As everyone is aware, hit points do not represent actual damage, but rather things like fatigue (not fatigue) and the ability to ward off blows (hence higher levels = higher hps).
WHAT ARE HIT POINTS?
Yep, hit points are an abstract way of representing all sorts of damage and hindrances, both physical and non-physical. They're an abstraction of small cuts, nicks, bruises, strained muscles, pulled tendons and other physical damage that is not critical. That's one reason why they take so long to heal--these types of things take time.
But, in addition to those minor physical traits of hit points, they also cover luck, expertise, Fate and the whim of the gods, fatigue, endurance, catching your breath, and all sorts of intangible, uncountable hindrances that can come into play during a battle.
The game doesn't specifically model that you twisted your ankle yesterday and, every time you step on it, it hurts, but something like that would make you less effective in combat (thus you would have lower hit points than max).
And, besides that, hit points take into account that moment, right in the middle of your swing, when sweat drops into your eye, stinging it so much it automatically blinks at the wrong instant, distracting you by just a fraction of a second--which can be deadly in a face-to-face combat.
Hit points are all this, plus the effects of that cold you're fighting off or the headache you have from last night's romp, all rolled together with all of your minor aches and pains and other distractions that would make you less effective in combat.
One of the things I've never liked about D&D is that hps tend not to be realistic in special circumstances. Specifically, when a PC is helpless, flat-footed, or falling from great heights. I'll admit I've abused the system by doing things like jumping off a 200 ft. cliff, or intentionally walking into a blade barrier (all 1e stuff).
Now in these special circumstances where, realistically, damage should be applied to an amount of actual physical damage you can sustain, I had created my own system of 'damage points.' With it you could be knocked unconscious by a single blow, or die from a great fall even if you were high level. Depending on the amount of "damage points" you took you could wind up stunned, incapacitated, unconscious or even dead. The problem is that I believe the system is too cumbersome and complicated.
So I'm looking for a more playable version. I do realize that any version will still likely be unrealistic, I'm just looking for a bit more realism. Any ideas?
HIT POINTS DO NOT APPLY IN ALL SITUATIONS
I've got a few comments.
First, you've got to think of hit points for what they are (as commonly accepted in the paragraph I wrote above). Not all damage applies to a character's hit points.
Subdual damage is a separate type of damage than what hit points are normally used for.
Poison damage can effect a character's CON score only, and not his hit points (or both, or just hit points, depending on the poison).
Hit Points are use for one specific type of damage applied against the character. We get confused sometimes because hit point damage seems to be the only type of damage applied, when, really, it's only the most common type.
If a character is tied up, unconscious, or otherwise can't defend himself, think of hit points as "turned off". A character can't use them to protect himself. This is why the
Coup de Grace rule exists. You bypass hit points and just kill the helpless character.
There are also signals in the game where hit points are "turned off" and no longer apply, as with the
Massive Damage rule. In D&D, it's at 50 points of damage from a single blow that causes the character to save or go into negative hit points. It doesn't matter if the character has 100 hit points--if he takes 50 points from a single blow and fails the save, the other 50 hit points don't matter. You turn them "off" or consider them "bypassed". Either way, they no longer apply.
So, the next time you're falling off a cliff, remember to use the Massive Damage rule. If you fall far enough, the character should die no matter how many hit points he's got.
BYPASSING HIT POINTS
When you say you want to make the game more "realistic", what you're really saying is that you want to bypass hit points in more situations.
There are mechanics, built into the game already, that you can use to make your game "more realistic" in this manner.
The first thing to look at is the Massive Damage rule. In the Conan RPG, this threshold is a lot lower. Massive Damage kicks in a 20 points of damage from a single blow. When a character receives 20 points of damage, he saves or finds himself dead or dying, no matter his total hit points.
In your game, you can follow this tweak. Lower the Massive Damage threshold.
You may want to lower it across the board, as with the Conan RPG. Or, you may want to have different Massive Damage thresholds for different situations.
