Health, and Death... again...

 So, The Human body, as I understand it, does not 'die' as instantly as we think it does

How Does Actual Death change the rules

On a cellular level, most of the body lives on for hours and even days after 'death'. This means many, many things for roleplay. 

Firstly, lets look at Health. 

When the human body takes an amount of damage too much for the consciousness to handle, the body shuts down the consciousness. This might not reboot the system, and we refer to that as a coma.

For the longest time, I used 'fate' and 'luck' to be this factor. The body takes damage beyond the 'death' score, and the player determines, ok. I'll spend a fate. If the party manages to best the monster, they revive their friends from their unconscious state, and begin the healing process. preferably in a nice warm tavern.

BUT if the whole party is 'killed' they all 'wake' in a witches home, or a wizards tower, or some place 'nearby' enough that makes enough logical sense that someone had rescued them, possibly including the party members themselves that were 'less' damaged.

The GM has a nice 'out' for the group, it often introduces a NPC for the players to rely on in the future, as they obviously owe a boon/debt to, and can introduce new plot hooks, or provide higher level access to information or goods.

But beyond that, we also allow for death to actually occur, and yet be rolled back. If the players can retrieve their friends body, and get to a healer within a few hours to days, they might still be brought back. The consciousness is shut down by the body, and once healing applied, is re-awoken by the spell casters or priests.

IF and only IF we have gone past the point of no return, do we now need actual resurrection spells.

This adds the benefit, plot wise, that our players are not 100% lost to us, and plot paths can continue beyond death. provided the resurrection is made cheap enough by plot economics. 

That's the TL;DR of my notes on death. 

Three lives

 A throwback to Nostalgia, a concept I was playing with, but recently with my neck injury, came to a focus point:

The Three Lives System:

Maybe you're a bit young for this, and you've not experienced it in computer games, but back in the day when we paid a coin to play a game. it gave us 3 lives. 3 attempts. Three Strikes your Out! You could learn enough in a life or two on how to play, and then attempt to complete the level with the last life. It allowed for simple mistakes, something out of the ordinary or a misstep.

The FATE system, gives a player a single one of these. death cheat code. Something extreme happened, you died, and you can 'wake up' on a beach nearby, having escaped the entire ordeal to return at a later time.

The LUCK system, gives you micro changes. You botched a single dice roll, or you want to buff that damage roll, or you just need better odds at something.

But it always worried me about the middle ground. What if you copped a blow of some decent damage, something harrowing, a broken arm, or leg or spleen. The damage dice modifier from luck is only 1 dice, its usually enough, but what if you fell 12 metres for a 6d6 damage roll. game wise, you can burn through your luck, to survive the roll, but story wise, maybe it doesn't make much sense, or character wise, you've now used up all your luck. its too expensive to spend fate. 

So it got me thinking, 

As a young man, I have been in a scrape or two, and survived. Things that now, as an older man, I have some more pressing issues. how is it that my body can take the same damage, the same severity, and then I was ok within a few days, and now, I'm laid up in bed for 2 weeks.

DNA and all that aside, I don't want to have some kind of 'age system' where you need to track time and then consult tables (Dungeon World does that) It needed a simpler system.

So, the Three lives, popped into my head. How about if all players have 3 'lives'. When they take some serious injury, they can negate the permanent effects by spending a life.

1. Players become aware of the possibility of permanent damage, and how it will, in effect, knock a few levels worth of points from their character.

2. It allows for logical progression of the story, allows for some cool story telling points. rather than retroactively taking back the event, it just allows the event to exist without ruining game play.

3. It gives players a micro sense of dread. Gaining or Losing extra lives becomes a way for players to identify their characters fallibility, it creates tension.

4. The character, in effect, has a lifespan. Certain mechanics such as resurrections might rely on lives too. Players can only 'rev' their character so many times before that character is dust. Making it all the harder to actually rise to legendary levels, giving players that do, a real sense of accomplishment.

