Healing - in your game vs. adventure novel

[Driddle]

The casting of healing spells is a pretty common topic around here, and sometimes it seems like a pretty simple matter: 1. Have a cleric in the group. 2. Get hurt, cast heal. 3. Run out of healing spells? - Wait a day or buy a wand.

I can't remember the last time I read a fantasy novel in which the protagonists recovered so easily from their adventure injuries.

What's up with that? Aren't those authors planning out their stories very intelligently?

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Well, I'm going to assume you are making this comparison to D&D fiction, in which case you're right. However, no one's ever accused any of these... authors... of following the rules.

Of course, I'm making this assumption because comparing non-D&D fiction to standard D&Disms is just wrong.

As for my own games, it is a lot more like novels. Of course, I use a W&V variant, healing magic is extremely rare, Profession: Surgeon is a highly valued Skill, and Field Surgeon is a delightful Feat. Add to it Wound Categories (Minor, Major, Maiming) with related effects, and sprinkle liberally with risk of infection. Serve cold alongside hot combat action. Describe gangreen and puss as desired.

 

[I'm A Banana]

It's harder to cultivate dramatic tension when your life-threatening wounds can be hand-waved away.

But it's not fun for a lot of people to play bogged down by the mechanics of wounds.

It's one of the many reasons that a story and a game are two vastly different beasts.

 

[Epametheus]

Characters in adventure novels only get hurt when it's dramatically appropriate.

Characters in D&D get hurt all the damn time, and not having a convenient way to deal with it would be bloody annoying.

 

[shilsen]

What Kamikaze Midget and Epametheus said. I'm pretty sure the writers of most fantasy novels don't roll dice to see what happens to the characters. Doesn't mean they're doing something wrong or we are. They happen to be writing novels while we're playing a game. Apples and aardvarks.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

From Dragons of Autum Twilight (first draft):

"And once they met again at the Inn of the Last Home, the heros were surprised by the interlopers and died.

The End.

.... no .... I think people in books don't go by dice rolls.