Serious Wounds - Enhance your gaming!

Are your players always rushing in? Do they undervalue their cleric, or only care about healing when they are below 0 hp?

Fuck that. 

I have been wanting to share this for a while, it is definitely my favorite tool and set of house rules:

Serious Wounds Chart (SWC)

This was inspired by the serious wounds chart in the awesome 1995 tabletop game Necromunda (wiki, pdf rules)

After introducing the SWC, our games have been much more dramatic. Here's how it works:

• If a character falls below 0 hit points at any time, at the end of combat they must make a single d66 roll (two six-sided die, one designated as "10's place") on the serious wounds chart.
• GM may allow another character to improve the result by 1 (or worsen, in case of a critical failure) via a successful "Heal" check. (DC 20, per rulebook)

Simple! Elegant! Damn nerve-racking.

Honestly, it has completed changed the risk/reward psychology of the players. 

Feel free to download your own copy and add your own unique wounds! This could easily be expanded to include different wound categories. 

Tips:

1. House Rule: During character creation, your player must roll on the SWC. This is a great way to help them create some backstory or motivation to become an adventurer. Plus, rolling dice is fun.
2. They only have to roll once per encounter, in case they fall below 0 hp more than once after being healed a bit.
3. Be sure to make your players designate which d6 is the 10's place before rolling... those fuckers will cheat.