One of my players want to take wounds like hit points, counting down from the Threshold(making it Max, not threshold). I asked why, he said "does it matter?", I said "guess not"..

So, does it matter?

Intuitively. its a net loss of one wound. Early when my group first played with this system everyone did it like your player did, what people failed to realize though that when they hit 0 exactly they were not exceeding their threshold. Players will see 13/13 wound and say good I am still in this but if someone sees 0/13 most of the time they will conclude they are knocked out even if they are actually at not beyond their threshold.

The math and concept is easier technically although it does run counter intuitive to traditional RPG precedent.

It's important to the doctor or mechanic who is healing your wounds. Remember the difficulty of the check is based on your current wounds versus your threshold. so if the doctor is used to counting their wounds one way, and you count yours another, when a doctor attempts to patch you up, you'll need to tell them how you calculate your wounds along with your current and ramaining. Or just tell them you have suffered less that or half your threshold, more than half, or over your threshold.

The wording of the rules (such as the heal check difficulty) assumes you are tracking your wounds suffered rather than wounds remaining, so you'll have to translate that anytime you need to reference the rules.

I'm kind of particular about this subject, so I thump my players into calculating wounds as the book states.

It's more intuitive.

For example, I'm positively certain that, at this very moment, I'm at zero wounds.

However, I have no bloody idea what my wound threshold is, and I pray I never, ever discover it.

The math and concept is easier technically although it does run counter intuitive to traditional RPG precedent.

Only counter to one big system, D20 and its variants. Savage Worlds counts up. Shadowrun counts up. WEG Star Wars went up, not down.

The math and concept is easier technically although it does run counter intuitive to traditional RPG precedent.

Only counter to one big system, D20 and its variants. Savage Worlds counts up. Shadowrun counts up. WEG Star Wars went up, not down.

Yah except there are always lots of comments and threads about not subtracting and not the opposite, so that pretty much says it all in my mind.

We've done it both ways in our group, but I run with counting up now. One part I like, it means I don't have to deal with negatives. Also I seem to make less mistakes adding then subtracting - don't ask me why.

The math and concept is easier technically although it does run counter intuitive to traditional RPG precedent.

Only counter to one big system, D20 and its variants. Savage Worlds counts up. Shadowrun counts up. WEG Star Wars went up, not down.

True, but there's also a significant number of gamers that entered this hobby by way of d20, particularly D&D 3rd edition during the d20 boom of the prior decade.

Games such as Warhammer Fantasy Role Play (1st and 2nd edition) also used the "count down to zero" method, as does Palladium, though the later is based upon the D&D system at it's core so that's not too surprising.

Because your threshold can change.

It can change at the beginning of a session, because of Obligation/Duty/Morality, and it can optionally change during a session.

I've used a technique where adventurers trekking across an unforgiving salt flats experience their strain threshold go down as they go further and further without proper rations/water. This kind of mechanic would be tough to do if you counted down toward zero.

Because your threshold can change.

It can change at the beginning of a session, because of Obligation/Duty/Morality, and it can optionally change during a session.

I've used a technique where adventurers trekking across an unforgiving salt flats experience their strain threshold go down as they go further and further without proper rations/water. This kind of mechanic would be tough to do if you counted down toward zero.

This.

I usually count up anyway, even in D&D. Addition is easier in my head than subtraction.

I usually count up anyway, even in D&D. Addition is easier in my head than subtraction.

This seems to be a very common thing. Apparently we as humans are more predisposed to accumulate, and thus addition is a much easier concept for us to grasp than subtraction, even though the latter is a necessary skill to learn.

For me, I agree that adding is easier. I have already done the work of subtracting my Soak; don't make me take that number and subtract it from another number!!

Counting up also removes the issue of "negative" hit points or wounds in this case. While the math is easy, adding in negative and positive numbers is an extra step.

Also, if a character is heavily wounded, with counting up, you have an easy gage of how many days (hours in bacta) a character has to heal. Critical excluded of course - which brings up something else, the criticals go up, as well. So having one system go up and another go down could be confusing to some.

If all else fails tell the player this:

You must *unlearn* what you have learned.

Also many of the concepts in the game rely on counting up. Wording like exceeding wound threshold etc. When trying to understand RAW it helps to be doing the math in the same method as the authors.

Also many of the concepts in the game rely on counting up. Wording like exceeding wound threshold etc. When trying to understand RAW it helps to be doing the math in the same method as the authors.

And there it is. This is the most important reason to do it counting up; the books do so.

It won't get confusing that way and you will never have to do the opposite of a rule.

If your group is having trouble all doing the same thing then you could try using tokens to track wounds and strain. My group use a cheap set of poker chips;

• red for wounds
• green for strain
• black to pass around setback dice (sometimes a passed dice can be lost in the pile and forgotten between rounds etc)
• blue to pass around boost dice

at the end of each session the players mark on there sheet how many wounds/strain they have acquired, then at the beginning of each session they get that many chips. As they take damage and strain they are given more chips, as healing or resting occurs they give them back. its worked well for us and helps everyone to follow the same method.

If your group is having trouble all doing the same thing then you could try using tokens to track wounds and strain. My group use a cheap set of poker chips;

• red for wounds
• green for strain
• black to pass around setback dice (sometimes a passed dice can be lost in the pile and forgotten between rounds etc)
• blue to pass around boost dice

at the end of each session the players mark on there sheet how many wounds/strain they have acquired, then at the beginning of each session they get that many chips. As they take damage and strain they are given more chips, as healing or resting occurs they give them back. its worked well for us and helps everyone to follow the same method.

Also allows the healer to see who is hurt the most without comparing numbers. just look at the biggest pile.

If your group is having trouble all doing the same thing then you could try using tokens to track wounds and strain. My group use a cheap set of poker chips;

• red for wounds
• green for strain
• black to pass around setback dice (sometimes a passed dice can be lost in the pile and forgotten between rounds etc)
• blue to pass around boost dice

at the end of each session the players mark on there sheet how many wounds/strain they have acquired, then at the beginning of each session they get that many chips. As they take damage and strain they are given more chips, as healing or resting occurs they give them back. its worked well for us and helps everyone to follow the same method.

I like this a lot. It also helps make the rule more palatable, since playing the reverse way, no one would want a stack of 12 (or so) red and 12 (or so) blue green chips taking up space in front of them.

If your group is having trouble all doing the same thing then you could try using tokens to track wounds and strain. My group use a cheap set of poker chips;

• red for wounds
• green for strain
• black to pass around setback dice (sometimes a passed dice can be lost in the pile and forgotten between rounds etc)
• blue to pass around boost dice

at the end of each session the players mark on there sheet how many wounds/strain they have acquired, then at the beginning of each session they get that many chips. As they take damage and strain they are given more chips, as healing or resting occurs they give them back. its worked well for us and helps everyone to follow the same method.

I like this a lot. It also helps make the rule more palatable, since playing the reverse way, no one would want a stack of 12 (or so) red and 12 (or so) blue chips taking up space in front of them.

Exactly. It feels great giving back the Chips when you heal, but you know its a bad thing when that pile grows

If you've got Imperial Assault you could even use their 'wound' tokens!