In any game, there is a chance of losing. In RPGs, one way to lose is to die. A dead character can't complete his mission (though, we have some ideas for mechanics that could allow a dying character one last shot at victory, despite kicking the bucket). So, in order to know when you die, you need to know how much damage you can take before you head towards the light.
Enter our health stats. Yes, plural. There are some cinematic elements being incorporated into the game, and in the movies, a character can take a pummelling and keep on kicking, and even appear to be fine in the very next scene. This introduces our first Health Stat, Scene Health.
Of the two health scores, this is the highest. It represents damage taken in ordinary combat, through ordinary events. Most of the damage a character takes in the game will effect his Scene Health. If the Scene Health ever reaches 0, the character dies. At the end of the scene, however, the Scene Health regenerates back up to 100%! This represents the cinematic characters ability to shrug off damage and (while looking bloody and bruised) be a-ok for the next scene.
The second, and significantly lower, health score is the Adventure Health. Damage taken on the Adventure Health scale must be healed through a normal manner, be it doctors, rest or healing-tech. A character who takes damage on this scale is hurting, it sticks around between scenes, and they can soak up less damage in this manner before croaking. AH damage is serious stuff. Only certain, special situations, however, can allow a character to take damage in this manner. We're calling these Cinematic Events, for now, and they'll be covered in a later post.
So, as you can see, a character can shrug off a ton of normal damage and keep on kicking, but in certain special events, his mortality is seen!
The names of both of these stats will probably change later, 'cause they're kind of lame.
Kinda reminds me of the way Risus Monkey does damage in his games - he likes to take advantage of the Risus rule that damage in combat can be due to a temporary set-back, like a disadvantageous position, almost losing your balance, or realizing that you were just staring at your opponent's crotch without intending it. He also frequently allows for a "flesh-wound check" where a character can heal damage after combat with a simple TN roll, usually 5 per point of damage to be recovered. Everything else has to be recovered through other means.
ReplyDeleteNot entirely the same, but a similar concept. You could also try making characters less effective the less health they have, but allowing or encouraging characters to go out in a blaze of glory sounds awesome. You can do that with pumps in Risus, but I think you have something special planned here. Maybe you could have some sort of low-health bonus that activates when you're perilously close to death in addition to the blaze of glory thing.
I was thinking of that, negatives depending on how hurt you are (especially Adventure Health). Also, potentially borrow the concept of "health levels" vs "health points" from elsewhere
ReplyDeleteBy elsewhere, Sean means White Wolf's nWoD! Well, that, and several other systems, but that's the big one.
ReplyDeleteIt's, in theory, a better concept then "I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm dead!" as you get hurt, you're less effective, makes sense. It still doesn't perfectly simulate realism in getting hurt, but neither does any system ever, and realism isn't something we're aiming for.
Still, I like it, in the pulpy serials and movies, you do see the heroes get less effective as a fight drags on and they get beat up, but after combat they're always fine again, ready to run off and get in another one. A system I think the "Scene Health" recreates perfectly.