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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Old Drew Id" data-source="post: 2167848" data-attributes="member: 12175">We use VP/WP in our d20 Modern campaign using the Star Wars rules where criticals go straight to Wound Points. In addition, we follow the recommendation for VP/WP systems (I think from Chuck Rice) where all guns do 3 dice of damage instead of 2. So our average handgun does 3d6. Rifles usually do 3d8, etc.We started with first level characters and have played upwards of 80 sessions, with characters currently at level 9. There is gunplay in pretty much every other session, and in that time, only 1 PC has been killed by a critical hit (with a rifle, and this was at level 2). So the criticals are not a serious factor. They provide a healthy fear of death, because even first level mooks with rifles are a serious threat if one of them gets lucky, but they do not make the game too lethal. As a huge fan of the VP/WP system, let me point out a couple of its other often un-sung advantages:1) VP's make great "fuel" for special abilities. If you want a custom psionic or magic system in your campaign, or just want to limit any kind of special ability, have it cost VP to use. This completely trumps any of the "mana point" systems I have seen or the "X times per day" systems, which includes the default D&D system. Instead, you have a clear-cut, multi-use point pool that your magic and your health depend on. If you use up your VP's on magic, you have become that much more exhausted and easier to hurt. 2) VP recovery simplifies healing. You don't need a cleric or massive healing spells anymore. 95% of all damage is done to VP's, and they come back on a per-hour basis. So a fight is usually just exhausting, not harmful, and after the fight is over, as long as you didn't take any wound damage, you know that your character is not bleeding and will be fine in a few hours without needing a bandage. VP recovery also is based on hours, not on rest, so you don't have the "dungeons and narcoleptics" effect where the group wants to sleep for eight hours after every encounter. 3) WP's emphasizes the pain of partial damage. Using WP's, when you take WP damage, you become fatigued, and you must make a save or you black out. This is an actual semi-incremental effect on your character, unlike the classic all-or-nothing HP system where you are completely unaffected by damage until that last point of damage drops you to zero and you fall over. True, a more realistic system might have even further increments, so that with each additional point of WP damage you take, you suffer even worse penalties, but the current VP/WP achieves a decent level of incrementation without too much complexity. 4) VP's seperate the Heroes from the Ordinaries. Using the VP/WP "Ordinary" system, you can truly model the "take on 100 stormtroopers" situations, where the bad guys can be swatted down with one shot each, while at the same time, having them be skilled and dangerous enough to be higher level foes. (In a nutshell, Ordinaries get no VP, which means you can fight a group of well-trained 9th level stormtroopers who have good saves, defense scores, and high attack bonuses, and yet the go down as soon as they take one solid hit.)</blockquote>

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