A few months ago I was running my Barbarians of the Ruined Earth game (using The Black Hack rules) and one of the PC’s fell 3 times in various combats in the dungeon, rolling a 1 each time on the Out of Action table. It got me thinking that it may be a little too forgiving for numerous drops to zero HP in a single day, so I decided to come up with an optional rule. I haven’t toyed with it yet to see how well it works though.
DEATH & DYING
When a character is reduced to zero HP, they are taken Out of Action (OofA), they are unconscious and cannot make any actions. When the fight is over/are out of danger, a character that is taken OofA rolls 1d20 and consults the table below to see what happens to them. If they survive, they gain 1d4 HP. If the characters lose the fight or are unable to recover the body of the character, they are lost forever!
MORE DEADLY (Optional Rule): If a character falls repeatedly in during a day before they rest for 8 hours, the risk of permanent injury and death becomes greater. The first time a character falls in battle, roll 1d20. The second time, roll 1d20+1d10, and the third time roll 5d4. There is no fourth time; if you fall that many times in a day, you’ve taxed your body to the limit and are dead.
| Out of Action | |
| 1-4 | KO’d: Just knocked out. |
| 5-6 | Fat Head: Disadvantage on all tests for the next hour. |
| 7-9 | Cracked Bones: STR, DEX and CON are temp -2 for the next day. |
| 10-11 | Cracked Skull: INT and WIS are temp -2 for the next day. |
| 12-13 | Crippled – STR or DEX is
permanently reduced by 2. |
| 14-15 | Brain Damage: INT or WIS permanently reduced by 2. |
| 16-17 | Disfigured: CHA reduced to 4. |
| 18-19 | Limb Lost: Need a prosthetic. |
| 20 | Dead: Not alive anymore. |