For example, in melee, you may want to keep the threshold at 50. If jumping off a cliff, as you cited, maybe a mere 15 points of damage will trigger the MD save.
In past games, I've lowered the MD threshold on distance weapons when one character "has the drop" on another character. For example, if in standard melee, the MD threshold remained at 50, even for bows and cross bows. But, if a character has a crossbow in his hands and has his target "covered", I didn't like the fact that, if the target had enough hit points, that he could just disregard the crossbow and take the hit, doing whatever he wanted to do in the round. What I did to better realize this situation was drop the MD threshold to 5 points. So, now, if a guard levels a crossbow at a target, he's dealing with a Save or Die situation if the crossbow damage is 5 or more points. That makes someone holding a crossbow on you a little more sticky and, as you say, "realistic".
Employ the Coup de Grace rule.
Another thing you can do is widen the definition of the Coup de Grace rule. Let's say a thief successfully sneaks up behind a guard and slaps a blade under the guard's chin. If the dagger does 1d4 damage, and the guard is higher than 2nd level, the dagger under the chin isn't going to mean a hill of beans if you use the standard hit point rules.
This is a situation where the Hit Points are bypassed, and the Coup de Grace rule kicks in--because, the guard really is helpless with that blade under his chin.
Alternatively, you could continue my point above and have a Massive Damage rule for this situation. Make the MD threshold in this situation very low, to simulate how dangerous it is to have a dagger up against your throat. Make it an MD threshold of 4 points, that way, if the thief scores 4+ points of damage (don't forget his STR bonus on damage), then the guard must make his save or die from a slit throat.
HIGH LEVEL CHARACTERS AND SAVES
At levels, the complaint is sometimes that Massive Damage is marginalized because the character can make the save too easily.
There's a simple answer to this. On some MD Saves, make the saves harder.
If your Massive Damage threshold is set at 25 for normally melee, then use that total amount of damage (which will be 25 at a minimum) as the DC for the save. Do this, and all of a sudden, high level characters will fear getting a knife to the throat or a crossbow leveled on them just like every other character.
HOUSE RULES
An argument can still be made that, at higher levels, Saves are too easy to make. If you feel this way, then adjusting Massive Damage levels in certain situations isn't going to solve your problem and get the game to where you need it to be.
Here's where a few House Rules/Alternate Rules/Tweaks come in.
For example, you could make a House Rule to where a character's CON score is considered his
"Life's Blood". This acts as a second set of hit points, but these hit points represent how many points it takes to actually kill the character.
You would use regular hit points normally. Thus, instead of going to -10 hp and dying, a character would use his CON score after his regular hit points ran out.
In melee: Damage comes off of hit points normally. When those run out, apply damage to the character's CON score. If CON = 0, the character is dead.
Some attacks, you can rule, go directly to a character's life's blood. If you wanted your players to fear bows, as people do in real life, then allow an arrow to bypass normal hit points, doing damage to the character's Life's Blood (his CON Score). That way, an arrow or three will kill a character, as they do in real life.
If your character jumps off a ledge, as you mentioned in the OP, then that damage would go directly to Life's Blood. Normal hit points would be ignored.
Another House Rule/Alternative Rule/Tweak you might want to consider is to
change the healing time on some wounds. In my Conan game, we roll opposed throws for attack and defense (instead of "Taking 10" on defense, as a normal AC would be). If the Defense throw is "1", the attack is successful, and I will throw on the Permanent Damage Chart (which is a type of Critical Hit Chart). There are various results on this chart, ranging from the character getting a scar (with no other effect on the game) to the wound becoming infected and healing at a retarded rate of 1 HP per week until the infection is conquered. There's also blood loss and some normal critical hit results on the chart (losing an eye or fingers or having DEX permanently lowered--fun stuff like that).
The point is, you can make a House Rule where, when triggered in the game (either by an event, like a dagger being put to your throat or a crossbow being leveled at you, or by a dice signal, such as attack throw exactly equal to AC), other wound effects can be imposed on the characters.
Lots to think about here.
(I really like that example of when hit points don't work as they should.)
