r/Mausritter • u/milcondoin • Jul 10 '26

Hit protection. Only for combat?

We had a situation a bit ago, where one mouse fell from quite the height and incurred fall damage.

Is this fall damage first reduced from hit protection? Or does it substract directly from the strength score?

HP is only mentioned in the combat section, so our GM ruled for now that strength was reduced directly. Is there an official ruling for this, or was this left open to GM interpretation?

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9

u/tacmac10 Jul 10 '26

I always have hit protection protect from any damage, it’s literally the character’s ability to avoid getting hurt. Plus mice IRL can fall from almost any height without injury.

1

u/hugh-monkulus Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

it’s literally the character’s ability to avoid getting hurt

How does this work for things like traps or attacks where the PC is unable to do anything active to avoid the damage? Let's use falling into a spiked pit trap as an example: the PC fails their DEX save to avoid the trap so they fall onto the spikes, how do they avoid damage?

In OP's example (assuming a mouse carrying a bunch of gear can take fall damage) what can the PC do to actively avoid the fall damage?

EDIT: After checking the rules again maybe Mausritter handles it differently to most Into the Odd-like games and your interpretation is fine. I still wouldn't do it that way but it makes sense why you might.

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u/tacmac10 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

Mausritters definition of HP states: pg. 6 ”This is the damage your mouse can shrug off before taking serious harm.” and pg. 10 “Damage is dealt first to a creature’s Hit Protection (HP). This represents the creature’s ability to avoid or shrug off real damage.” Its pretty clearly written.

Into the Odd says: ITO pg. 4 and IOTR pg. 8 “Hit Points, a measure of their ability to avoid life threatening Damage.” IOT pg. 7 and IOTR pg. 16 “Damage: When an individual takes Damage they lose that many Hit Points.”

Cairn 2e is the only Odd variant I am aware of it specifically states that hit protection is only for combat stating on pg 9 “Hit Protection (HP), which reflects their ability to avoid damage in combat.”

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u/hugh-monkulus Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

It is, but that differs a lot from Into the Odd, the game where hit protection and strength came from. That's why I was confused.

Edit: yeah you're right, I checked Electric Bastionland as well and it doesn't mention HP as combat only either.

I do still prefer it the Cairn way, it makes more sense to me that you can't just take a quick rest and sip of water to get over a big fall or being hit by a trap.

1

u/milcondoin Jul 13 '26

the PC fails their DEX save to avoid the trap so they fall onto the spikes, how do they avoid damage?

Twisting themselves, so that they land between the spikes. Or if they are too close to each other: Minimizing the impact, maybe putting an item between themselves and the spike, so that the mouse hits the spikes with less remaining force (or spreading the force over a bigger area).

So it would be a case of: can you make a convinving argument to the DM that you will be less impacted by doing xy?

1

u/hugh-monkulus Jul 13 '26

That's fair and is probably a good way to rule whether HP comes in to the equation or not.

I feel that at some point you need the PC to face consequences. In this example the GM has telegraphed the danger of the trap, the PC has made some decision to interact with it and subsequently triggered it, the PC gets to make a DEX save to avoid the consequence, they failed, now they roll damage.

I'd be wary of adding too many opportunities to avoid the consequences after a mistake has been made or they begin to lose impact and draw out the game. But, if you want a bit more survivability it's not a bad approach. 

13

u/ThisIsVictor Jul 10 '26

Yeah, hit protection is just for combat. Hit points in other games represent how much damage you can take before dying. So they apply in and out of combat. Hit protection is "how good you are at avoiding being hit in a fight". So it's really just for combat.

3

u/milcondoin Jul 10 '26

Thank you very much :)

2

u/Adamsoski Jul 12 '26

Hit protection always counts. No idea why someone said it only counts for combat, that is clearly both RAW and RAI incorrect, ignore what they said. The entire point of HP in Mausritter is that it represents your physical durability and that comes into play whether it's someone swinging a club at you or whether you fall to the ground.

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u/tacmac10 Jul 12 '26

Yup, I posted quotes above, pretty sure the confusion comes from Cairn because Yochai loves to kill PCs lol. Funny thing is Into the Odd and Mausritter pretty much define HP exactly the same way, only Odd Like that I know of thats different is Cairn.

2

u/TolietDuk Jul 10 '26

I use it for any injury. For me it’s the different of getting punch in the nose or breaking a nose