I'm designing a game that features the players playing as mythological heroes who set out to do what they themselves want to do despite fate pushing them in other directions, and I've hit a snag when it came to how "Hitpoints" or "Wounds" are played out.See, when a Hero in mythology does anything, it's severe. Everything they do can't be ticking points off of a hitpoint meter until something happens, but instead it has to feel like them doing something severe each time. If it's a gridlock, it had better be a severe gridlock.I have been thinking of doing a "Wound" system, but that I feel better falls in with the theme of fights being something you'd rather avoid than engage with. Do you guys know of a good set of death mechanics that would fit in well with mythological heroes battling against fate as they live severely? I'm thinking in line with Gilgamesh, Herakles, King Arthur, hell, even John Henry.
>>93409668You might get some ideas from Tenra Bansho Zero (HP, but different) and Legends of the Wulin. (doesn't do HP)
>>93409676>Legends of the WulinThat might be up my game's alley. Any specific edition?
Aeon Trespass does similar topic in board game format, maybe look at that for inspiration.
>>93409739I'll take a look at that, too as soon as I'm done looking through TBZ and LotW. Thanks!
>>93409690There's one edition I'm aware of, which should still be titled the pre-sales edition. Then there's the half-burnt manual to look up, if you want the community errata and fixes. Maybe a board game or something, idk.They hit some weird shipping shenanigans with the physical product (stolen, sunk, or just lost ... I get it confused with another similar shipping snafu) and that might have torpedoed the game.https://www.nuklearpower.com/2012/01/11/nerding-it-up-with-legends-of-the-wulin
>>93409857Thanks, Anon! I'm going to check it out. Sometimes an Anon suggests a game but not an edition, and I wanted to make sure.
>>93409676A little followup on Legends of the Wulin. I found where they're discussing Ripples, and so far I'm digging it! Going to sleep on it though, but it has piqued my interest. Going to read TBZ later, but thanks against for your suggestions, Anon!
>>93409668>I'm designing a game that features the players playing as mythological heroes who set out to do what they themselves want to do despite fate pushing them in other directionsJust play Exalted
>>93410620Just play GURPS while we're at it, since you can do anything in that game.
>>93409668You can try to make a Monster Hunter on the enemies side: Of course the Heros try to chop off the dangerous bits of the enemies, doesn't mean that they are defenseless, and they probably have some way to protect themselves to avoid such fate
>>93409668Keep hp low across the board so that everything falls in like one or two hits.
>>93409668Consult and compare:WushuLegends of the WulinHollow Earth Expedition (and other Ubiquity games)Broken CompassEach of those games handles HP and HP-like meters in a vastly different style than other games on the market. And you can pretty much ignore their pre-definied theme (except maybe for Broken Compass, which really does require an action-adventure scenario or else it gets bogged down), so don't judge them by their covers.
>>93411134Fuck, forgot to remove the trip. Oh well...
>>93409668Honor+Intrigue does have hit points, but it also has a system called Advantage, which you can yield to avoid taking damage (being rendered helpless and at the enemy's mercy if you yield it all - but this is the swashbuckling genre, and you can expect at least some enemies to show mercy to a helpless foe). Advantage can also be leveraged to improve rolls if yours is higher than the enemy's, this costs Fortune points, which are reasonably easy to gain and very valuable themselves for avoiding things like deadly musket balls.
>>93411500Yielding to another's strength is mythological. I'll have to read Honor + Intrigue more closely then methinks
>>93411140I'm not one to throw stones (I namefagged but not tripped).
>>93409668There is the Avatar :tLA/LoK RPG that does something interesting : you have no HP, you have Fatigue instead which is both used as a health tracker and as a ressource pool to pull out big move. Then when you exhaust your Fatigue pool, you get status effect that give you malus until you take some time to rest and heal them away. There is interesting gold nugget of design, it's just a shame it is mixed with shit ideas and as organized as a pile of loose sand.
