Topic: Hero Points, Heroic Hit Points

I'm about to run my first LotFP game and there's only one hack I feel compelled to make, which is something like

(1) Warhammer Fantasy Role Play's Luck Points - spend to avoid death (not necessarily some other permanent damage);
(2) Crypts and Things Constitution Damage - HP are fairly easy to refresh, Constitution represents actual physical damage required to die

Given my misguided intent, what kind of approach for making characters slightly more heroic and durable will do the least damage to the system?

Re: Hero Points, Heroic Hit Points

I would recommend against assuming that HP are 'easy' to regain. A party starting at level one only gets ONE Cure Light Wounds spell per day, per cleric. Also, there's no abundance of cheap potions and scrolls like in some other versions of the game.

Re: Hero Points, Heroic Hit Points

Personally, I like high character attrition and would avoid "fate points", but it's really a matter of taste. My players came from more traditional games, such as 3.5 D&D, and really needed a bit of a "shock" to the system when we started with LotFP (in the form of multiple character deaths) to realize what this game is about.

Now, it's hard to get them to play anything else... smile

Blogging about OSR at Deep Delving

Re: Hero Points, Heroic Hit Points

For more action I'm attempting to use the Fray Dice from Scarlet Heroes. Not more durable; but more capable of dropping lower level critters.

Just allows me to throw more at them though, which means more dice to hit them with.

Re: Hero Points, Heroic Hit Points

PencilBoy99 wrote:

I'm about to run my first LotFP game and there's only one hack I feel compelled to make, which is something like

(1) Warhammer Fantasy Role Play's Luck Points - spend to avoid death (not necessarily some other permanent damage);
(2) Crypts and Things Constitution Damage - HP are fairly easy to refresh, Constitution represents actual physical damage required to die

Given my misguided intent, what kind of approach for making characters slightly more heroic and durable will do the least damage to the system?

This is Lamentations of the Flame Princess. You should embrace death and welcome into the party like an old friend.

O.o

You people are all alike, you march in here, young, try and touch the local things.
I suppose next you'll be spraying me with one of those cans of paint, smearing poor Tubbs here with excrement.

Re: Hero Points, Heroic Hit Points

Maybe the model here should be Dungeon Crawl Classics: multiple 1st level (or 0th-level) characters per player.  Each player picks and names a character from among the survivors.

If your players are really attached to their characters, maybe you'll have a gaggle of 0th-level Redshirts who the PCs magically swap places with if things go sideways.  Downside: redshirts (posthumously) get XP for actions foisted upon them, not the PCs.

Frank Mitchell
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." -- Anatole France

Re: Hero Points, Heroic Hit Points

PencilBoy99 wrote:

I'm about to run my first LotFP game and there's only one hack I feel compelled to make, which is something like

(1) Warhammer Fantasy Role Play's Luck Points - spend to avoid death (not necessarily some other permanent damage);
(2) Crypts and Things Constitution Damage - HP are fairly easy to refresh, Constitution represents actual physical damage required to die

Given my misguided intent, what kind of approach for making characters slightly more heroic and durable will do the least damage to the system?

Both Runequest 6 and WHFP have those luck points due to deadly combat. I think MHR/FATE awakened me to the idea of characters being 'taken out' of combat in some way that the GM decides rather than killed, but that's very different from what RQ, WFRP and LotFP are trying to do.  So, give them a single luck point they can spend to be 'taken out' instead of getting dead.  You decide how they survived and where they are at.  At best they are at 1HP and awakened by their friends after the fight, likely with some disadvantage like a broken head, destroyed armor or busted arm or something.  At worst they are alone in a dark room or hallway with no light source and have to crawl through the dungeon blind until they either escape or are (likely) killed again or captured by some sort of big bad.