>>5685298>>5685316>capture to torture laterI just knew this topic would arise; Hellraiser, yay
>>5679984>>5685328>>5685445>>5685812>The world itself must be transformed or disturbed to extreme extents...hehe
>>5685861>How do you plan to kill them...The entire point of this sort of dungeonmastering is to place some buffer or graduated scale of "the punishment" muahahaha lol substituting a less severe consequence for something other than YOU DIE GAME OVER.
So a few ideas from various rpg systems I remember
In Night's Black Agents, a GUMSHOE ttrpg system about vampires set during the Cold War, there is a unique healing system. What you have during character creation are three facets: Symbol, Solace, Sanctuary. Symbol is an item or memory eg photo of wife; solace is a person you turn to for trust eg a sidekick or mentor; sanctuary is exactly as it says, a safehouse, hideout, or third place eg restaurant or gathering place for recuperation.
The idea is that you draw on these things/people/places to heal. The EVIL ANTAGONIST devastates these places before killing you etc. The basic idea is you want to create a buffer between the hero character and THE DEATH etc it is not just ENEMY SHOOT YOU IN HEAD, GAME OVER ha ha etc.
Along these lines, pbta games suggest other ways of what happens when a choice or roll goes poorly ie you do not get what you want. These are called complications or hindrances:
1/ Take away a resource. Can be an item, relationship, social status, ability / skill etc
2/ Demand a promise of something else in return (this starts a chain of fetch quests...)
3/ It takes a longer time / is slower than expected
4/ Must reveal something shameful / embarrassing about yourself
5/ An entirely new danger or risk is created
... there are a lot of these. You can find a list of them in any pbta or NuSR ttrpg game, the one I read was I think Explorers of Nurath which listed some of these complications or hindrances.
If you are clever about how you approach dungeonmastering, you do not need health points or any sort of wound / damage combat system at all for roleplaying, you enter entirely into the game realm of moral physics or metaphysical bargaining lol
