tl;dr: 1 night rest converted to 1 hour rest and 1 day rest converted to 1 night rest for heroic hight fantasy purposes.
1 2020-05-20 18:52:59
Re: Improved healing for (heroic) High Fantasy setting (7 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)
2 2020-05-20 18:51:47
Topic: Improved healing for (heroic) High Fantasy setting (7 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)
I'm fine with RAW healing by resting, except for a minor tweak (house rule) I'm trying to implement as discussed here: http://test.lotfp.com/RPG/discussion/to … t-by-level
OBS.: how do I link on text? I tried (text)[url ] but I didn't work and trying didn't work neither.
It fits perfectly for rougher, grittier, grimmer experiences - which I love to play and referee. But what about a table with high fantasy expectations? Please, don't "play another game" me. I love LotFP and I still run it as intended; but sometimes the group is up to another thing.
So I was thinking in a High Fantasy house rule for emulating 5e short and long rests. I guess recovering hit dice is a bit too much (and it would end up identical to 5e itself). So, to keep the OSR feel but with a bit of higher survivability and faster pace of adventuring, I thought about keeping healing/rest rules per RAW while it being used more. Basically it would be something like this:
-Short rest is 1 hour (6 turns)
-Long rest is 1 night (6 hours)
*If at half HP or higher:
---Heals 1 HP per short rest;
---Heals 1d3 HP per long rest.
*If at lower than half HP:
---Heals nothing per short rest;
---Heals 1 HP per long rest.
I'd probably rule that the party could take only 1 short rest per day (maybe 2).
That would help keep the pace of a more heroic adventure.
What do you people think?
3 2020-05-20 18:31:19
Re: Natural healing (rest) by level (2 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)
tl;dr: healing by rest goes as RAW but multiplied by character level.
4 2020-05-20 18:28:09
Topic: Natural healing (rest) by level (2 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)
So natural healing goes like this, right?
*If at half HP or higher:
---Heals 1 HP for night rest (6 hours);
---Heals 1d3 HP for whole day rest.
*If at lower than half HP:
---Heals nothing for night rest;
---Heals 1 HP for whole day rest.
This is fine, balanced and dictates pace of exploration. Except it makes higher level characters actually harder to recover than lower level characters... I mean, the "half HP" clause manages to add granularity between how much a set damage means to each character based on how it affects them: half or more probably meaning "cuts and bruises" while lower than half probably means "actual wounds"; it makes sense higher level (so higher HP) sees a number of damage differently and it means different tiers of danger.
The "problem" is it seems to me it gets in the way of a thing I look as "sacred" for roleplaying: Hit Point is an abstract concept meaning stamina, will to live, luck, divine intervention, whatever. HP is not "meat points" and I don't roleplay as each hit being an actual stab (or else high level characters would be sieves after each battle). So why would a 30 HP character take longer to heal their half (15 HP) than a 15 HP character would take to heal their half (8 HP)? The way healing/rest is in RAW means 15 damage to a 30 is actually "more hurt" than 8 damage is to the 15 HP character. The way I see a higher HP character can't take more stabs; she would require more fighting from the enemy to actually get stabbed.
Sorry for the ranting - and I don't know if I could make myself actually clean on my point here.
The "solution" for the "problem" I have found was multiplying the RAW resting rules by the character level (number of Hit Dice) so characters would heal kind of equally on rests but still require more damage to actually require resting.
What do you people think?
5 2020-05-20 18:06:56
Re: House rule: the "dying" state (negative HP) (3 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)
Crunk Posby wrote:
I think your house rule sounds good. Have you played yet? Have you had player deaths or is this more of in anticipation of how it will play out?
Just an anticipation. Actually, I'm refereeing an OSR game for the first time... My previous experiences as a GM were 12 D&D 5e sessions (for 3 groups, 5/5/2 sessions each) and 7 Vampire: The Masquerade V20 sessions (for 2 groups, 5/2 sessions each).
So my LotFP game has runned for 2 sessions so far and at the last table the Barbarian (Dwarf reskinned) went down to 1 HP and I kept wondering how interesting it would for him to make death saves to both keep him occupied roleplaying his bleeding out moment and to add a sense of urgency for the other players.
If I were to call for saving throws agains death to avoid falling down one more HP and have other characters help him avoid this fate, would you advice me to call for rolls on the helpers too? Or is spending their whole round helping the dying party member enough? We're not using the playtest Medicine skill. What would you advice me while not using this skill? What would you advice me while adding this skill?
Crunk Posby wrote:
I'm almost at the point where my dying rules are gonna be: When you hit zero or less, you're knocked out of combat and are gonna die unless someone helps you after the combat's done. So basically you can live if your party survives, but if it's a TPK or they flee, then you're gone.
