It’s a chilly morning up here in Vermont today. While I do love autumn, I can’t help but think about the huge snowbanks that menaced us in February, threatening to bury everything. The passage of time never seems as pertinent as it does during the changing of the seasons. I wonder if Gygax felt the same.

When I think about the time scale of Dungeons and Dragons, it’s changed over the years. It’s somewhat related to the power creep throughout the editions. “The Stricture of time is what makes recovery of hit points meaningful”. That’s absolutely the source of all this.

I’m remembering the last big 2E campaign I ran. We were using a house rule for death, allowing a PC to go into negative numbers for hit points, but they were unconscious if they dipped below zero. It was early on when two of the PCs met each other on the sandy shores of the elven islands. One was a sea elf, the other a ship wrecked pirate. Their meeting was interrupted by some Locatha.

The battle was bloody. Everyone lived, but the sea elf went into negative hit points, putting him at risk of death. I had the payer leave the meeting so they wouldn’t see what happened while their character was unconscious. The other player drug his body for many leagues over many days. When the Sea Elf woke up, he was bandaged in an inn. He had 1 hit points. It was still early on during the road to recovery. He spent many more days at that inn, getting his health back.

It was a really cool moment. In my opinion, it helped the PCs to feel more… human. Yes, that is an odd thing to say when one was a Sea Elf. The only thing that let it happen was that hit points recovery was so much less in 2E. If you were attended to by a healer and had complete bedrest, I think the best you could hope for was three hit points a day. It could take weeks to get back to max.

This hit point economy made for a very different game than superheroes who regain all their HP when they get a good night’s sleep, or even dozens for sitting down for an hour. Everything also has more hp in general now. Longer combats, tougher characters, and so many ways to get that life giving resource back – who needs to track time when eight hours is the only meaningful increment?

Think about wilderness exploration. It’s dangerous to be far from home. What if you get hurt? There’s a real good chance that random encounters are going to wear you down before you can heal. If you’re healing overnight, though, you just need one lucky roll and you’re good to go again. See the difference?

My standard disclaimer applies, of course – if everyone is playing the game and having fun, you’re doing it right. This isn’t meant to yuck anyone’s yum. I just wish these compressed in game times weren’t the default. I like to slowly sink into a game, feel it unfold before me like a plodding novel. There’s nothing wrong with comic book pacing, moving from action scene to action scene, but I want something more substantial from time to time.

Anyway, it’s warmed up enough while I was writing this that I can take off my hoodie. Maybe autumn will wait a few more weeks. I guess I will too.