This, would be the DD12 simple format for the Age & Health rules. Using actual Age rules would likely negate this, as it already uses a permanent damage rules and negation system. though I might tweak that to somewhat match this.  

I'm hurt man.. hurt BAD

 Sometimes, I like to experiment with obfuscation of the values, so players can 'roleplay' better, instead of:

Obfuscating the Hit Points

Back in version 1, 2 and even some of 3, I had the old hit points. Players would start with approx. 10, and gain approx. 1-2 per level. When they got wounded, they'd lose HP, when healed, gain HP, when at 0, start making unconscious checks, and at -3 death checks. very old-school.

Players could take extra bonuses in health, KO or death scores.. one player devoted his hero points to this, and at 18th level, had well over 75 HP, a KO of -7 and death at -7 more (-14). Based on the ruling at the time, it was near impossible to kill him. he soaked so much damage, could out last any opponent of similar level.

Players would have, the same above conversation, the tactical advantage of knowing how many HP they had, if they should heal a person or not, based on values, that in real life don't exist. I wanted to get that movie moment, when one character is 'dying' then later they pull it together and keep going, then when their adrenaline kicks in, they do some amazing stuff, even though they're "dying".
So I tried this out (You can use this for a game attempt, its kind fun, for GMs, but might be a little math intensive for younger GMs)

The Hurt System:

First, you make a quick note of players Health, Stress, and the CON and WLP bonuses or your games equivalent for health stats and mental health stats. Players can 'cope' with their Willpower bonuses of damage, but they can take Constitution worth of actual damage.

The point is, to not tell players how close to death they are, just tell them how close to death they FEEL. A player unhurt, will feel like the first cut is far worse than it is, based on how much pain they can normally cope with (their CON bonus), but once in pain, further hits don't feel as bad, because they are already in pain the distraction and adrenaline, will make them feel like the same amount of pain, is actually less.

The way to do this is to glance at the damage done, divide it by the willpower/pain bonus and tell the player "The blade cuts deep into your flesh, you are in extreme pain" according to how much the results were. 

When a player is 'hurt' you inform them to write "hurt" in their health box, If they are in extreme pain, they write extreme pain. 

0-1: Light grazing, 1-2: Hurt, 2-3 badly hurt/ cut deep 3-4: extremely wounded, 4-5 dangerously wounded, 5-6 mortally wounded, 6+ at deaths door.

But here's the rub, A player with 30 health, taking 10 damage, with a pain of 3, is going to be at stage 4 (round up) but another player, with 20 health, taking 4 damage, with a pain of 1 is going to be at pain stage 4 too.

So, then after the 1st wound, when a player takes a 2nd wound, you reduce the 'pain' by their con bonus, to account for adrenaline kicking in..

Player #1 with 30 health, takes another 10 damage, which would be 4 more pain, but her con reduces it by 2, so she only gets 2 more pain levels.. the pain from the wound is just badly wounded, but the total of 6 is mortally wounded, so you'd inform the player they were wounded, and they can feel the icy grip of death nearing.

Player #2, with 20 health, took another 4 damage, since their pain threshold is 1, they feel like they have taken a grievous wound, but since their con bonus is 2, and the total damage is only 8, they are only at the extremely wounded stage (4) rather than their pain threshold level of 8.

Player #1, with 2/3rd of their health gone, is feeling like death, their individual wounds don't feel so bad, but over all they feel bad. Player #2 takes each wound like they are deadly, yet overall are feeling ok.

The purpose here is not to be specific, but instead more descriptive, so the player can easily identify if they are going to die based, not on actual health, but on perceived health.

The Threshold System

Another, less mathmatical intense version is to just keep track of the most wounds they have ever taken, setting an 'invisible' 0, then dividing the difference into 4 or more 'stages'.. 

The above example, we reset, player #1 with 30 hit points.. takes 10 points of damage (a deadly blow, almost killing them!) in their first battle, so the GM jots down 10 as their threshold.

