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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5717494" data-attributes="member: 42582">That makes it clearer to me, thanks.Yes, the rate at which a metagame resource like hit points is recovered has an effect on pacing and on player decisions. It could be hit points, it could be action points, it could be fate points.Heck, it could even be an ingame resource: in games like D&D and high-level Rolemaster, for example, with readily available magical healing, the pacing pressures come not from recovery of hit points but from recovery of spells/spell points (which in those games are generally a PC resource and not just a player resource). And I can imagine a gritty game in which time spent making arrows and/or repairing armour is a major factor in pacing (the Burning Wheel rules are clearly written to support this sort of play, as they have detailed crafting rules and make acquisition of tools and workshops a potentially important part of character building).Now that (I think) I've understood your point, I want to paraphrase it back to you this way: you dislike that 4e has no medium-to-long term resource recovery mechanism which might put a brake on the pace of play (or otherwise constrain or shape the direction of play); and 4e's approach to surge recovery is one respect in which it lacks such a mechanism (whereas natural healing in earlier editions served as such a mechanism at least when magical healing was not available). Is that right?Agreed. One door shuts, another opens. I think that 4e suits gonzo-fantasy better, with 4-colour comic, "save the world" style pressures that make long breaks to recover crucial metagame resources nothing but a drag on pacing.A game like Burning Wheel, which is less gonzo in its default orientation, and therefore more tolerant of breaks in the narrative, and which also has other mechanics built in to suck up long periods of time (like training), probably handles lengthy healing better.Rolemaster has lengthy healing, but as I think I posted upthread it also tends to favour gonzo plot lines (it certainly has the magic and the monsters to support them), which means it can be a bit confused in the approach to play that it supports. (And this wouldn't be the only respect in which it manifests such confusion . . .)</blockquote>

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