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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 9058823" data-attributes="member: 6801228">You do realize just spouting hyperbole doesn't make you correct. No, I actually don't think the rule is "inexcusably odious" I think it is a flippin' breathe of fresh air. You know, I recently got a new TTRPG. It is called Convictor Drive: Armored By Grief. In this system you play as cyber-cops stopping criminals in a futuristic city. This system has zero conception of lethal vs non-lethal damage. None. You either deal physical damage or energy damage, that's it. Also, the system assumes that you don't kill people. You are in a robot suit, swinging a mono-filament sword that can cut trucks in half, and if you hit a criminal, it is assumed they are not seconds from dying. Because you are a cop. And making a game about being cops who go around murdering people would be a very very different game than what the designers wanted. They wanted a take on Power Rangers and other Henshin stories.Why is this odious? Why is this so terrible? So you can go "AHA! You accidentally killed them!" as your players struggle until they stop caring about killing NPCs? Do you know how many of my players have been relieved, deeply and truly relieved, to find out they aren't being penalized for non-lethal attacks AND if they forget to declare it ahead of their attacks, that they don't get punished for it? It has happened multiple times. My tables love this rule, because it means that their INTENT matters more.Yes, if you want to get absolutely, minutely technical, declaring non-lethal when the target hits 0 hp might involve a retcon of the precise thing the player said. So what? When a player describes their attack in a combat, it is not locked in concrete, never to be changed lest the game devolve into chaos! They just describe their attack. And sometimes, sometimes I let players change their description based on their damage. Sometimes they don't describe it at all. They aren't changing their action if their attack goes from stabbing with a spear to cracking the enemy upside the head with a spear. They still attacked the same target, still dealt the same damage. They just described it differently. That isn't a big deal.</blockquote>

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