Sacrificing HP to force an outcome and a self-contained system to push the odds
Homebrew Toys #2
To fail a roll just for a small difference feels… well, bad, and this is even worse when this thing in which you fail is something that your character will give their blood, their will, and even their life to accomplish.
I think that more options for the players to sacrifice something to succeed make things more interesting and if this thing they want to accomplish is something meaningful for their characters, even better.
So my simple rule in OSR/NSR games is; if your character really wishes to do this thing and succeed, you can expend “X” HP to increase/decrease in “X” the value of your roll.
But if you want to add something like this to your table, without disturbing the other rules of your game, well, let’s make a Will pool and a Blood pool, so the characters can push the odds.
The Will and the Blood pools
All characters have a Will pool and a Blood pool.
The sum of the maximum size of the Will pool and the Blood pool is 10.
The player decides the maximum value of these pools within this constraint.
Example: You can choose that the Will pool has a maximum value of 7, then your Will pool has a maximum value of 3.If a character wants to accomplish something without magic, they can spend “X” Will to increase/decrease the value of their roll in “X”.
If a character wishes to accomplish something with magic, they can spend “X” Blood to increase/decrease the value of their roll in “X”.
Will is restored 1 point per week.
Blood is restored 1 point per day.
If you don’t eat or rest, you cannot restore either of them.
The in-world interpretation
Thematically, Blood can be expended as an abstract meta-currency or as a blood rite. The latter (if it’s OK with the themes of your game) can add a striking visual and mood to the action of using blood to push the results of a roll. You could visualize this as characters pouring from their pores their own blood to push an outcome to success.
Will is more self-explained, and self-contained in its source and way of action, is the willpower of the character pressing for success.
The Will and the Blood pools as “shields”
You could give to these pools another layer, so they interact with other pieces of the game you are playing. You could use them as the first line to which any kind of damage has to hack to then be able to reach the HP of the PCs.
If you receive damage, first you lose points on Blood, then of Will, and when both of these pools are at zero, damage will make you loose HP.
Crits (d20 = 1 or 20) bypass this, and they reach directly into HP.
Example: You are attacked and hit by a sword, you receive 5 points of damage. As you still have 2 point of Will and 4 points of Blood, this hits makes you loose all your Will and it leaves you with only 1 Blood point. Then in a second attack they hit you with a crit (d20=20 or 1), doing 4 damage points to you. As it is a crit they bypass your Blood pool and the hit decreases directly your HP.