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How decisive should each combat round be in terms of HP loss/healing?
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<blockquote data-quote="CroBob" data-source="post: 6070263" data-attributes="member: 6683307"><p>I really don't think it's fair for your product to worry too much about the preconceived notions formed from the play of different games. On the other hand, there's also the coconut effect to worry about. I guess it depends on if you want to make a solid game, a good product, or something in-between. Either way, if you are worried about starting HPs being too high, simply do a little math to reduce early damage output and, thus, starting HPs. I don't know anything substantial about your system, so I really can't offer advice on how to do that. Assuming damage output is a combination of dice rolling and fixed numbers, you could reduce the number or type if dice, or both. This will have the benefits of lowering the damage output <em>and</em> making it more predictable, thus allowing strategy to matter more and the survivability of the PCs to rely more on player actions than dice rolls. It may not reduce damage as much as you'd like, but a character's death would be more avoidable through tactics and teamwork.</p><p></p><p>On the other hand, I definitely understand wanting to maintain some randomness, so that the outcomes isn't basically set in stone beforehand. This one's easy; reduce the set number you add to the rolls. Of course, you could reduce all three variables; kind of dice, number of dice, and bonus to roll. As I said, though, exactly how to do those things I couldn't say, as I'm not familiar with your system. I'm actually more a fan of making sure the system works well, and then fitting HPs around it. I mean, if your wizard starts with 36 HPs on average, but takes 18 damage on your typical attack on him, the feel of low HPs remains, especially if the other characters have many more, or even if they have defenses which reduce their damage taken, instead. As long as people don't have preconceived notions concerning your game, it won't suffer the knee-jerk rejection 4E faced at the hands of many D&D players. Just spell it out straight in the forward and on the back cover, or wherever people get a synopsis of the game from.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CroBob, post: 6070263, member: 6683307"] I really don't think it's fair for your product to worry too much about the preconceived notions formed from the play of different games. On the other hand, there's also the coconut effect to worry about. I guess it depends on if you want to make a solid game, a good product, or something in-between. Either way, if you are worried about starting HPs being too high, simply do a little math to reduce early damage output and, thus, starting HPs. I don't know anything substantial about your system, so I really can't offer advice on how to do that. Assuming damage output is a combination of dice rolling and fixed numbers, you could reduce the number or type if dice, or both. This will have the benefits of lowering the damage output [i]and[/i] making it more predictable, thus allowing strategy to matter more and the survivability of the PCs to rely more on player actions than dice rolls. It may not reduce damage as much as you'd like, but a character's death would be more avoidable through tactics and teamwork. On the other hand, I definitely understand wanting to maintain some randomness, so that the outcomes isn't basically set in stone beforehand. This one's easy; reduce the set number you add to the rolls. Of course, you could reduce all three variables; kind of dice, number of dice, and bonus to roll. As I said, though, exactly how to do those things I couldn't say, as I'm not familiar with your system. I'm actually more a fan of making sure the system works well, and then fitting HPs around it. I mean, if your wizard starts with 36 HPs on average, but takes 18 damage on your typical attack on him, the feel of low HPs remains, especially if the other characters have many more, or even if they have defenses which reduce their damage taken, instead. As long as people don't have preconceived notions concerning your game, it won't suffer the knee-jerk rejection 4E faced at the hands of many D&D players. Just spell it out straight in the forward and on the back cover, or wherever people get a synopsis of the game from. [/QUOTE]
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How decisive should each combat round be in terms of HP loss/healing?
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