I’ve been thinking a lot about this post about stamina.
You should read his entire post, but in short: stamina is a substitute for HP. You burn stamina to take actions— not just soak damage.
I love the idea of HP as a resource pool that Players can choose to spend. After all, if HP is defined as “the ability to avoid injury”, then there’s an implicit choice every time a Player loses HP— they have chosen to spend their HP and avoid injury. What if we made this choice explicit?
Revised HP (Stamina)
A Player can choose to spend 1 stamina to do one of the following:
Let’s see this in action with some examples of play:
Examples of Play
1. Avoid Injury
GM: The wild boar charges at you. Make a DEX save!
PC: (Rolls DEX) Damn, I fail.
GM: The boar has you down on the ground. It’s going to gore you with its tusks— roll on the Injury table.
PC: Wait! I’m going to exert myself and roll into the undergrowth.
GM: OK, you spend 1 stamina and avoid the Injury roll.
2. Do Something Extra
GM: The sun is setting. What do you want to do?
PC: I don’t want to spend another night in this swamp. I’ll travel into the next hex.
GM: You’ve already moved 2 hexes since your last rest, so this is going to cost 1 stamina.
PC: Sure.
GM: OK, you spend 1 stamina and push on. Let’s see how the journey at night goes...
3. Gain Advantage
GM: The bandit is about to plunge a knife into your ally.
PC: I can’t miss this shot. Can I spend stamina to improve my chances?
GM: Sure. You’ll get advantage.
PC: I’ll do it.
GM: OK, you spend 1 stamina and gain advantage on the roll. Roll to attack!
4. Mitigate Failure
GM: It’s close, but you fail your STR check. The door doesn’t break.
PC: Can I burn stamina to succeed?
GM: Sure, but there will be consequences.
PC: I’ll do it.
GM: OK, you spend 1 stamina and just manage to break the door. But it makes a tremendous splintering sound. You hear footsteps running this way!
Wrapping Up
I feel like there’s a lot here and I’m excited to hear your thoughts it. Let’s get a conversation going in the comments / replies.
P.S. I’ll write a post about types of “damage to meat” in the near future. This sub-system for damage is foundational for stamina (at least in this iteration).
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