Building Bhakashal - Combat - Described Damage!

I was asked about the use of described damage in AD&D, I thought a blog post would be the best way to address this.

I have done described damage since my first D&D game, it was the way my first DM taught me, and it was what I did for years until I met players from outside my home group. So for me, this is the default, and reporting HP was strange. Then I played for years with others and reporting HP became normal.

However, I did love the effect it has on play. So when I started to run a regular game again 8 years ago, I went back to using described damage. The system I used for about 5 years was this:

Bhakashal Described Damage - System 1

1. Divide PC HP in half

2. When players are damaged, but above half their total HP, do not report the damage in HP, instead describe the blow as “minor”, or “glancing” or “a nick”

3. When they are brought below half HP, start describing the blows as “serious”, “crushing”, etc.

4. If an attacker rolls a nat 20 when the PC is below half HP, give them a consequence, e.g. broken arm, severed hand, whatever you like. 

5. For a long time I ran this version of it and improvised hit locations rather than rolling or drawing for them, then I came up with a location-of-hit table

6. I had them roll two d20’s to hit, the first was for the to hit roll, the second was for the location-of-hit. It helped me with improvising the descriptions at the table. 

That’s my go to for newcomers to described damage, if you use 1-5 it requires a bit of improv on the consequences, but “sprained ankle, move divided by two and 2 point AC penalty until healed” isn’t so hard. We used the two dice system for 3 years, one solid, one crystal, for the “to hit” and “location-of-hit”.

Here is the system I use now in my home game. 

Bhakashal Described Damage - System 2

In this system long term consequences of serious damage are tied to the specific parts of the body which were damaged, and damage to PCs is tracked by the referee and described, rather than tracked and recorded by the player.

Procedure

1. Take a full suit of cards from a standard deck, e.g. the 2-10, J,Q,K and A of one suit, and assign each to a single player. The face cards are set in one pile face down from Ace (bottom) to Jack (top), the numbered cards 2-10 are shuffled and placed face down in another pile.

2. Take the PCs full HP total of the PC and divide by 4.

3. When the PC is damaged the referee records the HP damage, if the PC is between full HP to 3/4 HP it is a near miss that does HP damage, but:

1. The blow does not contact the PC

2. All of the HP lost represent luck, dodging, near misses, etc. 

3. The referee records this damage and describes it - e.g. tells the player only that they were “nearly missed”, “the sword caught on the doorway and allowed you the time to twist just out of the way,” etc.

4. When the PC is damaged but is between 3/4 to 1/2 HP it is a Minor wound

1. The referee draws one of their numbered cards at random from their pile and the location of the blow is noted on the Table 3 - Location of Hit Advanced. The card is then shuffled back into the pile. 

2. The referee records this damage and describes it - e.g. tells the player that they have been nicked, cut, suffered a glancing blow, etc. 

3. The referee flips the Jack and gives it to the player, until they are above 3/4 HP again they will take a -1 penalty on everything: “to hits”, “saving throws”, damage rolls, etc.

5. When the PC is damaged but is between 1/2  to 1/4 HP - Major wound

1. The ref draws one of their numbered cards at random from their pile and the location of the blow is noted on the Table 3 - Location of Hit Advanced. The card is then shuffled back into the pile. 

2. The referee records this damage and describes it - e.g. tells the player that they have been smashed, cut badly, crushed, etc. 

3. The referee flips the Queen and gives it to the player, until they are above 1/2 HP again they will take a -2 penalty on everything: “to hits”, “saving throws”, damage rolls, etc. 

6. When a PC is damaged but is between 1/4  to 0 HP - Serious wound

1. The referee records this damage and flips the King and gives it to the player 

2. The ref draws one of their numbered cards at random from their pile and the location of the blow is noted on Table 3 - Location of Hit Advanced. The card is then shuffled back into the pile.  

