"Playing With Fire," a simple system for gunfights in freeform and rules-light games

My game Running With Swords uses a GLOG-based Hearts system to track PCs' ability to avoid serious injury: as long as a character has Hearts, they can engage in hand-to-hand combat without incurring serious wounds or injuries. Losing Hearts represents anything that makes a character more likely to sustain a serious injury in combat: fatigue, stress, illness - anything the referee judges would reduce the character's capacity to fend off serious injuries. Once a character has zero Hearts, the next attack is likely to really hurt them, and the consequences of injuries are whatever makes sense - severe bleeding, internal bleeding, loss of limbs, infection, death.

This system works well for melee in fantasy settings where combat is very physical and direct. I tried running a cyberpunk game with it recently and found that it really doesn't make sense when bullets are flying. Getting shot even one time is a very serious problem; bullets aren't like sword thrusts that can be parried and blocked until you are just too tired and one hits home. So the Hearts system as I've been running it doesn't work for gun fights.

Running a game with guns also showed me that the Hearts system is unsatisfactory for missile weapons in fantasy games as well. In melee, it is essentially an auto-hit system; I don't roll for enemy combatants to hit the PCs; and in most circumstances I don't ask the PCs to roll to see whether they can hit an enemy - it is assumed that someone skilled in swordfighting (for example) can pretty much hit someone standing right in front of them every time. In a hand-to-hand battle, a PC can inflict hits on an enemy at will, and they will lose Hearts at a rate determined by the referee based on the PC's strength and skill and the strength and skill of their opponent - reflecting the ongoing toll of combat leading eventually to the PC risking serious injury. But when missile weapons are in play, it feels natural to me to involve more of a chance element - I find myself asking for rolls to determine hit or miss when a PC is shooting or throwing weapons, and it also doesn't feel right to have a PC get shot without giving them a chance to be missed.

For these reasons, I have created a simple opposed-2d6 system for determining what happens when a PC is being shot at. It was designed with firearms in mind but I think I will try using it for arrows as well. There is a table for situations where a PC is being shot at, and a different table for situations where a PC is exchanging fire with an enemy. For times when a PC is shooting, I would just use my normal technique of asking the player to roll 2d6, as described in Running With Swords.

The injury-level table reflects the idea that a gunshot is always an immediate problem, but will also reduce Hearts (reduce your capacity to engage in hand-to-hand combat without getting seriously hurt). Armor, if it protects the part of the body shot, might reduce the level of injury by 1, or completely negate the injury - whatever makes sense to the referee.

The "hit level", 1 to 3, gives the referee a way to determine the effectiveness of a PC's hit, if desired. It could be the number of hits taken off an enemy's total, if you are using such a system, or the number of enemies killed, in an automatic fire situation - it is there to give the referee a scale for the success of a PC's hit, if desired.

player getting shot at

opposed rolls (player minus referee)

chance with no modifier

player +1

player +2

player -1

player -2

result

-9 or less

0.4%

0.1%

nil

1%

2.5%

level 3 injury 

-8 to -5

9%

5%

2.5%

15%

21%

level 2 injury

-4 to -3

14%

10.5%

7%

17.5%

20.5%

level 1 injury

-2 to 2

52%

50.5%

46%

50.5%

46%

close call; lose 1 Heart from stress

3 or greater

24%

33.5%

44%

16%

9.5%

all good


player exchanging fire with enemy

opposed rolls (player minus referee)

chance with no modifier

player +1

player +2

player -1

player -2

result

-9 or less

0.4%

0.1%

nil

1%

2.5%

PC misses and takes level 3 injury

-8 to -5

9%

5%

2.5%

15%

21%

PC misses and takes level 2 injury

-4 to -3

14%

10.5%

7%

17.5%

20.5%

PC misses and takes level 1 injury

-2 to -1

20.5%

21%

24%

33%

31.5%

both miss; PC loses 1 Heart from stress

0 to 2

31.5%

22%

22%

17.5%

14%

level 1 hit & PC loses 1 Heart from stress

3 to 4

14%

17.5%

20.5%

10.5%

7%

level 1 hit

5 to 7

8.5%

13%

18.5%

5%

2.5%

level 2 hit

8 or greater

1%

2.5%

5%

0.4%

0.1%

level 3 hit


PC injuries

level 1

lose 2 Hearts, will need medical attention after the battle or suffer complications

level 2

lose all Hearts, will need medical attention in the next few minutes or suffer permanent injury or life-threatening complications

level 3

lose all Hearts, instant death or permanent injury with imminent death


hit locations

roll

chance

location

2-3

8%

head or neck

4

8%

leg

5

11%

gut or pelvis

6-9

55.5%

vest area

10

8%

shoulder

11

5.5%

arm

12

3%

hand or foot


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