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<blockquote data-quote="heretic888" data-source="post: 7469784" data-attributes="member: 60326"><p>I'm of a somewhat different mind here.</p><p></p><p>To me, having hit points directly simulate morale has the same problem as having hit points directly simulate meat or health or whatever. It basically has no bearing in the game's procedures whatsoever except as Color. Whether meat or morale, being low on hit points doesn't affect your performance (barring a few exceptions like bloodied dragonborn and the like) whatsoever nor does it have any direct bearing on your character's fictional positioning. Hit points clearly don't simulate *anything* really, except how close a character is to death. In that regard, hit points have more in common with bennies in Savage Worlds or fate points in Warhammer Fantasy than it does with, say, harm levels in Apocalypse World or Blades in the Dark. Its a doom clock, plain and simple.</p><p></p><p>My experience with the Intimidate skill's morale effect is it almost never gets used. The DC is high enough that, unless a character is super-optimized for a high Intimidate bonus, it is absolutely not worth the effort to waste a standard action on it during a combat situation. </p><p></p><p>I disagree with AbdulAlhazred's assertion that having a "second path" to defeating enemies is problematic, especially in a Story Now style of game. In fact, opening thematically appropriate avenues toward resolving encounters is pretty much intrinsic to Story Now type games. I actually go further than this in my own games, and often have Skill Challenges operating in tandem with Combat Encounters with the PCs able to "win" the encounter using either approach. The morale system I described is just icing on the cake.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="heretic888, post: 7469784, member: 60326"] I'm of a somewhat different mind here. To me, having hit points directly simulate morale has the same problem as having hit points directly simulate meat or health or whatever. It basically has no bearing in the game's procedures whatsoever except as Color. Whether meat or morale, being low on hit points doesn't affect your performance (barring a few exceptions like bloodied dragonborn and the like) whatsoever nor does it have any direct bearing on your character's fictional positioning. Hit points clearly don't simulate *anything* really, except how close a character is to death. In that regard, hit points have more in common with bennies in Savage Worlds or fate points in Warhammer Fantasy than it does with, say, harm levels in Apocalypse World or Blades in the Dark. Its a doom clock, plain and simple. My experience with the Intimidate skill's morale effect is it almost never gets used. The DC is high enough that, unless a character is super-optimized for a high Intimidate bonus, it is absolutely not worth the effort to waste a standard action on it during a combat situation. I disagree with AbdulAlhazred's assertion that having a "second path" to defeating enemies is problematic, especially in a Story Now style of game. In fact, opening thematically appropriate avenues toward resolving encounters is pretty much intrinsic to Story Now type games. I actually go further than this in my own games, and often have Skill Challenges operating in tandem with Combat Encounters with the PCs able to "win" the encounter using either approach. The morale system I described is just icing on the cake. [/QUOTE]
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