Dave Arneson's Hit Location System: Fixable?

[Havard]

I think that the D&D hit point system is a feature that makes a game feel like D&D, and the hit location option changed all of that for me. We tried it a few times early on and quickly abandoned it because it made combat way too lethal. (Interesing that one of my players later switched to RQ; guess he was a bigger fan than I knew at the time.)

If I wanted to "fix" the system I'd say ignore it except on a critical hit (natural 20). On a critical hit you could impact a single body part instead of doing double damage (I always play that a natural 20 gives double damage).

I think that the Hit Location system is a very interesting rule from a historical point of view. OTOH, I would never use it as written myself. I think linking it to a critical rule like the way you are suggesting here would make sense. I would ignore the Hit Points per Location bit and instead have something like double damage if that body part is unarmored or whatever. Perhaps some chance to render legs/arms useless? (save to avoid)?

-Havard