Monsters in Fantasy often have specific properties that make them impossible to kill except for a very specific way. A vampire would only be destroyed if staked through the heart and decapitated, a cyclops would easily be blinded if you could just hit its one eye, while a hydra would not die from decapitation but only grow heads and become more dangerous. Even in modern fantasy or science fiction we see this with zombies that have to be shot in the head, or the necromorphs from Dead Space that are best fought by dismembering them. Most existing roleplaying games don't account for this with their hit point systems. Instead it is distilled to an abstract system in which everything is defeated in essentially the same way: hit it until it runs outt of points. And even if they do have mechanics for hitting specific parts, like Hydras in Pathfinder for example, it is a break from the regular rules that creates an inconsistency. For some reason you can attempt to slice a hydra's heads off, but not those of anyone or anything else.
So I'm setting out to create an RPG system which focuses on a more simulationist combat system, in which attacking specific body parts is not only possible but actually the core part of combat. In the world of this game there are no mighty heroes who would challenge a dragon to a face-to-face fight and bring it down in an open fight, but instead there are specialized monster hunters who use strategy, traps and their wits to overcome monsters that are simply more powerful than them. Instead of running headfirst at larger monsters and fighting them to the death, you have to lure such creatures into an ambush, drop on its back and run your sword through its spine before it can shake you off.
Player characters are specialized mercenaries, who are paid to hunt down and kill monsters that threaten a human society which has been kept at a low level precisely because of the constant menace by these creatures. They are not of superhuman power, but simply capable fighters who know where to stab a vampire to paralyze it and are brave enough to stand on the edge of a cliff and provoke a minotaur to charge them, to step aside at the last moment and wound its leg and make it trip and fall over the edge. Not only do they serve their society by protecting people, but also by providing rare and difficult to obtain resources, such as hides, bones and organs, even eggs, of monsters which are coveted materials for medicine, alchemy and various other crafts.
This is a gritty and deadly system, not about becoming more powerful and facing enemies of a similar power level, but players are supposed to use whatever they have at their disposal -weapons, traps, the environment itself- to overcome mightier foes. Of course there are not only large monstrosities, but also smaller fiends, like goblins or human brigands that players will have to fight, where a blow to a leg might cripple the foe's defense enough to get a swing at his head.
There are no hit points, but instead any creature suffers various injuries to different body parts, they can bleed out or be instantly killed by having their head sliced off. Both a player and an enemy can potentially be killed by a single well-placed attack and no foe is ever simply too powerful to bring down, if you are smart enough and have the right tools at your disposal, but some are more difficult than others and a single misstep can spell your doom.
Magic can be learned but it is subtle, supporting allies, healing and blinding enemies, but more powerful effects need time consuming and elaborate rituals.
Rather than with classes, characters are created in a point system from which you can choose attributes, skills, abilities, magic and an amount of starting equipment. There are no levels, but characters progress by gaining new points to spend on abilities, skills and so on.
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My question to you: Does this sound like a game you would like to play? Do you have any opinions or ideas on this?
Ive only had a short look at it, I know there are some similarities, in that it has a called-shot mechanic for example (also i was also going for a d100 centered system) but I don't have any actual material from it.
It sounds interesting, at least at first blush.
For my part, when constrained by the system of the game my players asked me to run (case in point, AD&D 2E or D&D 3E) and I wanted to emulate the sort of "you need to do mythological things to get this creature to be killed rather than just buggering off," I simply said "When reduced to 0 HP, the creature flees in its most expedient manner" - so a Werewolf runs away, a Vampire turns to mist, etc. The players had to track the thing down and figure out the proper myth to get rid of it - whether it was staking it at noon, or shoving a fresh, uncut rose into its mouth, or what-have-you.
But, disclaimer, I don't run games with tons of these sorts of creatures lying around. A single werewolf terrorizes and entire country side and must be rooted out through detective work. One vampire moves in to an area and one by one all the children of the surrounding villages start falling ill. That sort of thing.
I guess I'm saying I tend to bend the rules for the purposes of dramatic tension where I need to.
I'd be interested in seeing more, especially in terms of showing how the PC's might learn about such things in order to make use of them when facing the Big Bads.
While not d100, FATE could fit what you're looking for.
