I like the D&D death's door rules. I like that at 0 hp, you're still up and can take a limited action, but then you exhaust yourself. I like that you don't die until -10 hp. The disabled and dying states add to a lot of interesting situations in game play: Two characters are dying but not yet dead and one is disabled. The disabled character casts a healing spell on one of the dying characters with his action, collapsing. The healed character uses a couple of potions to help the others just in the nick of time. It's dramatic and cool.

So cool, in fact, that I wanted to take it a step farther. In Arcana Unearthed, characters are disabled when they reach 0 hp, and they stay in that state until they reach 0 minus their Constitution modifier (if the Constitution modifier is positive). That keeps tough characters on their feet a little longer, but they are still hindered in their actions. They can take only a single standard or move-equivalent action in a round, and they do so at a -2 circumstance penalty (to attack and damage rolls, saving throws, and checks). And they lose 1 hit point per round if they take strenuous activity -- but they don't drop unconscious until they actually go below 0 minus their Constitution bonus. This means that it's much more likely to see obviously wounded people on the battlefield. It reduces the unrealistic "I'm fine until I go unconscious" feel somewhat.

But I still wanted to reflect character toughness in this situation. Character toughness -- through both Constitution score and level -- is reflected in how much punishment it takes to get to 0 or below, but once there it's a level playing ground. So rather than having death be at -10, it's at 0 minus your Constitution score. This means that a tough character with a 15 Constitution doesn't actually die until he reaches -15 (and he is disabled, not dying, at 0 to -2). Of course, a frail character is even weaker now: a character with an 8 Constitution dies at -8, not -10.

At higher levels, when massive amounts of damage are dealt with every blow, it's easy to go from 20 hit points to -10 in one blow. Extending the range, at least for tough characters, makes the "death's door" rules somewhat more significant at those higher levels.

Overall, these small changes address some of those situations that can break the believability of the game, and increase the likelihood that characters will fall into the interesting situations of being disabled or dying but not just dead. In fact, for more characters than not, it makes the game a bit more survivable.

 

DESIGN DIARY PAST ENTRIES

* Hero Points -- May 1, 2003
"A roleplaying campaign can be like putting up wallpaper...."

* Truenames -- April 18, 2003
"Truenames are common in many fantasy settings. I think I first became aware of the concept in Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy..."

* Go, Go, Go! -- April 10, 2003
"Short entry this time. I hate spells with 1 minute/level durations...."

* Ceremony -- April 3, 2003
"I think I've already mentioned that one of the goals I set for myself with Arcana Unearthed was to make things a little less generic...."

* Things That Rules Take Away -- March 21, 2003
"There are aspects of fantasy roleplaying that rules, inadvertently, can actually take away...."

* Still Talking Classes -- March 13, 2003
"I've saved some of the best classes for last. Let's talk about the runethane, the mage blade, and the witch...."

* More Classes -- February 27, 2003
"This time, I want to tell you about some of the other classes: akashics, magisters, and greenbonds...."

* Build a Better Fighter -- February 23, 2003
"The title this week is facetious. It really should be 'build a different fighter'...."

* The Magic Balancing Act -- February 13, 2003
"In Arcana Unearthed I'm introducing a new method of magic item pricing. First, I streamlined the item creation feats..."

* More Magic -- January 23, 2003
"This week, I thought I'd talk more about the new magic system in Arcana Unearthed."

* Magic -- January 17, 2003
"As a designer, magic in Arcana Unearthed posed a huge challenge. I knew that I wanted to ditch the Vancian system...."

* Design Decisions, Part Two -- December 24, 2002
"Here's a bit more discussion of some of the general issues I faced as I began designing Arcana Unearthed...."

* Design Decisions, Part One -- December 19, 2002
"Before jumping into another big area of Arcana Unearthed's design, like classes or the magic system, I thought I'd discuss some of the general issues I faced as a designer starting the book...."

* Arcana Unearthed Races -- December 5, 2002
"I started with the races. While I knew that the game needed humans as a basis, I wanted all the other races to be new. I didn't want to just create dwarf and elf analogs with different names...."