Psion said:
I don't really agree. I would agree that you do not always WANT to use VP/WP (indeed, for D&D, I am pretty happy to use HP with a few house rule tweaks. But I think they are different in a few important ways in the way that they actually play.
(Queue up my "4 things about VP/WP over HP). Invincibility - The HP system as presented in D&D can create situations in which there is no real risk of fatality. This creates the unusual situation of character who do not flinch when held up by a crossbow, or voluntarily jump of a cliff to escape death. This is really the only unusual aspect of the HP system that the massive damage rule handles.
VP/WP has the same problem. I played a 10th level Spycraft game - very over-the-top and cinematic. Our soldier was tossed through the windshield of car as it deccelerated to zero from a fast chase speed and bounced into a parked car. He gets up, blows away the baddies, and walks off. The enemy henchmen we fought absorbed muliple rounds of gunfire from all 4 character and took like 30d6 from stunts my wheelman pulled with a highjacked helicopter. Yeah, the fear of death is really in those guys.
Sure, crits can kill characters quickly. Of course, I can't see many 1-3 level characters taking a 45 point crit from an orc with a Greataxe. Scythe crits are pretty nasty too. Yet characters don't have problems facing those foes. On the other hand, Spycraft characters with a decent Con have little to fear from a 9mm pistol, even on a crit. 1d10 Wound damage, while signficant, isn't that much of a threat when you have 14.
I think that the threat caused by the MDT is much more signficant.
[*]Wounded state - With the exception of the 0 hp state, the HP system has no state were the character is wounded but not unconscious. However, in the VP/WP system, if a character takes wound damage, they suffer penalties.
[*]Implied heroism - HP are said not to be purely physical, but measure some type of script immunity or heroism on the character's part. In D&D (and in d20 modern), this extends to NPC experts, so a 10th level librarian gains HP as well. In the VP/WP system, you can skip giving NPC classes bonus VP.
You've got me on the wounds.
However, the implied heroism of VP is pure class design choice, rather than a feature of the system. You could easily stop HP progression in standard classes, or reduce the HD gains to fewer than 1/level, like in Savage Species monster classes. Or you could give mooks and losers VP.
In fact, one of the things I don't like about Spycraft is that it gives minions VP. Since damage bonuses are harder to come by than in DnD, this makes killing crap enemies a laborious process. Also, since AD are limited, you may not want to confirm crits and waste AD on trivial foes.
[*]Magic healing - Wounds are relative to the character, and normal healing reflects this by rating hp healing on a per-day scale. But magic healing is less effective relatively on higher level than low level character, which seems a bizarre incongruity. In the VP/WP system, wounds are wounds and are truly representative of damage. VP are a bit like HP, but heal so quick that they are hardly worth worrying about.
Of course, attack magic is less effective in relatively terms on high level characters as well, so the incongruity can be explained via a limited form of magic resistance.
.
