Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bladesong" data-source="post: 4638969" data-attributes="member: 20800">This message in no way takes a side on the 3.5 vs. 4.0 battle as I frankly do not care. My group plays a hybrid of the two and we are all perfectly happy with it. This is just my thoughts on the subject as a whole.    A lot of this has to do with naming conventions and how people perceive things. Some people see a successful roll with a weapon or a “hit” if you will, as a gaping wound while others see it as just a scratch (especially if it does 6 hps of damage and the target has 200 hps). Perhaps just calling things by different names would better put things in perspective. Let me throw out some (they won’t be the best as I am doing this on the fly), and I will use 4ed just because that is where the healing surge originates.    Instead of hit points let’s call it ‘Wear’. You don’t hit someone with a successful roll you have a successful ‘Swing’ which causes ‘Wear’ on the target. When your ‘Wear’ is at half its total value, you are ‘Fatigued’ instead of bloodied. When you reach 0 ‘Wear’ you are unconscious and if you are dropped to -1 ‘Wear’ you are ‘Injured’ or ‘Wounded’.    Now instead of a healing surge let’s call it an ‘Energy Surge’. Your ‘Energy Surge’ relieves ‘Wear’ and can actually energize you out of being ‘Fatigued’ and can actually help you to regain consciousness due to the efforts of your allies.     To make this emulate some of the shows you mentioned most of them took a great deal of ‘Wear’, some of them were ‘Fatigued’ and some of them even were unconscious; ‘Energy Surges’ handle all of those effects cleanly. As for the ones that were ‘Injured’ or ‘Wounded’ and came back fighting, the ‘Energy Surge’ easily explains their ability to continue as well and then rest up when all is said and done.    So this begs the question “How then do you resolve the guy in the wheelchair (who obviously was ‘Wounded’) and some of the others?” I would propose the following to those of you who need the “somewhat more realistic” conditions. For ‘Fatigued’ a Weakened condition is probably a bit harsh, but you could impose a -1 square movement and perhaps a -1 or -2 to ‘Swings’ and ‘Wear’. For ‘Injured’ or ‘Wounded’ conditions you could impose a longer penalty until time or magical healing (or ritual) takes place. This could be as complicated as a chart with as many or as few conditions as fits your taste or as simple as penalties. For example the guy in the wheelchair (fantasy setting would just be immobilized); he cannot walk on his own for 1 month or until the appropriate ritual is performed. It could just as easily be he is on crutches and is effectively slowed (2 sq. movement) which works a little better in a fantasy setting. You could reduce movement by a couple of squares and impose a -5 penalty on Acrobatics and Athletics checks. Sprains or breaks could impose a -2 on ‘Swings’ and ‘Wear’ and/or Fortitude and Reflex defenses until the condition heals or is resolved. Head injuries impose a penalty on powers and Will defenses. I could go on and on but this is already rather lengthy.    The one thing either version has in common is that you can modify it to fit the needs (desires is probably more accurate) of your gaming style which I for one am thankful for.    In any case…happy gaming!</blockquote>

Verification