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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8616058" data-attributes="member: 42582">How does this tell us anything about whether or not hp are a simulationist mechanic? Simulationism is a term of analysis, not a term of praise.How much what? Maiming? Bleeding? Shock? Fear? Utterly debilitating pain?As [USER=22779]@Hussar[/USER] and I have both pointed out, a 5e D&D character who is on zero hp may die in less than a minute, or may recover consciousness within a few seconds, and within a day be right as rain, simply under their own steam. It's not plausible that, in the fiction, the character is in a state that admits of both those possibilities. (I don't even know what such a state would be, in physiological terms.)In the fiction, the character either is about to die, or is merely swooning from pain and shock as Frodo was in Moria. The function of the death and dying system is to generate uncertainty, among the game participants, as to what the true state of affairs is. Just like JRRT, in LotR, generates uncertainty in the reader as to what Frodo's true state is. It's not to model an in-fiction state of affairs.A system like RQ or RM or Burning Wheel never generates this sort of uncertainty among the game participants, because it nails down the in-fiction situation at every point.An account of the strengths of hp as a resolution framework doesn't begin as an apology for what they don't do, especially because - as [USER=7026617]@Thomas Shey[/USER] and I have pointed out - it is trivial to come up with workable mechanics that are more simulationist. An account of the strength of hp focuses on their virtue as a gameplay device. I already mentioned, upthread, that both Gygax and Robin Laws draw the express comparison to cinematic technique, in which tempo ebbs and flows and we're never sure how bad a particular blow was until the conclusion, when the final state of the protagonist is revealed.In my view it was a great strength of 4e D&D to lean into this feature of hp resolution, and rely on other features of the system - positioning and effects, as I already posted - to carry information about the fictional state of affairs as the combat unfolds.</blockquote>

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