Greg Stolze: Forums

I played nemesis for some time, using only the basic rules. I liked it but I had the strange feeling that it couldn't deliver a decisive result.
Let's take a numeric example. I have a 2x0 (assume 0 means head, I haven't got the manual at hand), I should hit the head for 2 points. It doesn't really do all that much, but take a full punch on your face and tell how do you feel. Even a 4x0 doesn't make the deal, you would stand ready to hit back. It doesn't sound possible with a 4x0 result.
My proposal is that width gives a result that must be converted in real damage. It still works as ORE but results are transformed.
We could add the numbers that build a simple series, for instance 1...2...3...4...
1x0 means 1 point of damage (no match, just a flush)
2x0 means 1+2 = 3 points of damage
3x0 means 1+2+3 = 6 points of damage
4x0 means 1+2+3+4 = 10 points of damage

We give up the idea that points of damage are linear (1,2,3,4,5...n) to have a different series of damages. (1,3,6,10...)

With this new method a 4x0 means anybody is k.o and possibly killed.

Other kind of mathematical transformations can give different results.

Bullets could multiply the basic series giving 1, 2, 6, 24... it goes from a flesh wound, to a light wound, to a serious wound that could be mortal to the head or cripple a limb, to a critical wound. It should sound right for a 4x? with a bullet. Bullets are unpredictable, they could bruise or they could destroy.

Moreover the wounds someone could bear before dying should depend on his body.
Having 3 as average, a body 1 character should subtract 2 from all the hit locations, who has 5 should add 2 to all hit locations.

Why all this ? Your players will hate it, but will be compelled to act as in a real world situation... I tried it and then got back to the old method, but with a different consciousness...

Are you talking about having a 4x0 possibly kill someone with an unarmed punch? 'Cause if so I don't think that should happen. A full punch to the face doesn't really bother me if I've got adrenaline running, I won't even necessarily feel that. Certainly since 2x0 is a minimum success having someone completely ignore that punch is completely appropriate. A 3x0 would be where it gets noticable, and a few consecutive ones might put you down, but again if you can recover in between you should be going quite a bit longer. 4x0 would put you on queer street but shouldn't be an instant KO for everyone, let alone a kill. That's at least in terms of degrees of punches I've been hit with and what might be an appropriate analogy for width. This is also keeping in mind that I have a weak neck. Anyone with a short neck and highly developed traps could completely ignore 500 consecutive 2x0 hits, they'd need a 3x0 minimum to even notice it. Weapons would change this of course, but there are plenty of people out there who can completely ignore any number of basic punches that could conceivably damage someone, perhaps getting a few scrapes or minor bruising in the process, but that wouldn't have any mechanical effect.

Thank you for your reply but I think about something different.
You begin from how you are, I start from a statistical point of view. If you were terminator you would say that punches don't harm you and that's true. Would you mean that nobody ever does a match against you or would you handle it in another way ?
Let's take 10.000 men and women with about 5 die of attack (an average, 3 on your stat and 2 of combat or vice versa).
Let's have them fight in this way: fight up to the first blow and then stop.
The probability of a width 4 is 0.45% .
It means that, on the average, just 1 out of 2200 punches is a width 4 hit. Anywhere. Let's talk about blows to the head, just 1 out of 10 blows... here we go.
Wouldn't you agree that just once every 22,000 punches you could go k.o. with just one good hit somewhere on your head ?

What I mean is that RPGs are made to be fun and let people fight and throw dies... then I got bored and tried something else. If you enjoy RPGs as you ever did, just carry on, but if you feel tired, like I felt, maybe more realistic rules can do the trick and let you discover a different game.
If you can kill or be killed by a single hit with a knife, your role playing changes dramatically. That's it. I saw high level heroes give their horses to a troll not to fight with him on the border of a mountain, the knew they could fall and be killed... because every blow could be so dangerous... it's just another stile of game, that can't last, players got soon very stressed

I see your point about statistics, but there are actually some people who won't even be KO'd once out of every 22,000 times someone throws a hit at them. Unless you hit daaamn hard, there are some people who are never going down. I don't think having such wild odds is really contrary to that. If you really want to be KOing someone like that, you've got to work your strength and your skill, so you're rolling a minimum of 7-9 dice, not just 5. Get good enough that you're working some expert dice and master dice into the equation, and with 7 dice even you're starting to get a good shot at consistent 4-5 width shots to the head.

And this is of course in the context of realism. Sometimes real isn't fun, so sure you might want to change it, but as is, I find ORE to be quite realistic.