Thinking a little bit about mechanics for taking out characters and the logic of hit point lead to a thought experiment: What if every D&D character had the "the first time you got to zero HP, you go to 1HP" ability?
Seems kind of random, I know, but it would actually be a pretty substantial change because what it would mean is that so long as you have HP, you can take ONE MORE HIT.
And, critically, it makes that state of "out of HP" more discrete.
And, critically, it makes that state of "out of HP" more discrete.
That state intrigues me. A few games get into the idea of negative health to reflect this "danger zone", and I'm very fond of Quests "Zero HP does not cause consequences, but makes you VULNERABLE" to consequences.
This does shift tension from the moment ("Can I take another hit?") to Specific situations ("Oh, crud, I'm in trouble here") which is not an improvement per se, rather these are different ways to capture different tones.
No sleight to "Can I take another hit?" but I the situational model appeals to me a lot, because thresholds can be triggers, and adding that threshold lets me hang interesting things off it.
The most obvious being "This is when most Enemies run or surrender", which is not particularly mechanically robust, but my goodness it can change things when that's on the table by default.
(Also, hat tip to 4e - "Bloodied" is probably the 4e rule whose absence I feel most strongly in 5e, so much so that I still use it because it's magnificent. Fills a similar role. Thresholds!)
If your game has interesting defense and recovery mechanisms, this "vulnerable" state also makes for a much more dynamic play driver for action. Story wise, this may be the moment the hero needs to regroup, fall back, or get help.
I am shamelessly meta enough that I would ABSOLUTELY have a game with an ability that allows dramatic entry into a scene when an ally goes to zero.
Also, when the villain fires their superweapon and the heroes are all scattered, battered but intact? This 100% models that without needing to VERY CAREFULLY CALCULATE Superweapon damage.
Anyway, talking through all this leaves me realize that this is the mechanic required to make me feel much more comfortable with ablative "health" systems in dramatic games. So I should do something with that.
I should call out, this is intentionally a VERY binary solution. There are no shortage of games which have detailed progressions of the impact of damage as it accrues, but I hate most of them (with exceptions, which I'll get to).
Action penalties as a way to reflect accrued damage *Feels* like it's successfully simulating something, but in practice it just means you get to feel like you suck when stakes are highest, and that is not my jam.
There *are* games which have a damage progression which isn't punitive, and they're great. There is even a game which intentionally escalates awesome alongside damage so that stakes and capabilities align. *cough*GYRO*cough*.
Not really looking to detract from that kind of high quality design. The 0 HP "vulnerable" state is a much simpler tool, with all the tradeoffs that come with that.
