Thoughts on damage systems for RPGs

I have developed a relative distaste for point-based damage-tracking mechanisms in RPG systems. The whole countdown mechanic, specifically when the numbers are high, is inefficient and boring. Medium to high level Dungeons & Dragons combat is guilty as heck on this. I do understand that you do want to have entities to withstand a certain amount of damage, but it becomes ridiculous as the numbers are higher and higher, and as a PC loses hit points, you run of ways to describe the attack and its effect.

I’ve tried to combat this (pun intended) by creating games with low “hit point” counts, and this helps a lot. You might wonder how does this handle something like leveling up, and the answer is that you sort of handle it, but not 100%. I think that no matter how experienced your character is, there should always exist the possibility of, under certain circumstances, getting “one-shotted” by a weak opponent. Low damage points help in achieving this, but there are more things that can make this more sophisticated and yet more fun.

Thinking like the movies

I’ve been thinking on making things more cinematic, where the characters feel like heroes, but still with real danger lurking, carrying the risk of dying at any moment.

In movies, the hero dispenses of their enemies handily, and the bad guys rarely take more than two hits to be done. This would mean, in an RPG context, that if you roll a hit, you immediately disable or kill your opponent. Some systems have adopted a “minion” mechanic for this, which sets up two types of enemies: disposable ones that block you from your goals, and the “boss” type enemies that will give you more of a hard time.

Should player characters become minions? Only if you make it very clear to your customers that your game is like that. There are a few RPGs out there that are like that, and some people love them. But unless you want to have a lot of unhappy players, I cannot stress the importance of making it clear that a beloved player character with a nice backstory can become history via a single hit, with no chance of coming back.

But even tougher enemies shouldn’t turn the fight into a point attrition slog. The system should be designed in such a way that the fight is decided in a few combat actions by still keeping damage count low for both parties. In theory, you could still play with the chances of inflicting damage, as a way to make an opponent more or less dangerous and/or resistant.

Another avenue is to allow the victim of the attack to react in a meaningful way and not just avoid being hit. The riposte mechanic implemented in 52 Fates is designed for such a thing; as the defender, you decide to take the damage from the attack, but in turn you can respond with any valid combat action or movement.

Another way that 52 Fates strives to avoid the long, boring combat slogs is that it also dispenses with the concept of damage points; every cast member (monsters or NPCs) has three target numbers, one for the incapacitated condition, a higher one for unconscious condition, and the top number for the death condition. You hit that number or higher in your card, the effect takes place. As a player, you can choose the effect as long as it’s a less severe one. For example, if you play a number high enough for killing your opponent, you can choose to simply make them unconscious.

Note that this version of 52 Fates is still not published! It’s part of the big updates coming soon with the next version.

Healing

How easy or difficult it is to heal characters plays an important part in your design. If the players know that damage can be easily taken but difficult to heal, they will usually play smarter and avoid falling into a combat slog.

Make sure that healing in your game makes sense with the damage system. Something I’m experimenting with the 864 RPG Advanced system is to have a multiplying effect for healing rates. Assuming a daily healing rate, the first day you heal 1 point, next day 2 points, the day after that 4 points, and so on, as a way of reflecting how all your bodily systems come back. Healing all damage in a single night is frankly ridiculous, unless it’s very little damage, and should be avoided in any system unless you’re going for that kind of gonzo.

How final is death?

It’s not only how much damage a character can take, and the mechanics surrounding that, but also how your system handles the finality of death, especially for player characters.

All damage counting leads to this point. If the players know that it will be hard or almost impossible to come back from the dead, it adds an extra layer of consideration, adds dimension to the consequences of damage. They will treat it less like an arcade game and will try to seek a better alternative to fighting, if possible. This is actually good, as most creative play in confrontations comes from not fighting.

The mechanics of coming back from death can be many, depending on the game’s goals, the settings, and such. My personal view is that resuscitating a character shouldn’t be an almost transactional thing; again, D&D suffers from this (“Don’t worry, we got a couple nice, valuable diamonds!”). It demeans the value of death for a character, and makes your whole damage system pretty much a boring, superfluous routine.

As a side note, if a player’s character will die, let the player have one last hurrah, if possible. Make that death meaningful and remembered.

In summary…

…Keep in mind that this is all my personal preference. It all boils down to the type of game you’re designing. Some people love the combat slogs, casting myriad spells, hitting a monster over and over, using different character capabilities. Just keep in mind your target audience, and it should be fine.

However, I do encourage you to design systems that really bring out the creativity in your players. If a player has to say “I swing at it with my sword”, or “I cast eldritch blast” for more than three rounds, the game has fallen into a rut, and has become just a routine to finish. Keeping the game mechanics dangerous and flexible will make for better, more enjoyable combat sessions!