In many wargames, role-playing games, and combat-oriented video games, hit points are an abstraction for the amount of damage an object or player in the game can take before becoming ineffective. When an attack succeeds, instead of calculating detailed damage to its target, some number of hit points (determined by the type and strength of the attack) are deducted from the target's remaining supply. In most games using this system, losing hit points has little effect until a target reaches zero hit points, when it dies, becomes unconscious, or is destroyed.
Other names for hit points used in some games are damage points or life points.
