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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 7034945" data-attributes="member: 6775031">This is a not-uncommon idea. I think anyone who played significantly during the eighties or nineties will have tried this at least once. It's not as much fun as it sounds. I've never seen it hold for more than a session before the DM relents.Uncertainty and fear, maybe. Immersion, definitely not.In order to decide whether to go forward or retreat, to heal or to attack, the player needs to be able to weigh the odds. If you don't tell them how close they are to dropping, then they can't make a meaningful decision, so whatever happens as a result of that decision just feels arbitrary. If a goblin hits them with an arrow, and they drop, then they're less likely to care about what happens since they had no idea that it might happen. It's like dropping due to an ambush, before you even get to act - it happened as a result of the DM denying you information, rather than any real choice you made, so you're not invested in the outcome. And if you do try to get enough information to make a meaningful decision, then it becomes a verbal wrestling match to drag out enough detail to determine whether you should cast Cure Wounds II or Cure Wounds IV.Not to mention that characters are generally pretty aware of how beaten up they are. A boxer can tell when they're on the ropes, or battered but still energetic, and your current HP value conveys that information far more effectively than mere words of description from the DM.</blockquote>

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