Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
D&D isn't a simulation game, so what is???
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 8617652" data-attributes="member: 22779"><p>Ok, here's a possible example of how you can generate some information, without needing a highly complex system.</p><p></p><p>Take the old Villains and Vigillantes game. Old, 80's game of superheroes. Pretty rules light - it was one of those box games like Basic D&D where you got an entire game in a 120 (ish) page booklet. </p><p></p><p>Now, in V&V, when you calculated your character's HP, you took your weight and divided by 50. That gave you your Body Points. Body Points is where any actual physical damage resided. If you took BP damage, you were going to spend time in the hospital. You then took your Body Points and multiplied it by your Stamina score (typically a 3-18 range, very D&D in that respect) and got your Vitality score. Any successful attacks always had to go to your Vitality first. And, since this was a Supers game, it didn't really do the whole leveling to gain HP thing. You could increase stats and potentially gain more Vitality, but, it wasn't easy.</p><p></p><p>But, think for a second what information we gain from that system.</p><p></p><p>1. Bigger=harder to kill. The bigger you are, the more HP you have. Something that isn't present in D&D. After all, my 2 foot tall, 30 pound gnome can easily have more HP than a 600 pound 9 foot Ogre. But, in the V&V system, you know that HP are actually linked to size. There's no way for a human to have more HP than an elephant. </p><p></p><p>2. You cannot narrate the effects in such a way as to actually cause real physical damage until you get into Body Points. So, when Spider Man gets mobbed by a bunch of thugs, pummeled and kicked until he throws them all off, you know that he isn't actually hurt - perfectly fitting with Superhero as a genre. But, again, the mechanics not only give hints about what narration can be made - a punch from someone is a punch, but, also, what narration can't be made - someone attacking you with a knife isn't actually cutting you until you get into Body Points.</p><p></p><p>Now, this is a very simple system and has all sorts of flaws and whatnot. I'm certainly not making any claims about it being better. It's easily abused (the whole weight/50 thing is subject to a lot of abuse) and can quite often lead to nonsensical results. As a system, it's not great.</p><p></p><p>But it IS a more sim system than what you get in D&D.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 8617652, member: 22779"] Ok, here's a possible example of how you can generate some information, without needing a highly complex system. Take the old Villains and Vigillantes game. Old, 80's game of superheroes. Pretty rules light - it was one of those box games like Basic D&D where you got an entire game in a 120 (ish) page booklet. Now, in V&V, when you calculated your character's HP, you took your weight and divided by 50. That gave you your Body Points. Body Points is where any actual physical damage resided. If you took BP damage, you were going to spend time in the hospital. You then took your Body Points and multiplied it by your Stamina score (typically a 3-18 range, very D&D in that respect) and got your Vitality score. Any successful attacks always had to go to your Vitality first. And, since this was a Supers game, it didn't really do the whole leveling to gain HP thing. You could increase stats and potentially gain more Vitality, but, it wasn't easy. But, think for a second what information we gain from that system. 1. Bigger=harder to kill. The bigger you are, the more HP you have. Something that isn't present in D&D. After all, my 2 foot tall, 30 pound gnome can easily have more HP than a 600 pound 9 foot Ogre. But, in the V&V system, you know that HP are actually linked to size. There's no way for a human to have more HP than an elephant. 2. You cannot narrate the effects in such a way as to actually cause real physical damage until you get into Body Points. So, when Spider Man gets mobbed by a bunch of thugs, pummeled and kicked until he throws them all off, you know that he isn't actually hurt - perfectly fitting with Superhero as a genre. But, again, the mechanics not only give hints about what narration can be made - a punch from someone is a punch, but, also, what narration can't be made - someone attacking you with a knife isn't actually cutting you until you get into Body Points. Now, this is a very simple system and has all sorts of flaws and whatnot. I'm certainly not making any claims about it being better. It's easily abused (the whole weight/50 thing is subject to a lot of abuse) and can quite often lead to nonsensical results. As a system, it's not great. But it IS a more sim system than what you get in D&D. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
D&D isn't a simulation game, so what is???
Top