Some Design Insights on Armor and Hit Location

Hello guys, I haven't talked about my design process in a while, so I thought I'd share some stuff with you. As you know, my full full focus right now is on Across a Thousand Dead Worlds. The core mechanics for this game (what I'm calling the Thousand Worlds Engine) actually originated in Under Ashen Skies, my horror action game (that I'll some day go back to and finish). Overall, the transition from modern-day setting to sci-fi was fine, I had to tweak some things and change others, but overall it's the same bones behind both games. There was one mechanic that became a thorn in my side since the beginning though: Hit Location. For those unfamiliar with how combat works in ATDW/UAS, when a hit lands, you must roll to determine which body part was struck. This made a lot of sense for UAS, since gear degradation is a thing there, and different pieces of gear you're wearing can be destroyed, thus losing their benefits. This is attached to a crafting system, which I stripped off from ATDW because it didn't really make much sense. One of the core loops behind UAS is scavenging for parts and crafting your own gear/equipment, and that simply doesn't exist in ATDW. You need a piece of gear, you save for it and buy it, period. Still, I wanted to keep the Hit Location rule because it also modified the total damage (obviously a hit to the head is more dangerous than a hit to the foot).

I was never really satisfied with it, though. It felt like a burden to have to roll and extra die just to see if the damage is modified, and it was clearly a leftover from UAS. So I considered removing Hit Location altogether, simplifying the game in the process. But yesterday I finally cracked it: what if Hit Location is tied to Armor? And not in a WFRP way, where each piece of armor has an Armor value that you have to keep track of independently (love it, but it's too much of a hassle for most people, and I want to keep things as simple as possible); no, the way it works is as follows: 

- There are no Hit Points on ATDW/UAS (in case you didn't know). Instead a character deals damage, and if it's higher than the target's CON, they score a Wound. for PCs, 3 Wounds and you're out. 

- Fortunately, characters can wear armor. Say that a character receives a Wound to the head, but they're wearing a helmet that protects, you guessed it, the head. As a player, you can choose to let the helmet absorb all the damage (which destroys it), and ignore the Wound altogether. you lost the helmet, and if you receive another hit to the head you'll have to eat it, but for now you're safe. 

- Your total armor score is reduced by 1 for each piece of armor that you lose this way.

And that's it! I think it's super simple to track (we have the character sheet for that), and it gives the player options, which is always good. What do you guys think? Do you like this system, or you think I should remove the Hit Location rule altogether? Let me know!