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The Healing Paradox
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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5954670" data-attributes="member: 22779"><p>KM - you asked why HP are adjusted by Con and not Cha. Well, let's be honest here, in 1972 (ish) when they were designing D&D, the idea of HP as Plot Protection didn't exist. The language for that idea wasn't part of the lexicon of game design. No one thought of it in those terms. You got HP from Con because Con measures how tough you are. That it was contradictory to how HP were actually being defined didn't really matter - it's a game term and nothing more.</p><p></p><p>Why do some units in a war game get more hp than others? Well, presumably, they're "tougher" - a veteran unit can soak more damage than a green unit. And that's about as far as the thinking went.</p><p></p><p>However, we're forty years later, a couple of million man hours of game play later, and thousands and thousands of pages of game design later. The idea of "Plot Protection" is now part of the RPG lexicon. We've learned a thing or two in the past couple of decades. </p><p></p><p>Why keep HP as meat when HP as meat never really worked? Protestations aside, it's so full of holes that it's ridiculous. If there is never any mechanical effect of losing HP, other than losing HP themselves, then the only thing that HP represent are HP. What is a HP? Well, it's a fairly arbitrary number that we give characters to keep them fighting.</p><p></p><p>And that's all HP ever were. Because it makes no sense to make them anything else.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 5954670, member: 22779"] KM - you asked why HP are adjusted by Con and not Cha. Well, let's be honest here, in 1972 (ish) when they were designing D&D, the idea of HP as Plot Protection didn't exist. The language for that idea wasn't part of the lexicon of game design. No one thought of it in those terms. You got HP from Con because Con measures how tough you are. That it was contradictory to how HP were actually being defined didn't really matter - it's a game term and nothing more. Why do some units in a war game get more hp than others? Well, presumably, they're "tougher" - a veteran unit can soak more damage than a green unit. And that's about as far as the thinking went. However, we're forty years later, a couple of million man hours of game play later, and thousands and thousands of pages of game design later. The idea of "Plot Protection" is now part of the RPG lexicon. We've learned a thing or two in the past couple of decades. Why keep HP as meat when HP as meat never really worked? Protestations aside, it's so full of holes that it's ridiculous. If there is never any mechanical effect of losing HP, other than losing HP themselves, then the only thing that HP represent are HP. What is a HP? Well, it's a fairly arbitrary number that we give characters to keep them fighting. And that's all HP ever were. Because it makes no sense to make them anything else. [/QUOTE]
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