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, OSR, & D&D Variants
*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, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Design principles of healing - no mechanics allowed
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="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5965961" data-attributes="member: 58197"><p>Well, I want the term "healing" to refer to the closing of fictional wounds. But if we are going to have a survival buffer (as every edition of D&D has done), there will obviously need to be a way to replenish it, and it's probably worth having a word for that. I'll call it "recovery."</p><p></p><p>Anyway, since Crazy Jerome has clarified that he's talking about buffer-restoration, here are my principles, which are partly aesthetic and partly functional:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Some form of rapid recovery can take place without the use of magic, so that a party without a cleric is not crippled.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Recovery that is fictionally described as "healing" must be mechanically distinct from that described as "restoring morale" or "catching your breath" or what have you. (That doesn't mean we need a separate buffer, but healing-recovery and resting-recovery should work in slightly different ways.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Rapid recovery has limits. At some point, characters can push beyond those limits and suffer long-term consequences that cannot be shrugged off with a few minutes of rest. Ideally, the limits should be "soft limits," so that the long-term consequences are mild at first and get worse if you keep pushing.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Whatever terms are used for recovery, the buffer, and so forth, the mechanics should mostly conform to the fiction implied by the terms used. If recovery is called "healing," then it should work like healing. If loss of buffer is triggered by a "hit," that should imply that the character was struck by an attack. There will inevitably be corner cases where fiction and mechanics part ways, but those should be the exception (e.g., falling damage) rather than the rule.</li> </ul><p>That last bit is quite important IMO, because rules terminology is one of the most powerful devices in the game for shaping the fiction. Whatever those terms imply about the fiction, those implications are getting constant reinforcement. You can talk till you're blue in the face about how a "hit" could be a near miss, but the word "hit" is telling a different story, and it's telling it every round of every fight of every gaming session, drumming it into the players' minds through endless repetition. A paragraph or two in the rulebook doesn't have nearly the same impact.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 5965961, member: 58197"] Well, I want the term "healing" to refer to the closing of fictional wounds. But if we are going to have a survival buffer (as every edition of D&D has done), there will obviously need to be a way to replenish it, and it's probably worth having a word for that. I'll call it "recovery." Anyway, since Crazy Jerome has clarified that he's talking about buffer-restoration, here are my principles, which are partly aesthetic and partly functional: [LIST] [*]Some form of rapid recovery can take place without the use of magic, so that a party without a cleric is not crippled. [*]Recovery that is fictionally described as "healing" must be mechanically distinct from that described as "restoring morale" or "catching your breath" or what have you. (That doesn't mean we need a separate buffer, but healing-recovery and resting-recovery should work in slightly different ways.) [*]Rapid recovery has limits. At some point, characters can push beyond those limits and suffer long-term consequences that cannot be shrugged off with a few minutes of rest. Ideally, the limits should be "soft limits," so that the long-term consequences are mild at first and get worse if you keep pushing. [*]Whatever terms are used for recovery, the buffer, and so forth, the mechanics should mostly conform to the fiction implied by the terms used. If recovery is called "healing," then it should work like healing. If loss of buffer is triggered by a "hit," that should imply that the character was struck by an attack. There will inevitably be corner cases where fiction and mechanics part ways, but those should be the exception (e.g., falling damage) rather than the rule. [/LIST] That last bit is quite important IMO, because rules terminology is one of the most powerful devices in the game for shaping the fiction. Whatever those terms imply about the fiction, those implications are getting constant reinforcement. You can talk till you're blue in the face about how a "hit" could be a near miss, but the word "hit" is telling a different story, and it's telling it every round of every fight of every gaming session, drumming it into the players' minds through endless repetition. A paragraph or two in the rulebook doesn't have nearly the same impact. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Design principles of healing - no mechanics allowed
Top