TTRPG Martial Realism

Let me define what I mean by martial realism: Not fantasy or superheroic violence but violence that conforms to our expectations of real-world violence with the abstraction of a game for simplicity. It does not mean simulative.

Core Rules

These are the core rules that describe the way the game should play or feel. They encourage you to treat combat as a deadly contest for life and death rather than a sport. Play your character like you care what happens to them! These rules are intended to give magical healing more value, to make damage more meaningful, to incentive downtime, to ground the fiction of the game in a believable make-believe world, and to disincentivize risky play.

• Hit Points (HP) represents your body's capacity for injury and wounds. HP loss abstractly abstract represents injury or wounds (which cause no penalty to ability by themselves). HP does not represent fatigue, skill, and luck. Maximum HP should be capped low (8 to 15).
• 0 HP or less means you are KOed or otherwise incapacitated and unable to act or move. Any subsequent hits ignore your defenses and are killing blows. FYI, we don't track negative HP. If HP is less than 0, treat as 0.
• This deathblow rule is intended to allow the game to be more forgiving than death a 0 HP but still keep it simpler than some sort of death count mechanic.
• Recover 1 lost HP per day representing natural healing. Recover 2 lost HP per day of dedicated bedrest in a safe location.
• Damage dice by most weapons is one six-sided die (1d6). Add any bonuses or penalties that apply such as strength. Optionally, and for variety, use this:
• Barehanded damage = 1 + strength
• Improvised weapons = 1d3 + modifier
• Small or light weapons = 1d6-1 (minimum 1) + modifier
• Medium or average size and weight weapons = 1d6 + modifier
• Large or Heavy weapons = 1d6+1 + modifier
• Critical Hits represent a lucky shot that hits just right! Crits are intended to be scary and rarely feel disappointing. Roll your damage as normal, then add two six-sided dice (2d6)!

Optional Rules

Once you are familiar with the core rules, you may add these optional rules to make your game more interesting, complex, or give it a different feel. They are modular rules.

• Stagger: If damage received equals 1/2 your max HP, roll Constitution or equivalent stat to avoid being staggered. If staggered, you lose your next turn!
• The difficulty to resist being staggered is 10 or equal to the damage received, whichever is higher.
• 1/2 HP means you're condition is injured or wounded; you've received significant injury or wound to affect your performance, and your actions are penalized by -1.
• Killing Blows: If one instance of damage received equals or exceeds your max HP, you are instantly dead. Therefore, crits are likely to kill. For a softer version of this rule, you can allow the player to roll to survive with 0 HP and be incapacitated. Any blow or attack that would reduce you to -1 * your max HP or less is always fatal.
• Max HP Penalty: If you are KOed, your maximum HP is temporarily penalized by -2 representing your diminished condition after a significant loss. These are cumulative! Seek magical healing or return to town for bedrest until all lost HP is naturally recovered to remove this penalty.
• Hit Locations: Attacks are assumed to aim for the center of mass (usually the body). If you declare an attack to a specific location, a penalty applies to hit (-2 for limbs). Declare your intent such as crippling, disarming, stunning, extra damage, tripping, grappling, or etc. and the GM will adjudicate the effects. Consider that the vitals are not located in the limbs or extremities (arms and hands) and so damages to non-vitals are never killing blows.
• Damage Types: Weapons can do different kinds of damage. Some opponents or body parts are particularly resistant or vulnerable to different types of damage meaning damage can be halved or doubled. For example, lacerating a muscle or breaking a bone. GMs, use your own judgment in adjudicating the effects! Consider that weapons can do more than one kind of damage. A sword can cut or pierce with the blade, and bludgeon with the pommel.
• Cutting: forms of damage that slash. Claws, slash attacks with a sword.
• Piercing: forms of damage that impale or pierce or stab. Fangs, thrust attacks with a spear, arrowshots.
• Bludgeoning: forms of damage that are blunt, smashing, or crushing. Punches, clubs, falling from great heights. Armor can convert cutting and piercing damage into bludgeoning damage.
• Injury with Penalty: It is not the intent of this game to impose a codified, prescriptive, precise injury system! If injury with a penalty is intended to be inflicted for narrative purposes, then use this soft, flexible system.
• All injuries are temporary until HP is healed to max.
• Injuries can be imposed by the GM to the character if they drop to 0 HP, if they receive a critical hit, or if the character receives a massive amount of damage from a single hit or instance of harm, say equal to their max HP.
• Injuries are vague and abstract, not literal. Think "hand injury" rather than broken bone or severed muscle. The GM decides via adjudication. Injuries should suit the narrative; for example, if the character was hit in the head, the injury they receive should be a head injury, not a foot injury. Track injuries as "injury to the hand, -2 to actions" or "injury to the leg, 1/2 movement".
• Range: At close or short range, your ranged attack roll is not penalized. Ranged attacks are penalized at medium range by -2 or long range by -4.
• Long Reach: Some weapons are considered long reach weapons like spears, polearms or great swords. You can attack opponents 10' away rather than 5'. Opponents who step within 5' are too close for you to use your weapon properly, and so you do improvised weapon damage (1d3).
• Dual-Wielding: Ordinarily, characters can make one action per turn. A character who is wielding one melee weapon in each hand can choose to make one attack with each weapon, but each attack roll is penalized.
• Grappling: You can use a dagger or short club effectively while grappling, but we assume that longer weapons cannot be used at normal efficacy while grappled or grappling and do improvised weapon damage (1d3) if at all.
• Exponential Falling Damage: Some enemies snatch you up and drop you! This alternative to 1d6 per 10' makes falling more serious.
• 10' = 1d6 damage
• 20' = 3d6 damage
• 30' = 6d6 damage
• 40' = 10d6 damage
• 50' = 15d6 damage
• Side-Based Turns: The GM rolls a d6 for the NPCs. One player rolls a d6 for the PCs. Whichever side rolls highest goes first. Players take their turns in phases. First is a declaration phase where they all players declare their action. Once declare, actions cannot be changed. Second is a resolution phase where all dice are rolled and all actions are resolved.
• Countdown Turn Order: Each PC rolls a d6 and adds their agility modifier. You cannot roll higher than a 6 or lower than a 1 regardless of your stats. The GM makes this roll for each NPC group. Then, the GM counts down from 6. When your initiative is called, we pause the countdown to resolve your turn, then we resume. Speed ties are resolved simultaneously. Reroll each round.
• Declaration-Based Turn Order: He who declares their action first goes first. Turns are taken clockwise around the table starting from that player or the GM. No rolls are made, not stats or powers are consulted. If you're not ready on your turn, someone else can declare their action and skip you. If you are skipped, you lose your turn that round. Everyone should be allowed a 10-second grace period to declare an action, and they should be allowed to finish their sentences without being talked over.
• This resembles a freeform combat and is intended to make combat as fast and fluid as any other scene in the game.