From: sjsmith@cs.umd.edu (Stephen Joseph Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Questions: HP ~= Gift from Gods, Character Knowledge of EXP?
Date: 8 Oct 92 15:19:36 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, University of Maryland at College Park

Two questions: one general, one specific.

1) HP are, indeed, unrealistic.  One of the rationalizations that I've
enjoyed is that high level characters have more hit points because their
deity is more "interested" in "protecting" them.  E.g., let's say you're a
1st level fighter.  Your deity has a lot of 1st level fighters, so you don't
get many bonus hit points over 0 level human.  

Now, let's say you somehow managed to stay alive and work your way up
to 10th level.  Your deity has been growing more and more interested
in you along the way, and now you are one of the few 10th level
followers of your deity (assuming a deity-rich, adventurer-poor
world).  Those sword blows just don't seem to do as much "damage"
(expressed as fraction of maximum hit points; i.e. 8 HP is still 8 HP,
but when you have 50 HP, 8 HP doesn't matter as much.)  Your deity is
just "protecting" you a little bit, gust of wind brushing the sword
blow inches from an artery, synapses in your attacker's brain not quite
closing as fast, etc.

However, a succession of many combats can eventually kill you: your
deity isn't powerful enough to save you after nudging things multiple
times, your deity has other things to pay attention to, your deity
is sick of "protecting" someone whose brain is in his sheath with his
sword.  50 HP also aren't proof against "walking off a cliff"; your
deity just throws up his hands and says, "Well, what an idiot."

This seems reasonable from a medieval standpoint; I have been led to
believe that in the Middle Ages, people perceived God and the Devil as
being entities that took a lot more direct "action" than we perceive
them to today.

Comments?


2) Background: We play a very-occasional game---to give you some idea,
we're now *shooting for* once every six weeks---with an excellent DM.
Heavy roleplaying, heavy characterization: we just had an eight-hour
session with no combat until the seventh hour or so.  No munchkinism,
no powergamers, no minimaxing.  We had a character die (he was later
resurrected.)  My only complaint is that in two months of game-time
we've met three different mysterious wizened old men.  Anyway...

There are five players, of which I am one, plus one DM.  The five
players have between them something like 15 active characters,
although one of our players is moving to Florida and a bunch of
characters are "retiring" (from the ongoing campaigns) for various
reasons.  (We generally strike a good balance between "real life" and
"game" reasons for retiring: the priests are retiring because their
mission is over, the dumb brute is retiring because his job was to
guard the priests, the Amazon is retiring because her job was to learn
from the dumb brute.  In real life, the priests and the Amazon were
played by the player moving to Florida, and the player with the dumb
brute can't see any further opportunities for character development.
Further on, I see one of my characters being forced by plot
developments to retire, if he and his woman return safely home...but
that's another matter.)

A couple of sessions ago, we had the great party "split": half the party
went West on a mission to deliver a piece of an evil relic, and half the
party went North on a mission to curse the evil Prince, rescue one of
his slaves, retrieve some Ent seedlings, and trash his smuggling operation.

Both missions were reasonably successful.  However, on the return
trip, the party on the Western campaign was split further, because one
of its members, Brother "Lubrol" (uh, don't want to reveal too much
here as it's not inconceivable that someone else in the party is
reading this, and the character in question is mine :^) ) managed to
abscond with about 10,000 GP value of precious metals and gems, and
half the party is about to chase him.  The other half of the party is
quietly returning to the Glade, home of Ents and Elves.

Most of the quietly-returning party is retiring from the campaign, as
described above.  However, one is definitely not: Magnus the Magnificent,
a 4th level human magic-user.  He's going back to the glade for a number
of complicated "real life" and "game" reasons.

"Real life" reason: I would find it rather difficult to role-play Brother
"Lubrol" running and Magnus chasing, especially if Brother "Lubrol" does
anything tricky (heh heh.)

"Game" reasons: Magnus misses his family, and chasing someone South would
lead him farther and farther from the North.  Plus, there's the Secret
Reason Magnus Has Been Acting Weird.

Finally, we get to the Question: As a player, I know that Magnus is about
1000 EXP from 5th level, at which point he gets 3rd level spells (read:
FIREBALL.)  But as a character, Magnus obviously does not know that he
is getting "experience points."

On the other hand, Magnus isn't dumb, and he comes from a long line of
magic-users.  He has surely observed that As People Adventure More, They
Can Cast More and Better Spells.

The question is: as a character, how much knowledge should Magnus have of
how close he is to being able to cast Fireball?  As a character, Magnus
desires to be able to cast this spell: is it reasonable for him to
specifically go out "looking for adventure," as opposed to just hanging
around the glade waiting for everyone to get back?

Additional question: Rustam the Many-Fingered, the resurrected thief, is
recuperating in the glade (I forget how much longer he has to rest before
he can adventure again.)  Since he's been recuperating, he's fallen behind
the rest of the party in experience points, and will soon fall seriously
behind in levels.  As a character, is it reasonable for him to specifically
go out "looking for adventure," to try to catch up a bit?

The obvious direction to "look for adventure" is to try to meet the
returning characters from the Northern campaign, having "received
word" from them somehow.  This would probably fit in well.

What do you think?

- Stephen