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Tag: #hitpoints

Thoughts on low hit points

April 1, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I’ve been reading through old volumes of The Dragon magazine. It’s been interesting to read all the takes on game design that appear in the pages, whether from Gygax or one of the other TSR people. An article I read yesterday, by Len Lakofka, I believe, was about low hp and zero hp, offering an alternative approach to using them.

The first part of his take that I found interesting involved when hp totals dropped to 2 or 1. He advocated for penalties to PC actions at that point, reflecting the obviously wounded status. I found that quite interesting, as it addresses the criticism of “full capabilities until dead” that applies to the RAW. Now, I’m going to assume that every PC began play with more than 2 hp, so dropping to 2 reflects a loss of foundational hp, a decrease in inherent capabilities on part of the PC. Yes, even those MUs! I know so many tables award hd maximum at 1st level and others mandate at least upper half of the die range (so 3 on a d4), so dropping to two hp would be wounded status for even a PC MU.

The next takeaway involved dropping to 0 hp or lower. He offered a table with percentages for all the options; that seems to be overkill to me. The basic idea that a PC has to check for death or incapacitation is good. It’s not instant death, yet things don’t look good for the PCs (instant death arrives if hp drop to -5 or -6). Even if still alive after dropping to 0 to -4 hp, the PC will have to make another check in a few rounds to stay alive, repeat until receiving care, healing naturally, or dying. And if the PC lives through all that, there are chances for scars and maiming (losing body parts). Woot! Adding history and characterization to PCs!

I’ve been evaluating different systems for limiting hit points of late as part of finalizing playtest materials. From the E6 approach to static hp/level to reduced hd sizes and more. One thing I’ve decided makes a good deal of sense is to have all PCs have basic hp for 0-lvl and their PC hd then adding to that base. So, I’d have a base of 5 hp for simply being a healthy, active person and then adding hp for experience levels.

This works well with the idea of reduced hp leading to penalties due to wounding. A PC gets damage to where those foundational hp are disappearing? Yeah, there’s penalties involved. Time to get out of Dodge and live to fight another day. Then, if getting incapacitated and dropping unconscious, the PC has a solid chance to die if not receiving care soon enough. That strikes me as being deadly enough to drive caution on behalf of players while allowing PCs a bit of room to get knocked out of a fight and still live.

I think coupling limited hp due to class and the idea of foundational, 0-lvl hp can make for a reasonably demanding playstyle. Couple that with the penalties, incapacitation, and maiming rules and it can be a nail-biting good time.

A bit of hit point adjustment

January 26, 2024 / / 0 Comments

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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