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Post by scottanderson on Jun 23, 2017 0:43:32 GMT -5
We all know about rolling up all the hit dice every time you level up, which is a fun lottery thing you can do.
I had also read somewhere, I think on DF, that some people would roll up hit points every morning of the campaign. That sounds fun and risky. Not sure how it would work with hit point damage though. Maybe we would need a different philosophy about what a hit point is.
It just came to me that you could roll hit points anew every day. BUT instead of in the morning, you would roll them when you first took damage that day. That way you really wouldn't know exactly how healthy you are until it was put to the test!
After all: creatures you never fight don't have hit points. They only have the stats that they need (usually none or just a couple.) They only get hit points if you need to fight them. Could we confer this property of hit points to the PCs and their allies as well?
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Post by bravewolf on Jun 23, 2017 2:08:38 GMT -5
Yeah, I've seen the roll-each-day approach in Nicolaus Dessaux's "Searchers of the Unknown". My daughter and I liked it. Then there is Geoffrey's "Carcosa" convention: characters and monsters have a number of HD & roll on a table whenever a fight starts to see what kind of hit dice they roll for hp. I really want to try this. One needs hella dice, though, cos you leave them on the table and literally adjust the dice as you take hits.
As for the metaphysics of hp, I think any of these alternative approaches lend themselves to hp as highly influenced by luck, will to live, or divine favor. This notion exists already in AD&D, but I've had my head out of OD&D just long enough to forget whether the 3LLBs or Greyhawk contain it as well. Probably the concept of more variable hp wouldn't require a lot of explanation or suspension of belief. Equally, most players would be loathe to switch existing PCs to a variable hp - unless they got crap rolls already.
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Post by captaincrumbcake on Jun 23, 2017 12:22:16 GMT -5
Honestly, anything one wants to do within one's own game/campaign is officially approved. So, I can't think of anything in writing to counter that concept. (Except, maybe, AD&D.)
One point of opinion, though: the more one inflates 1 or more particular mechanics of the process of playing the game, the more it becomes about the process, and not the adventure/spirit behind the game's purpose.
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Post by bravewolf on Jun 23, 2017 16:00:15 GMT -5
Honestly, anything one wants to do within one's own game/campaign is officially approved. So, I can't think of anything in writing to counter that concept. (Except, maybe, AD&D.) One point of opinion, though: the more one inflates 1 or more particular mechanics of the process of playing the game, the more it becomes about the process, and not the adventure/spirit behind the game's purpose. Well, true enough about "official approval"; about all the approval I need is what we like at our table. I read the OP as wondering whether a new conception of a game concept (hp) would be needed for people to grok & accept a different mechanic (alternative HP rolls)...how much of a jump might it be for a given gaming group, based on how HP are described in the rules normally used - not as a question of permissibility under the rules. Hence the references to OD&D and AD&D. Maybe there would be other rules interactions as a result as well. Yeah, I too am wary of playing processes that distract from the in-game action.
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Post by scottanderson on Jun 23, 2017 16:32:18 GMT -5
Some days you would roll all 1s, and you would find out very quickly that your normal role as meat shield would just have to wait!
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Post by bravewolf on Jun 23, 2017 19:57:36 GMT -5
That reminds me: What is the saddest sort of hireling?
A meat shield with no boss! *ducks and runs away*
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Post by mao on Sept 14, 2017 11:27:22 GMT -5
I tried this idea out with a set of rules I made up, it was really fun but I don't thnk I would do it again....OH wait I just had a brain storm on this
How about this> Put this to use in a very specific physical place(ie another dimension or say an island)
?
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Post by Crimhthan The Great on Sept 14, 2017 11:32:53 GMT -5
I tried this idea out with a set of rules I made up, it was really fun but I don't thnk I would do it again....OH wait I just had a brain storm on this How about this> Put this to use in a very specific physical place(ie another dimension or say an island) ? I suppose you could travel to an island to try out a new idea for your game, I try new ideas out where I live. So you have a way to travel to other dimensions? Why don't you share that with the rest of it, it would be a fun thing to do.
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Post by dicebro on Jan 23, 2020 9:10:29 GMT -5
Here’s an idea: every day your PC survives an adventure, you get a hit point. I’ve never tried it. Would be hard to use with monsters and NPCs. Eh, not a good practice.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 23, 2020 14:22:42 GMT -5
Here’s an idea: every day your PC survives an adventure, you get a hit point. I’ve never tried it. Would be hard to use with monsters and NPCs. Eh, not a good practice. Hmm, well that could run into hundreds of hit points for some characters, but there is a germ of an idea there. It just needs teased and pulled at until something emerges. What else could you do that would not be superpowering, but would be of benefit. How about something that instead of per day is per adventure and not just one thing but many different things come into the mix. We should think about this and then post away, until something sticks. Brainstorming is never wasted.
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