On the other hand, it's really freakin' easy for characters to die. Unless it's really hard. Injuries can be too abstract, and characters either fragile or not afraid of damage. Using OD&D or a retro-clone will solve some of the high end hit point problems. But the low-end issues are still there.
That's not quite what I want. Which makes me want to add some house rules.
- Option 1 is from Robert Fisher's Lost City House Rules, in which characters who reach 0 hit points are not dead, but roll on an injury table, which reminds me of the way that Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay handles things. However, he plays it that 8 hours of rest for
- Option 2 is to raid a book by my old friend T. S. Luikart, who was part of my old game group a decade ago. In the Skull and Bones rulebook he co-authored, they offer 3 ways around the low hit point issue: losing hit points then taking CON damage; having a random number of lives (think less of video games and more of a cat's 9 lives); and an injury table.
- Option 3 is back to Robert Fisher and his Classic D&D House Rules. In this set of rules, he proposes that players at 0 hit points are not dead, but if his friends rescue him, he loses 1 point of CON.
- Option 4 is that if a character is at 0 hit points, they must save or die.
- Option 5 is the old characters die at some sort of negative hit points, either -(level) or -10 (per AD&D).
- Option 6 is Mike's suggestion on a Dragonsfoot thread to use the FUDGE injury track as characters go below 0 hit points, which adds some mechanical effects of injury and some of the fudge room after 0 hit points so characters aren't quite so squishy at first level.
There's also my Hit Point and Body Point rules. I've posted a Swords & Wizardy version here: Hit Points and Body Points for Swords & Wizardry
ReplyDeleteI will by using Trollsmyth's Death & Dismemberment table which was inspired by Robert Fisher's table but it has helmets! w00t!!
ReplyDeleteWe always used 0 is unconscious, -1/2 CON is dead. Tough guys last longer!
ReplyDeleteMy current house rule is that anytime a PC is reduced to 0hp they get a save vs. death to avoid expiring if they have not already been allowed a save.
ReplyDeleteI'm leaning heavily toward a save vs. death system. Adding new things to track (damage tracks, injury penalties, or negative hit points) seem to complicate the nice cleanness of the hit point system, IMHO, while a save is one simple consistent rule.
ReplyDeleteAt least that's my plan until play actually starts....
If you're gonna play Old School Class/Level/HP systems, then play them. No hit points, no life. Seems odd to embrace all the old ideals and not embrace this. Truth be told, anytime I played D&D, any edition, we used this rule.
ReplyDeleteI can say that because while I love the nostalgia of D&D and its kin, it was never my favorite rules system. I prefer systems with no HP and more of a condition/wound status mentality (Star Wars D6, Mutants & Masterminds, Star Trek-ICON/LUG, etc.).
AD
Barking Alien
Actually, I started playing with AD&D, and that had a negative hit point system, so in my experience, all "old-school" systems back to 1980 had some sort of system for avoiding the "0-hp" = dead condition. My experience that the old ideals often involved changing the expectations and making house rules.
ReplyDeleteHaving played many game systems, including condition/wound status systems, my problem with them is that they are often a pain to track, and harder for players (IME) to understand how they are doing in the fight.
But your point is duly considered.
And, of course, I didn't even acknowledge the possibility of going with 0 hit points = dead but having a different way of determining hit points (the Dave Hargraves/Arduin approach)....
ReplyDeleteThe only GM in our group who still runs old-style D&D used 0 HP = dead, but if somebody acts that round with a healing spell or something, you can be stabilized or even restored to fighting condition...otherwise you get a dying prayer, with a small chance that the god you pray to will heed your plea, with varying results.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember where I read the suggestion that led to this idea, but I'm partial to a rule that 0hp= "mortally wounded." If you're mortally wounded, you fall to the ground, and are going to die in about 10 minutes unless you get medical attention (healing magic or first aid). But, you're not unconscious.
ReplyDeleteMortally wounded characters can lie doggo and hope that their buddies win the combat and get to them before they bleed to death. Or they can choose to bind their wounds/use healing magic on themselves (the effort knocks them unconscious, and they will wake up in several hours with just enough strength to stagger out of the dungeon and back to home base). Or they can make one Final Heroic Effort (cast a spell, make an attack, crawl to the control room and push the Plot Ending Red Button) and then die.
Nuances: all further attacks after the one that takes them below 0hp miss a mortally wounded character -- they're on the ground, out of the line of fire. Characters brought to less than -10 or -(con score) hit points by a single attack (ie, dragon breath or high level fireball) get a saving roll: if they make the save, they're mortally wounded. Otherwise, they're killed outright. Mortally wounded characters who survive the experience are in an enervated state and need at least one month of bed rest at home base before they can go back to the dungeon. Even with large doses of healing magic, they will need at least two full weeks of rest.
This rule works best if you remember that in OD&D, healing magic (spells and potions) take effect over 1 turn, so there's no such thing as drinking a healing potion and then springing back into combat the next round.