Paul Farquhar
Legend
- Renaissance era, with things like pirates, and some gunpowder. Flying ships as blimps and stuff.
Pillars of Eternity 2 goes there. And it manages to combine firearms with hit points.
- Renaissance era, with things like pirates, and some gunpowder. Flying ships as blimps and stuff.
Well, as I said, this is only part of why you might see complaints. And it is the easiest part to dismiss.[MENTION=12731]CapnZapp[/MENTION] I think you're mistaking my point for something it's not. The lack of understanding specifically indexes the inability (by design) of HP to simulate damage from any real world weapons - HP as simulation. One big subset of arguments about HP and firearms is how while they might work for melee they don't for firearms (as a simulation).
If that means you're no longer as dismissive of the complaints (that you take in the possibility the complainers aren't merely applying double standards to hp in melee and ranged) then my presence here is working.To your point, which is about how HP interact with the tactical considerations in the game at range, I probably agree.
Sure, but now you make it sound like you're discussing an issue completely separate from hit points.The pace of ranged centric combat probably requires some kind of tweak to the tactical mechanics of the game. The turn by turn thing is hard to overcome unless you want to buff the role of reactions, and maybe stretch multiple attacks over multiple initiative steps to try and interweave things more. Rules for overwatch and holding actions become more necessary too. That actually sounds like a fun thread, we should do that - the tactics and game play are probably a bigger barrier to satisfying play than HP anyway.
Now that you mention it, while I've seen injury and death handled differently in a variety of systems, I can't think of any I've played that specifically support and encourage tactical ranged combat - and it's something I've occasionally looked for in a system. Is there a particular system that does it well?Very well.
But remember you don't need to reinvent the wheel here. The problem has been tackled before. You know, by other games.
Personally, I'm not actually going to rejig 5E for ranged combat at all. I use 5E for more traditional fantasy games and I'm completely happy with it (and the HP system)as-is. My first choice for a ranged heavy game would be a different system. However, playing with rules is fun, and I'm always interested in conceptual rules hacking.