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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pawsplay" data-source="post: 5598120" data-attributes="member: 15538">1. So?2. I do not agree.They have been used in that manner. 1st level characters have as many hit points as Luke Skywalker, who gets taken out by one Tusken Raider mook in one hit. If you want tougher characters, start them at 2nd or 3rd level, as was suggested for Dark Sun.I view that possibility as a plus. It's boring if absoutely every mook goes down in one hit. That is why I particularly like the "standard character" rules in Fantasy Craft. While your suggested rule is simpler, it isn't much simpler, and it's less versatile. Should a 1st level wizard with Strength 8 really be able to take out an ogre mook in one punch? Hence, few hit points is better than 1 hit point, in my view.Why is it the wrong stat? Hit Points is a suffering stat. Notice how battered and bloodied protagonists fight as well, if not better, than they do when unwounded.  The hero is being whittled down. Qui Gon got whittled down. Boromir, whittled down. Luke Skywalker, whittled twice.Counterpoints: Hal Jordan in the latest Green Lantern movie, Robocop, Luke Skywalker in Empire Strikes Back, Tony Stark in Iron Man, ... and so forth. The sudden ambush thing ALSO happens, but primarily, when action heroes get knocked out, it's because they were outmatched in Act I and ran out of hit points, or because they were making a heroic sacrifice. What you are saying is really more true for noir heroes and other investigator types.Yes.That's not normal. In the final fight in Return of the Jedi, Luke beats up Vader by whaling on him. as I consider that the definative cinematic fight scence, it trumps all other examples including and perhaps especially Terminator films. Termintor films have their own set of tropes, including a huge overlap with Arnold cliches.It's simple, playable, and simulationist. There are things that are more simulationist, I suppose, but they would have to be tailored to a particular simulation. Hit points are simple, playable, and portable. You can use them for just about any type of game. You can use them for anything from gritty dime novels to planet-destroying kung fu anime, simply by adjusting the number of hit points relative to attacks.If you wanted to institute a Hydraulic Press meter for defeating villains, not only are you going far afield ... simulation ususally means simulating potentialities, not outcomes... but you are running into the Drama-Simulation Convergence. A game that perfectly simulates a dramatic final boss fight is actually a Narrativist game.A simulation game would set up the possibility of such a fight, but would not dicate the outcomes. Naturally, you can stack the odds; the odds are stacked in the source material, after all.</blockquote>

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