The Hit Point Problem

[dyir]

With the revised GSL for D&D 4E just released and my latest mini-campaign almost complete, I've been pondering role playing games again. Obviously, that involves musing upon my Quixotic quest to make my Dream RPG, wondering what things I love about the games I play, what things I hate, and what things I think can be improved. And today this lead

Comments

[deledrius]

My problem with hitpoints has always been the arbitrariness of the abstraction. One point of damage to certain locations (such as the neck) are not equal to one point of damage to other places (such as an arm). D&D has some little hacks that try to mitigate this, but most videogames don't even bother. Hitpoints are some abstract value, and it serves to really streamline gameplay. Deus Ex was rare game in that it broke the body into six (IIRC) parts, each with its own number of hitpoints. This allows for more strategy by allowing you to value damage more highly in some areas

[dyir]

Well, in my opinion, the flaw isn't that hit points represent taking damage, its that they represent taking damage and represent how long a character can remain active in a fight. One or the other isn't necessarily a bad thing; the health levels from WoD are strictly a description of physical damage and nothing else, which is the basis I intend to use. All games are by their very nature abstract, and I hate hit location systems with a passion, so I don't see a problem with health levels as they currently stand

[deledrius]

Okay, I've gotta post on this (nearly two years later) with some new questions:

Have you since had a chance to test this mechanic and if so how did it work out?

In addition to my previous question about earning/losing fate, how do you envision the use of them to work? Is it an opposed roll of one or more? Are those dice tapped out once rolled? Can the player make multiple attempts provided they have sufficient dice?

[dyir]

I have had some testing of this mechanic, although my group switched the WOD and then life has prevented us from playing very much.

In play, I gave each player a pool of dice at the beginning of each adventure, then gave a smaller pool at the beginning of each encounter. Once used, a fate dice was simply gone, but all fate dice were lost at the end of each adventure (so you couldn't "store" them for later quests). And I did allow any amount of fate dice to be used on any given roll...provided that I didn't determine that the roll was already "impossible."

I determined the amount of dice based upon how many attacks I anticipated the player character would be targeted by in any given combat encounter; and the GM simply got that amount times the number of player characters in the game. Since you are anticipating using 4E, and 4E has definitely extended the number of rounds in a given combat encounter, I'd say you should run some "trial runs" to see how long they'll last for you and how many fate dice seem appropriate.

[silver_rabbit]

...the countless threads on ENWorld arguing about “quantum damage” and characters in an “indeterminate state of being healed and not healed” seem to show that their audience isn't buying it.

If you find yourself thinking things like that, it's probably a pretty good sign that it's time to go for a walk. Outside. Where the sun is.