rmcoen's latest activity

Knife is "1d4-1" damage... 18 "hits" for 0 damage that lacerate you and bleed but aren't lethal... and then one hit that does 1 real hp...

But 1HD commoners survive deadly attacks all the time. You can waste a day watching and reading accounts of survivors who were stabbed...

A UFC fighter would definitely be concerned about a junky with a knife, because one mistake could have dire consequences, even if the...

Yeah, but in real life you aren't a hero. You're another one-hit die creature trying to survive the surprise round, often unarmed. If...

In real life, a random guy with a knife who wants to kill you is terrifying. In D&D he’s one-hit die and does 1d4 damage.

I think this a common misunderstanding. Almost any weapon can kill a person in one hit, but most hits aren’t lethal. Pistol wounds have...

Yep, Rolemaster and MERP were college saturday games for me, 35 years ago. We loved it then (bunch of enginerds), and accepted...

I own MERP and I like it quite a bit. There's really no chance to get anyone I know to play it with me, however.

You should honestly check out MERP or Rolemaster (second edition), based on your stated preferences I think you'd find it interesting

Right, that's what I was thinking. When you're doing 1d6+10, the d6 isn't as relevant (hence the "essentially just -2 damage" comment)...

This. For example, D&D monsters "die" at 0hp, while characters have Death Saves (or negative hp, depending on the edition). Many...

These are not actually entirely mutually exclusive. You can have the core system be relatively realistic, but provide a metacurrency...

Not if your goal is realism! "Yes, you defeated the dragon, but you also picked up dragonplague, and anyway that 1 point of damage got...

I think it would be even more simple and realistic if a “hit that overcame armor” meant the target went down. (PCs and other important...

As I’ve said before, some odd decisions went into D&D's design: hit points go up dramatically with level (and without magic), to-hit...