What are Hit Points?

In video games, Hit Points (HP) are a pretty static concept. They equal "health" and are an indicator of biological vitality. It's well-accepted that when a character's HP drop to zero, that persona is dead (or possibly comatose until revived via extra lives or a "continue"). But for sake of argument, that character is gone. Game Over.

 It could also mean "energy" though. Whether that's a metabolic quantifier or some other esoteric measure. When the character runs out, HP needs a recharge! Then it's back into the fray. So does that mean HP should be decreasing over time in traditional RPG--like when we need sleep?

 In pen and pencil games, HP can get--let's just say--squishy. It can represent a few things or a combination of things. Some games go for the straight-up health stat, while others make it a loose representation of "life" and uh--how do I put this--resistance to being hit. Yeah, like "something" gets in the way of that well-aimed laser and our hero is hit, but for some reason a blast only does 2d6 damage and our guy has a crazy amount of hit points. How did did get those points anyway? Did he have armor? Of course!

But that was taken into account with armor class (AC). Was it his dexterity/agility that allowed him to dodge? Well if it was--then he'd have escaped being hit--and at least in this example, he took the hit. His constitution/physique? Again, those scores are already taken into account.

Wouldn't make sense to have both HP and constitution (even though in many games HP is determined by constitution or some similar stat)? What's the point of representing a stat made up of other stats? (Don't answer that one--not yet!) In some games (and sometimes its just the GM's preference) rely on XP to be the "x" factor.

The more experience under your belt, the greater your HP to protect yourself. Makes sense in a way, right? Your character has managed to live this long--a little extra "fortitude" (whatever that means) is a reward to help protect yourself as you advance onto tougher challenges and meaner foes. Except that's the exact opposite of how real life--and combat--works. If anything, more injuries will add up over time. And the aging process guarantees greater frailty.

  So what are Hit Points? How are you using them? As proclaimed in "the rules"? Do you let players trade them in order to accomplish difficult or impossible tasks, otherwise beyond their reach? To the comments!

VIDEO: Clips of people blasting stuff!

Taking a page from yesterday's space video dujour, I've "curated" some more galactic goodness. Let's see how many Friday's we can get out of this, shall we? First up: People blastin' stuff!





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...and one more--"blasting" out of the hangar! ;)

Battlestar Galactica + Space: 1999 = YES!

Somewhere there is a fanboy walking on water because he's done the Lord's work and weaved two classic space opera TV shows together into a miracle of awesome! Turns out the Galactica, wandering the cosmos for Earth has stumbled upon Moonbase Alpha adrift in the black. Far-out, sci-fi hijinks ensue!

MAP: Our Moon as a Wilderness - your next campaign?

The geniuses at University College London have made available--for free--a glorious map of the moon, as illustrated by astronomer Walter Goodacre in 1920. Words cannot describe how incredible this map is, so I'll just show you (click to embiggen):

That's a resized version (by me, so I could fit it here, but also messed up the clarity) of one page of his original publication. Go now to the UCL site and feast your eyes on full-size scans of the pages! You can also peek at these on Flickr in a slightly more approachable format.

And that's not all! They've digitally stiched the entire map back together into a clean, line drawn version that you can download--in either 130mb and 300mb versions.

The thought of printing this out and spreading it onto a table to use as a wilderness adventure or a lunar wargaming map is almost geographically obscene. My GM-brain is salivating at the mere notion of a Victorian-age steampunk/dieselpunk campaign, tromping through the wilds of the moon!

Heading to Con of the North 2014!

Busting out of my self-imposed, baby daddy exile to bring you the news that--YES--there will be an X-plorers game at Con of the North! It will be a Rad Astra setting of my own making. Here's the quick/dirty submission I sent for the con listing:

RAD ASTRA: Far-Out Space Opera! Pack your ray pistol and laser sword for a rules-light, mash-up of B-grade, sci-fi exploitation movies, 70s space opera TV, and Bronze Age comics! You're part of a group of interstellar swashbucklers pursued by agents of the Drukar Empire on a quest for intergalactic infamy and fortune! Choose your class: Space Ranger, Astrosassin, Starlocke or Starbarian!

Game details: 4-6 players, pre-gens will be available with some tweakability by the players. Game is scheduled for 4 hours (which is 2 hours longer than the previous session).

If I can get my act together (that's sort of a big "if") I may run a second game. As it is, I'm still working on the class descriptions for Astrosassin and Starlocke, so I don't want to bite off more than I can chew!

Finally, I'm looking for some input on what type of adventure sounds most fun over on my Google Plus page, so check that out and let me know what you think!