The same idea is used in Traveller 20 (or T20), where Hit Points are now called Stamina and Wound Points (from the OGL Vitality variant) are called Lifeblood.

These systems have the benefit of making “commoners” a bit more threatening as well as making combat quicker, albeit deadlier.

By the nature of the terminology, the abstract nature of the damage system is restored.

John // Wyrmwood

PS: Love that show!

Personally I will have to think on this more. I’m not yet experienced enough with 4e to make some generalizations about it. But I do enjoy this topic every time it comes up.

While HP can be tricky from a standpoint of emulation or in game narrative, nothing is quicker or easier for me to track or gague.

1e, 4e, Castles and Crusades, Hackmaster, Labyrinth Lord, Palladium Fantasy Roleplay, Swords & Wizardry, True 20… it’s all D&D.

Even games like Ars Magica, Dangerous Journeys, Lejendary Adventure, Middle Earth Roleplay, Exalted and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay… they’re pretty much D&D as well.

I’ve gone out of my way to name them Dodge Points in my RPG, with Critical Damage being damage that is treated as ‘negative HPs’-concept.

Some attacks/effects can leave your Dodge Points untouched while you suffer Critical Damage, and some attacks/effects will never do Critical Damage–instead leaving the figure unable to move and effectively exhausted (’0′ points).

Both Dodge Points and Critical Damage are still recovered through Healing magic, and can see spells that only restore one or the other sort.

Luck Points work very much like traditional D&D Hitpoints. They flitter away when used up and have no lasting effects. The represent the supernatural luck of heroes and villains. When Indiana Jones runs around a corner face to face with a nazi wielding an SMG, the bullets all magically miss (Luck points). Eventually though a hero will run out of luck points and the damage will hit the body (“You’re **** outa luck as they say). Each body point lost carries immediate penalties to everything you do and takes weeks or more to heal a single one.

The other benefit being, now that its explicitly luck, Luck points are transferable and scalable. Your steed is no longer a liability, a 10th level captain of a pirate ship can come out of broadsides far better than a mere first level. If sci-fi is your taste, then your fighter pilot can use his luck points to shield his fighter from physical damage in the same way he shields his body (note that it scales, your pirate captain won’t lose all his luck points with the first salvo of muskets to spatter off his ships hull)

There are always alternatives that keep the effect (or improve on it) without keeping the downsides.

Another possibility would be to use the Fate system’s “stress” terminology. Also, “combat advantage” actually comes close to describing how hit points really behave, if only it wasn’t in already use.