57 – Health & Damage in Roleplaying

Mike, Oren, and Johnathan discuss systems for tracking a character’s health in roleplaying games. They cover why games do or don’t need to track health, and describe a variety of systems for representing damage or otherwise imposing consequences on players. Oren talks about nipples, Mike recommends jumping away from monsters with machine guns, and Johnathan confesses his love for D&D 4.0.

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Correction: The Lovecraft story Oren refers to as The House of Usher is actually called Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family. #orenlies – although seriously, who could remember a title like that?

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Opening and closing theme: The Princess Who Saved Herself by Jonathan Coulton. Used with permission.

Show Notes

Prime Time Adventures

D&D 4.0 Healing Surges

7th Sea

Vitality/Wound Points

Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying System

Legend of the Five Rings

Burning Wheel Penalties

Getting Sick Twice in Torchbearer

Star Wars D20 System

Zombie Apocalypse by Fantasy Flight

Call of Cthulhu Sanity

The Shadow Over Innsmouth

Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family

Star Wars D6 System

D&D Leadership Score

The Riddle of Steel Damage Type and Hit Location