Hac Healt
A hous rul for D&D 5 or an RPG (1.0)
[Link] .co
1. HP no longer stands for ‘Hit Points.’
It stands for ‘Hero Points.’ *
Think karma, fate, kismet, happenstance.
2. When you get hit, you don’t get hit.
OK, maybe you get hit. It’s up to you.
Taking damage now means …
“Something bad just happened.” **
A crunch of bone? A spurt of blood?
Your shield dented? A close shave?
You doubted yourself? You froze up?
An ally risked their neck to save you?
A bystander struck by a stray bolt?
You lost something? You’re dizzy?
Distracted? Frozen with fear?
Or do you feel no fear at all?
Some part of you has died?
You barely feel these flames?
Up to you.
1
#1 Sam Mechanic #2 New Mechanic
For example (D&D 5e): Alternatively, devise some new
mechanics. For example:
When you take damage, narrate
something bad that happens, and/or At 50% HP, fumble your weapon, lose an
something that may complicate matters. item, or take a status condition: Blinded,
Charmed, Deafened, Fatigued, Frightened,
Grappled, Incapacitated, Paralyzed, Poisoned,
When you take damage equal to or
Prone, Restrained, Stunned.
greater than current HP plus total HP
IT MEANS YOU DIE. At 25% HP, break your weapon, lose a
cherished item, take -1 to an ability score, lose
a loved one, or take a status condition.
Otherwise, at zero HP, get knocked out.
At any time, you may spend 25% of your
At the start of any turn with zero HP, total HP to gain advantage on any roll.
roll d20. 10 or higher is a success, 9 or At zero HP, begin your own personal Doom
lower is a miss. On your third success, Quest. If you fail, you are done for, either
you become stable. On your third miss, dead, or gone never to return.
you die. If you’re lying unconscious as the battle rages,
your Doom Quest is a spiritual journey on
A roll of 1 counts as two misses. A roll the threshold between life and death.
of 20 wakes you up with 1 HP. Glimpse gods. Confront monsters, puzzles,
and environments based on your deepest fears
Someone can stabilize you with a DC 10 and/or your mysterious destiny.
Medicine check, a Healer's Kit, or the Your Doom Quest can be in physical reality,
Spare the Dying cantrip. Or if you’re so long as it calls you away from the rest of
healed to 1 HP, you regain consciousness. the party so that you can’t interact with
them. Maybe you give up adventuring and
join a monastery, or return to the village of
But all the way down to zero HP,
your birth. Or confront your past, your
narrate damage however you wish. Go family, your dark secret, your disease, your
out as a leaky pincushion of pikes if you deepest fear, your tyrannical church, your
like. Or maybe you’re the arrogant conflicting calling, or your addiction.
acrobat, so nimble on your toes, that
You could agree the nature of your next
you’ve never been hit in your life … Doom Quest with your DM at any point, to
except once. help interpret HP damage.
2
So ... a less “simulationist” approach to HP?
Yes and no.
HP won’t track your character’s physical wellbeing.
HP will feel like a more “abstract” or “gamist” stat.
Damage puts storytelling power in the players’ hands.
But also ...
HP in D&D includes “mental durability, the will to live, and luck.”
HP was never intended to be solely a physical stat.
So this helps to implement that!
*
“It stands for Hero Points.”
Or Heart Points. Harms & Perils. Or Hardiness Potential.
Or Hell Proximity. Or Heaven Proximity. Or Hacked Protocols.
You could even rebrand “Damage” as “Doom” or “Drama.”
**
“Something bad just happened.”
It could even happen somewhere else. For example,
“Meanwhile, while I’m busy battling giant spiders …”
If you want, the event doesn’t even have to be BAD.
“So things just got more complicated.”
Credit
By Alice the Candle (AKA Jo Lindsay Walton).
Cover: From John Brown, A Compleat Discourse of Wounds (1678).
Sad Press Games: [Link]
