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Player can't stop talking Game Mechanics
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<blockquote data-quote="Saeviomagy" data-source="post: 1843360" data-attributes="member: 5890"><p>Here's the thing.</p><p></p><p>If you say that looking at someone gets their condition as a fraction of their hitpoints (ie - full, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4), then you get this wierdness whereby the wizard could be on 10 hipoints, and be "ok", but the warrior is on 20 hitpoints and is "looking really bad".</p><p></p><p>Which doesn't help the party at all.</p><p></p><p>So - perhaps a bit better would be for the players to express it in terms of how much more punishment they could take. Like "I doubt I could fend off an unarmed peasant right now" means "I'm on 2 hitpoints or less".</p><p></p><p>If the monsters you're fighting do 10-20 points of damage, you might say "I fear I cannot take another blow" when you're at 15 hitpoints.</p><p></p><p>And if you're at 45, then "I can survive another 3 or 4 blows".</p><p></p><p>Or if you're fighting a housecat "I can survive another 45 swipes of it's claws".</p><p></p><p>Or if you're fighting an ogre - "I can survive another 45 swipes of a housecat's claws".</p><p></p><p>Oh, wait. You just said "I have 45 hitpoints".</p><p></p><p>Basically what I'm saying is: Hitpoints are SO abstract that you cannot really roleplay them. They could be general exhaustion, representation of fighting ability, health, or anything in between. Just let the players tell each other how many hitpoints they're on, and how many they're down. It really doesn't ruin the game.</p><p></p><p>As for monsters? Express it however you wish, but be consistent. Don't tell players that a monster is on it's last legs when it's got more hitpoints than an average hit will do. If you say "he's on his last legs" and he then survives 5 more attacks, the monster was NOT on it's last legs.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Saeviomagy, post: 1843360, member: 5890"] Here's the thing. If you say that looking at someone gets their condition as a fraction of their hitpoints (ie - full, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4), then you get this wierdness whereby the wizard could be on 10 hipoints, and be "ok", but the warrior is on 20 hitpoints and is "looking really bad". Which doesn't help the party at all. So - perhaps a bit better would be for the players to express it in terms of how much more punishment they could take. Like "I doubt I could fend off an unarmed peasant right now" means "I'm on 2 hitpoints or less". If the monsters you're fighting do 10-20 points of damage, you might say "I fear I cannot take another blow" when you're at 15 hitpoints. And if you're at 45, then "I can survive another 3 or 4 blows". Or if you're fighting a housecat "I can survive another 45 swipes of it's claws". Or if you're fighting an ogre - "I can survive another 45 swipes of a housecat's claws". Oh, wait. You just said "I have 45 hitpoints". Basically what I'm saying is: Hitpoints are SO abstract that you cannot really roleplay them. They could be general exhaustion, representation of fighting ability, health, or anything in between. Just let the players tell each other how many hitpoints they're on, and how many they're down. It really doesn't ruin the game. As for monsters? Express it however you wish, but be consistent. Don't tell players that a monster is on it's last legs when it's got more hitpoints than an average hit will do. If you say "he's on his last legs" and he then survives 5 more attacks, the monster was NOT on it's last legs. [/QUOTE]
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