Here's something for folks to try out. It's a damage variant that
extends it to non-combat situations.
Here's how it works: Hit points are now a measure of roughly how long
it takes to complete a task. In combat, how long it takes to defeat
an opponent. We'll look at combat first.
Hit Points in Combat
A combat may either be fatal or non-fatal. In either hit points act
as a measure of roughly how long it will take to defeat an opponent.
Every point of damage done means the opponent is that much closer to
defeat.
In fatal combat: Once the target's hit point reach zero, the target
is incapacitated, unable to do anything. At -1 to -9 points the
target is incapacitated and dying, using the standard rules for such.
At -10 the target is dead. N.B.: until the target is at zero hit
points or less, he takes no substantial physical damage. he will
likely have scrapes, cuts, and bruises, but nothing that can be
called life threatening. Only when his hit points go into the
negatives does he take life threatening damage.
In non-fatal combat: Once the target's hit points reach zero or less,
he has been defeated and must concede. While he has not taken any
physical damage per se, he is now in a situation where he cannot make
an effective defense, and so faces the possibility of immediate death
should he decide to press the point. Should he decide to contest the
decision the victor may make a fatal attack against a DC of 5 with
full damage applying should the attack succeed.
Hit Points Outside of Combat
In this case the DM assigns two values to a task, Difficulty class
and Hit Points. DC is used as a measure of how difficult it is to
make progress at a task. Hit Points are used as a measure of how long
it will take to actually succeed. Every time a PC succeeds at making
progress, the player rolls "damage" according to the tool or tools
being used. Improper tools give a D3 or D4 in "damage. Proper tools
give a D6 or D8. Masterwork tools give a D10 or perhaps even 2D6
E.G.: The player wants his PC to carve a wooden statue for a friend
using mahogany. The PC has Craft, Sculpture, Wood at a rank of 3, a
dex of 13 for a +1 and a standard set of wood carving tools for no
modifier positive or negative. Mahogany, being a rather hard wood,
has a DC of 18 to sculpt; and since he wishes to do an involved
sculpture, the DM assigns a hit point score of 60 to finish the task.
With his dexterity and skill, the PC succeeds in making progress
every time the player rolls a 14 or better on a D20. Since he is
using standard wood carving tools, but not ones designed specifically
for work with woods such as mahogany, he rolls a D6 to see how much
progress he is making. Since he does 3.5 points of "damage" times a
35% chance of making progress, for each round he works on the statue
he will do 1.225 points of "damage" per round. Which means it will
take 49 rounds to complete the sculpture.
Now, there is a sticking point here. A six second round does not work
in non-combat situations, most of the time. In the case of opening a
lock it might, but searching for traps it won't. In the case of the
sculpture above, how long should each round be? I'm thinking an hour,
but I'm not a wood carver. Two hours? Half a day? One day? That's why
I'm asking for input and playtesting.
Try this out, see how it works, and send in feedback.
Alan
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