Lucky 7 Hit Points

This completely replaces my earlier post called Unlucky 13 Hit Points.

First of all, because Unlucky 13 is now just an expansion of the 1974 D&D rules, hit points in U13 work the same as hit points in D&D.

Because Lucky 7 is not a D&D derivative, I’m free to do things differently. Very differently. That previous post was too different, though. And it was completely unusable on Roll 20.

Some Background

When (the game that would later become) Dungeons & Dragons first started, there wasn’t a “to hit roll” followed by a “damage roll.” There was one roll. If you rolled the right value, you killed the monster; otherwise you didn’t. Likewise, if the DM rolled a certain number, your character was dead. There was no warning. There was no “I’m almost dead.” You just went from alive to dead in a single roll.

Players found that unsatisfying, so Dave Arneson invented hit points.

My Solution: Lives

So here’s my solution. It’s based on “lives” from things like Pac-Man.

Most characters start with three lives/hit points, but this is modified by the Spiritual attribute. (Why Spiritual instead of Physical might be the topic of a future post.)

When you take a hit, you make a roll using the Spiritual attribute. If you succeed, you shrug off the hit without serious injury. If you fail, you lose exactly one life/hit point. When you lose your last life/hit point, you’re out of action. “Out of action” might mean you’re dead, but it probably means the you’re knocked-out or you’ve been captured or you’ve just given up.

What about weapon and armor types?

Armor doesn’t make you less likely to get hit, but it does make it less likely that you will get hurt.

A sword isn’t any more likely to kill an unarmored man than a knife, but a sword is more likely to penetrate armor than a knife.

Every weapon has a weapon value and every armor has an armor value. If the weapon’s value is greater than armor’s, then the Armor roll is made with a penalty. If the armor is greater than weapon, the Armor roll is made with a bonus. If they'e equal, than it’s a simple roll with neither penalty nor bonus.

How many lives do monsters have?

A zombie or an orc will have one life. A dragon might have 12. If looking at a D&D monster, use the number of hit dice as the number of lives.

How about a troll with 6 + 3 hit dice?

You might want to just call that seven lives, but I would call it six and give the troll a +3 to his armor roll.

But I don’t want to die! (optional rule)

This is an option rule for GM’s to use in their campaign, or not.

If you lose your last life, instead of being put out of action you instead gain an injury instead. That injury counts as a disadvantage, and can be used as such.

Normally, the injury heals after the fight is over (or the scene is over if you’re not in combat when the injury occurs). However, if you’re already injured and you lose another life you can chose to extend the duration of the injury:

Injury	Duration of effect
Initial	This combat/scene
1st extension	Next day
2nd extension	Next week
3rd extension	Next month
4th extension	Next season
5th extension	Next year

Epilogue

That’s it. That’s my new idea for hit points.

One question I have: Should I call them “hit points” or “lives?”

I lean towards “hit points” because that’s the universal RPG term, and I’m trying not to make up new terms.

On the other hand, I lean toward “lives” because they act more like video game lives than traditional hit points.

What do you think?