ledded
Herder of monkies
We've used VP/WP in Modern and really have not had that many issues converting things. Sometimes something was overlooked, but it's usually pretty easy for the GM to do an easy conversion then-and-there.
Add one die to guns. Now guns are actually dangerous; we always felt they had a bit of a raw deal, and with an extra die they are truly scary. Of course, the average damage only goes up a little, and if you truly want consistently good damage you are still better off with a melee weapon, some Strength, and talents/feats to improve damage like Power Attack, etc.
VP are like HP. Run out of VP? Well, now you're not dodging anymore, missing the little stuff. WP are your Con score. You take WP, you are injured. Save 5 + total WP damage dealt that turn, or you get knocked out. Fatigued even if you made that save. Go to 0 WP, you're down. -10? Dead.
Heroes recover VP faster, so there isnt a need for an artificial healing mechanic or tons of downtime after every encounter, while still having the opportunity for it to happen. When one of our modern guys takes WP, it's usually time to back out and get to the hospital. But with VP, you can actually throw a bit more challenge at them in shorter intervals because they don't have to have 8 hours to many days of rest every time someone gets a little hurt (dungeons and narcaleptics, anyone? ) unless they take WP and truly get injured.
Subdual is not an issue anymore. At all. Non-lethal does VP damage, but no WP. If the person taking non-lethal runs out of VP, then they still have to make the save *as if they took it*, but dont actually get WP damage. If you are brawling, you always have the option at that point of going lethal for less damage to "finish someone off" or you can knock them out. This way, low-level mooks can get the hi-ya knockout effect, while high-level ones are harder to do this to, but not immune.
There are certainly issues with high-damage criticals and things like that, but we've managed to rule things so that we maintain a nice, gritty feel while not making it impossible to survive. But we also have limited access to fx/magic, so magic that heals is rare and not very powerful, and people using magic touch attacks that deal damage are also rare/non-existent (though touch attacks in d20 Modern, with class bonuses, are not as scary or insanely easy as they are in D&D).
BTW, we do have some limited protective magics that provide DR, and armor provides a small amount of DR vs. Wound Point damage also, so you can get a little protection on top of those WP, and you can always take toughness for 3 more WP, if you feel like you need it.
Sure, it takes some house ruling, and I'm not saying it's always better than MDT... we just didnt like the static MDT save and the feel of the whole thing. At higher levels, MDT IMO just falls flat with everyone easily making their save most of the time. If you lower it too much then you have the problem of too many PC's failing and then having to sit out long lengths of time while they heal those HP's back. We also prefer a more gritty feel to our games than most folks, so when the PC's do something suitibly heroic/cinematic it feels all the more great for having actually survived it
Applying a sliding scale to MDT like Heap posted above would be the only way I would use HP and MDT, that way you can at least throw something less than a Nuclear Toxyderm at mid-to-high level PC's and have them actually take cover and fear for their lives, and applying that save on any crit helps a lot too. Probably easier than converting much to VP/WP while working somewhat similar, but we really didnt have that big of deal with converting at all.
Also, VP/WP feels a lot more cinematic in the GM/PC's description of events, because you know the line between a minor injury or fatigue and actually being injured.
We like it a lot, but YMMV.
Add one die to guns. Now guns are actually dangerous; we always felt they had a bit of a raw deal, and with an extra die they are truly scary. Of course, the average damage only goes up a little, and if you truly want consistently good damage you are still better off with a melee weapon, some Strength, and talents/feats to improve damage like Power Attack, etc.
VP are like HP. Run out of VP? Well, now you're not dodging anymore, missing the little stuff. WP are your Con score. You take WP, you are injured. Save 5 + total WP damage dealt that turn, or you get knocked out. Fatigued even if you made that save. Go to 0 WP, you're down. -10? Dead.
Heroes recover VP faster, so there isnt a need for an artificial healing mechanic or tons of downtime after every encounter, while still having the opportunity for it to happen. When one of our modern guys takes WP, it's usually time to back out and get to the hospital. But with VP, you can actually throw a bit more challenge at them in shorter intervals because they don't have to have 8 hours to many days of rest every time someone gets a little hurt (dungeons and narcaleptics, anyone? ) unless they take WP and truly get injured.
Subdual is not an issue anymore. At all. Non-lethal does VP damage, but no WP. If the person taking non-lethal runs out of VP, then they still have to make the save *as if they took it*, but dont actually get WP damage. If you are brawling, you always have the option at that point of going lethal for less damage to "finish someone off" or you can knock them out. This way, low-level mooks can get the hi-ya knockout effect, while high-level ones are harder to do this to, but not immune.
There are certainly issues with high-damage criticals and things like that, but we've managed to rule things so that we maintain a nice, gritty feel while not making it impossible to survive. But we also have limited access to fx/magic, so magic that heals is rare and not very powerful, and people using magic touch attacks that deal damage are also rare/non-existent (though touch attacks in d20 Modern, with class bonuses, are not as scary or insanely easy as they are in D&D).
BTW, we do have some limited protective magics that provide DR, and armor provides a small amount of DR vs. Wound Point damage also, so you can get a little protection on top of those WP, and you can always take toughness for 3 more WP, if you feel like you need it.
Sure, it takes some house ruling, and I'm not saying it's always better than MDT... we just didnt like the static MDT save and the feel of the whole thing. At higher levels, MDT IMO just falls flat with everyone easily making their save most of the time. If you lower it too much then you have the problem of too many PC's failing and then having to sit out long lengths of time while they heal those HP's back. We also prefer a more gritty feel to our games than most folks, so when the PC's do something suitibly heroic/cinematic it feels all the more great for having actually survived it
Applying a sliding scale to MDT like Heap posted above would be the only way I would use HP and MDT, that way you can at least throw something less than a Nuclear Toxyderm at mid-to-high level PC's and have them actually take cover and fear for their lives, and applying that save on any crit helps a lot too. Probably easier than converting much to VP/WP while working somewhat similar, but we really didnt have that big of deal with converting at all.
Also, VP/WP feels a lot more cinematic in the GM/PC's description of events, because you know the line between a minor injury or fatigue and actually being injured.
We like it a lot, but YMMV.