What is a Hit Point?

Now, you really can't discuss any particular facet of D&D combat (such as Hit Points) without touching on the other aspects of that abstraction Armor Class/Defense, Saves, Critical Hits, Death and Dying Mechanics, etc.

The way I run combat, Hit Points are not a definable quality of a being.  They are purely a game mechanic and not diegetic to the game world.  Most importantly, the loss of Hit Points does not equal a wound.

Taking a step back, Hit Points (and Saves) are things that increase as characters level up (or creatures have greater Hit Dice).  Compare this with Armor Class, a 1st level warrior can easily put on plate mail, and have a great AC, but there is little they can do to improve HP or Saves. This makes Hit Points/Saves a reflection not of a naturalistic quality of the being, but more a measure of their "value" in the game.  To borrow a term, they are a mechanical representation of "plot armor".

Now, this approach to HP does have some wrinkles:

• If HP are not diegetic, then what does the Cure Light Wounds spell represent?
• I get it, it is right in the name of the spell.  I generally hand wave this as a blessing to renew vigor, almost a divine shot of adrenaline.  I don't go so far as to rename the spell, just sort of keep the above definition in mind when describing things narratively.
• If a "HIT" does not always equal the wounding of a creature, then how to you reconcile add-on effects (Poison, Ghoul Paralysis, Bleeding, etc.)
• To start, this is one of those areas that as the game evolved, folks took the abstraction of Hits and Hit Points, and treated them more literal.  Not much can be done about that.
• However, most of those effects have some sort of Save or confirmation mechanic.  As such, we can use the outcome to retroactively describe the "Hit".  Passed the Save? Then the blade narrowly passes by your flesh, the poison dripping down on your skin.  Failed? then the Ghoul's claws pierce through the seams of your armor, allowing the necrosis into your bloodstream.
• Critical Hits, I will often describe these as a strike or wound.  Like when Rocky gets his first real hit on Drago. It rewards the excitement of the Crit.
  

In the end, I think this lack of solid definition of Hits, HP, etc. is a feature, not a bug.  It allows a hit to be a wound when it needs to be, it allows for luck or awesomeness when needed. It is a great tool for robust game play and narrative.

Below are my general guidelines with regard to Hit Points.

• Hits and Hit Point loss are not wounds, expect when it is obvious they are.
  
• When creatures get down to their last bit of HP (~ CON score + HD/Level) , they are "bloodied", so I will start describing cuts, bruised, etc.
• I will describe a "non-wound" HP loss as a wearing down of ones defenses, pushing back, etc.
• Injuries (Scars, etc.) don't really happen until one reaches 0HP (and/or perhaps Critical Hits, depends on the system).
• HP based healing will often be described as renewing of vigor, easing of aches.  Unless they are down in the above described "bloodied" range, in which case, bruises clear, cuts close, etc.
  

What is an Experience Point?

I first encountered the below thoughts about XP in some random blog or reddit post.  Sorry to the person who's idea it is, I don't remember who you are.

1 Experience Point (XP) represents the amount you learn in a day of going about your craft.  If you take in to account days of rest and other distractions, we can hand wave that to about 300xp per year.

With about 40 years of working life for a human, you can assume they earn about 12,000 xp over their productive years.  What level this may equate to may vary depending on game edition and class.

Lets take a caravan guard.  Growing up, they were a zero level NPC, as a caravan guard they are likely a member of the Fighter class.  Lets also assume we are using a classic D&D XP chart (2,000 at first level, doubling thereafter).  Our caravan guard, presuming they live, will likely make it to 4th level (maybe 5th if he kills his share of bandits and gets XP for those)

Note: if you use gold for XP, I would not count their pay as XP, I would just use the 1xp per day as an abstraction of their earning power.  If they got some bonuses or shares of spoils at some point, I would award bonus XP for same. (if for some reason you wanted to simulated the life of a caravan guard)

A Dwarf weaponsmith would likely have 300 or so productive years.  This put them in the neighborhood of 7-8th level.  An Elven sage could likely make it to 9th level. So one could see how such long lived races would gain a reputation for great skill in particular areas, even if the traditional adventuring party only has a few pips difference in ability.

These numbers also help give an idea of how accomplished (What level) your "normal" people are at a given point in their career.   Taking about 5 year or so to make it to 2nd level.  This (very roughly) aligns with the idea that it takes about 10,000 hours to become skilled at something.

Admittedly, all of this is very abstract, but it does help give an idea of what your average schmo is accomplishing and help fill out your world with something more than 0 level NPCs waiting to be slain by house-cats.

Hot Takes!?!

Just some random things bopping around my brain:

Players and Monsters (NPCs) SHOULD follow the same rules (mostly).

