In the Ancient days of Pen and Paper RPGs, there was a stat called HP. This was created to allow Dungeon Masters to determine how the player was doing in battle. However, its original meaning was somewhat lost, and HP was accepted as actual ability to withstand damage. It was only used to make the job of DMing easier. Here''s a re-explanation. In actual Swords fighting, the dualers trade blows wearing each other down until a deadly strike can be made-No actual blows are traded. HP was used to measure this as well as physical damage. However now we have computer that we are making games on, why do we maintain a system that is inaccurate and can pose intersting challenges to a player with a more acurate system. I think the player should have a Stamina... During any activity, this goes down until, well, sleep is needed. Anyway, in combat (as that is what this is about) Stamina goes down for the weight of armor, movement of shield, Swing of swords, and "dancing" around avoiding blows. Therefore, when ''continuous stamina'' (another number determining the amount of energy that can be spent in a short time) runs low, the player or NPC faulters and--is hit with an actual blow. And damage is rendered accordingly, a thrust through the heart is death, while a parry to the head is unconciousness. So: StaminaMax, CurrentStamina, FitnessMax, and current Fitness level. StaminaMax is top ability level for the entire day. FitnessMax is the amount of time that strenuous activity may be performed before a slight rest is in order. CurrentStamina decays into current Fitness at a specific rate, when it is needed. And Fitness is the current energy level. Why all this? Because, after a game of basketball, you don''t need to sleep in order to stop feeling tired out, you just need to sit on the bench a few minutes. Wow, this was too long......

A lot depends on what level of abstraction you want. We can''t accurately represent the feeling of fatigue. Your system sounds workable, but I''d think about how easily it translates to the interface. You may find yourself with a little line representing stamina, and be not too far from HP in terms of representation.

BTW, HP now stands for other things (I wasn''t aware that''s how it started out, but okay). I think you''re usually awarded more points to also denote combat prowess. Since timing, feinting, and manuever are shallow, a long HP bar says "I''m a combat veteran who can last a long time in a fight."

Kudos for looking at it in another way, tho''! That''s how we get innovation!

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Just waiting for the mothership...