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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6662142" data-attributes="member: 996">For short times, he might (probably not a marathon, sure), but it's a pretty random thing.&nbsp; A non-fatal wound can be instantly, fully disabling, a mortal wound can be barely felt and hardly impair the victim at all for the few moments - even hours - before he inevitably dies.&nbsp; And that's just reality, never mind fiction, let alone heroic fiction, let alone heroic fantasy.Few games capture that bizarre randomness at all (Hero is one of them - you track 'stun,' which determines if you're still conscious and able to act, and 'body,' which determines if you're alive, dying, or dead, almost entirely separately, and 'killing attacks' can do a relatively large amount of stun or very little, relative to the body inflicted, based on a random damage roll).&nbsp; D&amp;D doesn't remotely try, instead.... &nbsp;Exactly.&nbsp; Hps capture the very heroic-fantasy-genre (and, indeed, even broader, applying to any heroic or 'action' sub-genre) trope of 'plot armor.'&nbsp; Protagonists survive all sorts of extreme dangers without being disabled (for long) or killed (for reals).&nbsp; D&amp;D models the whole range of bizarre coincidences, preternatural abilities, and authorial fiat that go into keeping heroes alive &amp; fighting with Hit Points and Saving Throws.D&amp;D doesn't model extreme, permanent injuries, lasting disability, or irrevocable death hardly at all (and when it does, does so with one-off sub-systems for that purpose, like a sword of sharpness that lops off limbs, or a horrible cursed item that slays irrevocably) - certainly never as a result of mere hit point damage.&nbsp; Hit points simply don't model disabling injuries, either short-term disabling (other than unconsciousness) or long-term (other than dead - until Raised).&nbsp; Nothing about them remotely begins to do so:&nbsp; Not the way they're inflicted, not the way they're tracked, not the effect they have, and not the way they're recovered. &nbsp;And, definitely not the way they've been explained in the editions that went into any detail at all to rationalize them.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 6662142, member: 996"] For short times, he might (probably not a marathon, sure), but it's a pretty random thing. A non-fatal wound can be instantly, fully disabling, a mortal wound can be barely felt and hardly impair the victim at all for the few moments - even hours - before he inevitably dies. And that's just reality, never mind fiction, let alone heroic fiction, let alone heroic fantasy. Few games capture that bizarre randomness at all (Hero is one of them - you track 'stun,' which determines if you're still conscious and able to act, and 'body,' which determines if you're alive, dying, or dead, almost entirely separately, and 'killing attacks' can do a relatively large amount of stun or very little, relative to the body inflicted, based on a random damage roll). D&D doesn't remotely try, instead.... Exactly. Hps capture the very heroic-fantasy-genre (and, indeed, even broader, applying to any heroic or 'action' sub-genre) trope of 'plot armor.' Protagonists survive all sorts of extreme dangers without being disabled (for long) or killed (for reals). D&D models the whole range of bizarre coincidences, preternatural abilities, and authorial fiat that go into keeping heroes alive & fighting with Hit Points and Saving Throws. D&D doesn't model extreme, permanent injuries, lasting disability, or irrevocable death hardly at all (and when it does, does so with one-off sub-systems for that purpose, like a sword of sharpness that lops off limbs, or a horrible cursed item that slays irrevocably) - certainly never as a result of mere hit point damage. Hit points simply don't model disabling injuries, either short-term disabling (other than unconsciousness) or long-term (other than dead - until Raised). Nothing about them remotely begins to do so: Not the way they're inflicted, not the way they're tracked, not the effect they have, and not the way they're recovered. And, definitely not the way they've been explained in the editions that went into any detail at all to rationalize them. [/QUOTE]

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