[NineDaysDead]

Old thread:

Originally Posted by David L Pulver

This doesn’t explain anything, since this was never in question. The question is “why do Unliving, Homogenous things etc have more HP than living things of the same weight?” not “What are HP?”

*Living thing: vulnerable to system failure from destruction of a small part. There are multiple internal organs any of which if damaged or destroyed will cause incapacitation or death, not to mention pain, shock, etc.
* Unliving thing: Less vulnerable. An airplane or car can be shot full of holes, but still function. Tear the doors of a car and it will still work fine. Tear the skin off a person and he's moaning in pain. Tear the skin off a zombie and he's a skeleton and still coming... Or think Terminator (arnie-model).
* Homogenous thing. You can keep smashing it to bits, but it doesn't matter until you've structurally destroyed it. A block of wood. A golem. A raft. Or think a terminator (liquid metal model) .

Now, there are also *damage modifiers* for each type of damage. So burning damage is fully effective vs. all three types as it affects a larger surface area, but piercing damage is most effectively against living things, because the damage area is relatively small. You are perhaps arguing for a big damage divisor. But a big damage divisor (homogenous takes x1/4 damage from everything) not only loses the flavor - the current system encourages you to choose your weapons and deal with zombies with axes and flamethrowers - but also is essentially identical to giving 4x HP anyway.

So, the system simply recommends that anything that is homogenous have 4x HP and anything unliving have 2x HP and then piles on additional divisors as necessary.