So for humans and other living things I originally thought about how to describe their capability to absorb damage. This got me to thinking about what damage to a person means...mechanically.
A person is made of meat (effectively) and they can resist a certain amount of hurting through will power, musculature, and general durability. So I looked at some other systems names for this. The classic "Hit Points", "Wounds", "Damage capacity", others. I decided to be a bit off the wall and call mine Meat Value. Because really what is a person but meat. A person's total amount of meat needs to be chopped up before they die, unless a specific body part is destroyed. From Bob the trucker to Billy the Nerd there isn't too much variation in the world for actual meat volume in a person. The exception to this generalization or the muscular and the fat versus the anorexic.
So Brawn and Endurance go into the Hardness and Meat Value traits of a character.
I am thinking of changing this to be Damage Capacity or something similar, something more generic that can be better applied across the board to all parts of the game, not just meaty things. As would a car have meat value or metal value? Or just Damage Capacity?
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
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Hail!
ReplyDeleteOk to be honest, I reallllly hate Meat Value.
Damage Capacity is not bad but not very elegant either. Personally I like to go with really short names whenever possible.
It is somewhat tough to come up with something that makes sense both for a physical body and a brick wall or car. But for simplicity I understand the need to do just that.
Physical
Physical Form
Structure
A.T
(-)
I've grown to dislike Meat Value myself. It was a funny inside joke when this system idea was first forming, but now that I have made it from a frivolous endeavor into a more serious one it needs to change.
ReplyDeleteThis will take some thinking ...I do like structure though, but it is a bit vague.
"You take 6 structure damage to the head" hmm...
Unless there are multiple things that can happen like this you can just say 'You take 6 to the head' or 'You take 6 points to the head'. But that is just a side comment.
ReplyDeleteForm
Body (used by Champions of course)
Hull (for anything not a body)
One question I have is how much do you want the game mechanics to sound IC? If you want the words and names of the game to fit in well that is one thing. If you want it to all be more straight technical that is another kind of name scheme.
I way I see it a Character starts at 100% health. Things happen to them that reduce that Health value and at different levels there are restrictions. But I realize that saying 'You were hit for 4% in the right arm' is not the sort of style everyone likes.
A.T
(-)
Going to go with Damage Capacity. Its mechanical but works well for all aspects. "You take X damage" will work for IC
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