Greetings, everyone. I've been interested in AW for quite some time (Dungeon World introduced me to it) so I've been doing a little thought-hacking. Nothing solid enough to publish yet, but I'm working on it. Anyway, I've been struggling to do a health/armor/damage system that wasn't the same "armor as damage reduction" thing that a lot of systems use. Back when I played D&D more, I thought maybe that resisting damage should function kind of like a saving throw--you know, there's an X% chance you'll ignore taking a hit when wearing armor. Obviously that doesn't work out so well in the framework of the d20 system, but I was thinking about importing it to a AW hack.
Here's my base idea: health is measured in terms of injuries. When you have no injuries, you're at full "health." When you have all the injuries, you're probably dead. The injuries so far are:
• Fatigued: This is the "freebie" hit, like the first 1-harm in AW. It heals easily and doesn't impact you overall.
• Bleeding: When you are bleeding and you roll a 6- when trying something strenuous, you take 1-harm AP.
• Debilitated: When you're debilitated, you're in a lot of pain. Any time you take harm, increase the harm taken by 1.
• Enfeebled: When you're enfeebled, you're exhausted and can't think straight. Take -1 forward.
Each 1-harm causes you to take one injury.
That leads me to this move:
When you suffer harm, roll +armor. On a 10+, all three. On a 7-9, pick one:
• You don't lose your footing or your hold on something, or you don't miss something important.
• You don't take the full impact of the blow. Take 1 less harm.
• You're not stunned, shaken, and forced to act under fire under you regain your senses.
Special: If you ever roll doubles on this, reduce the harm you take by 1. (That's just a rule I like.)
Now, I want to push the game in more of a heroic action-adventure hack, so getting hurt and then coming back from it shouldn't be out of the question.
When you succumb to your injuries (that is, you have all of them), roll...
+1, if your allies stand with you.
+1, if your duty, an oath, or hope gives you strength.
On a 10+, you have some strength left within in you. Choose one of the following:
• One injury doesn't seem so terrible. Ignore its effects, at least until this excitement stops.
• You're on your feet, quickly, before your foes can react.
• You look like the grave. As long as you don't move, your foes will think you're dead.
On a 7-9, you yet live, but you are severely weakened. You can crawl and hobble, but any attempts at vigorous activity could kill you.
On a 6-, the world turns dark and grey as death claims you for his own.
Thoughts?