Definitely one of the world’s great inventions.

My errands did not go as smoothly as they would have if I were competent, but I did eventually get them all done. Sweatily.

Ugh, nighttime jackhammering on the next block. I put on clothes so I could go find out what their deal was, and they say the jackhammer is only through tomorrow night. After that, they bring in the heavy equipment.

Watched (live-action TV): Slow Horses 1.4: Wow, these people are terrible. I guess it really must be impossible to fire civil servants in the UK.

Read (graphic novel): Rainbow vol 2 (Sunny, Gloomy): I hadn’t read this far in the Webtoon, so it was all new but still cute except for horrible mothers. Also, the end! I was not expecting it so quickly, but two big fat volumes is not that short, and the lesbians and their dog got some happily ever eventually.

Written (game design): 352:

What is a hit point, anyway? In war games, it was how much abuse a unit
could take before it lost cohesion or sank or otherwise became
irrelevant to the battle, which is fine, especially when you have
several or many units to deal with. Not as great when the unit is a
single person you’re allegedly identifying with, which is why early D&D
had the arguments about whether losing hit points meant running out of
luck or getting wounded, and how to square either view with what happens
when a 15th level fighter falls off a 100′ cliff. More recent editions
seem to treat hit points as a video-game health bar, where running out
means you’re defeated but otherwise there’s no meaning to any value or
change in value. Even getting the “bloodied” tag at half hit points has
been dropped.

Several OSR games like Cairn and Into the Odd have redefined HP to be
“hit protection”, which is what keeps you from actually taking a wound,
which is at least implicitly option A. Other games relabel it as
“guard” or “defense” or something along those lines, same thing. I like
this approach in general, although requiring the victim to make a saving
throw vs stabbing to avoid a wound instead is very tempting. It would
make combat way less predictable, though, which is more realistic but
less gameable.

Some games have variable HP: if your class and level give you 4d8 HP,
then you roll 4d8 every morning, or even at the start of every battle,
and that’s what you have. I find this idea entertaining, although
players who always roll below average might not. For extra fun, don’t
roll until the first time you get hit.

I am definitely not going with the suggestion I found on one OSR blog
that you start with a lot of hit points but can never regain them, so
your fate is always approaching. There are games where that would fit,
but I’m pretty sure this is not one of them.