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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5955723" data-attributes="member: 42582">There are good systems that separate fate from morale from meat.Burning Wheel is one. In BW, morale is Steel, and wounds provoke a Steel check to avoid running or swooning. The Command skill can be used to reduce such hesitation (so in BW you can &quot;shout someone back from unconsciousness). There is also a &quot;shrug it off&quot; mechanic, and there is no reason that I can see why Command couldn't be used to help shrug it off.But one consequence of BW is more complexity, and more mechanical states - you can be unconscious from morale failure but unwounded, for example (because wounds are not the only thing that can cause a Steel check).And BW also has active defence. The logic of melee combat in BW is not that you will get hit and soak it (as per hit points) but that if you get hit, you'll drop one way or another.D&amp;D, on the other hand, takes for granted that combat will see bucketloads of hit point attrition, and that it will do duty for everything from getting burned by dragon breath to (near-)dodging the thrust of a kobold's spear. Within that mechanical framework, introducing two pools is almost inevitably going to change the dynamics of play, and the assumed underlying fiction, for someone.So why bother? Who is clamouring for it.If the real issue is warlord healing and the rest mechanics, modularise them. Don't tinker with the only bit of the mechanics that is actually working and generally accepted.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5955723, member: 42582"] There are good systems that separate fate from morale from meat. Burning Wheel is one. In BW, morale is Steel, and wounds provoke a Steel check to avoid running or swooning. The Command skill can be used to reduce such hesitation (so in BW you can "shout someone back from unconsciousness). There is also a "shrug it off" mechanic, and there is no reason that I can see why Command couldn't be used to help shrug it off. But one consequence of BW is more complexity, and more mechanical states - you can be unconscious from morale failure but unwounded, for example (because wounds are not the only thing that can cause a Steel check). And BW also has active defence. The logic of melee combat in BW is not that you will get hit and soak it (as per hit points) but that if you get hit, you'll drop one way or another. D&D, on the other hand, takes for granted that combat will see bucketloads of hit point attrition, and that it will do duty for everything from getting burned by dragon breath to (near-)dodging the thrust of a kobold's spear. Within that mechanical framework, introducing two pools is almost inevitably going to change the dynamics of play, and the assumed underlying fiction, for someone. So why bother? Who is clamouring for it. If the real issue is warlord healing and the rest mechanics, [I]modularise them[/I]. Don't tinker with the only bit of the mechanics that is actually working and generally accepted. [/QUOTE]

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