Sharing a house rule on harm.
I’ve found the specific harm penalties punishing. The GM usually ends up fudging them, the party ignores them, the GM lets armor negate all of it 90% of the time, etc. John did this a lot in his games as well.
What I’ve tried is putting a time limit on harm, when it’s done to players. Next action, until you take a “turn” off, rest of the scene, a score, etc. Even though this is more mechanics, its putting more fiction into the game. It opens up what harm can be, and let’s me punish more – knowing it won’t break the rest of the score. Harm can be a stunned moment, temporary backlash, a bleeding cut that needs a bandage, a sprain that goes away on its own, etc. It let’s us be more descriptive with the fiction, and thus use it more. The times are up to the GM, and stated before the resist roll, like normal harm. (Ideally, its part of the action roll description, but we’re flexible about that.)
Have other people tried this? I found it particularly interesting because it’s adding a mechanic to enable fiction, which is pretty nifty.
Anyways, recommended.