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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9759823" data-attributes="member: 42582">The issue for me is not just about it being life-threatening. It's (i) that it is typically not debilitating, and (ii) even if you drop to zero or fewer hp, it's often likely that you'll recover to full hit points just by resting.I think (i) and (ii) put pretty significant constraints around how hp loss is narrated. My own preferred approach is the Gygaxian one (ie most of it is near-misses, grazes, nicks, etc) and the one set out in two non-D&D books - Robins Laws HeroWars and the Burning Wheel-derived Torchbearer 2e - which encourage keeping the narration of defeat loose and a bit ambiguous until it is reasonable to drive home some final consequences. (JRRT also uses this sort of approach in LotR, when Frodo is stabbed by the Orc captain.)Once a Raise Dead or similar spell is going to be needed, then a degree of finality is a reasonable thing to narrate.Also, I should be clear that I'm talking here about PCs. As Gygax recognised, narrating consequences for NPCs is a different matter. Nothing will go wrong if a GM narrates a player's roll reducing a cultist to zero hp as decapitation or whatever: that just establishes that this person is not going to be able to be revived after the fight by binding their wounds and administering a draught of spirits!</blockquote>