Hit Points
It's kind of late in the game, but I was thinking last night about doing away with hit points in 3D.
Right now, everyone has 10 hit point. You don't get more, you just get better at defending them. This is a subsystem of combat (physical, mental, and social). They do come into play during the game outside of combat situations as a narrative success mechanic as well.
However, if I didn't have hit points, I'd just use successes. It takes X successes to beat him in combat. Now, there are advantages and disadvantages to this. Advantages include one less subsystem, a standardization of rules, and speedier combat (which is what originally got me thinking about this). The system already takes into account the damage dealt by people with exceptional attributes, but it almost double dips in this respect. Disadvantages include weapon selection becoming flavor text only, the question of how to deal with damaging boons/spells/abilities, more predictability in combat, and what to do with the narrative success mechanic.
Right now the disadvantages outweigh the advantages of the change. There are too many unanswered questions and a potentially huge change to how things work. But I think it's worth it to question mechanical choices at any stage of the process. Am I doing the right thing? Does this make sense? Is there a better way? Do the results I get meet my expectations? I'd rather ask these questions, even now, than realize I should have asked them after the game is in people's hands.
Right now, everyone has 10 hit point. You don't get more, you just get better at defending them. This is a subsystem of combat (physical, mental, and social). They do come into play during the game outside of combat situations as a narrative success mechanic as well.
However, if I didn't have hit points, I'd just use successes. It takes X successes to beat him in combat. Now, there are advantages and disadvantages to this. Advantages include one less subsystem, a standardization of rules, and speedier combat (which is what originally got me thinking about this). The system already takes into account the damage dealt by people with exceptional attributes, but it almost double dips in this respect. Disadvantages include weapon selection becoming flavor text only, the question of how to deal with damaging boons/spells/abilities, more predictability in combat, and what to do with the narrative success mechanic.
Right now the disadvantages outweigh the advantages of the change. There are too many unanswered questions and a potentially huge change to how things work. But I think it's worth it to question mechanical choices at any stage of the process. Am I doing the right thing? Does this make sense? Is there a better way? Do the results I get meet my expectations? I'd rather ask these questions, even now, than realize I should have asked them after the game is in people's hands.