Quote:
Originally Posted by Atgxtg
True, but the same effect applies in BRP. A crtical from an implaling weapon like a spear or sword is typically going to do enough damage to kill a character. An 18 point arrow or spear hit that bypasses armor will kill over 99% of PCs. So the hit locations don't make the game any more deadly as far as crticals are concerned.
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I have to point out that there have been at least some forms of BRP that didn't deal with impales, and those that did often used the RQ3 approach, which tended to push small ones (such as arrows, the commonest source of impales in my experience) down to the point where a single one when you're fresh wouldn't kill you. You couldn't say that with locations. And there's the simple fact not every weapon impales, but they all crit, and even a non-impaling crit in the head with a melee weapon could often do it for you in RQ.
I'm not denying mechanisms that tend to cause disablement before death can have some reduction in overall lethality (and are usually more realistic to boot) but I cant' count the number of RQ lethalities I saw from locational effects over the years, but THP accumulated ones were pretty rare. This doesn't suggest to me that the locations actually made the game less lethal, though the net effect may have broken even (I never used BRP in a non-RQ context enough outside Superworld to judge, and Superworld had mechanical features that made it intrinsically less lethal).