    I see a back and forth about if the decision to have monsters/npcs use the same rules as players is one of the drawbacks of 3e style D&D.   Usually this is in relation to how much time it takes to make adversaries in the game.  To my mind, this sidesteps the issue.  To me, the issue is how complex the rules are in the first place.  That's not to say that you can't take some shortcuts where adversaries are involved, but the basic building block should line up.

 

D&D Movie

    So we got another one coming.  I think I only saw about half of any of the 2000s era movies.  There are a plethora of movies (old and new) that encapsulate D&D style fantasy.  However, I think the most "D&D" move we have is The Princess Bride.  It is a compelling fantasy story, that is framed, interrupted, and to some extent impacted by those whom the audience is watching experience it.  A D&D movie (as opposed to a fantasy movie using D&D IP) would be wise to borrow this framework.

4e D&D

 Not going to entertain an edition war, but there are some things I don't get.  I appreciate that they likely had a number of business constraints impacting design, and chose to go with a "from the ground up" approach to the design.  That said, if one of the goals was to eliminate the 15 minute adventuring day, why still daily powers?  All the messing about with Healing Surges, why not just reduce total HP and make HP "per encounter"?  Its like when a bit of software gets a re-build, it does not necessarily fix the problems that were intended, and likely introduces new unintended ones.

WandaVision

    So, overall I enjoyed it (though asked alot of the audience to stick around the first 3 episodes).  The ending fell flat for me for two reasons.  1. typically hero vs their dark mirror fight.  2. Did not deliver on things is was strongly teasing.  Not that it matters, but a few things i would change to to keep the main bits in tact, but feel more satisfying to me.

• Agatha doesn't want to steal Wanda's powers; she wants to turn her Vader style.  Pretty much everything happens the same, but when Agatha realized Wands still wants to wallow, she leaves in disappointing disgust, "You'll come around eventually" and leaves the Darkhold as her calling card.
• Also Agatha mentions something about "oh you like my Pietro stand in?  He is something I found in my travels....."  At least leave it open about if that means multiverses or not instead of making a boner joke.
  
• SWORD boss does not go full cartoon evil, and instead stays in charge.  He is better as a foil for Monica and SPEAR if he still in charge and just has a strong (and justified) position against meta-humans.  He could be the MCU Amanda Waller. 
• Monica has more of a role in the last episode, after Agatha leaves, it is Monica who talks Wanda down and helps her come to grips with her grief and the impact of her actions in Westview.
• Yeah, that means to have to juggle the timeline of the last few episodes a bit to fit in the Double Vision fight, but that needed to happen anyway.  Just how long was Hex Vision flying from the circus truck that White Vision beat him to the house by a healthy margin?

 

3e was the best engineered edition of the game

    Someone said 4e was the best designed version (see my comments about not engaging in editions wars, we are past that fight mattering).  I think I can at least consider that point, even if it was not my taste.   However, 3e was the best engineered.  Perhaps it was over-engineered, but it had a lot riding on that design.  It had to take ALL the stuff from 25 years of the game, across several flavors of basic and advanced, make it into something coherent, without alienating fans.  And it mostly did that, in a robust way.  It is a shame we never saw a mainline revision of that rule set.  I think many of the OGL clones have come close, but imagine that attempt streamlining with WoTC's resources behind it.

 

The God War

 Another Addendum to my Default World posts.

D&D worlds are filled with lots of weird things, tons of sentient species, crazy old magic and dungeons. So where does all this stuff come from?  I ascribe to the philosophy that D&D is post apocalyptic, in that the classic game play elements and my own preferences for sword and sorcery style trappings work in a world where there was something "greater" that came before.

In my default D&D world, some time in the ancient past there was The God War.  Few specifics are known about this time, sometimes referred to as When Hell Rained (Reigned) Down Over The Land.  None are alive who remember anyone who remembers it first hand, even among the ancient Elves and Dragons.  The Gods, Demons, Divinations, and other Immortal sources of information are mum on the topic.  

What is surmised is that during this age the Gods and their Proxies laid direct claim to the lands.  They used their considerable powers to create wondrous structures and beings.  They also made terrible war, pitting greater and greater magics and creatures against each one another and each other as part of their mad games.  It is from this time that Artifacts, great Dungeons, and many of the creatures (sentient and not) came to be.  The bloodlines of many of these being also lay dormant in the modern populace, with atavisms being born periodically.

How this era came to end is a matter of conjecture, philosophy, and dogma.  The Church would say their Gods prevailed or put an end to the petty squabbles of lesser deities, to set the world right.  Others say the gods came to an agreement.  Some tell tales that mortals prevailed and cast them out.   The cynical presume the Gods became bored, or otherwise lost interest in the world or some resource therein.

Whatever the case, when your player's ask "Where did these come from", you can easily say "The God War".