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<blockquote data-quote="Ratskinner" data-source="post: 6211354" data-attributes="member: 6688937">huh? A correlation is not nearly the same thing as a narrative. When an arrow hits and does &quot;8 damage&quot; the DM (usually) has freedom to narrate this however they might wish to. However, at least IME, most DMs don't actually narrate hits because doing so highlights the fact that HP are entirely meta/abstract. Especially since the narration has exactly zero impact on the mechanical operation of the game. I don't count &quot;Oh, he got you good that time!&quot; as a narration, because it tells you nothing relevant about the fiction and I most usually see it uttered in a rather loose gamist fashion.FWIW, I don't know of a single edition of the game where HP actually end up functioning as they are defined in the &quot;what HP represent&quot; section. While I agree that the game never tries to come out and declare it, HP are pretty obviously nothing but a fiat &quot;I'm still alive&quot; token mechanic. (With pacing thrown in sometimes.) Narrative for hits is totally irrelevant to their functioning, and their functioning is totally irrelevant to the narrative for the hits. That's about as &quot;narrative-independent&quot; as you could hope for.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ratskinner, post: 6211354, member: 6688937"] huh? A correlation is not nearly the same thing as a narrative. When an arrow hits and does "8 damage" the DM (usually) has freedom to narrate this however they might wish to. However, at least IME, most DMs [I]don't[/I] actually narrate hits because doing so highlights the fact that HP are entirely meta/abstract. Especially since the narration has exactly zero impact on the mechanical operation of the game. I don't count "Oh, he got you good that time!" as a narration, because it tells you nothing relevant about the fiction and I most usually see it uttered in a rather loose gamist fashion. FWIW, I don't know of a single edition of the game where HP actually end up functioning as they are defined in the "what HP represent" section. While I agree that the game never tries to come out and declare it, HP are pretty obviously nothing but a fiat "I'm still alive" token mechanic. (With pacing thrown in sometimes.) Narrative for hits is totally irrelevant to their functioning, and their functioning is totally irrelevant to the narrative for the hits. That's about as "narrative-independent" as you could hope for. [/QUOTE]

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