D&D General What if Hit Points were the currency of the game rules?

[B1okHead]

As others have said, there is a system that does exactly this, it's called numenera/cypher system

 

[Garthanos]

As others have said, there is a system that does exactly this, it's called numenera/cypher system

What is it like in general?

 

[Undrave]

A few months ago, I came across a Dungeon World hack that was designed for Kids and people new to RPGs

The "Dungeons RPG" free download can be found HERE . It has proven itself in providing a non intimidating RPG experience for my wife and young daughter where other games such as very basic versions of D&D have failed. But on to the main point-

In "Dungeons"- Hit Points are not just traditional hit points but are also "effort" used to fuel die rolls, spells, etc. For example-. The spellcasters have "at wills" but spend hit points to fuel more powerful spells. Fighters can spend a HP to fuel great feats of strength , or a Thief on "sneaky" abilities (and the HP provides a bonus to the roll that will eliminate complete failure). Druids spend a HP to shapeshift, etc etc.

Personally- in play I find it far more interesting than typical "resource management" like Vancian Casting, or per X rest, etc. It's much more simple, and the resource pool is much more valuable to players and raises the dramatic tension "I can spend a HP now to make sure I do X, but I'm going to be lower than I want for that fight I know is coming"

So what do folks think about a D&D game where class abilities/maneuvers/feats/stunts/ spells etc were all fueled by ONE easy to track resource- Hit Points? Then certainly the "idea" of hit points as drive/luck/endurance and their loss and quick return upon resting would make compete sense in the context of the game (though the term "hit" still does not).

P.S- Happy New Year all!

I've been considering a similar concept (mostly to work with a Digimon RPG concept) but that use 'Stamina' as a currency separated from HP.

Stamina could be spent to raise your defence when attacked, or even to make your attack roll higher, and of course to fuel special moves. You could take action in combat, similar to dodge, to restore SOME stamina if you didn't do anything else. This would make actual HP more precious because if you're out of stamina you would be likely to get knocked out in one hit. The strategy in combat would thus result in making sure you use your special move at the moment the opponent is vulnerable.

 

[jmucchiello]

Describing Cypher system in a quick post is not easy. It's by Monte Cook. You roll 1d20 to beat a DC. The DC is 3 times the difficulty level. Typical tasks are difficulty 2, Impossible tasks difficulty 10. You have three pools of "points" representing int, body and mind (I don't remember the names) and you can spend these points to reduce the difficulty of a task. If one of the pools goes to zero you are unconscious. two is dying, all three is dead. (I could be misremembering this.) There are also holdouts that you can expend to reduce the difficulty level. That's about all the mechanics. The rest is specifics. (Just like in D&D you roll 1d20 vs a DC. The rest is specifics.)

 

[Dausuul]

This would be a bad idea. It puts your "action resource" under the enemy's control. Every time the enemy hits you, your ability to act is reduced. This promotes a death spiral: When you are in a bad situation, and need to break out the big guns, you can't, because using the big guns will kill you.

Moreover, it means combat turns into a contest of alpha strikes. You are competing with your enemies for who gets to spend your hit point total: Either you spend them on your own powers, or your enemies "spend" them for you by whacking you. Therefore, the smart play is to burn recklessly through your hit points before your enemy gets the chance, and pray it's enough to win. And the enemy has the same incentive.

I'm not necessarily opposed to a "universal resource" to power all abilities, but hit points need to remain separate.

 

[Fenris-77]

If you change the HP totals it doesn't have to be a death spiral. It would take some tinkering but I dont think it has to be the case, it just could be the case with poor design decisions. Other systems manage it just fine.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

You know, they did this with force users in the first wotc Star Wars, and I gotta say I didn’t enjoy it.

I think I’d prefer to have a resource like vitality, and then have getting taken out of a fight be totally parallel to that resource, or indeed any point resource.

that is, let vitality fuel action, and let injury, something like a condition track, and saves against being knocked out, fuel “taking hits”.

If you change the HP totals it doesn't have to be a death spiral. It would take some tinkering but I dont think it has to be the case, it just could be the case with poor design decisions. Other systems manage it just fine.

The more I think on it, the more I think, why use hit points for taking damage, in such a system?

you get hit, you record that you’ve been hit. If you get hit by a stronger success (whatever that means in the system. In a dnd hack, it’d be a damage threshold?) you take an injury, and move down the condition track. If it’s a light hit, you move down the track every 3 hits. The end of the track is unconscious, at which point it works just like having 0hp.

 

[Fenris-77]

The more I think on it, the more I think, why use hit points for taking damage, in such a system?

you get hit, you record that you’ve been hit. If you get hit by a stronger success (whatever that means in the system. In a dnd hack, it’d be a damage threshold?) you take an injury, and move down the condition track. If it’s a light hit, you move down the track every 3 hits. The end of the track is unconscious, at which point it works just like having 0hp.

If you could spend the resource in question on defense then that could work, sure.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

You have three pools of "points" representing int, body and mind (I don't remember the names)

Might, Speed, and Intellect

 

[doctorbadwolf]

If you could spend the resource in question on defense then that could work, sure.

Im not sure why being able to spend the resource on defense is necessary to such a system working, but I certainly like being able to spend resources on defense.