In the next battle, the player takes a quick 3 pt wound, the GM says its a major gash, as its above 1/4th of the threshold, another 5 point wound is also a major gash, later a 3rd major gash pushes their new maximum to 13, and the GM informs the player they are at deaths door as they've gone above their maximum from before.. They retreat from battle, 'barely surviving'

In the next battle, their next 3pt wound is not a major gash, since now, the 1/4th of 13 is 3.25, instead its a minor gash (from the players perspective) yet the 5pt wound is still a major gash.. the player, having seen the earlier 3pt and understood it to be a major gash, now, with another 3pt its a minor gash, wonders... hmm, ok, so I can take more damage than I thought, and like anyone in real life, is probably going to think, Oh, I'm tougher.. rather than 'hey I levelled up'

When they do level up, you increase their actual HP as per normal rules, but you only increase their pain threshold by 1 pt. This works well when you don't announce level ups too, players slowly get used to rolling more successes, but never know their own numbers, just general ideas.. but this is heavy load on the GM to track all players, and only the most pro GMs can handle this level of obfuscation.  

 My Current System

Players, not comfortable with not knowing their damage ratio to death, caused me to try this tactic, which seems to work best for now.

Health points act as the kind of 'threshold' above, if a player has 10 health, they can take 2.5 points of damage, without blinking, if they increase their 'pain' score with skills, it applies to this value.

Once they pass this threshold, the GM warns them, they are now able to be killed. players get cautious when they know any single blow can kill them. which is the effect desired.

Beyond this, players taking damage make system shock tests based on their will power and or constitution, determined by the damage taken vs the total damage already taken.

To evade the constant math that players can sometimes struggle with, the GM will inform them to write in the pain they've taken from any given blow, and the player can see for themselves, what kind of pain they are in. Pain causes negatives to the charactersheet, So players knowing they've taken 1 pain will usually start to question the cost benefit of pushing the battle vs the slippery slope of going on.

Conclusion

The key here, players, will never quite know how far they can push their health & wounds, only the GM, for sandbox games, the GM merely lets players learn via trial and error as to their actual health threshold, and for Narrative style games the GM can allow a wounded character to push on, past actual death, so they can complete the story, and players who have decided to ruin a game, can die off quickly and be asked to leave, without needing to justify the dice results. 

Burning Through the Luck.. Why it will always fail long term

A Strange New issue occurred when We started playing Blood Rain & Cataclyzm. At first I was worried that I'd forgotten a rule and broke things..

Luck, Burning stats, and Health.

If you're unaware, players can choose to 'burn' a stat in DD12, to gain an instant advantage, The most common of which are Reflexes, Strength and of course Luck.

Reflexes
With an instant burst of speed, a character increases their Combat Initiative by their reflexes, besides the reflexes going down 1 point (after the bonus is applied) the player gains exhaustion equal to their new reflexes score. Typically players use this to get in an extra final hit, or perform an extra action, just in time before something happens beyond normal control.

Strength
With an instant burst of strength, a character increases their Damage by their strength score, or a bonus +3 to a strength roll, besides the strength going down 1 point (after the bonus is applied) the player gains exhaustion equal to their new strength score. Typically players use this to get in extra damage for a killing blow, or perform an feat of extraordinary strength.

Note, the similarities in description. Both are physical stats, and as such, gain physical exhaustion, Mental stats gain mental Exhaustion, but are the same, either a +3 to the same stat, or plus its score to a value related.. they are listed in the rulebook.

But Luck, is a stranger one. Coming from Dragon Warriors, and Warhammers Fate, The idea was to allow players the chance to avoid that blow, that telling deadly blow, or vice versa, to push for a hit. In any case, luck allows a player the ability to modify a die roll, 1 single die, to be rolled differently. If the player NEEDS this next roll to pass, they can spend a luck to change the results of the die, after it has rolled. If, they just wish the whole roll to change (i.e. attack roll + extra dice) they can 'roll' their luck, and if they pass, spend 1 luck, and if failed, spend 2 luck, to negate the entire roll against them.

