Dungeons & Delvers 2nd Edition: Dead Man Walking

The superficial nonversation regarding hit points at the least got me thinking about a way to implement some sort of condition/death-spiral system in Dungeons & Delvers. Something that would mechanically represent a character or creature being hindered by its injuries, ideally without bogging the game down with lots of rolls and bookkeeping.

One thing I thought of quite some time ago was imposing a penalty when you run out of Vitality Points--a Fatigued condition--but this sort of thing happens all the time at low levels, vigor potions can give you an immediate VP boost (thereby undoing it), and there's already an Exhaustion mechanic (which, admittedly, could probably be tweaked).

Something else was a Wounded condition for when you start losing Wound Points. 4th Edition had the Bloodied condition at half-or-less hit points, which is easy to remember and determine than, say, a quarter or three-fourths. So, either that or once you've lost any amount of WP would be the easiest point to implement it.

This wouldn't be that hard to remember by itself, but the game already has a Ganging Up mechanic (scaling +1 to attacks when attacking the same enemy), a damage bonus for exceeding the target's Defense, and plenty of other conditions.

I also don't think it would matter much for low hit point targets: a goblin has around 4-5, which a fighter can hew through in a single hit. Gnolls and ghouls are a bit beefier, but I think it would commonly be a case of the target gets stabbed into a Wounded state, and then get taken out before it even has a chance to respond.

I only really see it mattering for characters and enemies with a good amount of Hit Dice and/or levels, and in this regard is seems fairly one-sided so I don't see it currently making the cut. Maybe if I ever bother with a game that relies on some sort of "wound level" mechanic? The Dice Pool version uses drastically reduced Wounds: this could work there, with characters discarding dice after losing x Wounds (or when they only have one or two left, so as not to punish characters and critters with lots of Wounds).

Now something that will likely make it in, at least as an optional rule, is what I'm for now calling Dead Man Walking.

The idea is that when you get reduced to 0 or less Wound Points, so long as you aren't in too deep you're in a dying-but-still-standing state. I'm thinking the limit would be -10, inversely modified by your Constitution. So +2 means you can go to -12, while -1 means you can only go to -9.

During this time you are effectively Dazed, but if you perform strenuous actions immediately lose a WP. Otherwise they are lost at a rate of 1 per minute. You can stabilize, but until you get back to at least 1 WP you're Dazed, and strenuous activity will open up your wounds, and you'll start dying all over again. Or, perhaps it should slap on increasingly higher levels of Exhaustion? 

In any case, if you exceed your threshold you fall unconscious, the GM makes a secret Constitution save (modified by how far beyond your threshold you are, in case you get damaged), and that's how many rounds you have left. If he rolls a natural 1--or less than a 1 due to modifiers--you die immediately, but if he rolls a natural 20 you instead stabilize, and wake some time later, still in the negatives but no longer bleeding out (unless, again, you do something crazy).

While in negatives you heal slowly, 1 WP per day. Magical healing can get you back on your feet, as well as mending potions, but I'm thinking you'll still be penalized for awhile since neither effect restores blood loss (this could play off of WP Drain). Though, there's an idea for an alchemical item, and Restoration would also do the trick. In any case you'll need to make a Lingering Injury check.

Overall I like this mechanic because it adds another state to your character beyond mechanically perfectly fine, and unconscious. Also gives characters a chance to try and go down swinging, if they want to risk it. You could also develop Skill Perks and Talents that play with it in various ways: you aren't Dazed, the duration and/or threshold is extended, you get a bonus to the Constitution save, stabilize on a natural 19-20, only lose WP every 10 minutes, etc.