Your character is pinned down behind cover, surrounded by enemies who are opening fire on them! If you’re really lucky and the dice are on your side, you might escape this situation unscathed. More than likely though, you’re going be taking some damage! Over the years, with all the games I’ve been lucky enough to own and\/or play, I’ve found two primary ways damage is tracked in role playing games; hit points and health levels.<\/p>\n
Hit points are the oldest method of tracking damage in role playing games; Dungeons & Dragons was the first and there have been countless games that have done the same. It’s an abstract measure of your character’s physical health and wellbeing. This number is usually generated randomly and each point of damage taken is subtracted from your current condition.<\/p>\n
Health levels are a little more abstract; the number of levels characters get can be standardized or may vary slightly depending on your character’s other traits. Tracking damage is usually done by figuring out how much of the incoming damage exceeds your defined threshold, with each factor beyond that threshold inflicting a level of damage. This type of damage tracking can be seen in games like World of Darkness or Savage Worlds.<\/p>\n
Hit points give you a number that defines how healthy your character is, but in my experience there seems to be a tendency to ignore the narrative effects of any damage until you reach your last few points, with character’s bodies seemingly resembling a pincushion before they succumb to their wounds. On the flipside of this dilemma, there are characters with so<\/em><\/strong> many hit points that most of the challenges they face become inconsequential.<\/p>\n Then with health levels, it can sometimes seem like no matter how tough you get, you can still be taken down with one good attack, or with a lucky roll. Usually, each level is accompanied by some penalty to your rolls due to the pain and the damage suffered; this can make getting out of the trouble you’re in even harder compared to hit point games.<\/p>\n Over the years each system became less and less satisfying, though I must admit that I am still a little more partial to health levels just because of their narrative effects on the character as they continue to take damage. Even so, I find myself searching for systems with an alternative to either type of damage tracking. I can’t say that I have any ingenious idea for an alternative myself, and while I enjoy reading other systems and playing new games, my search has so far eluded me.<\/p>\n What systems for tracking damage do you enjoy? Have you come across any system that is either hit point or health level? What are they like and how do they compare to more traditional methods?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"