Wednesday, February 15, 2012

I Lost My Notes



AARRGG! I lost my notes. I who never lose anything have lost my notes. I made a note about my next few posts. I just jotted a few thoughts on a single piece of small note paper. I can't find it anywhere.
I will just have to reconstruct the ideas from memory. During the search I did find an old note about several subjects that I never posted so its not too bad. One question to you fellow bloggers;
Do you plan ahead or just wing it when posting?

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Not Falling for Falling Damage




Over at Grognardia there is an article about the falling damage articles from Dragon magazine. Falling damage was one of a few things that never made sense. It just didn't mesh with our expectations. Back then we were trying to make everything "realistic". But the relationship between hit points, weapons damage, healing and falling damage was always difficult to understand. Much effort was put towards this end with (IMHO) little results. Usually adding more rules to a growing list.
But I am not falling for it anymore. I my future games (as I'm not currently running any now) hit points are considered a measure of fighting capacity and are only used in stand up fights where you can defend yourself. Falling down isn't a fight so it doesn't do hit point damage. I might use a saving throw to escape unharmed or assign arbitrary damage like half your hit point total. That might seem harsh to some. However I did create the world and populate it. So why can't I decide how much damage someone takes from falling down?

P.S. In my world if its not a monster or NPC attacking you, then its not hit point damage. This includes traps.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

I Forgot My Anniversary

My last post was just after the 3 rd anniversary of my blog. I can't believe I forgot it. January 14 was my first post 3 years ago. I also can't believe its been that long.