[RPG] How does it affect the game if PCs have lower maximum HP

dungeon-worldhit-points

The book uses Constitution score, not modifier for determining maximum HP:

Your maximum HP is equal to your class's base HP + Constitution score. You start with your maximum HP.

Maximum HP is quite high for player characters — usually it's 15-20, while the possible maximum is 26 (minimum is 12). For comparison, typical monsters have 6-8 HP, solitary dangerous ones has 12-14, and a dragon has 16. Considering healing magic, it becomes really hard to die exclusively from the HP loss in one fight.

I've seen a game once when the GM messed up and uses the modifier instead. Surprisingly, the game was fun and exciting — having less hit points encouraged players to be less reckless, to prepare better, to care about each other's health and search for more tactical approach in fights. That makes me wonder if this was a horrible mistake or a brave idea. Now I'm thinking about getting such an experience in my own game.

As a GM, what changes should I expect starting the game with less maximum HP for player characters?

Or is it really a bad idea that shouldn't really work?

Best Answer

Unless you revise damage and/or healing, this will take "deal damage" out of your toolbox as a GM quicker than you'd want.

Apocalypse World introduces the "harm move" as a way of imposing unpredictable consequences when a PC suffers any harm at all. In Dungeon World, the unpredictability is the damage roll - everything can basically do up to twice its average damage.

If you just base HP off of Con modifier, then a reference Wizzrobe, with 9 Constitution and no armor (and therefore 4 HP) has a chance to die any time they take damage from anything at all, meaning you can only throw "deal damage" at Wizzrobe if you intend for them to die and be gone forever. Even a rather sturdy Wizzrobe, with 13 Constitution and some simple armor (5 HP 1 Armor), can still die from 1d6 damage, which is, like, "pathetic goblin spear" levels of damage.

"Deal damage" is both "use up their resources" (the healing items) and "offer an opportunity that suits a class's abilities" (any class with a healing move), but it's only those things as long as you can be sure that whoever you point it at isn't going to die. And it's pretty much always there as an option for when the GM is looking for a move to make - the adventurers just need to be in a position where it makes sense they risk getting hurt, which is pretty much the default state of adventurers.

Unless you revise damage to be more consistent or healing to be able to pull people back from the brink, such that you can deal damage to someone and be confident they won't die, this HP change will not only make PCs who are supposed to be armored and tough much more vulnerable, it will make PCs who are supposed to be vulnerable die, sometimes, in a single hit. And so you can only point that single hit at them, as a GM, if you intend that they should die.

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