D&D General What do you actually like about D&D?

[Tony Vargas]

At least in D&D we can blame the fast healing on magic.

well, 3.5 and back, anyway. 4e/5e you've got Second Wind and Short Rest healing and even

Spoiler

Warlord/PDK Shouty Healing

FATE for instance doesn't have hp, but it models the same tropes with consequences that only last a 'scene.' So you get trounced, in the next scene you've got the sling or you're wincing or whatever, scene after that: forgotten, move the story along, folks....

Can we talk about all the missing arms, eyes, legs and noses in D&D?

in editions with the Sword of Sharpness and the Regenerate spell, sure. And that was the talk, too.

 

[Campbell]

What I personally like is that it started as a mish-mash of stuff Gary (and his players) thought was cool. Stuff was added on top due to one designer after another's harebrained ideas. Stuff like Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Ravenloft. Githyanki, Eladrin, Slaad, Efreeti. All in one big fantastic mishmash with minimal concerns over whether it all cohered or made sense. It embraced the fantastic and wild imagination in a way that most games just did not.

That's what I like about D&D. D&D does not give a [redacted]. It's a mish mash of "that sounds cool" which by the way is what is so damn amazing about it. It doesn't give two [redacted]s. Do githyanki and mindflayers make sense in a setting that also includes fey lords, demons and angels? Who cares?

 

[Warpiglet-7]

What I personally like is that it started as a mish-mash of stuff Gary (and his players) thought was cool. Stuff was added on top due to one designer after another's harebrained ideas. Stuff like Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Ravenloft. Githyanki, Eladrin, Slaad, Efreeti. All in one big fantastic mishmash with minimal concerns over whether it all cohered or made sense. It embraced the fantastic and wild imagination in a way that most games just did not.

That's what I like about D&D. D&D does not give a [redacted]. It's a mish mash of "that sounds cool" which by the way is what is so damn amazing about it. It doesn't give two [redacted]s. Do githyanki and mindflayers make sense in a setting that also includes fey lords, demons and angels? Who cares?

When I say I am into the “IP” it’s this stuff that is so D&D…knights in shining armor and…umber hulks

 

[Vaalingrade]

All you need to do to understand hit points is watch Die Hard.

And a bond movie to see another way it might look.

Tomorrow Never Dies is especially good for the 'Never Scuffed' hero.

 

[Reynard]

And a bond movie to see another way it might look.

Tomorrow Never Dies is especially good for the 'Never Scuffed' hero.

I prefer the Die Hard example because despite "knowing" that HP include "luck and skill" most of us still narrate bloody gashes on a solid hit.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I prefer the Die Hard example because despite "knowing" that HP include "luck and skill" most of us still narrate bloody gashes on a solid hit.

When I started playtesting my system, I had them fight a super-lithe catfolk.

No matter how often they hit, he'd back bend, flow, or matrix dodge out of the way. As he became taxed (bloodied), he started breathing harder, and only barely dodging when he was doing it flawlessly before. Final blow, they got to choose keep or kill. they said keep and this time, he does a backbend, overcorrects and lands on his back, allowing the attacker to immediately pin him. He's too out of breath and off balance to continue and surrenders.

The players wonder what mechanic was that where they took him down without landing a blow.

I say, "Just HP. You ran him out of stamina and focus even if you never drew a drop of blood."

Next thing I know, they're doing stuff like that with their characters, or just no-selling hits like they're the big man-mountains of testosterone and violence their characters always could be, but didn't know it was an option.

 

[Guest 7042500]

Which edition? Because I don't like all of them.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Which edition? Because I don't like all of them.

Pick one…I don’t either

 

[CreamCloud0]

i like that there are so many ways to build your characters, between stats, species, class and subclasses, feats, spells and equipment you can express the same concepts in so many different ways, there is no singular progression a cleric or whatever is fixed into because they chose to be a cleric.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I actually like HP. If there's one sub-system detail in D&D that really captures a bit of fantasy genre, it's Hit Points. No, really. Hear me out.
I've played a lot of games, and I do find I like D&D-style hit points better than most alternatives. Sure, they're vague, dissociated, and completely unrealistic. Sometimes they even paint the game into self-contradictory-seaming corner. But, they're simple math, they require no extensive checks or tracking of individual injuries or severity, and perhaps best of all, come with no Death Spiral. That is, when you lose hp, you don't lose ability. You keep fighting on, heroically, at full strength to your last hp, if need be. And, that needn't be - you can seek help, run away, or switch tactics when you realize from your declining hp total that you're overmatched. That's actually something that happens in genre, heroes will be kicking ass with great efficiency, yet, tho none are visibly wounded, one of them will shout "there's too many of them" and they'll retreat, or pull out a new trick or whatever. How do they make that judgement, you're all fine, you're not obviously losing? They're low on mysterious ill-defined hp. Nor is that the only genre-faithful perk of the hp mechanic - there's also the Heroic Come-back. When the heroes get trounced by the obviously-too-powerful villain, only to find the courage rally and carry the day. OK, in D&D it also involves the Cleric casting a spell or something, but still you get that come-from-behind cadence that battles in genre (and action movies) so often have.

Those are all things I don't like about hit points, and I've spent a lot of effort finding ways to make the system make more sense to me. At best, it's a necessary evil I begrudgingly accept.