Goreg Skullcrusher said:
The fact that you can be "hit" with a weapon (an arrow, for instance) and then promptly use a healing surge to restore your state to your status prior to being hit, all without the use of any magic implies that you weren't actually hit at all -- no injury occured (you might have expended a lot of effort in barely dodging it, used up your luck, etc). This model adequately describes most scenarios (barring falling damage and the like). It's the only interpretation I've heard which doesn't amount to "You have your arm chopped off (take 3 damage). You're injured, but because you're so oozing with machismo you can keep on fighting like nothing happened" This of course falls apart horribly when trying to figure out how the Picador's mechanic works.
Emphasis mine.
Well, I disagree (partially) with this interpretation. IMO, it isn't that you weren't actually hit at all, it's that you weren't injured in a major way. A character who loses a few hit points might have become winded or fatigued (because he had trouble dodging); gotten bruised; taken a small cut, scrape, or scratch; twisted his ankle; pulled a muscle; had the wind knocked out of him; or all kinds of other non-major injuries.
In the parlance, he has what I'd call "action hero injuries." He's dirty, breathing hard, and maybe bruised or suffering from some minor (but potentially showy) flesh wounds.
And like any good action hero, if he gets "harpooned" by that goblin picador, lots of interpretations are possible.
1) The harpoon snagged in his clothing or armor, but the point was nicking his flesh (or close to doing so), causing him to go along to avoid injury.
2) The harpoon was "hooked" and the hook caught on his back or arm, forcing him to go along to keep it from gouging him deeply.
3) The harpoon went through his shoulder/leg/arm, but missed doing major damage. It's like the bullet that passes "clean through" in a movie. The harpoon might still be lodged in the character, but if so, it likely passes "clean through" his leg. He goes along to prevent it from causing major injury. After he kills the goblin picador, he can snap the head off the harpoon, and then yank the smooth shaft out. Then after the battle, he tears off a bit of his shirt (or pulls out some bandages), binds the wound shut, and he's good to go.
Yes, it requires that the game operate under the cinematic reality of an action movie, rather than how "the real world" works. To me, that falls under the category of "willing suspension of disbelief."
Personally, to me, the textbook example of this is the "bloodied" condition. In Fourth Edition, there's a decent mechanic in place to represent the notion of a fight to "first blood." If two duelists are fighting to first blood, the first to be "bloodied" loses. Everything until then is just fatigue and blunt trama.
The emphasis here is that it isn't "no injuries" - it's "no serious injuries" or "no injuries that really impair the character." Scrapes, scratches, and bruises are fine, as are any "flesh wounds" characters can take in movies that don't actually hurt your brain.
For those who don't like John McClane (or are getting tired of the reference), Indiana Jones and James Bond are perfectly valid secondary examples. The latter usually recovers from his injuries with nothing more than a martini and a night with a hot girl.
