Level Up (A5E) Adding narrative satisfaction to armor

[Argyle King]

Well it is a mute point now as I have already agreed with @tetrasodium that subtract 1 or 2 damage from a PCs damage is very minor operation and not affecting the time. I was not thinking about the issue properly. However,...

Interesting, I had never thought of doing it that way before. Have you thought about why you do it that way?

That is an odd statement (bold red). You clearly added a step in the DR example (you subtracted 2 from 5 before writing down 3 damage). I agree the time it takes to do that is not relevant in the game, but it is clearly an additional step (a purely mental one, but still an additional step). Why do you think it is not an additional step?

I'm not 100% sure why I do it that way.
Somewhere along the line, it just made more sense to me. I can barely remember not doing it that way.

When I started to play games in which different HP thresholds mattered (D&D 4th Edition with Bloodied; GURPS with tangible effects tied to HP loss,) I would make note of what those thresholds were (i.e 1/3 HP = N) and it still made sense. "Is my damage total more than this number? No? I'm good. Yes? I'm injured/dead/whatever."

As for the steps, I was comparing [HP - damage] to [Damage - DR]. To me, that's the same.

I suppose visually looking at two numbers to see if one is higher or lower is also a step, but I don't see that as being very difficult.

 

[CubicsRube]

Instead of DR you could do a bonus to a players HP. Sort of a roundabout way of achieving the same thing. Light armors get 2-3, medium armors get 4-7 and heavy armors get 7-10. Unarmored/natural defense could be worth +4 if you feel bad for your monk and barbarian players.

My group did a similar thing for my homebrew 5e scifi game. The extra HP was treated like temp HP and represented shielding.

That's how i'd do it. Temp HP that refrrshes at the end of a fight

 

[dave2008]

I'm not 100% sure why I do it that way.
Somewhere along the line, it just made more sense to me. I can barely remember not doing it that way.

I think it makes a lot of sense as there have been several studies showing people are slower with subtraction (and more annoyed by it) than addition. That is one knock on DR in general (people just don't like to subtract). By adding damage up and comparing to your total, you have eliminated the subtraction annoyance. Of course, when you heal I assume you subtract the healing from the damage you've taken? Still a net gain: 1 subtraction vs many.

When I started to play games in which different HP thresholds mattered (D&D 4th Edition with Bloodied; GURPS with tangible effects tied to HP loss,) I would make note of what those thresholds were (i.e 1/3 HP = N) and it still made sense. "Is my damage total more than this number? No? I'm good. Yes? I'm injured/dead/whatever."

Again, I think that is a great strategy that I will suggest it moving forward to any new players definitely. I can't believe I never thought of it!

As for the steps, I was comparing [HP - damage] to [Damage - DR]. To me, that's the same.

I suppose visually looking at two numbers to see if one is higher or lower is also a step, but I don't see that as being very difficult.

It is definitely not the same. There is a mental subtraction process in there (written or not). While the time it takes may not be of any significance, there is a good bit of science suggestion people just don't like subtraction. For all kinds of reason (some are very deep, subconscious, and primordial in our brains). It may not be an issue for you, me, or @tetrasodium, but in humans as a whole, subtraction is a less attractive for a variety of reasons.

 

[Argyle King]

Mental speed or whatnot aside, I think part of the reason I started doing it that way is because I found that subtracting often meant using an eraser more. So, it ended up being less destructive to my character sheet at a time when resources were scarce.

As far as the speed of adding or subtracting, I am unsure how that relates to myself. When doing math in general, I see numbers differently than most people. It caused me a lot of issues when I was younger because I had to show my work and my way of doing things was "wrong" in the eyes of most teachers.

Getting back to how I look at RPGs
To me, the comparison step isn't even a step at all. I suppose it is, but it's just "which of these values is bigger?"

Mentally, I'm not sure that I even really see the numbers most of the time. It's more like looking at cups and seeing if they're full. Offhand, I don't know exactly how many ounces of coffee are in my cup, but I can look at it and see if it's full. I have the capacity to figure out the volume if need be, but that operation isn't necessary most of the time; determining states of being (full or empty) is more relevant.

I've found that to make DMing a lot easier because (for me) it's a smoother process for keeping track of HP for multiple creatures.

More accurately, I'm keeping track of states of being. In D&D that means alive, bloodied (if playing 4E,) or dead. In games with DR (like "soak" in FFG Star Wars or armor in GURPS,) the process is still largely the same.

I've also found that it's a good way to keep an ongoing history of an encounter without doing very much work. I can visually see how many rounds have passed by seeing how many times I've written something down.