A low end idea I have for hit locations and called shot mechanic. Please critique. - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

A low end idea I have for hit locations and called shot mechanic. Please critique.

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
jitsadin
May 25, 2008 19:20:32 This is a 3.5 house rule, I have not bought 4e and am not sure I will.

I've been reading some posts on this forum and others about called shots. In most of those posts I see a decided prejudice against them. I don't really understand it though.

There are two solid points against called shots that I see brought up over and over and I will acknowledge them because they are rationale and actually have a conceptual basis, many others are very circular in that they state "called shots do not work because I say they do not work".

1. Hitpoints- Hit points are an abstract and do not represent real physical damage. Ok, the thing about this is that it's a dodge. The whole HP is an abstract is just a way to suspend disbeleif after the whole idea of suspension of disbelief is ruined by the nature of hit points. To this I answer that if HP is abstract why can't called shot effects be as well?

2. The other point wich comes up is the added complication of using some sort of table to calculate what happens which called shots. This also is a sort of a dodge. Why do these things have to be on a table? Why not a mechanic which has actually already been built into the system in UA which does not need tables or even alot of work to determine effects.

First of all let me say that I favor armor as damage reduction and I defense bonuses based on character class.

The basic gist of the rule is that it's harder to hit a specific location so there is an associated penalty, I like to base the penalty more on how drastic the effect is than on how hard the target might seem to be, but in the DMG it gives alot of condition mods like blindness and deafened, sickened, staggered and stunned, these summerize the effects of most called shots I can think of so they comprise the table if you must have them, i don't know where they are right off the top of my head but there has to be rules for loosing a leg or arm somewhere. The basic gist is that an small effect is a -2 to hit, like placing a mark or small scar, on up through -8 to blind, sicken or whatever.

If the called shot hits the injured party makes a fort save against dc 10+ damage dealt to avoid the stated effect. It works just like the damage save mechanic from UA.

I know this is rough and unrefined but I don't have a group right now as I've moved within the past year and have been unable to get gamers together in my new area so this is not playtested. I wanted to get some feed back though so here it is, disect it, tie it to a spit and roast it or whatever you want. I'm not sensetive but I would like to know what you think.

Thanks
#2
Krusk
May 26, 2008 1:29:35 I have not seen either of your two counter arguements come up all that often, but I do have one that does.

Called shots in a system like you present do not work for one main reason.

PC realizes he cannot hit enemy on any roll aside from 20.
PC decides he will make a called shot of -Infinity to instant kill the enemy, blind him, mute him, and hack his arm off.
PC rolls a 4, giving a total of -Infinity.
PC rolls a 20 the following round. PC succeeds.

The end result of these systems is that characters either A, always take a called shot because the benefit outweighs the risk, and the game becomes nothing but a called shot fest. Which may be fun at level 1 or 2, but not much after. Or B, the PCs totally ignore the called shot rules, because the benefits are so marginal, that no one takes the risk, that is aside from the one assassin enemy, who ends up autokilling a PC, who becomes angry because he totally forgot called shots even exist, and though you guys had given up on the idea.

I like the idea of called shots, but they do not work in a d20 system, if you want to see an example of a system that not only has called shots that work, but also has crit failure that works, look to shadowrun 4e. It uses a d6 base system.
#3
gratuitous-monkey
May 26, 2008 2:35:33 If you don't want called shots to interfere with the attack roll (for the reason that Krusk mentioned), here's an alternate way that combines called shots and cover into a single mechanic.

Create a "hit-location" table based on a normal distribution (for example 3d6) where the locations on the table are ordered roughly from bottom to top - so the first entry would be "feet" and the last would be "head".

If all attacks use this table to determine where they hit then you have just a basic hit-location system.

However, this can very easily be modified to provide cover rules of the "miss-chance" variety.

Is the person behind a table, providing cover from the waist down? Then any hit location rolls less than 8 (or wherever waist-level is on your chart) hit the table instead of the character.

Is the person peering over a wall, providing cover to all but the head? Then any hit location rolls less than a 16 (or wherever neck-level is on your chart) hit the wall instead of the character.

However, players or monsters can choose to add or subtract any number they like from their hit-location roll before rolling in order to "aim low" or "aim high". This gives them the advantage that they can shift the distribution so that the most frequently rolled numbers move up or down the chart to the location they want to aim for, but also the disadvantage that they can roll "off the chart" and therefore have aimed too high (or too low) and missed.

