The ONE Hit Point World

[the Jester]

It might make a fun game, but I don't think it would make a fun D&D game.

 

[AeroDm]

1. Create a potion that can give people 2 hit points.

2. Sell them.

3. Make millions.

4. Hope nobody makes a potion that gives people 3 hit points.

The same business plan as 7-Minute Abs. Tough market.

 

[Baron Opal]

No, there has to be some grey area between fully functional and dead. Otherwise it's too much like that Star Trek episode where a population moves at hyper speed, but the slightest scratch allows a super infection casusing death within 24 hrs.

You can't save someone from interrogation, cross a forbidding desert, or anything else that requires some privation.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Would that be translated as:

Chitty chitty Bang BANG!

I believe you're thinking of that Dionne Warwick song from the James Bond movies, "Mr. Chit-Chit Bang-Bang."

 

[Corathon]

Doesn't Savage Worlds do pretty much this?

It's been a while since I read the rules, but, pretty much everyone in the world dies in one hit. Wildcards (PC's and some NPC's) take (IIRC) 4 hits to take down.

It's simple and quick.

Not quite. Even the average person can shrug off low damage hit or be merely shaken by stronger ones. And while 1 hit akes the average person out of the fight, they aren't necessarily dead after 1 hit.

 

[Chris Knapp]

It becomes not unlike a modern FPS shooter video game, one of the more "realistic" ones like Ghost Recon or ARMA, where 1 hit kills.

TSR's Top Secret game was often a case of who saw who first. With full auto weapons, and maybe 15 health each, gun combat was pretty deadly. Adventures like Operation: Rapid Strike were often meat grinders if played by the rules and/or a competitive DM.

 

[Pentius]

Seriously? You guys roll damage in D&D for stubbing your toe?

Wtf?

Put that on the list of crap read on this board I've never done in a D&D game.

Ow! I just got psychic damage fro reading this!

 

[mmadsen]

I think this is a great thought experiment, but I feel compelled to point out that realistic combat would not be nearly so grim.

One good hit from a sword, spear, or arrow definitely can take someone out, even someone tough and competent, but it's not a sure thing, even if the target is weak and incompetent.

From a realism perspective, the problem with D&D's escalating hit points is not that a high-level D&D fighter can survive a dozen sword cuts and spear thrusts but that he cannot die by any one attack.

Now, if we change our expectations a bit, and accept that a game-mechanic hit really is more than just a nominal hit and does in fact mean a telling blow that overcomes the target's armor, then, sure, eliminating hit points could work just fine, but you'd want to fold toughness into AC (e.g. add Con bonus to AC, maybe add number of hit dice or BAB as well) and probably increase ACs across the board (to bring lethality back down).

This would make combat feel less like a 12-round boxing match and more like a gunfight or a fencing match.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You could do something like HERO does: split HP into Body & Stun. Stun measures all the hits you take that are less than lethal, the glancing blows, etc. Body measures the killing damage.

Now, in HERO, you can increase Body as much as you want. For a FRPG, you'd just limit how Body is calculated and make ways to increase it rare and hard to obtain.

Stun- and the other defenses- you make easier to boost.

Result: you can have all kinds of blows land and not take out a character, but one good strike could bring anyone down.

 

[mmadsen]

...eliminating hit points could work just fine, but you'd want to fold toughness into AC (e.g. add Con bonus to AC, maybe add number of hit dice or BAB as well) and probably increase ACs across the board (to bring lethality back down).

You'd also want to fold damage into to-hit, so, for instance, a 1d10-damage weapon would get +1 to its attack roll (the only roll needed for combat).