Fast ways to track Hit Points...need help

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I use a piece of software called DMGenie to run D&D combats, which makes tracking damag easy. It'll even let me take, say, a dozen orcs and roll their saves all at the same time and apply damage. Afterwards I can see how many of them are "Not Black" on the screen.

One thing that might help bring the speed of Tru20 to D&D is, as said above, ROUNDING.

But not just eyeballing-it-rounding. Use the damage/HP system from the D&D Miniatures rules. Round all HP numbers to the nearest 5 and all PC damage scores to the nearest 5. You're always working with numbers divisible by 5, which makes things much faster. If they like Damage Bonus, it's sort of the same thing, they just have a static damage score. The Rogue always does 5 points, unless its a Sneak Attack, where he does 15 points. Etc etc. The Orc has 10 points, not 12, or 5 points, not 3. Etc etc.

It's then simple to take NPCs that are pre-generated for, say, published modules and the like ... the Dragon has 113HP and does 2d6+7 damage with a claw? Now he has 115hp and does 15hp per claw attack.

I've contemplated it before. Never tried it.

--fje

 

[Conaill]

Exactly what I use. Each player has a glass bowl to put the stones in and the following is how we use them. [snip]

Ah, there you are!

I do think the 10hp stones should be the same color but bigger, just to preserve the "at the glance" feature of this method.

Also, to respond to The_Magician higher up: I wouldn't show the players how many hp are left on their opponents. They can see the *damage* pile, of course. But they shouldn't a priori know how many hp monsters have to begin with. Maybe with a Heal check, the DM could give the player a quick glance at the bowl with remaining stones. Or the DM could occasionally shake the bowl behind the DM screen, for an oral clue to how lively the monster still looks...

 

[xnosipjpqmhd]

hash marks on a whiteboard

Might not work for everyone's set-up, but I use two whiteboards: one on the wall to track PC hp, one that forms my DM screen to track NPC/monster hp. I write the name of the creature and a couple stats (including total hp, of course). Then when damage occurs, I just make hash marks, with every fifth mark being diagonal over the previous four (for the at-a-glance factor). I generally use red marker for lethal damage and another colour for non-lethal. Works real well.

When I used to track on paper, the papers were always getting lost or shuffled about.

ironregime

 

[Janus]

For quick battles, such as outdoor random encounters, or if the players encounter a lot of grunts I use dice to track the NPCs and their hit points. I use d6, d8 or d10 depending on the number of NPCs and start all the dice at their highest number -- then as the players do damage I simply turn the faces to lower numbers. Simply, easy and inaccurate!

 

[ken-ichi]

How about using M&M's for hit points? That not only tracks the characters hp's but also the player's self control.

"Um, DM? My character is dead."
"Dead? Didn't you have 12 hitpoints left?"
"mmmmm, hit points!"

This gives a whole new perspective to a monster taking a bite out of your hit points.
As a DM though I think I might start gaining a little wieght.

The orc swings and gobles up 8 more hit points.
***Urp***
The orc's eyes glaze over and it collapses from diabetic sugar shock.