D&D General Do you think video gamers experience existential crises over the nature of Hit Points?

[Ralif Redhammer]

Speaking as a Dark Souls fan, it's more likely to be "Will I ever be skilled enough to beat the Nameless King?"

My take on it is that Hit Points are one of the places where the simulation and game aspects are going to clash. They'll never fit perfectly together, but I'm okay with that. If I describe a character getting stabbed in the liver, then they rest for an hour and are good to go again, so be it.

Just curious... do you think Dark Souls and Final Fantasy players lie awake at night, wondering what hit points are?

 

[Seramus]

People are always going to debate about HP. The same points are brought up, the same counterpoints, and the cycle continues. As a bitter old veteran, I just have to remember that some people are having the discussion for the very first time and let them have their fun.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Video games are just games. Tabletop RPGs are supposed to be more than that.

Which is why the 'G' doesn't stand for Game, rather it stands for...
?

When you're playing a video game, you're still just you, on the other side of a screen from everything that's happening. When you're playing a tabletop RPG, you're supposed to be observing the world from the inside out; you're supposed to pretend that it's actually happening

Y'know, some video games are literal simulators - the screen's supposed to be 1st-person, what you see when you look out the cockpit or whatever.

 

[GlassJaw]

In any case, I believe the answer to all these questions is no -- video gamers don't care about these things; they just accept hit points for what they are, a condition of the game, and have fun within those parameters.

You have clearly spent zero time on video game message boards.

 

[Seramus]

When you're playing a tabletop RPG, you're supposed to be observing the world from the inside out; you're supposed to pretend that it's actually happening, because that's a necessary part of the process, which informs how you make decisions from the character's perspective.

That's how I play video games.

 

[Krachek]

Hit points representation is only the top of the “iceberg of silliness“ that are battle systems.

 

[Azzy]

Buh... buh... mah verisimilitude!

 

[Retreater]

Video games are just games. Tabletop RPGs are supposed to be more than that.

When you're playing a video game, you're still just you, on the other side of a screen from everything that's happening. When you're playing a tabletop RPG, you're supposed to be observing the world from the inside out; you're supposed to pretend that it's actually happening, because that's a necessary part of the process, which informs how you make decisions from the character's perspective.

You don't need to understand the nature of a game mechanic in order to move a sprite around a map. You do need to understand the nature of how the world works in order to make decisions from the perspective of someone who lives in that world. You don't have the luxury of saying that it's just a game; because from the perspective of the character that you're inhabiting, it's real life.

I disagree. I've felt more emotion in the plots of well-written video games, more fear from horror games, more exhilaration in intense firefights, more satisfaction from a difficult level won - than anything I've felt in 30+ years of tabletop RPGs.

 

[Shaleblade]

It really speaks to the importance of suspension of disbelief. I think it's great that there can be games aiming to be hyper-realistic simulationist experiences. I don't think the majority of the HP arguments center around those games.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I disagree. I've felt more emotion in the plots of well-written video games, more fear from horror games, more exhilaration in intense firefights, more satisfaction from a difficult level won - than anything I've felt in 30+ years of tabletop RPGs.

It isn't about the intensity of emotion. It's about the quality. Tabletop games require you to suspend disbelief in order to role-play; you have to actually believe that it could be real, in order to honestly pretend to be that person. Video games don't require you to suspend disbelief in order to appreciate their story; at least, not to anywhere near the same degree.

The exhilaration of playing through a fire-fight in third-person while you play Halo is not the same as the exhilaration of actually living through a fire-fight in first-person while you play Shadowrun. Not if you're doing it right, anyway.