Damage, Dismemberment and Death

Calculating Damage

There are several simple steps to follow to determine the damage done by a successful attack:

It should be apparent from this that, if you are using the optional armour negation rule, the higher your character's skill in a particular weapon is, the more armour you will be able to negate, and the more damage they will be able to do. Also, you may see that it is not usually a particularly good idea for characters to go around beating on people who are wearing heavy armour, using no weapon but their bare hands, unless they are highly skilled.

Damage Results

Once the damage has been calculated, subtract the result from the wounded character's current hit points in the affected hit location.

Dirk takes a blow to the head which causes a massive 13 points of damage. Dirk has a maximum of 8 hit points in his head, but is currently reduced to 6 as a result of other injuries. The attack reduces Dirk to -7 hit points, which is more than -8, so Dirk only loses consciousness. However, if the bleeding is not stopped by a friend within two minutes, he will lose two more hit points, which would take him to -9, resulting in his death.

(Optional) Shock

If you are using the shock rule, each hit location should have an extra value listed on the character sheet. This value, called the shock level, will the maximum hit points of the character in that hit location, multiplied by their CON and divided by 100, rounding down.

Any time an attack inflicts damage at least equal to the shock value of the hit location, there is a chance the character will lose consciousness from shock. If a Constitution check succeeds, the character remains conscious. Otherwise, the character faints. An unconscious character is allowed another Constitution check every minute. As soon as one succeeds, the character wakes up. This is in addition to any other effects which may arise (it applies to all three cases listed).

Rutger is out rock climbing, and suffers a fall. Damage is done to several areas, but the worst wound is to his left leg. Rutger's CON is 68, so he has a maximum of 13(=68/5) hit points there, and a shock value of 8(=13*68/100). Rutger is already down to 9 hit points in that leg, and the wound causes 12 points of damage, reducing him to -3. 12 is more than 8, so he must make a Constitution check. The check is failed, so Rutger is unconscious, and losing one hit point in his leg every minute. If he remains unconscious for 10 minutes (which is unlikely, given his high Constitution), his leg will be lost, and his abdomen will begin to lose hit points.

Falling Damage

Characters and objects can fall some distance without taking any damage. This distance is determined by the surface they are falling onto.

Sample surfaces are shown in this table (assuming a human character who lands on their feet after the fall):

Flat ground3m
Sand5m
Water30m

For other surfaces, or when there are other circumstances, the GM will rule on the safe distance.

When a character or object falls from a higher distance, they take 3 points of damage for every additional metre. They must also take a full round to get up after such a fall (assuming that they are capable of standing).

All distances are doubled for horizontal "falls". These happen most frequently when a character or object is thrown. For example, a human could be thrown horizontally 6 metres onto solid ground without suffering any noticeable damage.

When a character or object does suffer falling damage, the GM will determine which hit locations the damage is assigned to. The only restriction is that at least two body parts must take some damage (unless there is only one point taken). Some thought should be given to this; it usually does not make sense for a character's left arm and right leg to take the brunt of a fall.

Note: The exceptions to this rule are detailed in the Breakfall skill description.

   
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