Pretty elegant way of dealing wit it! So if the party manages to defeat enemies or flee with your body, they can "stabilize" you, right? No roll required. Neat!
Crunk Posby wrote:
(If you are saved after hitting negative, then there's a scar, -1 to a random ability score permanently.)
I always wondered if scars, lingering injuries and massive damage would be better dealt with ability scores decreases or with death & dismemberment tables.
Crunk Posby wrote:
But...not quite there yet, still playing with various house rules too.
I'm loving playing with those! Actually, it turns out I'm adding minor house rules for the whole Weird Fantasy Roleplaying (to keep it as close to original as possible with minor tweaks) and turning the major house rules into my own systems: I'm creating a "Fey Princess" variant for (heroic) High Fantasy games, a "Draconic Princess" for (epic) absurdilly High Fantasy games - the former being kind of a "5e through B/X lens" and the latter being kind of "Pathfinder through BECMI lens" thing using LotFP as a base. I'm also trying to create a "Sunlight/Ash Princess" for depressive and deadly (Dark Souls) Dark Fantasy games while making a "Terror/Hatred/Destruction Princess" for hack n slashy dungeon crawling (Diablo) Dark Fantasy games. They all are probably be more combat-oriented (the Dark Souls one being closer to the original LotFP experience but with different mechanics). Then I'll keep original LotFP (with minor house rules) for gritty and grim Weird Fantasy (for both medieval and early modern settings).
Damn, my head is blowing up with ideas. Guess I'm getting addicted to OSR!
6 2020-05-20 17:17:43
Re: Healing while at negative HP (4 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)
Crunk Posby wrote:
It's rare that someone would have magical healing in LotFP
One of the players has rolled a Cleric (though he's more of an Inquisitor/Exorcist role than a Healer) and magical healing, though limited, is possible in this game.
Crunk Posby wrote:
That said, this is where you can set expectations as the referee
Good call. Guess I'll adjust this according to my (and the group's) expectations.
Crunk Posby wrote:
Do you want players to be able to heal in the middle of combat and rejoin the fight, or do you want them to be out once their reduced to 0 or below?
Since it is a more (heroic) High Fantasy setting I'll let them regain conscious if magical healing raises them up to above 0 HP.
For grittier (but still heroic) experience I'll go with with AD&D-like: magical healing raises a character only to 1 HP and they'll need rest (or another spell) for further healing.
In (grim) Weird Fantasy settings I'll make magical healing possible to raise the target's HP above 0 but they'd still need to wait 1d6 hours to wake (in finer condition because of the healing).
For grittier (and grim) experience I'll go with "magical healing only works if the character has woken (after 1d6 hours) and rested for at least a night (to recover 1 HP).
Maybe I'm trying to hard-code the system too much?
7 2020-05-20 02:47:32
Topic: House rule: the "dying" state (negative HP) (3 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)
I was thinking about giving a try on a house rule for making falling to 0 HP an urgent moment but I don't know if it would add much to the game or if it could make things more lethal than intended.
In OD&D a character dies at 0 HP. Rules Cyclopedia introduces an optional rule where a character would make a saving throw against death or instantly die when hitting 0 HP; the same save should be done every 10 minutes or after being hit by an enemy.
In AD&D and (optionally) in 2e a character falls unconscious when hitting 0 HP and loses 1 HP every round, dying when hitting -10 HP. An ally could spend a round to tend his wounds (no roll required) to stop this "dying state".
That made come with something that is kind of a mix of both methods.
What if I apply something like this in a house rule for LotFP? When a character hits 0 HP or less she is dying and must make a death (poison) saving throw or lose 1 HP. If she hits -3 HP she is mortally wounded per RAW. An ally could spend her action to stop this and prevent further damage - I'm not sure if I should call for a roll for this... If so, I'd probably use the new Medicine skill from the playtest of the next edition.
I noticed I was unconsciously emulating 5e death saving throws with this.
What do you think, people?
8 2020-05-20 02:31:33
Topic: Healing while at negative HP (4 replies, posted in LotFP Gaming Forum)
I understand a character goes unconscious when struck to 0 hit points or less (with -3 being mortally wounded and -4 being instant death) and will wake up after 1d6 hours.
What happens if she's magically healed while at 0 HP or less? Will she regain hit points but remain unconscious until 1d6 have passed? Or will she instantly wake since she's not at 0 HP anymore?
In AD&D any magical healing could take a dying character to 1 HP (no more) and she'd probably require resting; while modern editions allow magical healing to be fully applied to characters at 0 HP.
I can't find any clarifications on that in the rules.
Thanks in advance.