Battle Scars by Robert J. Schwalb is a role playing game supplement published by Schwalb Entertainment for use with Shadow of the Demon Lord. This is part of the Poisoned Pages series of new rules for the system.
This is a four page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $1.49 but was purchased at the reduced price of $0.73 during a sale. Approximately a quarter of a page is the Credits.
The first page is an introduction as to what Battle Scars is intended to do, which is provide optional rules to make injuries have lasting consequences. They are considered to be rather too complex to use with most secondary characters, although they could be applied to major NPCs who have a lasting presence in a campaign.
Characters could sustain injuries any time they become injured, which is when the damage total is equal to or greater than their Health score, or when they become incapacitated, which is when damage equals the Health score. When this happens, a d6 is rolled to determine whether it the injury is major, minor, or a near miss (no injury).
Once an injury is suffered, its effects are then determined. Three or four d6 are then rolled depending on whether it is a minor or major injury with injuries ranging from knocked out to catastrophic injury (death). These are then gone into more detail and include bleeding, limb loss and maiming. This is followed by a d20 table for the location of a scar.
Incapacitated Characters give the rules for being incapacitated, with a d6 table of death, dying and disabled. Both dying and disabled can still result in death on a d6 table, but there is a chance of getting better or at least stabilising.
Finally there is Dealing With Injuries. This has prices and rules for common prosthetics, followed by ones for mechanical limbs and extremities and then two spells, one for restoring a body and another, forbidden, spell that grafts a body part harvested from a living being onto another.
Battle Scars in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, at only four pages, does not need any. The text maintains a two column full-colour format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a couple of colour illustrations as well. Presentation is very good for a short supplement.
There is what is essentially a warning that using these rules makes what it is already a pretty dangerous game rather more dangerous. Using these rules will also slow combat down, but it does add a layer of realism to combat and its effects. GMs are suggested to enliven injury descriptions with thematically appropriate descriptions.
Battle Scars does go further at adding a layer of complexity, realism and danger to combat. For some, this may be a layer too far. For others. it may not be far enough; there are systems that go into far more detail about combat than this. It is recommended for anyone who does want to see what deadlier combat is like and it’s also cheap enough, even at full price, that it isn’t a huge outlay if the combat does not prove popular. Battle Scars can be found by clicking here.
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