I’ve currently two projects underway, both classic old school systems. One of the many things to consider when designing a system, of course, is how wounding and damage are going to be regulated in play. What mechanical system is going to measure health matters?
In one of the projects, I decided to do away with hit points entirely. Damage, instead, forces checks for consciousness and capability.
The other, however, is very much an OSR rendition of early D&D/AD&D in a form that I rather wish I would have had when I began play. In that project, hit points are one of the necessary touchstones, so I’ve been working with how I want to use them. In so doing, I’ve considered a couple of irritations that have long bothered me.
The first such is the lack of consistency in rolled hit points. Yes, I still want randomness. I just find the idea that an very slight increase in capability is as likely as a tremendous increase to strain my perceptions of fun and simulation; as with most things dealing with people, I figure hp accumulation would also bunch around the middle.
To that end, I’ve decided that a couple of methods of rolling hit points are acceptable. The first is to simply roll two dice and average them. Yes, it involves addition and division, though it happens aside from in-setting action so shouldn’t be a problem for even math-phobic players.
The second method is to roll two dice that can total the HD size. D8 is rolled with 2d4, for example, resulting in a bell curve from 2-8. This has the benefit of removing a result of 1 from the roll, which works for me within the bounds of the heroic fantasy I have in mind (competence to notable abilities).
The second such irritation is one that I know is widespread: hp bloat. Credulity is strained with characters that can endure far more strain and damage than should be manageable for a human. Falling long distances and surviving should be rare. Getting kicked around and stomped on by a giant and surviving should be very rare.
I’m using two approaches to combat hp bloat. The first is to decrease HD sizes–no class uses any die larger than a D8. No D10 or D12 characters. The second is to limit how many HD PCs get. I know there are tables that limit PCs to six levels or so during play, and I’m riffing on that to have PCs top out at 5 or 6 HD. Using a standard of a “killing blow” being enough to slay a 0-lvl human with, at most, 6 hp, then PCs will still be mighty without crushing all sense of disbelief for me.
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