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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 5703157" data-attributes="member: 92305">I worked on an idea one time...  It was for another game, but the basic idea could be used with D&D easily. I'll give you the broad strokes. Basically, you set up a Threshold for a character.  You decide how best to come up with this number.  It could be a percentage of hit points, or it could be some function of stats or stat bonuses.  Maybe character level will be addressed, too.  You decide. Whatever it is, it's a single number.  And, you want to keep in the low range.  I'd suggest keeping it in the 1-10 range or so.  Or, you could look at the Threshold like a stat, and keep it in the 3-18 range...or, so. Anyway.... Once you've established the character's Threshold, you measure all wounds he takes by that number. For example, let's say a character's Threshold is calculated by taking 10% of his hit points, rounding up.  Let's say we have a character with 63 hit points.  That would mean his Threshold is 6. Any damage that is 6 or less would indicate contact but nothing more damaging than a scratch.  The character will not be hampered. Damage in the 7-11 range (over the Threshold but less than twice its value) would indicate a minor wound that will heal quickly it attended to.  A minor wound might be a bad bruise or scrape--something that may hinder the character a bit.  Stun him for a round.  Give him a -1 to hit when using that arm.  Something like that. Damage in the 12-17 range is progressively worse.  (2x Threshold) Damage in the 18-23 range is progressively worse.  (3x Threshold) Damage in the 24-30 range is progressively worse.  (4x Threshold) And so on. Until....you get to a point where a multiple of the Threshold in damage will flat out deliver a mortal wound.   I say "progressively worse" because I haven't fully fleshed out the idea.  It's just a skeleton of mechanics.  But, you get the idea:  1 - You determine a Threshold number for a character based on the character's stats, then, 2 - you measure the damage done in blows by the multiples of that threshold. So, if our character with a Threshold 6 is hit by a warrior with a battleaxe and gets 14 points of damage placed on him, you don't do any bookeeping with the hit points.  You simply look at the total damage and see what multiple of the Threshold it is.  14 is more than twice a Threshold of 6, so the GM might put a non-lethal, bleeding wound on the victim--something that won't hinder the character immediately but will need to be looked at after the fight (because it's only twice the Threshold). Don't worry about stacking.  Each hit is its own wound.  Two hits that do minor damage do not make the character suffer from worse damage.  He simply has two minor wounds (maybe two scrapes). Now, if that battleaxe enemy rolls a critical and does 37 points of damage, now, we're talking a pretty grevious wound has been landed.  That's over 6x the Threashold. Here's where saves come in.  The victim gets a Saving throw, or he's losing an arm, or maybe the battleaxe has just been implanted in his chest.  Something nasty like that. Adjust the lethality of your game by how hard the save is.  Making the save reduces any wound to a Minor Wound, and the hero keeps on fighting.   That's the broad strokes.  No ticking off hit points.  Wounds are applied to the character to hinder him--the more damage taken, the worse it is for the victim.  But, we're dealing with heroes, so any serious wound gets a save to reduce the wound to something minor. This system would focus on the fighting, description of what is happening, and not the numbers (well, after everyone got used to it, that is).</blockquote>

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