This rule works best when combined with a locational armour system - but that is a whole heap more complex...
#4
jitsadin
May 26, 2008 9:20:08
The end result of these systems is that characters either A, always take a called shot because the benefit outweighs the risk, and the game becomes nothing but a called shot fest.

Why is having a tactical combat simulation with pretty much every target called a bad thing? In a small group of four players, have you seen that it bogs down play? When we where kids playing D&D basic, and 1st and 2nd edition AD&D nearly every combat was fully marked out with even some demonstration of footwork and attack flow to the best of our limited ability and understanding of such things and it was fun. Alot more fun than the move/attack, roll to hit, roll damage monotony that 3rd ed RAR has been for us. There are other systems which give a better combat simulation than d20 but they also come with a different balancing issue from d20 games. I like it that mages trump at higher levels with damage output.

PC decides he will make a called shot of -Infinity to instant kill the enemy, blind him, mute him, and hack his arm off.

Why is any of these results any different than what a mage can do with spells, I guess what I'm saying is that with magic you get a save, why not allow melee and ranged attacks to acomplish the same thing again with a save?

The system already has targeted attacks built into it with things like attacking a weapon, disarms and trips. My goal is to expand on that precedent and add in more targets.
#5
Krusk
May 26, 2008 12:40:11 Because the benefit outweighs the penalty everyone calls shots every round.

Now instead of focusing on hit point damage, eveyone is calling shots to get the additional effect. It becomes "I cut off his hand" "OK I cut off his other hand" "Ok I blind him". Well now his hp is irrelivent, even though he still has 90% of it, because he has no weapons and is blind.

Melee and ranged attacks that want to emulate spell effects can do so. They take one level in rogue, and then open complete scoundrel and look at the ambush feats. Give up sneak attack die to mute the foe, blind the foe, ect.

If you are looking to regain the feeling of " I hit the enemy in the head and he staggers back" simply start letting your PCs describe where and how they attack the enemy. instead of,
"14, I hit, and deal 4" say
"Ok 15, that hits? Great, I bring my sword up, and bring it smashing down on his sword hand." enemies turn "He rolls a 6, and misses. He is feeling the blow on his sword hand and his grip is weak, you manage to easily block his feeble blows."

Same end result, no new mechanics.
#6
master-of-puppets
May 26, 2008 16:26:04 my houserule for callshots is working pretty well, avoiding most of the problems here advised and is very simple

I only allow calshot when confirmimng a crit.

and is very very cinematic, you are menacing critic so you aim for the torso for max damage or try some else??

my sistem is qute the OP's, if you want to damage an arm then -x, if you want to harn a hand -2x, if a finger -3/4x

so blindfold somebody is a -8 penalty to confirm crit. not to hit, even if you miss, you deal normal damage

so there is no loss in the trial, sometimes x2damage is not worth some special efect and the -infinitum doesnt mean you are doomed to fail

and allowing it only when confirmimg, sort of makes it special, you cant decide like "hmm a mage, lets just crip his spell-hand" get a crit first and lets talk later

there is a problem tough, there tends to be much head-shot in my meta, my D&D group is also my counterstrike group... shame on cinematics, but archers love it
#7
thazerdedelmarcus
May 26, 2008 16:45:52
my houserule for callshots is working pretty well, avoiding most of the problems here advised and is very simple

I only allow calshot when confirmimng a crit.

and is very very cinematic, you are menacing critic so you aim for the torso for max damage or try some else??

my sistem is qute the OP's, if you want to damage an arm then -x, if you want to harn a hand -2x, if a finger -3/4x

so blindfold somebody is a -8 penalty to confirm crit. not to hit, even if you miss, you deal normal damage

so there is no loss in the trial, sometimes x2damage is not worth some special efect and the -infinitum doesnt mean you are doomed to fail

and allowing it only when confirmimg, sort of makes it special, you cant decide like "hmm a mage, lets just crip his spell-hand" get a crit first and lets talk later

there is a problem tough, there tends to be much head-shot in my meta, my D&D group is also my counterstrike group... shame on cinematics, but archers love it

I like this concept and I think I will use it, however, I will change one thing. There is a die at my local gaming store that has locations of body, my group can use that to find out where they hit so that they wont try to do head-shots all the time.
#8
master-of-puppets
May 26, 2008 20:14:30
I like this concept and I think I will use it, however, I will change one thing. There is a die at my local gaming store that has locations of body, my group can use that to find out where they hit so that they wont try to do head-shots all the time.

