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I don't get the dislike of healing surges
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<blockquote data-quote="JamesonCourage" data-source="post: 5704415" data-attributes="member: 6668292"><p>Again, you're assuming the real world, rather than the modern fantasy genre, which is why I tried to be very clear on the distinction.</p><p></p><p></p><p>This isn't matching up with what I'm asking for, which is the ability of the mechanics to handle a narrative of a serious wound that heals faster than in real life, as that follows the modern fantasy genre closely. Not all wounds need to be this way, obviously, but I'd like it to be an option.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Not when they knock you unconscious for 8-9 days at level 1 (or the assumed majority of the population in 3.X). You're not unconscious for 8 days on a sprain or minor bruise. The mechanics are clearly simulating a serious wound as of that point, but within the realm of the modern fantasy genre, not reality.</p><p></p><p></p><p>In both my response to you and Hussar, I've talked about the fantasy genre, and I keep getting the conversation directed to realism. I'm not sure why. Obviously it has to do with taste, but my objection in this discussion is the closing of the narrative (that is, every PC recovers quickly), rather than a mechanic that allows for multiple narratives (sometimes your wounds are light and recover quickly, and sometimes they're bad and take a while). </p><p></p><p></p><p>In 3.X, you can get injured in such a way that you heal overnight -the damage was light. If you're level 8 and you take 8 hit points, the damage was light, and it was bruising and so on; it's gone in the morning. Alternatively, you could go from 80 to -8, where it was much worse, where you were bleeding out, and where it took you 11 days to recover.</p><p></p><p>3.X supports both narratives, it just lets the dice decide how much damage you take.</p><p></p><p></p><p>3.X doesn't shut these narratives out. At least, I don't see a narrative based on the healing over night mechanic in 4e that is not available in 3.X.</p><p></p><p></p><p>This raises another problem for me, but it's immersion-related.</p><p></p><p></p><p>If I'm not one of the people that have asserted it, I really don't feel like it has much to do with my take on this discussion.</p><p></p><p>In a system that supports wounds that naturally take some time to heal based on severity (how much HP damage you took), it allows for a narrative where the PCs escaped with light injuries (low damage taken), or with serious injuries (high damage taken). In a system that does not support wounds that naturally take some time to heal based on severity, it forces the narrative to be comprised of light injuries, or fatalities (with little room in between unless it's through GM fiat).</p><p></p><p></p><p>In my RPG, I divided HP into two pools to separate physical from "other" but I don't have a hit location or a fatigue/exhaustion/bleeding/concussion track. I do, however, have a Hit Chart that can potentially lead to serious injury, as well as called shots to go for those shots. This opens up a massive array of narrative paths available when we watch the story unfold each session. I'd like to see that many narrative options available in a system, even if it's option -in this case, the dials Mr. Mearls was speaking of. You don't have to have a Hit Chart in the base rules, or long injuries. Those can be more complex dials. However, I don't want a system that prevents stories from being told, and 3.X and 4e were both too limiting for me.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I think people object to the narrative issues caused (though not for the same reasons I do). It looked like most people objected to the difficulty in separating HP from physical wounds, and the limbo characters can find themselves in ("it turns out it wasn't as bad") that was a departure from the way older editions handled description (which was turn-by-turn).</p><p></p><p></p><p>I'd have the dial affect more than that, for sure. Healing surges also cause other problems in my mind (healing is mostly an internal resource rather than an external resource), but that's taste, too. I dislike that about them. They have multiple issues, but I don't think people minded the idea of a "second wind" for a heroic burst of vitality. People might be okay with a "feel free to slow the healing surge rate down" if healing surges didn't contradict description for more groups, but as it stands, I feel that's the main objection in this thread.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JamesonCourage, post: 5704415, member: 6668292"] Again, you're assuming the real world, rather than the modern fantasy genre, which is why I tried to be very clear on the distinction. This isn't matching up with what I'm asking for, which is the ability of the mechanics to handle a narrative of a serious wound that heals faster than in real life, as that follows the modern fantasy genre closely. Not all wounds need to be this way, obviously, but I'd like it to be an option. Not when they knock you unconscious for 8-9 days at level 1 (or the assumed majority of the population in 3.X). You're not unconscious for 8 days on a sprain or minor bruise. The mechanics are clearly simulating a serious wound as of that point, but within the realm of the modern fantasy genre, not reality. In both my response to you and Hussar, I've talked about the fantasy genre, and I keep getting the conversation directed to realism. I'm not sure why. Obviously it has to do with taste, but my objection in this discussion is the closing of the narrative (that is, every PC recovers quickly), rather than a mechanic that allows for multiple narratives (sometimes your wounds are light and recover quickly, and sometimes they're bad and take a while). In 3.X, you can get injured in such a way that you heal overnight -the damage was light. If you're level 8 and you take 8 hit points, the damage was light, and it was bruising and so on; it's gone in the morning. Alternatively, you could go from 80 to -8, where it was much worse, where you were bleeding out, and where it took you 11 days to recover. 3.X supports both narratives, it just lets the dice decide how much damage you take. 3.X doesn't shut these narratives out. At least, I don't see a narrative based on the healing over night mechanic in 4e that is not available in 3.X. This raises another problem for me, but it's immersion-related. If I'm not one of the people that have asserted it, I really don't feel like it has much to do with my take on this discussion. In a system that supports wounds that naturally take some time to heal based on severity (how much HP damage you took), it allows for a narrative where the PCs escaped with light injuries (low damage taken), or with serious injuries (high damage taken). In a system that does not support wounds that naturally take some time to heal based on severity, it forces the narrative to be comprised of light injuries, or fatalities (with little room in between unless it's through GM fiat). In my RPG, I divided HP into two pools to separate physical from "other" but I don't have a hit location or a fatigue/exhaustion/bleeding/concussion track. I do, however, have a Hit Chart that can potentially lead to serious injury, as well as called shots to go for those shots. This opens up a massive array of narrative paths available when we watch the story unfold each session. I'd like to see that many narrative options available in a system, even if it's option -in this case, the dials Mr. Mearls was speaking of. You don't have to have a Hit Chart in the base rules, or long injuries. Those can be more complex dials. However, I don't want a system that prevents stories from being told, and 3.X and 4e were both too limiting for me. I think people object to the narrative issues caused (though not for the same reasons I do). It looked like most people objected to the difficulty in separating HP from physical wounds, and the limbo characters can find themselves in ("it turns out it wasn't as bad") that was a departure from the way older editions handled description (which was turn-by-turn). I'd have the dial affect more than that, for sure. Healing surges also cause other problems in my mind (healing is mostly an internal resource rather than an external resource), but that's taste, too. I dislike that about them. They have multiple issues, but I don't think people minded the idea of a "second wind" for a heroic burst of vitality. People might be okay with a "feel free to slow the healing surge rate down" if healing surges didn't contradict description for more groups, but as it stands, I feel that's the main objection in this thread. [/QUOTE]
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I don't get the dislike of healing surges
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