Because players spend these more often, sometimes 2-3 in a given combat, having some kind of exhaustion, really slows down the game.. the STR or REF ones above are so rare, players will understand the cost, but with luck, we have to think a different way.

This was more obvious in Cataclyzm, and Blood Rain, where players would spent 5-10 luck in their first session, just to survive.. players literally were running out of luck.

And Luck isn't fixed to your own rolls, anyone can luck any roll.

But, Younger, Wiser, well rested me, was smart enough to put in an interesting rule about luck. Its relevant to your ability to take wounds, and your healing.

When a Character has taken damage, A lot of people consider their Health Max to be the value to check against. If Damage > Health, do I die.. well, yes but no..

First, we check if the individual blow is greater than your health + pain threshold bonuses, if not.. you shrug it off, if it IS, then we check your luck, If you pass, lucky you.. proceed, else, suffer consequences (see below)

BUT if the individual blow is above your Luck score.. you're out of luck.. no roll (except now, you'll probably spend a luck, to change the damage die roll to its minimum)

Next, lets see if your total damage so far, is above your ability to cope,

The quick rule is, if Total Damage > Luck + Health + Constitution, then you're going to make a luck check to see if you might die or not. For most people, this will be in the range of 30-50.

Furthermore, Your luck score ties directly to your healing rate, luck is added to the healing rate WHEN its calculated, (not before) so a person travelling with a healing rate of 27% and a luck of 16, gets a 43% chance to heal per day, When rested, they double this to 86%, when under care of a physician, they add their luck again to 102%, Even with a 10 point wound (-81%) they'd have a 1% chance to heal, but a player having reduced luck to 10, this would be -16%, unless their friends can come up with some cash to the local temple, this character is done for.

Given Base healing, Rested Healing and Physicians Luck, maintaining your luck above 10 is worth 30% but, in the moment, burning your luck, and avoiding the damage in the first place.. well, damned if you do, damned if you don't?

DnD Hit Points vs Lightning Bolt

This was asked on facebook the other day:

How much damage should a lightning bolt (one from the sky, not magic) do?

Resulting in a BUNCH of answers, Most of them answering with the premise that the question uses the world "Should" and suggests the DMG is wrong and the OP wants a more realistic answer.

The underlying problem is, DnDs HP system doesn't easily allow for 'pure' damage, its 'related' damage.

When a character takes a blow from an opponent, its suggested that the HP loss is a total combined amount from sweat, exhaustion, pain, bruising as much as broken skin, bleeding, internal damage and destruction of vital organs.

It also suggests that higher level characters can take more sweat, exhaustion, pain and bruising, before getting severly tired, and actual damage is mitigated by the character dodging enough to reduce any real damage, relaxing the body enough at the time of impact to reduce muscular damage, AND the idea that a higher level character likely has taken a few blows and their skin is a tad tougher.

So a 1st level character with 8hp, taking 8hp wound is going to be in so much pain and shock, they are reduced to a blubbering mess, and possibly will die just from the shock of the blow.

ok, so you take
3d4, 7d6, 7d8, 9d10 and 3d12 damage,
Still alive? 

While a 10th level character with 80hp, is going to feel a pang of pain, but will have 'mitigated' the blow as though it was only actually 1hp of damage if he were a 1st level.

This of course is often forgotten, players get the wrong impression that their character can take several hits from several weapons, and just keep going.

But when you get involved with actual damage, it goes awry.

Spell lightning involved factors such as dodge, target missing, arcing off nearby metals, seeing the spell coming and getting partially or mostly out of the way, even when hit, where a higher level character can 'notice' these things and mitigate the damage taken, a low level character takes the full brunt of it.

But pure damage should ignore level, and be as equal in killing a high level as it does a 0th peasant.

I think DnD 2nd edition used to have damage dice as a value, and pure damage was multiplied by damage dice. Creatures had damage dice, so certain spells or effects would do d10 x damagedice. But some creatures had d4 damage dice, so a d10dd effect would likely kill them, but other d12 or d20 dd creatures, could likely survive.

