D&D General What if Hit Points were the currency of the game rules?

[Fenris-77]

Im not sure why being able to spend the resource on defense is necessary to such a system working, but I certainly like being able to spend resources on defense.

If the costing was right it would help prevent the death spiral potential of a HP-based resource. Obviously you can't spend it 1-1 that way because why bother, but something. I also like the idea of being able to spend hit dice in such a system, at the cost of future fast healing.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

If the costing was right it would help prevent the death spiral potential of a HP-based resource. Obviously you can't spend it 1-1 that way because why bother, but something. I also like the idea of being able to spend hit dice in such a system, at the cost of future fast healing.

sure, but the idea here is that the point resource and the model for how you deal with taking damage are entirely different models. You have stamina or morale or whatever, and spend that to do things.
Then, when you get hurt, damage is rolled to see how hard you’re hit. If it’s over a threshold, it’s basically 2 hits, if it’s a crit, it’s 3 hits. Normal damage/hits are a single hit. 3 hits puts you down the condition track. Bottom of the condition track is unconscious and potentially dying.

now, maybe you can spend Morale to push yourself back up the track, or turn an attack into a less powerful attack or even a miss, etc, but the death spiral never interacts directly with your ability to do things.

unless you mean the death spiral of having penalties, in which case, yeah that’s what healing does, it pulls you back out of the spiral.

 

[Fenris-77]

No, I was specifically talking about using HP as the model, which is perfectly possible. There's nothing wrong with those resources being separate though. I may have misread how separate you were envisioning those being.

 

[FrogReaver]

A few months ago, I came across a Dungeon World hack that was designed for Kids and people new to RPGs

The "Dungeons RPG" free download can be found HERE . It has proven itself in providing a non intimidating RPG experience for my wife and young daughter where other games such as very basic versions of D&D have failed. But on to the main point-

In "Dungeons"- Hit Points are not just traditional hit points but are also "effort" used to fuel die rolls, spells, etc. For example-. The spellcasters have "at wills" but spend hit points to fuel more powerful spells. Fighters can spend a HP to fuel great feats of strength , or a Thief on "sneaky" abilities (and the HP provides a bonus to the roll that will eliminate complete failure). Druids spend a HP to shapeshift, etc etc.

Personally- in play I find it far more interesting than typical "resource management" like Vancian Casting, or per X rest, etc. It's much more simple, and the resource pool is much more valuable to players and raises the dramatic tension "I can spend a HP now to make sure I do X, but I'm going to be lower than I want for that fight I know is coming"

So what do folks think about a D&D game where class abilities/maneuvers/feats/stunts/ spells etc were all fueled by ONE easy to track resource- Hit Points? Then certainly the "idea" of hit points as drive/luck/endurance and their loss and quick return upon resting would make compete sense in the context of the game (though the term "hit" still does not).

P.S- Happy New Year all!

Seems like it would be difficult to balance.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

No, I was specifically talking about using HP as the model, which is perfectly possible. There's nothing wrong with those resources being separate though. I may have misread how separate you were envisioning those being.

Ah, okay! Yeah, my idea would be to just get rid of health points altogether, which may be somewhat radical.

 

[Neonchameleon]

It's an interesting concept for a general game - and in the General RPG Forum I'd welcome it. In D&D? Healing magic has been a huge thing from the very start, and this makes Cure Light Wounds and the like effectively getting magic from nothing or close to useless - and neither is good.

So it's a very nice concept for a magic system - and very much not D&D.

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

I've had some fun with Gumshoe and Cypher, more with the former than the latter, although I'm not sure why. Ablative skill points seems to work quite well when there's a large pool of them like in Gumshoe. Not so much in Cypher where they seem to run out a lot faster.

Oddly I like one game where the number of points is actually quite low.

G. Michael Truran's Ghost Orbit space survival game treats every part of your character sheet as having hit points (usually 2 or 3 points). Every risky roll is a PbtA-style 2d6 roll that can yield a success (no cost), partial success (lose a point of something) or failure (lose a point of something). You can get an extra die roll if you risk TWO traits.

What this means is that players are in constant survival mode. Their Vitals (Calm, Face, Vigor) are always in danger of being dropped to zero, with varying results (unable to think, unable to persuade, unable to physically move and will die without aid). Their equipment gradually runs out of ammo, charge or just plain breaks. Augments (cyber implants) and Training can be bid instead of one of your Vitals if they apply, so they basically act as ablative armor for those traits...until they run out, when your core Vitals start getting risked instead.

It's actually quite stressful for players and is a lot of fun to run.

In Ghost Orbit, everything is hit points, and everything breaks. Your spacesuit. your skills. Your mind.

GHOST ORBIT by Bad Quail Games

a game about things breaking in space

bad-quail.itch.io

 

[FrogReaver]

It's an interesting concept for a general game - and in the General RPG Forum I'd welcome it. In D&D? Healing magic has been a huge thing from the very start, and this makes Cure Light Wounds and the like effectively getting magic from nothing or close to useless - and neither is good.

So it's a very nice concept for a magic system - and very much not D&D.

I'm actually not as worried about healing because all healing in such a game would essentially cost you hp to give someone else hp.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'm actually not as worried about healing because all healing in such a game would essentially cost you hp to give someone else hp.

The healing is one of the few things that works okay in such a system. You just have to ensure that you get more healing than you spend hp, and then limit the frequency of healing. Using hit dice for all healing would probably work, in that regard.

 

[77IM]

I've played games like this, and I hate them. It feels like there's a trade-off between staying alive and doing cool stuff, and that's not a fun trade-off to me.

I realize that this is all in my head, but since I play games to have fun, I don't like to argue against my head too much.