.

Everything’s a Hit Die!

Treat any risky thing as an “attack”. Expand the Threat Range (as with weapons) if it’s particularly dangerous or difficult. Equipment acts like Armor does and reduces the threat range. Rolling inside the Threat Range means failure or harm, rolling above it means success or avoiding the harm.

This has the benefit of folding the entire game into a single mechanic, and means characters are just one die and some equipment.

A downside to this is that reducing the Hit Die doesn’t always make sense for every risk. This could be solved by making failure consequences more diverse when out of combat (or even when in combat!). Reduce the Hit Die when the thing at risk is bodily harm, but other risks could be lost or broken equipment, being separated, being put into a bad position, or really anything that makes fictional sense.

Another downside is that this will tend to make characters death spiral, because they’re entirely represented by one dwindling die. Every failure makes future failures more likely.

More Hit Dice?

Characters have the Hit Die as described above, which represents combat prowess and physical durability. They also have a Skill Die (representing training, talents and dexterity) and a Will Die (representing mental fortitude and magical aptitude).

Use these dice as described in the previous section, but now there’s more flexibility and characters are less likely to death spiral since harm can be spread out.

This also gives a little bit of room for mechanically distinguishing characters.

Advantage and Disadvantage?

It’d be very easy to add Advantage and Disadvantage to this. A clever attack from a good position means the enemy must roll their die at disadvantage.

However, that’s an extra mechanic and this is already something you could handle by giving situational bonuses and penalties to Threat Ranges.

Parting Thoughts

This is entirely unplaytested, just a neat idea I wanted to poke at for a bit. I’d welcome anyone’s thoughts on it, or if anyone has seen it show up in another system.