What I Like About Nimble 2e (So Far) — A Partial Review

[zakael19]

Whereas the games that have decided you always/"always" hit are aiming at the folks who find that when they miss it's a feel-bad. That those "wasted" turns feel sufficiently bad to them that it's better to eliminate or cut them down even further. And that this means the average round is more tense, each moving us measurably toward someone going down.


Right. Rolling a 1 for damage in D&D is similar to rolling a 2 in Nimble or whatever.

The other part, speaking as someone who's sword fought as a hobby as well, is that every time someone attacks me and I need to actively defend myself that saps some of my energy to keep defending myself. In that regard, losing some amount of HP every round just measures how much energy/how hard I had to work that round. And I know part of the point of this in OSR games like Into the Odd is that every round a given combatant gets attacked, basically, is moving them measurably toward a state of "can't defend against that next hit and finally gets cut down". Again speaking as a former fencer and LARPer, this feels kind of right insofar as it means the difference between a superior fighter and an inferior one is more a matter of skill, conditioning and stamina and less a matter of the better one having more "meat points"/being able to take multiple solid shots to his actual body.


Yup. I like the "Hit Protection" explanation for HP. It's less actually being hit with a yard-long piece of steel (or substantially longer, for a giant, say), than the stamina and luck and skill to NOT be hit, and when those points run out, a telling blow gets through. In most games with HP this is the one that knocks you out/disables you, though some games or house rules let you keep acting or make a check to stay conscious or something, though you're extremely vulnerable at that point.

Yeah, I like DS!’s explicit casting of the statistic as “Stamina” and that every time you’re struck out at, by claw, sword, or magic, that’s going to deplete some. Same thing with how nimble does Wounds vs HP, the former is well - actual wounds, the latter is the more abstracted “can I keep fighting / defending myself.”

 

[Mannahnin]

Yeah, I like DS!’s explicit casting of the statistic as “Stamina” and that every time you’re struck out at, by claw, sword, or magic, that’s going to deplete some. Same thing with how nimble does Wounds vs HP, the former is well - actual wounds, the latter is the more abstracted “can I keep fighting / defending myself.”

The Nightmares Underneath calls it Disposition, explicitly relates it to both your energy and morale (you re-roll it at the start of each day, get to roll more dice if you slept in a safe & comfortable place, and Bards and Paladin-equivalents can let their party members/alignment-sharers roll with Advantage), and only lets it apply to attacks you can defend yourself from. Any other damage (falls, poisons, etc.) goes to your ability scores. Points of combat damage past your Disposition go against your Con score and also become Wounds with a hit location, possible disablement of that location, and a chance of unconsciousness. Two of the magical classes also get Psychic Armor, which is a separate pool of HP which specifically applies against certain magical attacks including ones involving life drain or mind control.

 

[mamba]

Honestly, I am intrigued by the concept of Nimble and other similar games, but my personal taste would be to eliminate the damage roll rather than the attack one.

I don't like all of the stuff DC20 does, but to my tastes, "Just make one d20-based roll to determine both if you succeed AND how well."

since there is only one roll left, I am not sure how you distinguish between which one was eliminated… unless you still have a roll to determine whether you hit and if your did you dealt fixed damage, but that is not how Nimble does it…

 

[mamba]

I get it. People like hitting. But to me, the hit is only satisfying because it doesn't happen all the damn time.

tell that to the casters… if they always succeed at casting complicated magic, I see no reason why a fighter should not always hit and just determine the severity of the hit

sword fight as a hobby and people don't hit me 90% of the time they take a swing, so it breaks my immersion in the narrative if I just get hit basically all the time.

since hit points are not meat points, weak hits can be misses that you avoid but tire you

 

[GobHag]

But losing hit points doesn’t mean you actually got wounded/hit right? I thought “we” all agreed a long time ago our characters don’t get stabbed every time they lose hit points. It’s just showing in the story we lost stamina, are wearing down, deflected the blow with our sword or shield in a way that cost us effort, (etc).

I'm a true blue meat point believer so that means yes, a high enough levelled Wizard can get stabbed no problemo.