man, I am about to run a store myself... who has this dices in market? Ive covered 3 or 4 companies and will be bringing chessex but didnt even see once those body-marked dice, that would be so cool to bring

my call for real headshots ended up beeing a -10 penalty, coup de grace, they still try and when they get some, they love it
#9
thazerdedelmarcus
May 26, 2008 22:30:15
man, I am about to run a store myself... who has this dices in market? Ive covered 3 or 4 companies and will be bringing chessex but didnt even see once those body-marked dice, that would be so cool to bring

my call for real headshots ended up beeing a -10 penalty, coup de grace, they still try and when they get some, they love it

http://paizo.com/store/gameAids/dice/byManufacturer/koplow/specialtyDice/v5748btpy7uh6&source=rss

Its essentially a 1d12 and it looks like kaplow makes them
#10
master-of-puppets
May 27, 2008 7:54:31
http://paizo.com/store/gameAids/dice/byManufacturer/koplow/specialtyDice/v5748btpy7uh6&source=rss

Its essentially a 1d12 and it looks like kaplow makes them

THNX

but I prefer themto be able to choose when they crit. they love it, like cripling the swordhand or making the horse fall, avoiding someone to scape and so on
#11
Sinasilver
May 28, 2008 3:39:27 If you're looking for a dice-roll to figure out hit locations, when I played Cyberpunk2020, it was built into the game, and every time you rolled a d10..

Head 1, Torso 2-4, R. Arm 5, L. Arm 6, R. Leg 7-8, L. Leg 9-10

Granted, this was based on guns... But from there Called shots imposed a penalty on the attack roll. All I remember is it was like.. -8 to shoot someone in the eye. Of course, in cyberpunk the point of an eye shot was they were only armored MOST of the time, and if you manage 8 or more damage their head exploded... it worked with an area-armor too of course. We put extra armor on our left legs. Seriously. Everyone loses their left leg.

PS: I used to spend a lot of time working on called shot systems, and potentially by coincidence, but I doubt it, they produce a much more Hack n' Slash game. In other words, it seems to reduce willingness to RP. Then again, I frequently suffered PPS. Poor Player Syndrom.
#12
Chethrok_Bloodfist
May 29, 2008 14:25:50 My real problem with called shots is this:

The game already assumes you're making called shots. Every time you make an attack roll, you're attempting to inflict lethal bodily harm on your enemy. You're trying to cut his head off, bash his ribcage in, pierce his liver, or sever his limbs. A called shot mechanic is redundant because you're already trying to hit those vulnerable areas.

This is why the HP mechanic works. No matter how you abstract HP, it comes down to your ability to avoid or ignore that crippling injury. HP is supposed to be a direct measure of your resiliency in combat. Adding in an additional called shot mechanic is essentially circumventing the HP mechanic. As such, you'll end up with a system that as Krusk said, either results in called shots every round or no called shots at all, depending on if it's a more advantageous system or not.

If I had to use a called shot mechanic, it would only be on crits, because that's what crits are supposed to represent anyways. Thus, you need to wear down an enemy's HP before you get to the squishy bits - unless you manage to score that lucky hit you've been going for the whole time, despite his efforts against you.

- A called shot would be an alternative option for a critical hit - you could take a called shot instead of dealing x2 or x3 damage or whatever.
- A called shot would deal normal weapon damage, plus an additional effect based on your weapon's crit multiplier and the area you're going for. Weapons with x3 crit would make better called shots than x2 crit weapons, to make up for the additional damage lost.
- For example, a called shot to the head might daze the target for 1 round, or stun him if your weapon is x3 crit.

This type of system would flow well with the combat narrative -

Player: "I'm going to try and cut his sword hand off."
Alternative 1: Player fights enemy until HP runs out. "You finally batter his sword down and step into his guard, bringing your blade down and severing his hand. He slumps to his knees, clutching his hand, then falls over unconscious as blood leaks from his severed limb."
Alternative 2: Player gets a crit and chooses to make a called shot against his hand. "You see an opening in his guard and strike. Your blade flashes out and cuts the tendons in his inner hand. He jumps backward and switches his grip, holding his sword in his off hand while his main hand dangles limply at his side. He's going to take a -2 (or whatever) to attack rolls now."

