Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6289486" data-attributes="member: 2067">"Change reality" is a weird way to put it. If I am the dude with 100 HP and a normal town guardsguy is the dude with the 1d8 longsword, I know that no hit from this amateur is going to drop me, in-character and out. I'll still notice it -- I'll feel that sting for a while (this would be the distinction between a hit and a miss). If am the dude with 4/100 HP and that normal guard still has that 1d8 longsword, I know that I'm tired, I'm injured, I'm beaten down, and maybe I don't have the energy left to dodge that sword. That doesn't change reality, that just IS the reality. Either way, damage is a thing that happens in the fiction that my character notices and that I as a player also notice. It's not just a metagame construct for me. That feels about right. I mean, the guard is going to swing as strong as he ever would, but if I'm at 100 HP, there's zero chance of that guard doing what he set out to do (ie, stab and kill me). At 4 HP, there's a much better chance of that happening.A sword through the spleen doesn't happen for me when you've still got lots of HP. Well, maybe if I was doing some sort of wahoo hyper-violence style of D&D where guys could keep fighting with their organs pierced and limbs hanging around by threads or somesuch. But a hit for 8 damage doesn't hit the spleen of the 100 HP man. It might hit the spleen of the 4 HP man. Unless I'm doing wahoo ultraviolence, that's not usually the thought. It's usually more like he's thinking: "None of these goobers could stab me in the kidney if they tried."If one hits for damage, maybe that's a solid slice through your bellyfat, or a cut to your arm as you lower it to swat aside this guy's attack. They TRIED to stab this fantasy hero in the kidney, but they're just not skilled enough to do that, at least without wearing him down first. It's maybe because I'm from a theater background, but the things my character and I are thinking are often in sync. In fact, the more this happens, the better, and the less often I have to ponder the mysteries of the metagame, the better. It's part of why I play D&D -- to pretend to be a fantasy character for a few hours. If I look at my HP total and know that these guys can't kill me, my character looks at how skilled he is and how weak they are and knows that they can't stab him in the kidney because he is a big fantasy hero, too.</blockquote>

Verification