TSR Publications Editor, Tim Kask, recently made
these comments over on Dragonsfoot.
On Rules Complexity and Rules Lawyers:One could argue that the extra detail baked into AD&D maybe isn't such a good thing; it seems to have encouraged a generation of players who enjoy fussing over the wording of the rulebook instead of deferring to their DM's judgement.
...
We shot ourselves, altogether unknowingly, in the foot. We had no idea that we were corrupting the original players into a flock of nit-pickers and rules lawyers. It was our own fault, although I don't think any of us could have seen that far into the future and foreseen it.
On The Original Hit Point SystemTSR put out a rules-set by Brian that should have alerted us to the possible problems to come...
...
It was all about hit location, critical hits and that kind of stuff. It bored me to tears... It was too, in my opinion, trivia-oriented. Also, it violated all the precepts of hitpoints in D&D. Hitpoints were NOT chunks of meat carved off of you, nor pints of blood. Hitpoints were supposed to be the measure of how long your strength, skill, luck, experience, armor and weaponry could enable you to escape a debilitating, if not deadly, blow. This book was about where you were hit and how badly. My memory, tricksy as it is nowadays, seems to tell me it was more for firearms and energy weapons, a la BOOT HILL, MA or GW. However, it did address edged weapons like knives and such. That was where the dough turned rancid.
Both very interesting points. The first is one we've heard expressed here quite frequently. :pundit:
The second is something a number of us have mentioned, and we see shades of in 4e.
And after having looked at a lot of writing on Medieval combat, the classic system of hit points and armour class works very well when used in this way.
Even for touch attacks and poison attacks it works. You only get a solid "killing stroke" hit when you're out of hit points, but a touch attack or scratch from a poison blade could be something you'd otherwise ignore and keep going with no ill effect.
Grappling doesn't work as well with the classic system. Or does it?
Clerical healing and healing potions could still "make sense" and work well -- particularly if you view it more as a return of strength, skill and luck.
What about the way recovery and healing is managed -- if hit points and AC represent strength, skill, luck, experience, armor and weaponry, then surely a good night's sleep would be all it would take to get you at or near to full hit points.
The system also doesn't handle wounding well. Unless 0 hit points doesn't automatically mean "dead" but rather "out of the fight". Perhaps a character at 0 hit points could continue... but they would have some sort of ongoing injury that requires rest and recuperation.
For those who play Original D&D and Classic D&D, and treat hit points as Tim Kask outlines above, what areas have you found most "tricksy" and/or what house rules have you added?
For game systems that also consider stamina / hit points in the same manner as OD&D, what areas do you think are a challenge for players and GMs to model compared to other game systems?