Rethinking Hit Points – The Haunting of Eliuska Manor – Into the World
Rethinking Hit Points
One of the big issues I have encountered when running games is Hit Points. Sure it is a tried and true system that is simple. But often for fun games, this means the party needs a healer or they will be taking lots of breaks for resting. My friend tried to alleviate this in our latest SagaBorn game with Reserve Points, a pool of health that we could pull from to heal after a battle. It worked well, but I think we could streamline it even more. We have all played Sci-Fi games that have Shields and Health, and I think we could make hit points work in much the same way, with a tweak in how we present it.
I think splitting current HP in half and putting those points into two categories would create a game that is more dynamic, and less dependent on the healing/resting system. If your current character has 20 HP, you split it 10/10 into Stamina and Health. Stamina takes damage first, health takes it second. So if your 10/10 character takes 11 damage, they take 10 Stamina Damage and 1 Health damage. If the battle ends after that, they gain Stamina at 1 SP (Stamina Point) per minute after the battle. Health damage is healed at normal rest rates.
As far as healing (spells, potions, etc.) goes, it would also heal Stamina first, Health second.
Thematically, this would also fit how combat works. No person can really take sword wound after sword wound. And no one can really heal those wounds overnight. Stamina is often pushed during a battle but also recoups much faster than wounds. So this works as a better representation of battle and its effects on a fighter.
Here is a quick illustration of how a Character sheet could be set up (using the 1.5 SagaBorn Sheet).
So how do you deal with splitting Hit Points? You could just literally split the HP rolled at each level, and the player could decide where any odd numbers go- Stamina or Health. But if we have gone this far, why not tweak the HP gained from the original formula as well. We all have house rules for adding HP. If you roll a 0 reroll. 2 is too low for a fighter, reroll that. Level one gets MAX HP based on Hit Dice. What if that was simplified in a base average number you get at each level? I know many of you already do that as a house rule. So just run with that, and each class gets a standard amount of Stamina and Hit Points.
A fighter normally rolls 1d10 plus CON bonus for their HP. What if, at level up, they gain 3 Stamina and 3 Hit Points (1d10 average of 5.5 rounded up) plus CON bonus, which goes into HP. At Starting Level they get the full 10, so 5/5 plus CON bonus to HP.
This health system is intriguing to me, so I may work this into one of my groups soon to see how it goes in the long run. What do you think of it?
What’s in the Works?
Can you survive the horrors of the mysterious Eliuska Manor?
The haunted house: a setting that has fascinated us since we first moved from the open wilds into homes contained in stone. Take your adventurers into a terrifying mansion filled with all the things we love about horror movies, haunted houses, and spooky adventures! The adventurers have been asked to investigate a lord’s manor after another team of heroes went in and never returned. They will follow the clues deep into the bowels of the giant manor hoping to unlock its gruesome secrets.
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Into the World
The small town of Patriaslav
- Statistics: Crime 5; Danger 7; Economy 2; Law 4; Knowledge 1; Magic 3
- Highest Stat is 10, lowest 1
- Size: Town
- Government: Feudal
- Economic System: Capitalist
- Population: 440. 100% human
Notable NPC’s:
- Priest Gerard Hugh: leader of church and village. Feared and respected. He believes those in the keep serve god and should be protected.
- Gorski family: run the inn and tavern. Friendly, fearful, religious.
- Jolan Cholarty: Constable, Lvl 4 Brawler. Untrusting, gruff