LogFAQs > #965023326

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Which gets into the problems HP has as as concept overall. Where you are generally completely fine and not really impaired in any meaningful way as you are constantly being shot, stabbed, or set on fire - but then you essentially stub your toe and die as you lose your last hit point.

Even games that include some form of physical penalty to characters with low HP (like Fallout using limb damage and applying drawbacks for crippled status) rarely do it realistically or gradually - it's an all-or-nothing thing. Which isn't really how any of this works in real life.

HP is so stupid as a concept that some games like D&D have started leaning into the idea that it isn't actually health as much as stamina - so it's less that you're walking around with massive flesh wounds and slowly bleeding out and more just you're exerting yourself so badly that you're using up your metabolic life energy. Though that still doesn't explain why you can potentially die from "passing out" when you hit 0 HP. And it still doesn't really justify why someone with 1/100 HP is still just as physically capable and energetic as someone with 100/100 HP, but losing that final HP is what instantly knocks you out/kills you.

The real answer, of course, is that these are all just game abstractions.

Yeah, starfinder actually had what I think is the best implementation of HP. There were two HP pools, sort of a stamina pool and physical damage. The stamina HP pool is sort of a floating HP for "oh fuck that was close" damage, and then physical damage where getting hit with a big hammer will crush your skull instead of bounce off of big strong muscles.
The stamina pool would grow with leveling up, but the physical damage is when things get really serious and medical treatment is needed.

Of course, the real answer is leveless systems. Call of Cthulhu doesn't have HP bloat where people have around 8-11 "real" hit points, and guns deal 2d6 at minimum, and a shotgun can blast a hole in someone for 4d8.