<rant>Of course, the modern gamer can't even add up basic numbers to do their own experience, so trying to calculate damage dice would ruin the experience and destroy their immersion</rant>

This is one of the main reasons I liked Dragon Warriors. your health was just that, Health. Checking if the attack was better than your opponents defence, if their armour was thick enough to absorb the blow all came way before health. and health represented the wounds that would bring you closer to death. You were lucky if you got 1 per rank, so while a 10th ranked barbarian with 16 HP fared better against a 10th ranked sorcerer with 9 HP, it was not in such a magnitude of difference than a d20 fireball couldn't kill them both, and all the 6HP peasants standing around.

I took it a few steps further for DungeonWorld v1->3 but HP was a staple for roleplaying games, so I stuck with what players expected..

Version 4, was a time of stripping back to basics and redoing the engine from the ground up with what worked, and trashing the flawed, old-school, chunky rules and looking at what really mattered.

Game Speed, Player Understanding, Luck and Realism.

Players, looking at a situation, see 100HP, see 2d10 damage from opponent, see average 10damage, see 8 rounds of safe combat. Wade in, taking blow after blow, not caring, just need to burn down the opponents HP.
Some DMs will tell them the HP of the monster, and the players will cross reference their damage and say "oh no, we need X more rounds, then include a few heal spells, and viola", why bother rolling the dice.

Sometimes players will slow down their game, to figure this kind of thing out..

So for games speed, My research suggested that players should just 'take damage' as the GM tells them, and if its excessive, make a check. The check should slow them down a few seconds.. because like their character, they are grasping at their chest/wound, life and death on the line.. ANY time a check is being made vs damage, the player can die right there, the tension is real, players are far more engaged and understand the threat.

This could be a lucky 1st level
or an unlucky 20th level

Artist:Gui Guimaraes

Whats more interesting is that a character can, and should, be able to be taken down in any given hit. Not being hit at all should be priority no.1. Also, monster can and should, be taken down with one hit too, if its placed well. Players should be looking to get that hit, and not be hit. and be creative with that.

Luckily, they are Heroes, and can mitigate the wound or the check vs death with the luck rules, allowing lower level characters the chance to avoid mistakes made, and higher level characters should have players who have learnt not to make such mistakes.

There is no way to tell if your going to die from a single 8pt wound or 20 x 2pt wounds, so you can't calculate the odds of surviving several blows from a creature. Don't get hit is the way to survive.

Eventually if you keep putting your character in extremely dangerous situations, odds are they will die, so players will often retire a character that's reached a point of no return, and use them as a support character for their next character to join and learn from.

The Game runs faster, Players don't have 'pure numbers' to game, luck plays its part and its far more realistic without sacrificing game play.

and a lightning bolt will kill 20% of people, no matter their level.. though, holding a metal blade in a lightning storm is more likely to get you hit.

Veterans Day in your world

After seeing so many of the 11/11/11:11 posts, I was reminded of an old TV-show that had rigged up a trap to go off and shoot anyone trying to access a treasure chest. It was such a moment in my childhood that I never forgot, So I was going to write about that..

But then I saw a photo-shoot of returned, healed veterans, missing arms, legs, both, faces from burns.. and for a moment I thought.. no-one in a fantasy world would be coming back like that, they'd either die.. or get miracle cures / limited wish back to full health.. but I asked myself again..

What would happen to veterans in our fantasy worlds

Our lives are affected by events around us, what we see, how other people explain what they see, and the cumulative effect it has upon us.

So When roleplay characters have events around them, their lives will be affected as much.. yet I get the feeling that maybe some GMs forget to add that to their games and worlds.

How Often have you had NPCs in taverns talk about the last great war, how it affected them, what they did, their stories. More interestingly, how did the non-worldly events change things. Magic can be both napalm and airstrikes, tactical strikes and reconnaissance, so would a medieval war be like we think of a medieval war? or would it be more on par with WWI & II, even some of the skirmishes being played out now.

