Body Stun and Hit Points

[windspeaker2]

Back in the day, the fusion system had the equivalent of hit points.  Has anyone done this in 5e or 6e? Do you just treat stun like hp?  

Trying to make hero a little more familiar to dnd players and reduce bookkeeping for the Gm.

[Grailknight]

I like the Hit Points mechanic for a Fantasy Hero game as it adds an extra level of realism to the danger of large amounts of non-killing damage taken. The 3.5/Pathfinder equivalent is roughly akin to how excess nonlethal damage can become lethal in excess amounts. 

 

I don't see how it reduces bookkeeping as it has to be tracked separately and adjusts Body as well. 

[Duke Bushido]

2 hours ago, windspeaker2 said:

Back in the day, the fusion system had the equivalent of hit points.  Has anyone done this in 5e or 6e? Do you just treat stun like hp?  

Trying to make hero a little more familiar to dnd players and reduce bookkeeping for the Gm.

 

 

I havent done it, but I have seen it done, and just as you describe: Stun is everything.

 

My observations feom admittedly limited experience:

 

One shot kills are gone.  That is, you lose  the idea of killing an opponent without knocking hom out first ir the idea of knocking him out without leaving him in mortal danger (damage becomes more  Car Wars than D&D). The only workaround I ever saw implemented was Con STUN:

 

One of the groups I have seen doing this (and in all these years, I have only seen three that I can recall) that had a knock-out workaround used a rule that when you were CON-stunned, you made a CON check; if you failed, you were "out" for a number of Phases equal to the amount by which you failed (not to exceed your REC in Turns, but I dont think its possible to roll that badly.  I have no idea what sort of modifiers might have been in use, as I was a spectator at a convention game when I ran across this).

 

I have notices that every group had modifies the Kilking Attack rules a bit, but I couldnt tell you if it was necessary or even related.  The most interesting was replacinf rhe STUN modifier completely with "killing attacks roll on the hit location chart."  The locations werent used otherwise; it was simply the damage modifier that was applied.  Note also that I didnt say it was the best option; I said it was the most interesting....

 

Let us know what you come up with; I have an unusual appreciation foe house rules. 

 

 

 

 

[Christopher R Taylor]

The Body-Stun-Endurance system in Hero is one of the big reasons I fell in love with it, as opposed to the Hit Points model of D&D.  The all-or-nothing hit point model of "you are perfectly healthy and active until you die" always annoyed me, as did the complete lack of any kind of fatigue or energy model.

[LoneWolf]

Instead of trying to explain BODY, STUN and END in game terms try explaining it in real terms.  Hero system does a better job at defining the character than D&D does.  D&D abstracts things so much that the terms only make sense within the context of the game.  What does a HP actually represent?  Why does the frail old man (high level Wizard) have 10 times the HP of the big beefy farmer?  How many HP does it take to break someone’s arm?  Why does it take days after being knocked out (reduced to 0 HP) to recover? 

 

Compare that to the Hero System and it is a lot easier to understand.  BODY is a measure of how tough something is.  When a creature or object is reduced to negative of their positive body they are dead or destroyed. An Object reduced to 0 body it is broken, when I creature is reduced to 0 BODY they are dying.  STUN is how much damage you can take and still remain conscious. Most attacks do both STUN and BODY.  That is a lot easier to understand than abstract HP system.

 

There are a lot of optional rules that usually end up getting used in Fantasy Hero that rely on BODY and STUN so without those the game is probably going to be a lot less fun.  Hit Locations, impairing and disabling wounds are often used to make the game a lot more realistic, but without both stats they don’t work.   
 

[bluesguy]

And since Hero combat is suppose to be a cinematic style, here are some examples:

 

• Stunned & Knocked out ~48 seconds in this clip it sure looks like Aragon is stunned and knocked out.
• Stunned (and we think he has been killed) at ~1:11 and at 1:38 he looks dead or at least knocked out
• Lots of Body (and a poor Stun multiplier) - might be stunned ~1:20
• 1:51 More body and better stun multiplier
• 2:36 < 0 body and he is dying but not stunned or knocked out