Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
I swing my sword
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="MinistryOfGame" data-source="post: 5499235" data-attributes="member: 93346"><p>I've seen other DMs do this, and I think there is something they don't quite grasp (or ignore, or haven't thought of, or whatever) that the combat system is an abstract system. It's actually not the easiest concept to come to terms with, unless you've thought about it - that HP doesn't simply represent how much blood you have in your squishy body. When one frees themself from that understanding, and you see that HP can represent a mix of endurance, physical wounding, morale, pain tolerance and more, then there's no need to describe various cuts, bruises and wounds for every successful hit.</p><p></p><p>One caveat to that, though - you might have to explain your descriptions to your players if they like to be able to link your descriptions more literally to game mechanics. Otherwise the idea that they aren't really making contact with the enemy, and then all of a sudden a sword thrust runs him through and he dies (even though he had 90HP) can be confusing to them. </p><p></p><p>I personally don't explain this to them (they figure it out eventually), but I don't have the kind of players who care about mechanics so much, so it's okay. I possibly would explain it if I did have such players (and didn't feel that it was my responsibility to break them of this attitude, which is rare).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MinistryOfGame, post: 5499235, member: 93346"] I've seen other DMs do this, and I think there is something they don't quite grasp (or ignore, or haven't thought of, or whatever) that the combat system is an abstract system. It's actually not the easiest concept to come to terms with, unless you've thought about it - that HP doesn't simply represent how much blood you have in your squishy body. When one frees themself from that understanding, and you see that HP can represent a mix of endurance, physical wounding, morale, pain tolerance and more, then there's no need to describe various cuts, bruises and wounds for every successful hit. One caveat to that, though - you might have to explain your descriptions to your players if they like to be able to link your descriptions more literally to game mechanics. Otherwise the idea that they aren't really making contact with the enemy, and then all of a sudden a sword thrust runs him through and he dies (even though he had 90HP) can be confusing to them. I personally don't explain this to them (they figure it out eventually), but I don't have the kind of players who care about mechanics so much, so it's okay. I possibly would explain it if I did have such players (and didn't feel that it was my responsibility to break them of this attitude, which is rare). [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
I swing my sword
Top