Hit Point Calisthenics

Playing with Hit Points
The Hit Point mechanics help define White Box and all its direct descendants. A resource pool of character health, skill, karma or luck which can be lost through falling, burning, fatigue, or damage (physical or emotional) and recovered either slowly through healing or by magic is a defining factor in the game. Although the concept is often copied, even in video and computer RPGs, Hit Points are also one of the areas most discussed and house-ruled by those seeking a better, more realistic solution to "taking damage".
There is a beauty of design in the simple Hit Point system of White Box as I see it. At low level the game is especially dangerous as our game playing piece, the character, has but a single d6 worth of Hit Points which can evaporate given a single d6 roll for damage. Character Death - defined as Hit Points reaching zero, is ever a threat. We players start the game knowing it is "dangerous" and our playing piece, our entry ticket into the shared fun, can be eliminated very quickly. We therefore start the game with tension, which I see as a good thing.
Perhaps our biggest reward for surviving and accumulating experience/treasure and gaining a Level is more Hit Points. Additional Hit Points is like insurance. We start to worry less and think our character can take a couple blows before dying. We have some additional room to manage our ability to survive and succeed in the game by running away or healing-up after taking damage because it is less likely our character will lose all their improved Hit Points in a single roll of the damage die.
Just what does that additional Hit Point die roll represent? Can my Fighting Man now reliably survive one chop with a sword, but maybe not two? Does this represent the ability to take two "killing wounds"? Maybe it means my character can use his luck to duck under the first "killing blow", but not a second. The designers of White Box are purposefully silent on what the game Hit Points amount to other than "being the number of points of damage the character could sustain before death."
Hit Points would be a concept wargamers would be familiar with in 1974 because they would have seen them used as a way to reflect accumulated damage to a warship or other "playing piece". Consistent with a general do-it-yourself philosophy, the designers leave it up the the referee to further develop the Hit Point concept, but imply that loss of Hit Points has no affect on the PC other than death when they are at zero. Vol. 1: Men & Magic of the LBBs states, "Whether sustaining accumulative hits will otherwise affect a character is left to the discretion of the referee."
So are we left to conceive of our character as something like a giant space robot who takes hit after hit, pieces flying away as they are slowly diminished and eventually destroyed to the point they die? I rather think that misses the point and shows some lack of potential imagination. Many systems which followed White Box use a damage system that relies on hit location and/or detailed wound descriptions which may seem more "realistic", but the ol' White Box system can be just as detailed in description by applying a little extra imagination, and can do so while maintaining the speed of using an abstract combat mechanic.
Abstraction in rules can account for a number of discrete variables while remaining a simple and fast system. The designers of White Box understood this (White Box wasn't their first game design). The speedy pace of White Box combat (which is admittedly abstract in many ways) allows for several encounters to be played through during a session, emphasizes the fast and furious nature of melee and is one of the things I really like about the game. Abstraction can be a limiting factor in enjoyment, however, especially if what is behind the rules is not thought about and discussed.
So when we roll for damage and report so many "hits" are to be recorded against the Hit Points of an opponent it is a simple and quick adjustment to add some verbal "details" taken from our imagination such as "he takes a slash across the stomach for 6 points". The "bloody" creature can then continue to "suffer" from the injury, if the players like, by carrying the "detail" forward. Perhaps the referee states, "holding the wound in his stomach, the bugbear now swings his axe at the warrior princess, but being distracted by his wound, misses." Such table talk can be oh-so more interesting than "take six hits".
Hit Points are one of the most frequently "house-ruled" mechanics in White Box and subsequent editions of the Original Adventure Game. I have a long and troubled history with Hit Points myself. I currently tell myself they are abstract for a good reason. I DO like the idea of rolling for Hit Points at the beginning of each session. The resulting variability across many sessions helps to emphasize the transient nature of karma, luck and the intangibles that go into Hit Points.
The key for me to remain satisfied with Hit Points as a game practice is to not fall into the trap of "ticking off the HP boxes". Rather I try to imagine the action and what's happening on our shared mental stage. Fatigue, divine favor, armor and situational props (a wet floor, etc.) may all come into play while thinking about and describing the action resulting in Hit Point loss. When I recall that each round/turn of melee involves not a single thrust or hack, but a series of actions, parries, maneuvering and looking for openings, it gets easier.
I am currently more inclined to mess with healing than with damage as a subject for house-rule. The balance between Hit Points, weapon damage and creature Hit Dice seems about right to me in White Box. Also, I don't like to slow the pace and rhythm of the combat game as written. Healing happens after the furious action of melee is over, so applying bandages, herbs and poultices, using healing magic or adding "down time" detail like variable rates of natural healing based on 1-point per hit dice or 5-points per day after the first week of bed-rest doesn't detract from the enjoyment of being "in the moment". Verisimilitude...I think this is how it happens, at least at my table.