Cool Things I've Found: "Every Scar A Story"

This brilliant rules variant for damage offers a dynamic alternative to both hit points and hits.

The Unintended Consequences of Hit Points

One of the things I love about rules-lite games is the streamlined approach they offer to hit points (i.e. HP). In most crunchy systems, hit points serve as an abstraction of how physically resilient one’s character is. It’s not a bad feature per se, but I quickly discovered that it’s easy for many rpg games to fall into the trap of increasing HP as players level up.

What makes it a trap? Well, the goal is to convey that one’s character is becoming more powerful. Nothing wrong with that! But, as players (and monsters) get more HP, a few unintended consequences occur.

Consequence #1: Combat sloooooooooowwwwwws dramatically due to more dice to count, more damage to calculate, and more hit points to slog through until one side achieves victory. Ever been in a multi-hour D&D battle? It’s not as exciting as it sounds.

Consequence #2: After a certain amount of HP gain, low-level monsters just aren’t a threat anymore. That’s fine for some groups who want their heroes to feel increasingly impervious to all but the most powerful adversaries. But I never want combat to feel threatless for my players. If nothing’s at risk, then why both rolling the dice.

Consequence #3: A large pool of hit points slowly being whittled down not only breaks excitement (see Consequence #1), but it often breaks immersion. The longer a combat drags on, the more I begin to wonder…

• “What is actually happening when my character takes damage and goes from 121 hit points to 97?

• How do I describe that as the GM?

• Has the player taken direct damage or just burned through some energy in defending an incoming strike?

• And as I take hit after hit, why doesn’t my character’s capacity to effectively fight or use certain skills diminish? I could have 1 hit point out of 121—and be on death’s door—but there’s no mechanical penalty. I can do all the things my character could do at 121 hit points.”

Encounters begin to feel a little too video-gamey for me, and verisimilitude—even within the context of my fantasy setting—is challenged.

Beyond Hit Points

One solution to these problems is to forgo hit points and use hits instead. This is the route many rules-lite games take. In Tricube Tales a player has 3 hits called Resolve. In EZD6 a player has 3 hits called Strikes. In Tiny D6 games, characters begin with 5-7 hits (although these are called hit points).

The major advantage of having characters with a small number of hits instead of a increasingly pool of hit points is that those 3-5 hits convey a level of vulnerability that having a bag of hits points doesn’t (e.g., EZD6’s motto is “3 strikes and you’re out!”). This makes encounters more intense, combats faster, and gameplay more cinematic. Characters (and enemies) with a small number of hits raise the stakes for any kind of confrontation. Sure, your character may be heroic, but squaring off against a foe remains dangerous and consequential, because even low-level creatures do at least 1 hit of damage. When a character only has a few hits to spare, they don’t have the psychological margins to get careless. Every encounter needs to be navigated carefully.

Beyond Hits

Adopting hits instead of hit points solves the problem of slowed combat and threatless encounters, but what about my third issue: mere reduction of hits being immersion-breaking. Shouldn’t a character taking hits progressively weaken as they get closer to zero (i.e., death)? It’s only reasonable that absorbing hits, injuries, and harm would immediately (and perhaps permanently) affect your character’s capacities and abilities to some degree. When using hits, how can GMs make every instance of harm slowly escalate in consequence so that all harm is narratively and mechanically impactful?

Enter “Every Scar a Story,” a rules variant for 24XX games designed by R.E. Davis (The ChaosGrenade). It approaches damage and harm in a way that opens up an unpredictable but satisfying range of impactful effects that comes with each instance of harm (i.e., each hit).

This rules variant removes both hit points and hits. Instead, characters begin with a Stress Die of d6.

“This represents the character’s overall wellbeing -- not only physical health, but also emotional and mental duress.”

Whenever a character would take physical or mental harm, they roll their Stress Die on the narratively appropriate effects table, and the GM adjudicates an outcome that compliments the effect. Every time your character’s Stress Die is rolled, it is then moved up one die-size higher (e.g. d6—>d8—>d10—>d12—>d20). This builds tension with each successive rolls, because the higher your roll on the effects tables the more severe the consequences!

I love Every Scar because not only does it bypass the limitations of hit points, but it also provides a mechanic that is richer than mere hits. All sources of harm—whether physical or mental—are dangerous and unpredictable. As a result, players must remain vigilant against any and all threats, because every roll of the Stress Die could introduce serious narrative and mechanical impacts. A single hit from a goblin’s club could result in a broken bone or temporary incapacitation as you begin vomiting from the goblin’s stench as it approaches (rolling a 6 on the Harm and Fear Effects tables respectively).

This damage effect unpredictability lends itself especially well to use in solo play, because it provides built-in randomization that keeps the surprises coming and prevents the GM/player from gaming the effects of combat.

Healing and Recovery In Every Scar

If a character has no hit points or hits, how does recovery/healing work? In a brilliantly simple way:

“During play, a scene of pause or rest may happen in order to recover from stress. A successful skill check will lower the Stress Die one step. Other player characters may assist on this. What skill, and how it plays out, is open to the narrative – first aid, pep talks, pain killers etc.”

Example: A fighter’s Stress Die has risen to d10. The Cleric lays on hands and petitions their god for healing. A successful roll lowers the fighter’s Stress Die to d8 (or to d6 on a critical success!).

Push Yourself Beyond Your Limits

Every Scar also has an option called Push Yourself, which allows players to gamble and attempt to leverage their stress/adrenaline to achieve an outcome that is truly heroic—but at a price.

“When players choose to Push themselves, they may roll their Stress Die in addition to their Skill. If the result of the Stress Die is used to succeed, then the character suffers a consequence for exerting themselves -- they take a stress effect based on what they rolled, as well as raising the Stress Die one step.”

Because Push Yourself is specifically designed for 24XX games, I’m not sure how it would work within the mechanics of other systems, but I’m sure people more clever than I could port the idea over. Maybe it’s as simple as having the option to add your stress die to your next d20 roll or dice pool, but automatically taking the stress effect based on what is rolled?

Final Thoughts

Every Scar provides a dynamic alternative for those who want to move beyond hit point bloat and static hit reduction. The tables give GMs (or solo players) some narrative framing that can keep the encounter moving forward and escalating in tension with each roll of the dice.

Although Every Scar is designed for the 24XX series of rules-lite games, the basic mechanic is transferrable to any rules-lite game with a little tweaking. I’ve used these tables with a few rules-lite systems that only track hits/strikes and Every Scar does a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to narrating how harm/injury is being experienced by the players’ characters.

I’m so glad I stumbled upon this supplement and hope you find it to be as useful and cool as I have!