Hopefully, we can make 4e more playable for those who like a different 'feel'.
My contribution: Full healing for a nights' rest.
Solution - Slow Healing: Each night, regain either your Surge Value worth of Hit Points or 1/4 your Healing Surges, if you are at full HP. This means that most characters are roughly healed after four days, fully healed after five and fully ready for action in another four to five days.
Less healing: Change to 1/2 or 1/4 Surge Value worth of Hit Points.
More healing: Change to 2x or 3x Surge Value and/or 1/2 or 2/3 of your Healing Surges.
Edit: Alternately, save 'Slow healing' for stressful situations, where a good nights' rest is unlikely, such as crossing 'the Mires of the Sorrowsworn in under five days'. Otherwise, assume the healers can heal the party to full. - Credit to AriaSilverhands for inspiring this revision option.
We are thinking of trying the following. We would make the following change to the bloodied status.
Bloodied: You have suffered a real injury which is life-threatening. You suffer a bloodied result when you take damage equal to your healing surge value from a single attack or you reach a number of hit points equal to your bloodied value and again when you reach 0 hit points. You can suffer from more than one bloodied result in this variation on the system.
Each bloodied result requires the character to make a saving throw at the end of his turn:
Less than 10. You slip one step closer to death. If you get this result three times you drop unconscious regardless of your current character points. After you reach zero hit points or drop unconscious you can suffer three more results before dying.
10-19. You suffer no change.
20 or higher. You may spend a Healing surge if you have one. If you do than the Bloodied result stabalises.
Zero Hit Points: Under this system you simply suffer an additional bloodied result and full unconscious when you reach zero hit points.
Stabalized Bloodied Results: A Healing check to Stabilize the Dying and any healing powers that heal more than you healing surge value stabalize a single bloodied result. A stabalized bloodied results persists but does not require you to make a saving throw any more.
Removing Bloodied Results: There are two ways to remove a bloodied result from your character sheet.
Powers: Healing that cures a number of hit points in excess of your bloodied value can remove a single bloodied result instead of healing hit points if you desire.
Rest: A long rest allows you to make a saving throw for each stabalized bloodied result. If you succeed the bloodied result is removed. An individual who tends to you using the healing skill can use the Grant a Saving Throw option to provide you a +2 bonus to this roll.
Side Effects: Some games might consider causing every character to suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws and defence values for each bloodied result but this would probably have the effect of making combat too dangerous.
What purpose are you serving by putting the paper work back in?
If you have a method for getting long-term recovery back in that doesn't result in paperwork, please feel free to add it.
I was asked rhetorically. In 1E and 2E it was pure paper work as to how many days you spent resting. In 3E it further emphasized having clerics mandatory since a decent cleric could fill the parties HP in one day. In 4E 95% of the time I don't think it will be missed.
It's the 5% of run the party ragged play where it will be missed and I think your fix puts it back into play.
Oh, I do like your solution. It's a good fix.
I was asked rhetorically. In 1E and 2E it was pure paper work as to how many days you spent resting. In 3E it further emphasized having clerics mandatory since a decent cleric could fill the parties HP in one day. In 4E 95% of the time I don't think it will be missed.
It's the 5% of run the party ragged play where it will be missed and I think your fix puts it back into play.
While I'm not in favor of this sort of finicky healing either, keep in mind that many people appear to prefer a greater amount of simulation in their game. Such things necessitate more complex rules, which almost always mean more paperwork. Rules like this are written by and targeted to such people. If you don't want the paperwork, you don't have to have it. However, they do want it. So, if you have a criticism that would reduce the paperwork while keeping to the core of the idea, or a way to further increase realism, then by all means speak up. But don't just say that additional paperwork is necessarily bad. After all, these are house rules, and thus optional.
Narf_the_Mouse: Not my cup of tea, but it looks good. I would recommend Aria's derivative, in general, and might actually stick my players with something like this someday with that in mind. I know for a fact that they won't always get their short rests between combats, either. =P
Cunning_Kindred: Also has potential. I would simply apply the -1 penalty you mention under side effects once when you fall under your healing surge value in total hit points; not only are you bloodied, then, you're seriously weakened. Let healing in excess of your bloodied value cure hit points AND remove a bloodied result - that's not an easy amount of healing to achieve.