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I recommend you check out Burning Wheel by Luke Crane for inspiration. The combat and injury system makes it pretty brutal, if not lethal. The idea is that characters will survive most fights (by design, because killing PCs for the sake of it isn't all that fun) but if they do get hurt they'll be feeling it for a long time. It also has a heavily simulationist scripted combat system where forethought and planning are very important. The injury system you described sounds pretty much exactly like the way it's handled in Burning Wheel.
What Burning Wheel doesn't do straight out of the box is distinguish mechanically between hitting an enemy in different parts of the body. There are hit locations and you can injure each of them separately, but as far as the mechanics are concerned hit location is mostly used to determine whether a certain part of the body is armored or unarmored for the sake of rolling injury.
Thanks, I will check both of these out, if I get the chance.
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Also, to actually answer your original question: Hells yeah, I would play something like this. While my tastes in RPGs are generally geared towards the more abstract and narrative, if someone made a game designed from the ground up towards killing monsters in interesting ways through really simulationist combat, I would play the s%!$ out of it.
A couple of questions come to mind: you say that the characters in this game will be specialized mercenaries with training towards killing monsters, with magic in the game/setting being subtle and limited in effect. What different ways do you see the system allowing players to distinguish between their characters? Combat style is an obvious one, so I assume you will probably want a heavily involved system where different combat styles have their own benefits and drawbacks, but what else?
Secondly, you speak of the game using a point buy system. Now, given that this system promises to be pretty combat heavy, have you put thought into how characters would be built with these points specifically? I'd personally recommend some type of system where, instead of there being a single pool to spend points, players would have a set number of points in a number of categories they could use to purchase abilities within said categories. What I mean to say is that since the game is probably going to revolve heavily around combat it may not be desirable to create a system where one character can overshadow the other characters in combat simply because they dumped more points into combat skills.
Having said that, while I propose a system where characters have set numbers of points in certain categories, these different categories can be fluid and contribute towards each other. Let me throw the hypothetical example of there being a Knowledge category. Each character gets, for the sake of the argument, ten points in that category, being able to divide those points among the skills as desired, representing the things the character knows a lot about. Now, as you said that one of the intentions of the system is to encourage characters to use their wits and tactics, skills in the Knowledge category could also contribute towards combat. A character with knowledge in, say, geography may be able to find the perfect spot for the group to set up an ambush, giving them an advantage in combat, whereas one with a knowledge of anatomy may be able to identify the enemy's weak spots and hit them for MASSIVE DAMAGE!!!
The reason I'm typing this up is just to advise a bit of caution in how open-ended you make the character-creation system: I understand not wanting classes (they work for certain types of games, but clearly not for what you want to do), but since you have such a clear focus in mind for your game you don't want to build a system where a player can build their character to be nigh useless in the most important part of the game (killing monsters).
I hope that helps, looking forward to seeing more of this as it develops.
Those are excellent points. There would be different styles of going at a monster, one character might be good at building traps, while a more straight-up combat oriented character will be skilled at clinging on to monsters and stabbing them while doing so. Another uses magic to support. And there will be important non-combat applications too, especially knowledge. Knowing which part of a monster is valuable and how to extract it without destroying it, knowing how the creature lives, what its shelter is like when it typically leaves, how it fights etc. But then also social characters are important who broker deals for the party to get well-paid for a job and to sell harvested materials at a good price, and then of course things like stealth and survival are important. So even a character who is no use during the fight will still have an important role, but i do intend to make the system in a way, that you can do at least two unrelated things well, so no one has to build a character that is left out during any major part of the game unless they consciously choose to.
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Those are excellent points. There would be different styles of going at a monster, one character might be good at building traps, while a more straight-up combat oriented character will be skilled at clinging on to monsters and stabbing them while doing so. Another uses magic to support. And there will be important non-combat applications too, especially knowledge. Knowing which part of a monster is valuable and how to extract it without destroying it, knowing how the creature lives, what its shelter is like when it typically leaves, how it fights etc. But then also social characters are important who broker deals for the party to get well-paid for a job and to sell harvested materials at a good price, and then of course things like stealth and survival are important. So even a character who is no use during the fight will still have an important role, but i do intend to make the system in a way, that you can do at least two unrelated things well, so no one has to build a character that is left out during any major part of the game unless they consciously choose to.
Good to know that you've given this thought. I especially like the idea that characters without obviously combat-oriented skills can still contribute to combat meaningfully, and that said characters can also contribute to the group's larger goals outside of combat.
No other questions come to mind at the moment, suffice to say I look forward to hearing more of your design as it develops. :)