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.