For another take on the concept of debilitating injuries rules, look at this thread. It's a system that's comparatively simple compared to the one you've offered, and I think that it has much the same flavor.
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1046178
While I'm not in favor of this sort of finicky healing either, keep in mind that many people appear to prefer a greater amount of simulation in their game. Such things necessitate more complex rules, which almost always mean more paperwork. Rules like this are written by and targeted to such people. If you don't want the paperwork, you don't have to have it. However, they do want it. So, if you have a criticism that would reduce the paperwork while keeping to the core of the idea, or a way to further increase realism, then by all means speak up. But don't just say that additional paperwork is necessarily bad. After all, these are house rules, and thus optional.
I dunno. . . it kinda strikes me as a kludge. 4E's awesomeness comes from its quickness and cinematic style. . . adding detailed, gritty hit points systems strikes me as being as much against the grain as, say, adding an action point mechanic to Call of Cthulhu.
The paperwork is minimal and takes almost no time. The reason is that it puts a bit of realism back in the game, to make injuries and life or death combat a little more plausible. Less immersion breaking. It also allows the DM to introduce time limits that are greater than six hours. Something like the PC's have to cross the Mires of the Sorrowsworn in under five days. It becomes a test of endurance rather than hustle overland for ten hours or so and then rest for six and be perfectly fine regardless of what happened the day before.
This "Cross the Mires of the Sorrowsworn in under five days" task you seem very fond of sounds more like a skill challenge to me.
This thread is going way off-topic and that greatly limits its usefulness.
Most of this doesn't depend on the level of simulation and it all eats at the deadline. In 3.5 it is impossible to break your leg. You fall into a pit and you are either healthy but missing HP or dead.
Keep in mind as well, in race against time adventures, it isn't always relevant how much you heal when you rest, but how often you can rest. If you have five days to traverse an area that takes 108 hours to cover that leaves two nights of rest across five days(unless you are all elves). Less if you aren't making good time. You can also increase the number of encounters per rest to stretch resources thin per day, and resting doesn't bring back consumables or lost, stolen or ruined gear like rope, torches, or rations.
I'm a big fan of the endurance, race against time, and survival based adventures. DnD has never really had a solid model for doing it, or simulating injury either. It also has never really needed one as the DM can just say that the guy who stepped in the trap or natural disaster is now injured.
I'm also a big houseruler though. My 4e in a few weeks will probably be practically unrecognizable from core. I would still urge anyone doing anything as drastic as altering the HP and recovery system to first think about what you are actually altering. The types of adventures you were running in 3e and 2e are still possible. It is usually easier to reevaluate how you are running adventures and adapt your DMing style than it is to reevaluate the rules themselves and adapt an entire system.
This one is really simple: see the three checkmarks under "Death Saves?" Here's how I'd use it to gritty up my game.
1. Every time a character is dropped below 0 HP, or fails a Saving Throw vs Dying, they check off one of the three boxes.
2. For each check mark under "Death Saves," a character takes a -1 penalty to all attacks, checks, and defenses.
3. If a character has three check marks and is dropped below 0 hp or fails a Saving Throw vs. Dying, they are now dead.
4. A character can erase one check mark every time they take an extended rest.
SUMMARY OF CHANGES: Being dropped now incurs cumulative penalties to die rolls, and death saves recharge on extended rests, not on short rests.
Staggered
1. A character who takes more than 1/4 their maximum HP (i.e. their Healing Surge value) in damage from a single attack must make a saving throw or be staggered until the end of their next turn.
2. A staggered character cannot take any immediate actions. Also, they must spend a healing surge to take a standard action on their turn: they can take a move action and a minor action as normal.
SUMMARY OF CHANGES: A massive damage threshhold is added, which causes a temporary setback to the character that can be remedied through the use of a healing surge.
you use the raw point value you would get from the classes trained skills and break it down into points.
you spend those points as you wish in your classes skill list. cross class skills cost 1 point but can get no higher than 2 points.
you are considered "trained" if you have at least 3 points in a skill.