Why is it that in most roleplaying games healthy characters take longer to heal than less healthy ones?
I tend to think of general health as the number of times a_big_ugly_orc can thwack you before you die. If one accepts this simple premise, it is easy to see that your typical level 50 hero is much healthier than your typical level 1 hero.
Now show me a game where that level 50 heals faster or even at the same rate as the level 1 guy. Get them each to "almost dead," then sit them on their asses. The less healthy of the two is off and scampering after a minute or so, while the more healthy sits there for quite awhile. This is because someone at some point thought that HP recovery should be a fixed number of points over time, and not a fixed percentage of your total points over time. Oh sure in EQ your fixed HP recovery per tick goes up every once in awhile, but the basic problems are still there: The healthier you are, the longer it takes you to heal.
This just seems so counterintuitive, that I decided in my game to go a different route. That is, everyone heals from almost dead to full health in about the same amount of time. The more HP you got, the faster they come back.
Don'tcha think that just makes sense?
ID:194308
 Jun 10 2001, 9:09 am
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Don'tcha think that just makes sense? Sure--although what makes even more sense, to me, is not increasing someone's hit points because he gains levels! I mean, 50th level fighter or otherwise, if someone sticks a shotgun in his mouth, he's a done tom turkey. I'm just playing devil's advocate, of course; I've had fun in many a game where hit points keep rising and rising. But certainly, in a game of this style, fiddling with the healing rate isn't going to have much impact on the overall level of realism. :) | |
Very good point. I Like your idea too, but I think the flaw is in the HP system in general.
I prefer systems where (almost) everyone has the same amount of health and it is your varying resistances that change from character to character (like Shadowrun or the World of Darkness games.) With HP systems, you get the ridiculous cases where a skilled warrior with a dagger takes half an hour to kill another high level character. Do you think the biggest meanest toughest SoB on our planet could laugh off someone just carving them up with a knife? Their skill and the protective qualities of their clothing protect them, not some inate ability to absorb more damage. Admitedly, some people are more frail than others, but no one can survive an expertly placed attack from a dagger without external protection. This being said, I'm sorry to report that Darke Dungeon goes with the classic HP system. I am also ashamed it's a "twitch" game. However, it should be fun even if it is horribly unrealistic. | |
With HP systems, you get the ridiculous cases where a skilled warrior with a dagger takes half an hour to kill another high level character. Do you think the biggest meanest toughest SoB on our planet could laugh off someone just carving them up with a knife? Their skill and the protective qualities of their clothing protect them, not some inate ability to absorb more damage. I agree, which is why there won't be that many orders of magnitude of differences in possible player HPs. A range of about 30-100 HP from frailest to healthiest might do the trick. Except for me. I get a million HP. So there :-P | |
On 6/10/01 12:09 pm Skysaw wrote:
Why is it that in most roleplaying games healthy characters take longer to heal than less healthy ones? Game balance and lowered frustration levels. If we put systems into games based on whether they're (1) balanced (2) logical and (3) fun, which I hope we do, there are going to be conflicts sometimes, and sometimes one of those factors is going to lose out. ;) Z | |
Sure--although what makes even more sense, to me, is not increasing someone's hit points because he gains levels! I mean, 50th level fighter or otherwise, if someone sticks a shotgun in his mouth, he's a done tom turkey. Yup. In TekForce (I finally gave in and began coding it), people have a vitality attribute that governs their current health. People can never go above 120 vitality. The average vitality is 50. Usually, most pistols deal a good 20 damage points per shot. Which means that guns can kill someone with a couple shots; doesn't matter what level of skill they have, if they get blown away there's not much, aside from armour, that's going to protect them. (Sniper rifles can deal a good 80 to 90 damage points (with some nice ammo, that is). Head shots inflict three times the damage too. Nice knowing you.) Also, vitality can't be easily raised. It takes medicine, a variety of drugs, and exercise to raise this attribute merely a couple of points. Most people are stuck with the vitality they chose for the rest of their characters' lives. And, as this post is generally aiming, I had considered the healing rate; people heal at an average rate of 3% of their maximum vitality per (game) hour. Bruise damage heals much faster; a rate of 3% per (game) minute. Unfortunately, I'm left with a tough decision... since it's quite easy to die in this game, I'm wondering if character death should be permanent. At least, I can make it so that you can start over with the same attributes, less all equipment that you might have earned. Since all equipment is recycled (there are no new items created except for the initial world creation), it would be relatively easy to track down the person who did you in and put a stop to them. | |
On 6/10/01 1:59 pm Zilal wrote:
On 6/10/01 12:09 pm Skysaw wrote: You are correct in a general sense. However, longer heal times ADD to the frustration level, not lower it. | |
Brainstorming... if you want to get more complicated, I'd say that "health" is a different matter entirely from "the ability to get whacked with a broadsword 50 times and walk away." A skinny, wiry little person with not a lot of muscle may be fit as a fiddle, and able to recover from injuries much quicker than a meaty, girthy companion, who has more tough muscular fibers protecting the vital organs from punctures and bruises.
I actually got this idea from an optional rule in the GURPS role-playing system... by default, hit points are based on the Health attribute and endurance is based on Strength... but people have made, quite convincingly, the argument that this is completely backwards. The more fit (healthy) you are, the longer you're able to endure labor... and the more massive and strong you are, the more likely a blow that would be fatal on a person of lesser density will only be a scratch or a shallow cut on yours.