Germ of an idea for dynamic HP economy in a dnd-like game

Regular readers will remember that in my work-in-progress fantasy heartbreaker Coup Étrange, "HP" stands for "hero points" which are supposed to be spent throughout play. (Actual design is notably lacking on this subject.) Meanwhile real wounds, with game-affecting consequences, belong to a separate subsystem, which is usually only engaged when the character is hit by an attack and they are out of HP.

Readers may also recall my suggestions (I don't remember where I put this actually) that some kind of barbarian or berserk warrior could get +1HP/HD killed, keeping the rage machine fueled.

So the idea is, you start every scenario with a random amount of HP, in a range fixed by your level and class; say, Xd6+1 for a level X fighting-man. You can increase your current HP past your starting HP, all the way up to, say, 6*X+1 for that same fighting-man. Meanwhile you're also going to be spending it to avoid damage and do cool shit in combat (design work needed here). And you're going to be gaining more, maybe unpredictably, as part of some kind of reward mechanism during play.

I think risky actions should give more/have a higher chance of giving some HP than sure actions. And you can save up your HP, to some extent, for a big whammy.

I'm picturing a fight scene where there's a big guy and a little guy against a horde of mooks. The little guy (low starting HP roll) has to dive into combat and take plenty of risks to be effective. He's earning HP and spending it just as fast to keep out of harm's way and keep stabbing new guys. The big guy is slowly walking forwards and he takes a biiiig swing and absolutely clobbers somebody, takes him out instantly. He's been safeguarding his HP the whole fight to use it in that one hit. That's the fictional image that inspired this idea.

In actual play things won't go that routine, because you have to play out each roll, and each fight, one at a time, without knowing the consequences of the future rolls and fights. So you were planning to safeguard your HP for the big hit, but oh no, little guy got cornered, now I have to dash in and take him out.

I think it's hard to get lots of HP in this system but you probably recover to a minimum of LVL HP if you rest after a fight. If I'm fucking around with this kind of heavy-weight character-specific currency I don't want fights to ever boil down to a mind-numbing d&d routine of "I hit him and he hits me and I hit him", I want people to do cool shit all the time, and that means they have to spend HP all the time, and that means they have to have a minimum amount of it all the time.

Anyway these are my drunken jotted thoughts, hopefully I come up with some actual rules for em at some point. 

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