What of Healing? If a cleric or three exist on the battlefield, wouldn't they be the no.1 target for all strikes? Mass heals, miracle cures, Resurrection for the top brass or greatest heroes? Surely the local kings would be half decent warriors, and would go into battle daily, with the knowledge that no matter what, they'll be alive again the next day.

I don't know about many systems, but my Clerics gain XP for healing, based on the wound and how much healing took place. After a week of constant, regular healing, plus surgery, they'd gain a level or maybe two, sure the diminishing returns would take out some of the smaller HP heals, but any mid level Cleric/Priest with a minor in healing, is going to get more than half a dozen levels from just being on call.. 

and if they were running M.A.S.H. I'd have some epic level doctors by the end of the campaign.

What of the wounded? the dying? ok guys, rush them all into this 10x10m room, and I'll mass heal everyone to stop bleeding and close severe wounds.. then the junior clerics can take over and do some extra healing on the severely wounded, and within a few days the entire platoon would be back on their feet, right as rain.

Only the dead would be the limiter, so get those clerics in some arrow resistant armour, out on the battlefield, and heal them before they die, not much, just enough to survive the trip back to hospital.

Wars would go on for much longer. Soldiers would gain enough XP to level up, by the end of a campaign, you'd have an army of 3rd or 4th levels.. that's a scary thought.. maybe that's why they go fighting, for massive XP boosts.

Sieges might be the same, except a few mages that summon up food would counter the main problem, and the sight buff spells would take care of sappers and other tricks from the enemy..

Again Mages, they could do all the fighting, summon up creatures, back him up with a cleric to cover the possible backlash and damage.. (Magic the Gathering?)

begs the Question.. why hire, train and pay an army, if a few mages and clerics would do.

Would War even exist in such a fantasy world? could it still exist? The enemy declares war on your kingdom, so you send over an assassin, kills the opposition king, then maybe a bard, disguised using voice and illusion spells, pretends he's king for a bit, strikes up a treaty, then retires, to allow his 'friend' (you) to rule his lands too.

But the question in the beginning is, if wars are changed, people arn't coming back missing parts, burnt faces, and the greater populace doesn't see this, how will they be affected.. how will they think about wars.. just some crazy game played by kings? go off, have a good fight, don't get killed and you'll be right? return all levelled up? ready to be a hero?

Doesn't feel ok to talk about it in such glib terms, but I think that's the survival mechanism kicking in, so would a medieval person feel the same way about it, not having yearly reminders?

Topics to Discuss - Pandoras Box

I thought I might get down some Ideas that I'm keen to discuss, both in gaming general and in relation to DungeonWorld(tm). Having worked on a Dungeonworlds game engine for 20+ years, through iterations of complexity, then simplifying, then complexifying again, There are many small nuances to game development that I've studied, read about or even just played with the basic mechanics.

If anyone has some key point they'd like me to address over the next few months, feel free to add it to the List. I know many of these topics are things other gamesmasters and designers have discussed, so sometimes they'll be my own 2 cents, I like to think that pretty much every GM/Designer that decides to blog has to cover these topics to establish themselves first.. but maybe a few will be unique

In No Particular Order, I would like to discuss:

• Encumbrance, backpacks and Lists vs Encumbrance Points.
• Electronic Character Sheets, good or evil?
• What to do in downtime? Why Healing Spells suck!
• NPCs and Levelling the non-Hero
• Hit Points, health and Falling off Cliffs
• City Campaigns, Do Politics?
• Weapons Hit Points.. Will your Sword break
• Ammunition boxes or chips?
• Time Tracking between 7 Gamesmasters & 50+ characters
• Perception, Lighting, Smells and Intuition
• Player Morales & Roleplay Decisions
• Killing Everything, just in case, doesn't make me evil.. Right?
• Mega Games & Rumours
• Should GMs ever let players see the Monsters Manual?
• Is an Orc Always Evil, Should a Paladin Always kill him?
• As the world shuns violence, will roleplay games cease to exist?
• Toilet Time, should GMs inform players, mid dungeon, that its time for no.2?
• Initiative vs Peasant Rail Gun
• Non Magic effect Tower Shields of Invisibility
• Minecraft tree to Stick rules of D&D Crafting
• Rule Zero vs Physics

