Dice for Accumulative Hits (Hit Dice): This indicates the number of dice which are rolled in order to determine how many hit points a character can take. Plusses are merely the number of pips to add to the total of all dice rolled not to each die. Thus a Super Hero gets 8 dice + 2; they are rolled and score 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6/totals 26 + 2 = 28, 28 being the number of points of damage the character could sustain before death. Whether sustaining accumulative hits will otherwise affect a character is left to the discretion of the referee. [ Emphasis added. ]I can see interpreting that last sentence at least two ways, hinted at in the questions I asked above. One may be the GM's option to rule that the amount of damage a character has suffered, or even the kind of damage last suffered, has caused some additional effect. The other is a suggestion that death isn't always the outcome of taking more damage than the character's hit points can sustain. Certainly, the rules for subduing a dragon, which could be generalized to other enchanted beasts or to intelligent foes, could be taken as a sign that "death" isn't always death.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Meditation on Hit Points
So, in LBB OD&D: does a character automatically die when he takes damage equal to or greater than his hit points? Does a character go into a death spiral as wounds accumulate, or does he stay at maximum ability all the way to the end? Consider this quote from Vol. I, p. 17:
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Interesting. I like the idea that hit points might be more versatile.
ReplyDeleteA number of people have suggested using hit points for more than just tracking death, but I think it's interesting that there's a suggestion of this even in the very first edition of the game.
ReplyDeleteGiven that characters can be raised from the dead in the context of the game, I take "whether sustaining accumulative hits will otherwise affect a character" to refer to whether those hits might indicate drastic mangling/mutilation of the corpse that might complicate or even prevent said revival.
ReplyDeleteAddendum: Or leave the successfully revived character crippled in some way (missing or maimed limbs that could affect movement or dexterity, charisma penalizing scars, intelligence and/or wisdom hindering brain damage, etc).
ReplyDelete@Will: that's what I meant by "the kind of damage last suffered". I think it's included in the possibilities of that LBB quote, but the rules on subduing dragons suggest other uses as well.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. PC "death spiral" rules have been around almost forever, but I think reading them into the original rules is stretching things quite a bit. I just don't see it.
ReplyDeleteThe crippling injuries you mentioned would be the death spiral stuff.
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