For some time now, my game group has been working on adding major wounds to the d20 setting.  There are a number of ways to go about this and we tossed most of them around.  We finally decided on an old school percentile based system where the higher you roll the worse the effect of the major wound would be.  At the worse end of the scale, it included things such as disembowling, lost limbs, back injuries, etc..

While this added to the feeling of tension during combat (you always worried about significant injuries) and left some interesting stories (characters cutting off a finger from a villain's minion and using that finger later to intimidate the villain during a game of chess, and so forth), once the wound was healed it was generally forgotten.  One of my players noted that d20 has no method of tracking experiential learning outside of class levels.  For example, one of my player's characters had his ear removed druing combat.  This makes an interesting comment during game play but in no other way affects the game.  The character learned nothing from this injury.

So it hit me that a more interesting way to run major wounds would be to create a system that makes them include some experiential learning.  For example, major wound: Blindsided - the character is distracted by an opponent's feint and left completely unaware of the strike that actually hits him.  From that point on the character is extremely cautious in combat.  He would enter combat slower and make sure that he was aware of possible feints.  In game terms, he would get a negative to initiative (slower) and a positive bonus to avoid feinting manuevers.

So my question is three fold: First, has anything like this already been created?  I would hate to reinvent the wheel.  Second, does anyone see any problems with layering a mechanic like this over a d20 system.  Lastly, any other ideas of types of major wounds would be helpful.  I have thought of a few but I probably need a good 20 to make the system work in a campaign.

Thanks.

A method Ralph once proposed was in relation to disadvantages, and this is kind of similar. In that, players got experience when their disad came into play. That way players interested in long term gain (XP) would actually ask for the short term penalty "Aww, come on, my characters really fat and that's a rickity bridge! C'mon, my weight disads got to appy! I want that XP!"

You could have players propose penalties themselves, from a table that lists level of penalty and level of XP gained. Then if you see it, you can say 'oh yeah, that penalty would apply, your right!'

I would say have the pc take a wisdom check against a certain penalty depending on the amount of damage taken. If the player passes he simply gets a small bonus to resist against the effect next time.

For example: twice in his adventures Jim was struck with a fire ball. In a confrontation with a robed man and his companions he notes the strange familiar sulfer smell and the a series of well known hand motions. Jims scars begin to burn at the memory of the fiery assault last time, and he manages to (with a bonus) stay a step ahead of the wizard rolling safley out of the way.

Regards, Seth