Speaking of the OSR, one of the leading creators--the RPG Pundit--cut a video today on one of the longest-running (and most stupid) arguments: Hit Points.
He's right, but he omits the full argument he's rebutting.
The objections to Hit Points always comes down to the interaction between taking and recovering from damage. D&D is notorious for having very slow non-magical healing rates, and jokes have been made for 40+ years about how the same healing rate that puts a Level 0 conscript out of hospice in days keeps his Level 9 lord bedridden for weeks or months. Later editions did more to handle this, but it remains unsatisfactory.
However, practical experience with alternatives have shown that the hassle of attempting to make playable a more believable system of wounding, injury, and recovery are usually far more bothersome than just using Hit Points. (There are exceptions, such as how TORG/Shatterzone/WEG Star Wars did it.) They would--and have--been better used in videogames, but as the Pundit points out even that medium prefers to just use Hit Points.
I will tell you what Hit Point alternative has proven most welcome with people I've played with: Feng Shui.
This is a game intended to recreate the experience of (pre-Handover) Hong Kong action films. Therefore the rules are this simple: you have Wound Points, which start at zero and go up as you get damaged; at a given threshold, you make a Death Check and make more as further hits push you past that point, and you die if you fail the check; after the fight is over, your Wounds reset to zero AUTOMATICALLY.
Think about that for a moment. Your casual player only has to care if Bad Number hits X, and after the fight ends Bad Number resets without anyone doing anything. This is now the norm in videogames across the board, such that it is notable when it is not--thank you, Dark Souls--so Normies expect that this is how it works by default. Don't be surprised to see it become the norm with Official D&D sooner than later.
This also means that you can explain Real D&D's Hit Points easily to a new player, the Normie, using Pundit's explanation of risk. "That number makes it easy for you to think like your character, as he would know what that guy could do to him and what it would take to deal with him."
The reason Hit Points persist is because they work better than the alternatives. It's simple, it's intuitive, and it works as intended. That's a useful tool, so why not use it when it's relevant? Save the complexity for the videogames that benefit from it (and can keep the gears-and-levers behind it hidden from Johnny B. Videogames); tabletop games have to keep it simple for expedience's sake so you can actually get more done in less time. Unless you're willing and able to put in the time to make an alternative that plays as fast as Hit Points, is as intuitive as Hit Points, and yet is not Hit Points then just use Hit Points and be done with it.
"Think about that for a moment. Your casual player only has to care if Bad Number hits X, and after the fight ends Bad Number resets without anyone doing anything. This is now the norm in videogames across the board, such that it is notable when it is not--thank you, Dark Souls--so Normies expect that this is how it works by default. Don't be surprised to see it become the norm with Official D&D sooner than later."
ReplyDelete4E and 5E have been approaching this with Healing Surges and Hit Dice. 4E, unfortunately, was rushed out and poorly received, so people didn't quite understand what Healing Surges were supposed to be. I haven't engaged enough with 5E to know how the Hit Dice are being received and used.