(A) Hearts HD system and what does it entail?
Let’s start by cutting the crap from previous post https://vdonnutvalley.wordpress.com/2023/10/21/shifting-the-hp-paradigm/ and get straight to the point. Instead of using HP or HD, I proposed to get rid of straight damage roll and count “one hit per hit” and turn HDs into Hearts – points you actively spend to mitigate some damage.
In my first post I advocated for making every HD into a Heart. Well, it would hurt Fighters by giving everyone the same amount of resilience so let’s count how should it really look like. In Basic OSE there are four classes – two have d4 HD, one has d6 and another one d8. The middle ground should be something around d5/d6, I think, but I’d like to assume it is d6. Statistical mean progression of HP in first six levels is this: 3,5 -> 7 -> 10,5 -> 14 -> 17,5 -> 21. Each 3,5 counts then as a Heart. How would it look like for other classes?
For d4 HPs it look like this: 2,5 -> 5 -> 7,5 -> 10 -> 12,5 -> 15. Everybody gets 1 Heart at the start because I’m not cruel. But 5 HP (2nd level) is too far from 2nd level standard, so the second Heart is given on 3rd level. Third Heart on 4th level, and fourth heart on 6th. Four Hearts total for weaker classes, six for medium.
And fighters with their d8? 4,5 -> 9 -> 13,5 -> 18 -> 22,5 -> 27. One Heart on 1st, second one on 2nd level but additional two Hearts on level three. Then each level is additional heart. So on 6th level frail classes have 4 Hearts, medium ones 6 and bulky ones 7. This feels right.
Thief/MU
| 2,5 ❤ | 5 | 7,5 ❤ | 10 ❤ | 12,5 | 15 ❤ |
Cleric
| 3,5 ❤ | 7 ❤ | 10,5 ❤ | 14 ❤ | 17,5 ❤ | 21 ❤ |
Fighter
| 4,5 ❤ | 9 ❤ | 13,5 ❤❤ | 18 ❤ | 22,5 ❤ | 27 ❤ |
Using Hearts in game fiction. I explained in previous post some of the problems of HPs in narration. How do the Hearts fix it? Since you don’t die once they deplete you can be actually hurt without dying. So healing potions and spells are for real wounds and not used Hearts. Also you choose when to use them – so it can be perceived as conscious effort and active defense instead of idle protective field. Another thing is since each Heart is regained very slowly (as I’ll explain in a moment) it seems more like a special resource. It can be explained as strain when character dodges strike in a heartbeat (pun intended).
Recovering Hearts is slow. Although I decided to count a Heart as equivalent of 3,5 HPs recovering it is slower. I think I’d set them all to 6. Using Forged in the Dark nomenclature you have 6-tick clock of Heart recovery. Every time you sleep 8 hours get 1 tick. If you eat tasty hearty meal (pun intended again) get 1 tick. Such meal is like a solid dinner, I wouldn’t count it more than once per day. Also other means of relaxation give 1 tick. So getting to sleep in an inn, after satiating meal and a few pints of ale/smoking a pipe/listening to a nice song gives you 3 ticks. This whole thing opens up options for side abilities and backgrounds. You were a chef before? You can make such meal with fresh ingredients. You’re a bard? You may sing or play a lullaby to your mates so they’d feel better. Of course it is not without problems – cooking whole meal in the wilds and singing a song together are activities which may end up affecting random encounters on the road. In a bad way. Which add to the whole notion of game being a series of decisions.
With bigger emphasis on the fiction of combat I wonder how much of it should be described. Should I make it an advice or should it be direct rule like “helmet protects from death due to blunt trauma”? There is a possibility of someone making an argument they could aim their staff well enough to strike in the eyehole of a helmet and make it killing strike. So maybe advice “usually helmets prevent death due to blunt trauma”? And how much of it should actually be a part of such system?
It really means changing whole combat paradigm. All of it. Initiative. Movement. Actions per round. All out. On one hand it means throwing out a lot of established game elements. On the other it opens a whole lot of different, more fictional, less numerical abilities. Dual wielding sword mayhem? Keeping enemies at bay in front AND back with two-bladed spear? Using your extra sharp dagger to remove parts of someone’s armour without hurting them? Parrying and utilizing defensive capabilities of swords? Shit seems endless.
What about enemies? I would treat them the same. Just think how many levels they have (or HD if you’re hardcore “monsters don’t have levels”) and assign proper Heart value. Then slash it in half or reduce to one. Why? Because Hearts are not interesting. They are fine to be used by players because it evokes PCs toughness and allows interesting combat choices. Human enemies are okay with Hearts because humans are boring. But monsters? Monsters should be special. You cannot just straight up hit a dragon with an axe. They got scales and shit. You need to either find their weak spot, the “soft underbelly”, or create a situation in which someone can strike them in the eye/mouth/whatever. Fighting with the undead is not hit-for-hit. They don’t care about your hits. They get up every time, restless, relentless, immortal. You need to find a way to deal with them. Troll doesn’t need additional resilience. It just regenerates all dents made by your puny strikes. Problem-solve it. But beat the living shit out of humans, we all need some steam reliever.
I guess that’s it for now. There will be more posts coming in on the topic. I’m on fire.