The only problem with this system is that it still somewhat circumvents the HP mechanic - if a boss has 400HP, choosing to deal 5-12 instead of 10-24 to daze him or give him a permanent penalty is a no-brainer. I believe that called shots are best represented by combining narrative with the normal HP rules.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 jitsadin May 25, 2008 19:20:32	This is a 3.5 house rule, I have not bought 4e and am not sure I will. I've been reading some posts on this forum and others about called shots. In most of those posts I see a decided prejudice against them. I don't really understand it though. There are two solid points against called shots that I see brought up over and over and I will acknowledge them because they are rationale and actually have a conceptual basis, many others are very circular in that they state "called shots do not work because I say they do not work". 1. Hitpoints- Hit points are an abstract and do not represent real physical damage. Ok, the thing about this is that it's a dodge. The whole HP is an abstract is just a way to suspend disbeleif after the whole idea of suspension of disbelief is ruined by the nature of hit points. To this I answer that if HP is abstract why can't called shot effects be as well? 2. The other point wich comes up is the added complication of using some sort of table to calculate what happens which called shots. This also is a sort of a dodge. Why do these things have to be on a table? Why not a mechanic which has actually already been built into the system in UA which does not need tables or even alot of work to determine effects. First of all let me say that I favor armor as damage reduction and I defense bonuses based on character class. The basic gist of the rule is that it's harder to hit a specific location so there is an associated penalty, I like to base the penalty more on how drastic the effect is than on how hard the target might seem to be, but in the DMG it gives alot of condition mods like blindness and deafened, sickened, staggered and stunned, these summerize the effects of most called shots I can think of so they comprise the table if you must have them, i don't know where they are right off the top of my head but there has to be rules for loosing a leg or arm somewhere. The basic gist is that an small effect is a -2 to hit, like placing a mark or small scar, on up through -8 to blind, sicken or whatever. If the called shot hits the injured party makes a fort save against dc 10+ damage dealt to avoid the stated effect. It works just like the damage save mechanic from UA. I know this is rough and unrefined but I don't have a group right now as I've moved within the past year and have been unable to get gamers together in my new area so this is not playtested. I wanted to get some feed back though so here it is, disect it, tie it to a spit and roast it or whatever you want. I'm not sensetive but I would like to know what you think. Thanks
#2 Krusk May 26, 2008 1:29:35	I have not seen either of your two counter arguements come up all that often, but I do have one that does. Called shots in a system like you present do not work for one main reason. PC realizes he cannot hit enemy on any roll aside from 20. PC decides he will make a called shot of -Infinity to instant kill the enemy, blind him, mute him, and hack his arm off. PC rolls a 4, giving a total of -Infinity. PC rolls a 20 the following round. PC succeeds. The end result of these systems is that characters either A, always take a called shot because the benefit outweighs the risk, and the game becomes nothing but a called shot fest. Which may be fun at level 1 or 2, but not much after. Or B, the PCs totally ignore the called shot rules, because the benefits are so marginal, that no one takes the risk, that is aside from the one assassin enemy, who ends up autokilling a PC, who becomes angry because he totally forgot called shots even exist, and though you guys had given up on the idea. I like the idea of called shots, but they do not work in a d20 system, if you want to see an example of a system that not only has called shots that work, but also has crit failure that works, look to shadowrun 4e. It uses a d6 base system.
#3 gratuitous-monkey May 26, 2008 2:35:33	If you don't want called shots to interfere with the attack roll (for the reason that Krusk mentioned), here's an alternate way that combines called shots and cover into a single mechanic. Create a "hit-location" table based on a normal distribution (for example 3d6) where the locations on the table are ordered roughly from bottom to top - so the first entry would be "feet" and the last would be "head". If all attacks use this table to determine where they hit then you have just a basic hit-location system. However, this can very easily be modified to provide cover rules of the "miss-chance" variety. Is the person behind a table, providing cover from the waist down? Then any hit location rolls less than 8 (or wherever waist-level is on your chart) hit the table instead of the character. Is the person peering over a wall, providing cover to all but the head? Then any hit location rolls less than a 16 (or wherever neck-level is on your chart) hit the wall instead of the character. However, players or monsters can choose to add or subtract any number they like from their hit-location roll before rolling in order to "aim low" or "aim high". This gives them the advantage that they can shift the distribution so that the most frequently rolled numbers move up or down the chart to the location they want to aim for, but also the disadvantage that they can roll "off the chart" and therefore have aimed too high (or too low) and missed. This rule works best when combined with a locational armour system - but that is a whole heap more complex...
