Referee Skills Review 3: Additive Damage
the Referee Skills Review is about playtesting soft skills in the same way that rules and modules get playtested. My aim is not to tutorialise, but to review based on actual experience from play. Relevant links to educational content will be linked where I can find them.
Quick one. First, I feel like it's worth talking a little bit more about why I'm doing this little series.
The first reason is that I think soft GMing skills are far, far, more vital to a fun session than the system or content in use, and they deserve to be discussed more.
The second reason is that when I search online for solutions to GMing problems, I often find a surplus of ideas but a lack of info on whether they actually work. Thus, an effort to not only catalogue referee skills, but also to provide meaningful insight on what's good and what isn't.
How I used it
I suck at maths. So when my players start hitting something, I jot down its name and its total HP beside it. Each point of damage gets tallied. When the tally equals the HP, the thing is dead.
Is it good?
Yeah, it's pretty great! Super easy and reduces the mental load of trying to add or subtract.
I'm bad enough at maths that even tallying can get messed up sometimes. I particularly struggle when a player gives me their damage as separate amounts.
"That's 2 damage for the sword. Oh! and add another fourteen to that for the Chilling Curse. But then take off three again because of Bane."
It also breaks down when the damage totals get stupid huge. It's no fun when everyone's waiting on you to make 127 individual tally marks.
Will I use it again?
Yeah, 100%. It's become second nature at this point.
A possible alternative to look into would be evading maths entirely with 1 HP monster design.
On reflection, I also wonder if simply having a calculator on hand wouldn't make everything much quicker and easier. Is this a thing that people are already doing? More research needed.