I May add more to the List, I encourage others to add to the list, things that you've seen or read in other GM blogs. (or just stuff that would be fun to read about)

Health, Bruises, Bleeding and Tracking

Ever forgot to rub out the arrow box when you shoot off arrows? or had arguments with your GM about provisions or potions that you had or had not drunk?

I'm sure its staple roleplay, there are many small aspects of the game that you might forget.. If its in your favour, you turn a blind eye, but against you, well I've seen entire tables rage against the DM about whether a potion was drunk or not..

So Imagine a system, where you tick off XP bonuses for each and every stat.. I tried tick boxes, rising numbered boxes.. mathematical equations, all sorts of things.. the biggest problem was tracking.. and worse still for health..

We had introduced a kind of non-lethal damage, called Body Ready.. not sure where I got the name now.. but you had a set of boxes.. and to nominate if the physical damage you just took was light, you ticked the box.. you could 'take a breather' in combat and get back d4+ con bonus BR.. if you didn't each tick cost you a -1 to all skills & stats (out of breath) and if it was medium, you crossed the tick, you needed a full round of breathing to stop that one.. but was still only a -1  and the final heavy, circle that crossed tick.. this one need a nights rest (or at least an hour per circle)

Health was another matter, When you got cut, you got health damage and bleed damage (per 5 pts of health = 1 bleed), you needed to stauch the wound to stop it.. else you'd lose that much bleed as health per round.

Then we also had a problem, If I smacked you over the head.. how could I knock you out? most systems had a rule about, if you're at 0 HP, you're unconcious... but as often as not, you were also bleeding to death too.. we had to lower death down to -15 to be able to counter that.. but what if you were poisoned, ok so now poisons had to have more damage to match the sword + bleed numbers.. ok so what about if you fall off a cliff? slam into the ground, maybe you break your legs.. do you pass out? walk away?

Health has always had a problem in Roleplay Games, its dumbed down to make it a game.. there we are again, referring to it as a game.. well I'm sorry, but by this stage this was no longer a game, this was a way of representing reality within a game system.. its called gamification..

Yes, some of my players riled against this attitude that I had (I've changed a bit since.. but I used to be very sheldon about it)

I was slowly developing something that was no longer a roleplay game, I was trying to understand how we represent ourselves as a set of statistics... why? because that has to be the basis to things.. a solid foundation, before making things playable.. and I think its become one of the reasons why alot of players actually like my game, because they can see themselves doing things, rather than a list of actions in a choice menu.

But I digress (I'll write more about this later) At this stage of development, we had Health, Body Ready, Knockout and Death.. you could get values of up to 100 Health as a moderate 7th level character.. but to get to 120, took an extraordinary ammount of bonuses, skills and game events.. 20th level characters might get 125... but We forgot healing..

The first iteration of the game, was WHFRP, health was out of 10, starting around 3... Dragon Warriors has something similar.. starting around 8 and sometimes getting to 25.. both systems had a fairly even idea that you'd wait a few days to get back 1 point, then 1 point per day after that.. seemed ok..

.. but after we added in bleeding, we needed to multiple everyones health by 5, (so that 1-3 points of bleeding per round, was less problematic), which meant all weapons x5, ok, so that made healing easier.. you started healing 1 point on day 1, and rose by 1 per day.. by 10 days, if you were still damaged, you healed by 10 that night..

Damage dice for weapons was now broken, poisons and spells broken.. everything was broken from this bleeding rule. So we scrapped it. I had to think of something new, something that worked.. infact the whole Body ready system was flawed, but for the longest time, I had no other solution..

But we did add all the Rolemaster Criticals in.. that made things fun.