Table 3 - Location of Hit Advanced 

Card Number - Body Location - [Save vrs Paralysis]/[Save vrs Death]

2 - Right Leg - [broken/cut leg, move 3”]/[severed limb]

3 - Left Leg - [broken/cut leg, move 3”]/[severed limb]

4 - Right arm - [broken/cut arm, -5 to hit]/[severed limb]

5 - Left arm- [broken/cut arm, -5 to hit]/[severed limb]

6- Chest -[broken/cut rib – 5 to dexterity] /[vital organ crushed/pierced - death]

7 - Stomach – [internal damage/cut muscles – 5 to strength]/[disembowelment - death 1-4 rounds]

8- Back - [broken bones/cut muscles – 5 to strength]/[permanent paralysis]

9 - Neck - [1 hp/rd lost to bleeding]/ [broken neck/decapitation - death]

10 - Head - [concussion (unconscious 1-8rds,-3 to hit/1 day)] /[coma 1-2 weeks]

3. The PC rolls a saving throw versus paralyzation. If that save is successful, the referee describes the damage using Table 3. If that save is failed, they suffer the first consequence listed on Table 3 for that hit location and the referee describes the damage using Table 3. 

7. When a PC is damaged and brought below 0 HP - Deadly wound

1. The referee records this damage and flips the Ace and gives it to the player 

2. The ref draws one of their numbered cards at random from their pile and the location of the blow is noted on Table 3. The card is then shuffled back into the pile. 

3. If the damage brings them to below their negative CON score, they are dead

4. If the damage brings them below 0 but not below - CON, then they make a saving throw versus death or suffer the second listed consequence on Table 3 for that hit location. They also lose 1HP per round while that Ace is in their possession unless they are stabilized by an ally. When they reach -CON in HP they are dead.

It’s more complex, but it creates some fatigue like effects from damage, some permanent effects to damage, and helps the PCs to get a better idea of where their HP are by giving them markers to indicate that they have transitioned from one state to another (in the form of playing cards). So until they are given a Jack, my players know that any attacks that do damage place them between full and 3/4 of their total HP. Once they get the Jack they know they are between 3/4 and 1/2 their total HP, etc.

Impacts

What do these systems do at the table?

The main advantage of these systems is that they create opacity with respect to the PCs health, this makes the game more exciting, and helps to keep players from metagaming their HP in ways that break, or at least lessen immersion. 

You don’t need total ignorance to achieve this, just not knowing the exact number of HP left creates enough uncertainty to lead to excitement, just as knowing exact numbers can lead players to be cavalier about fighting.

One of the things I wanted to bake into Bhakashal was a greater mystery about combat, combat should never be completely predictable, and the opacity created by this system means that PCs are more cautious about combat, and are more likely to seek out non-combat solutions where possible. 

I wanted this for Bhakashal, not because I want PCs to die, but rather because if you read the source literature, pulp, sci-fi, fantasy, you will note that although the protagonists are often confident and determined, they also feel at risk, even when they are faced by so-called “mooks”, so Conan believes himself to be deadly with a sword, but when approached by three guards with weapons he doesn’t assume he will win, he sees the guards as a threat. In D&D the metagaming nature of hit points takes that away to a degree. You KNOW that a guard with a longsword can’t one shot your 4th level fighter, because she has 20 hp. Well, using described damage takes away some of that certainty. 

I find this adds excitement to something that is routine for many D&D players, and leads to the players viewing combat as a last resort, rather than an opening move. It also makes lesser monsters into less of a predictable fight, which enriches the game. 

Really the only drawback to this system is that the ref has to record damage to the PCs, but for the most part I already did that as my players weren’t great at recording damage, so I had to keep track anyway. 

They also give some lasting effects. I know this isn’t for every table, but over the years I have had many players who explicitly said that they found the D&D approach to HP to be odd. You get a lot of hit points, and you go full bore until 0 HP. Many of my players have told me they find this boring, and that they dislike it in monsters, they want to be able to hobble/hurt monsters in a visible, interesting way. 

Particularly if you run a long term game, players will get “bored” of many things over time, adding some mystery back into the game is a great way to address that.