#4 jitsadin May 26, 2008 9:20:08	The end result of these systems is that characters either A, always take a called shot because the benefit outweighs the risk, and the game becomes nothing but a called shot fest. Why is having a tactical combat simulation with pretty much every target called a bad thing? In a small group of four players, have you seen that it bogs down play? When we where kids playing D&D basic, and 1st and 2nd edition AD&D nearly every combat was fully marked out with even some demonstration of footwork and attack flow to the best of our limited ability and understanding of such things and it was fun. Alot more fun than the move/attack, roll to hit, roll damage monotony that 3rd ed RAR has been for us. There are other systems which give a better combat simulation than d20 but they also come with a different balancing issue from d20 games. I like it that mages trump at higher levels with damage output. PC decides he will make a called shot of -Infinity to instant kill the enemy, blind him, mute him, and hack his arm off. Why is any of these results any different than what a mage can do with spells, I guess what I'm saying is that with magic you get a save, why not allow melee and ranged attacks to acomplish the same thing again with a save? The system already has targeted attacks built into it with things like attacking a weapon, disarms and trips. My goal is to expand on that precedent and add in more targets.
#5 Krusk May 26, 2008 12:40:11	Because the benefit outweighs the penalty everyone calls shots every round. Now instead of focusing on hit point damage, eveyone is calling shots to get the additional effect. It becomes "I cut off his hand" "OK I cut off his other hand" "Ok I blind him". Well now his hp is irrelivent, even though he still has 90% of it, because he has no weapons and is blind. Melee and ranged attacks that want to emulate spell effects can do so. They take one level in rogue, and then open complete scoundrel and look at the ambush feats. Give up sneak attack die to mute the foe, blind the foe, ect. If you are looking to regain the feeling of " I hit the enemy in the head and he staggers back" simply start letting your PCs describe where and how they attack the enemy. instead of, "14, I hit, and deal 4" say "Ok 15, that hits? Great, I bring my sword up, and bring it smashing down on his sword hand." enemies turn "He rolls a 6, and misses. He is feeling the blow on his sword hand and his grip is weak, you manage to easily block his feeble blows." Same end result, no new mechanics.
#6 master-of-puppets May 26, 2008 16:26:04	my houserule for callshots is working pretty well, avoiding most of the problems here advised and is very simple I only allow calshot when confirmimng a crit. and is very very cinematic, you are menacing critic so you aim for the torso for max damage or try some else?? my sistem is qute the OP's, if you want to damage an arm then -x, if you want to harn a hand -2x, if a finger -3/4x so blindfold somebody is a -8 penalty to confirm crit. not to hit, even if you miss, you deal normal damage so there is no loss in the trial, sometimes x2damage is not worth some special efect and the -infinitum doesnt mean you are doomed to fail and allowing it only when confirmimg, sort of makes it special, you cant decide like "hmm a mage, lets just crip his spell-hand" get a crit first and lets talk later there is a problem tough, there tends to be much head-shot in my meta, my D&D group is also my counterstrike group... shame on cinematics, but archers love it
#7 thazerdedelmarcus May 26, 2008 16:45:52	my houserule for callshots is working pretty well, avoiding most of the problems here advised and is very simple I only allow calshot when confirmimng a crit. and is very very cinematic, you are menacing critic so you aim for the torso for max damage or try some else?? my sistem is qute the OP's, if you want to damage an arm then -x, if you want to harn a hand -2x, if a finger -3/4x so blindfold somebody is a -8 penalty to confirm crit. not to hit, even if you miss, you deal normal damage so there is no loss in the trial, sometimes x2damage is not worth some special efect and the -infinitum doesnt mean you are doomed to fail and allowing it only when confirmimg, sort of makes it special, you cant decide like "hmm a mage, lets just crip his spell-hand" get a crit first and lets talk later there is a problem tough, there tends to be much head-shot in my meta, my D&D group is also my counterstrike group... shame on cinematics, but archers love it I like this concept and I think I will use it, however, I will change one thing. There is a die at my local gaming store that has locations of body, my group can use that to find out where they hit so that they wont try to do head-shots all the time.
