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What do you want hit points to measure?

Started by TonyLB, August 24, 2007, 03:07:47 PM

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Imperator

#45
September 03, 2007, 02:26:09 PM
Quote from: BalbinusI can see that, I do describe for PCs but far less specifically, more "you take a blow so powerful you're momentarily rocked backwards" and less "you feel your collarbone crunch as his mace shatters it and several ribs" which would then either require the player to RP having a shattered collarbone or just make no fucking sense at all.

I am most on your camp here, but sometimes I assign such injuries to the PCs, mostly based on an rough estimate of the damage caused. So, if half the HPs of the PC go in a single blow, he will probably suffer some kind of injurie that will give him a slight penalty on some tasks. I usually eyeball that, and my players are quite happy with that.

But I also think that jrients has it right: hit points are an abstraction, and treating them as any other thing is futile. If you want accurate modelling of injuries, there are other systems that are not based on a pool of HPs (I'm thinking of Blue Planet here, which has a very interesting damage system).
My name is Ramón Nogueras. Running now Vampire: the Masquerade (Giovanni Chronicles IV for just 3 players), and itching to resume my Call of Cthulhu campaign (The Sense of the Sleight-of-Hand Man).

Joshua Ford

#46
September 03, 2007, 02:43:31 PM
Quote from: MetrivusWe do something similar.  Despite what seems to be the majority here, hit points as merely hit points do not make any sense (I am talking strictly D&D).  If you are hit with a fireball for 40 damage at 1st level, you are toast.  If you are hit with the same fireball at 20th level, it hardly dents you.  Why?  You're still a mortal.  

The way we've resolved it (and I don't think this is terribly unique or anything) is to say that only when you've reached 10hp or lower do you actually start to take damage.  Anything else is described as the PC actually dodging the attack, or not taking damage from it, but doing so in a shitty manner so that they're thrown off balance, winded, etc.  

This doesn't actually change any mechanics at all, just in the roleplaying sense that the combat plays out.  If you're above 10 when it's all over, you didn't actually get hit.  It works, it's simple, and yes, it's more realistic.

I like this - are hp restored at the end of a combat then if you haven't been hit? Do you roll on a critical table when you go under 10 on a roll of 20 or something?
 

Balbinus

#47
September 03, 2007, 03:50:32 PM
Quote from: ImperatorI am most on your camp here, but sometimes I assign such injuries to the PCs, mostly based on an rough estimate of the damage caused. So, if half the HPs of the PC go in a single blow, he will probably suffer some kind of injurie that will give him a slight penalty on some tasks. I usually eyeball that, and my players are quite happy with that.

But I also think that jrients has it right: hit points are an abstraction, and treating them as any other thing is futile. If you want accurate modelling of injuries, there are other systems that are not based on a pool of HPs (I'm thinking of Blue Planet here, which has a very interesting damage system).

I do that too, like you say if it seems appropriate.  Pundit would likely approve, I'm a big believer that no rule system can replace the value that an arbitrary ruling made by a good GM can provide.
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