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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8143192" data-attributes="member: 7006">I always find it funny when someone makes the point &quot;the books HAVE to tell us X&quot;.No.&nbsp; No they don't.&nbsp; They don't have to justify anything.&nbsp; It's a game.&nbsp; A game that is representative of genre and entertainment we have all experienced in the past.&nbsp; And game designers will always absolutely shortchange long-winded explanations when we players can use our own past knowledge of other games and other entertainment and genre to come up with justifiable reasons for ourselves beyond what they provide for us.Why do we have Hit Points?&nbsp; Because THE GAME needs to come up with a point system to determine when one side has won.&nbsp; That's all.&nbsp; That's entirely the reason why there are Hit Points.&nbsp; We need to know who wins the game.&nbsp; Now that being said... the game and its designers will also layer a bit of story and narrative on top of that point scoring to give it a bit of drama because the game includes story and narrative as part of its reason for existing.&nbsp; But NEVER think that the fluff is the important part for why Hit Points exists.&nbsp; It never has been.&nbsp; It's ALWAYS been about keeping score. Which means that once the designers have layered a narrative on top of Hit Points that they are okay with... their job is done.&nbsp; This is the game that they have made.&nbsp; And you as a player either play it as-is... you make your own changes so that the narrative and scorekeeping are more to your liking... or you just choose not to play the game altogether if you don't like either or both parts of it.&nbsp; But it's not the game nor the designer's responsibility to do any more than that.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 8143192, member: 7006"] I always find it funny when someone makes the point "the books HAVE to tell us X". No. No they don't. They don't have to justify anything. It's a game. A game that is representative of genre and entertainment we have all experienced in the past. And game designers will always absolutely shortchange long-winded explanations when we players can use our own past knowledge of other games and other entertainment and genre to come up with justifiable reasons for ourselves beyond what they provide for us. Why do we have Hit Points? Because THE GAME needs to come up with a point system to determine when one side has won. That's all. That's entirely the reason why there are Hit Points. We need to know who wins the game. Now that being said... the game and its designers will also layer a bit of story and narrative [I]on top[/I] of that point scoring to give it a bit of drama because the game includes story and narrative as part of its reason for existing. But NEVER think that the fluff is the important part for why Hit Points exists. It never has been. It's ALWAYS been about keeping score. Which means that once the designers have layered a narrative on top of Hit Points that they are okay with... their job is done. This is the game that they have made. And you as a player either play it as-is... you make your own changes so that the narrative and scorekeeping are more to your liking... or you just choose not to play the game altogether if you don't like either or both parts of it. But it's not the game nor the designer's responsibility to do any more than that. [/QUOTE]

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