#8 master-of-puppets May 26, 2008 20:14:30	I like this concept and I think I will use it, however, I will change one thing. There is a die at my local gaming store that has locations of body, my group can use that to find out where they hit so that they wont try to do head-shots all the time. man, I am about to run a store myself... who has this dices in market? Ive covered 3 or 4 companies and will be bringing chessex but didnt even see once those body-marked dice, that would be so cool to bring my call for real headshots ended up beeing a -10 penalty, coup de grace, they still try and when they get some, they love it
#9 thazerdedelmarcus May 26, 2008 22:30:15	man, I am about to run a store myself... who has this dices in market? Ive covered 3 or 4 companies and will be bringing chessex but didnt even see once those body-marked dice, that would be so cool to bring my call for real headshots ended up beeing a -10 penalty, coup de grace, they still try and when they get some, they love it http://paizo.com/store/gameAids/dice/byManufacturer/koplow/specialtyDice/v5748btpy7uh6&source=rss Its essentially a 1d12 and it looks like kaplow makes them
#10 master-of-puppets May 27, 2008 7:54:31	http://paizo.com/store/gameAids/dice/byManufacturer/koplow/specialtyDice/v5748btpy7uh6&source=rss Its essentially a 1d12 and it looks like kaplow makes them THNX but I prefer themto be able to choose when they crit. they love it, like cripling the swordhand or making the horse fall, avoiding someone to scape and so on
#11 Sinasilver May 28, 2008 3:39:27	If you're looking for a dice-roll to figure out hit locations, when I played Cyberpunk2020, it was built into the game, and every time you rolled a d10.. Head 1, Torso 2-4, R. Arm 5, L. Arm 6, R. Leg 7-8, L. Leg 9-10 Granted, this was based on guns... But from there Called shots imposed a penalty on the attack roll. All I remember is it was like.. -8 to shoot someone in the eye. Of course, in cyberpunk the point of an eye shot was they were only armored MOST of the time, and if you manage 8 or more damage their head exploded... it worked with an area-armor too of course. We put extra armor on our left legs. Seriously. Everyone loses their left leg. PS: I used to spend a lot of time working on called shot systems, and potentially by coincidence, but I doubt it, they produce a much more Hack n' Slash game. In other words, it seems to reduce willingness to RP. Then again, I frequently suffered PPS. Poor Player Syndrom.
#12 Chethrok_Bloodfist May 29, 2008 14:25:50	My real problem with called shots is this: The game already assumes you're making called shots. Every time you make an attack roll, you're attempting to inflict lethal bodily harm on your enemy. You're trying to cut his head off, bash his ribcage in, pierce his liver, or sever his limbs. A called shot mechanic is redundant because you're already trying to hit those vulnerable areas. This is why the HP mechanic works. No matter how you abstract HP, it comes down to your ability to avoid or ignore that crippling injury. HP is supposed to be a direct measure of your resiliency in combat. Adding in an additional called shot mechanic is essentially circumventing the HP mechanic. As such, you'll end up with a system that as Krusk said, either results in called shots every round or no called shots at all, depending on if it's a more advantageous system or not. If I had to use a called shot mechanic, it would only be on crits, because that's what crits are supposed to represent anyways. Thus, you need to wear down an enemy's HP before you get to the squishy bits - unless you manage to score that lucky hit you've been going for the whole time, despite his efforts against you. - A called shot would be an alternative option for a critical hit - you could take a called shot instead of dealing x2 or x3 damage or whatever. - A called shot would deal normal weapon damage, plus an additional effect based on your weapon's crit multiplier and the area you're going for. Weapons with x3 crit would make better called shots than x2 crit weapons, to make up for the additional damage lost. - For example, a called shot to the head might daze the target for 1 round, or stun him if your weapon is x3 crit. This type of system would flow well with the combat narrative - Player: "I'm going to try and cut his sword hand off." Alternative 1: Player fights enemy until HP runs out. "You finally batter his sword down and step into his guard, bringing your blade down and severing his hand. He slumps to his knees, clutching his hand, then falls over unconscious as blood leaks from his severed limb." Alternative 2: Player gets a crit and chooses to make a called shot against his hand. "You see an opening in his guard and strike. Your blade flashes out and cuts the tendons in his inner hand. He jumps backward and switches his grip, holding his sword in his off hand while his main hand dangles limply at his side. He's going to take a -2 (or whatever) to attack rolls now." The only problem with this system is that it still somewhat circumvents the HP mechanic - if a boss has 400HP, choosing to deal 5-12 instead of 10-24 to daze him or give him a permanent penalty is a no-brainer. I believe that called shots are best represented by combining narrative with the normal HP rules.