Hit or Miss in Detail

[This article is an elaboration of "Hit or Miss."]

Characters begin with hit points equal to their Constitution. They acquire miss points as they level up.

Attacks that cause damage reduce a character's miss points first. Such attacks cause no harm whatsoever and are considered misses.

When a character's miss points are reduced to zero, further damage reduces a character's hit points. Such attacks always cause harm and are considered hits.

Any reduction of hit points causes a physical wound of some sort even if it is only a prominent scar. In general, any attack that reduces a character's hit points by 25% can be considered a significant wound that may impose a penalty to attacks, movement, or attribute checks until healed. Any attack that reduces a character's hit points by 50% can be considered a grievous wound that may result in permanent disability. The specifics of such wounds can be determined by hit location, random tables, GM fiat, or—if the GM consents—victor's choice.

Healing always restores hit points first. All of the usual methods of healing are effective in this regard.

Miss points can only be recovered when hit points are at maximum. Miss points are recovered by time and, possibly, the acquisition of good luck or good karma (depending on the game system and/or the GM).

With this rule option, I recommend that zero hit points should equal death. No death saving throws, no countdowns, no Constitution depletion. This compensates for the high number of hit points with which characters will start.

In a future article, I may address miss point acquisition and recovery as it applies to some well-known level-based fantasy role-playing games.

[This is my first blog post using my new System 76 computer running Linux. Freedom at last!]

Hit or Miss

Since at least the late 1970s and the publication of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide, there have been those (including E. Gary Gygax himself) who assert that hit points are not merely physical damage capacity (at least where player characters are concerned), but are a combination of luck, divine will, and "plot armor." If this is truly the case, then why not call it what it is? In pursuit of this line of reasoning, I propose a new rule. Make the hit point maximum static, and let player characters gain "miss points" as they level up.

In the case of Dungeons & Dragons and others of its ilk, make hit points equal to a character's Constitution (or its equivalent stat in other games). When characters level up, they gain miss points instead of hit points. When a character sustains damage, it is deducted from the character's miss points first. When those are depleted, the damage is deducted from the character's hit points. Until the damage starts to reduce hit points, no actual physical injury occurs. Healing occurs in reverse order: first hit points, then miss points. All of the usual healing methods are effective to restore hit points, but time alone restores miss points. Or maybe new rules could address additional miss point recovery along the lines of luck or karma acquisition.

Hit points as hit points are silly, but if you're going to keep them, you might as well run with it, hit or miss.

[See also "Hit or Miss in Detail."]

The Alignment Octagram

For those who like the moral ambiguity of the Law-Neutrality-Chaos alignment system but pine for the complexity of the ninefold alignment system introduced in AD&D, I offer the eightfold alignment system I call the Alignment Octagram!

	Lawful Neutral	Neutral Lawful
Lawful Lawful			Lawful Chaotic
Chaotic Lawful			Chaotic Chaotic
	Chaotic Neutral	Neutral Chaotic

Do with it as you will.

N.B. Neutral Neutral only exists as a theoretical ideal. No character who is Neutral Neutral engages in adventures of any kind.

Choosing Tanelorn

Another literary creation that has already been adapted to a role-playing game is once again being adapted to another role-playing game—make that two new role-playing games by two different publishers—and I am less than thrilled. The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock will be adapted to Dragonbane by Free League Publishing and to Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG and D&D 5E by Goodman Games. I wish both publishers success, and I understand how at least two of the three adaptations could be a reasonable fit, but Chaosium's first edition of Stormbringer is still, for me, one of the best fantasy role-playing games ever published and all I would ever need for a game set in the Young Kingdoms. I have grown weary of crowdfunding projects, product lines that disappear when the license is not renewed, and the difficulty of finding players who are also familiar with the source material. I'm not saying I couldn't be swayed if the systems are shaped to serve the source material rather than the other way around, but I would have to see proof of it first. I have grown much more cautious in my game-purchasing since my last unwise pledge to a big Kickstarter project. I'd rather just have the original Stormbringer in hardcover.

Table: d4 Treasure Types

There are at least four treasure types in this particular game system/setting/world. This is the thirtieth table of the Table of Tetrahedral Possibility.

d4 Treasure Types

Roll 1d4

1. 2,000 copper pieces
2. 1 Melnibonéan gold wheel
3. 1d4 miscellaneous magic items
4. Betty White

Table: d4 Unexpected Visitors

You may expect at least four different kinds of unexpected visitors when you least expect it. This is the twenty-ninth table of the Table of Tetrahedral Possibility.

d4 Unexpected Visitors

Roll 1d4

1. A three-headed troll with a/an adjective noun.
2. An out-of-work gnollkeeper.
3. A circuit-riding anti-paladin.
4. A flock/herd of 3d4 perytons.

Table: d4 NPC Alignments

There are at least four different alignments randomly occurring amongst random non-player characters randomly encountered in random places. This is the twenty-eighth table of the Table of Tetrahedral Possibility.

d4 NPC Alignments

Roll 1d4

1. Lawful Ruthless
2. Neutral Indifferent
3. Neutral Chaotic
4. Chaotic Lawful

Table: d4 System Shock Survival

There are at least four different possibilities in a system shock survival roll. (No knowledge of system shock survival rules required.) This is the twenty-seventh table of the Table of Tetrahedral Possibility.

d4 System Shock Survival

Roll 1d4

1. Shocked, but not survived.
2. Both shocked and survived.
3. Not shocked and survived.
4. Neither shocked nor survived.

Table: d4 Languages, Elective

There are at least four different languages students may elect to study for whatever reason. This is the twenty-sixth table of the Table of Tetrahedral Possibility.

d4 Languages, Elective

Roll 1d4

1. Standard Beholderish
2. Invisible Stalker
3. Pidgin Red Dragon (Chimeran Dialect)
4. Shedu

Table: d4 Languages, Vocational

There are at least four different languages known only by members of certain vocations. This is the twenty-fifth table of the Table of Tetrahedral Possibility.

d4 Languages, Vocational

Roll 1d4

1. Nuns' Cant
2. Tinkers' Argot
3. Porters' Patois
4. Magic!