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<blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5107904" data-attributes="member: 80487">As I see it, the purpose of hit points originally was to give players a resource to manage. The increases by level made higher level characters' fates less dependent on chance.One can effectively have &quot;hit points&quot; by different names. In some games, players spend a single &quot;game currency&quot; on other things in addition to avoiding getting killed.RuneQuest has HP by that very name, but the approach is notably different. Even a &quot;high level&quot; character faces a probability of getting killed by almost any blow. Indeed, a very experienced one is more likely to die from some ludicrously improbable cause -- because such causes get more opportunities to have the dice fall their way.A hefty HP &quot;buffer&quot; thus is conducive to a game that combines a lot of fighting with a lot of long-term character development. The &quot;roll a die and maybe die&quot; approach is conducive to the proverb that &quot;there are are many old adventurers, and many bold adventurers -- but not many old, bold adventurers!&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ariosto, post: 5107904, member: 80487"] As I see it, the purpose of hit points originally was to give players a resource to manage. The increases by level made higher level characters' fates less dependent on chance. One can effectively have "hit points" by different names. In some games, players spend a single "game currency" on other things in addition to avoiding getting killed. RuneQuest has HP by that very name, but the approach is notably different. Even a "high level" character faces a [i]probability of getting killed[/i] by almost any blow. Indeed, a very experienced one is [i]more[/i] likely to die from some ludicrously improbable cause -- because such causes get more opportunities to have the dice fall their way. A hefty HP "buffer" thus is conducive to a game that combines a lot of fighting with a lot of long-term character development. The "roll a die and maybe die" approach is conducive to the proverb that "there are are many old adventurers, and many bold adventurers -- but not many old, bold adventurers!" [/QUOTE]

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