Wounds and Hazards
Hit Points live on body parts, not in a single pool. A scratch on the arm and a spear through the liver are different stories that use the same arithmetic.
Wound levels
After Damage Modifier, magic, parry reduction, and armour, remaining damage comes off the location's Hit Points.
| Wound | When | Immediate effect |
|---|---|---|
| Minor | Location still above 0 HP | Painful but functional |
| Serious | Location at 0 or below (but not yet Major) | Cannot attack or begin spells for 1d3 Turns (may still Parry/Evade). Location is scarred. |
| Major | Damage reaches negative equal to or greater than starting HP of that location | Immediately Incapacitated; much worse by body part |
Serious Wound details
You immediately make an Opposed Endurance vs the attack roll that caused the wound (skewed toward skilled killers).
- Limb: Fail → limb useless until HP are positive again. Leg → prone. Arm → drop held items (unless strapped).
- Head, chest, or abdomen: Fail → unconscious for minutes equal to damage dealt. First Aid or Healing can wake you.
The Games Master may also hold tasks that need that location at one grade harder until the wound is only Minor.
Major Wound details
- Limb: Severed, shattered, or crippled. Prone and Incapacitated. Opposed Endurance vs attack; Fail → unconscious from pain. Without treatment within 5 × Healing Rate minutes, die of shock and blood loss.
- Head, chest, or abdomen: Unconscious and Incapacitated. Opposed Endurance vs attack; Fail → instant gory death. Even on a Success, untreated you die in 2 × Healing Rate Combat Rounds from shock and bleed.
Major Wounds need real surgery, powerful magic, or equivalent care. They do not knit between rounds because you feel dramatic.
Heroic last action
If the Games Master allows it for a pivotal character, spend a Luck Point after a Major Wound for one final act with working limbs—crawl, tourniquet, curse, one swing—then collapse.
Blood loss
Ongoing bleed (from the Bleed effect, some toxins, etc.) adds Fatigue levels. Unlike drowning Fatigue, severe blood-loss Fatigue often returns only one level per day after bleeding stops. First Aid can staunch many bleeds; strenuous action may reopen them.
Natural healing
Each location recovers Hit Points equal to your Healing Rate on this schedule:
| Injury treated as | Period per Healing Rate recovery |
|---|---|
| Minor Wound | Days |
| Serious Wound | Weeks |
| Major Wound | Months |
A Serious location heals at the weekly rate until it is positive, then daily as a Minor. Rules of thumb:
- Strenuous activity under recovery cuts Healing Rate by 1d3 for the period (and can stall you entirely).
- A Major Wound does not begin natural recovery until treated with a successful Healing skill or suitable magic. Untreated non-dismembering Majors risk becoming maimed (permanent HP loss to the location) after days equal to one-twentieth of the Healing skill available.
First Aid stabilises, stops bleeds, and sets the stage; it is not full restoration. Heal spells and potions may instantly clear Minor damage or stabilise worse trauma without restoring full HP—read the effect.
Asphyxiation
Hold breath for seconds equal to Endurance if you prepared; half that if caught passive; one-fifth if mid-exertion. After that, roll Endurance each Round: Critical nothing extra; Success +1 Fatigue; Failure +1d2; Fumble +1d3. Death comes fast without air. Fatigue from pure smothering returns about one level per minute once breathing resumes (smoke or water in the lungs may leave a lasting level).
Falling
Armour does not help. Cross-reference distance; you apply your Damage Modifier as additional falling harm.
| Distance | Damage |
|---|---|
| ≤1 m | None |
| 2–5 m | 1d6 to 1 random location |
| 6–10 m | 2d6 to 2 locations |
| 11–15 m | 3d6 to 3 locations |
| 16–20 m | 4d6 to 4 locations |
| Each +5 m | +1d6 |
Falling objects deal 1d6 per 6 SIZ (or fraction) plus the distance column.
Fire
| Intensity | Example | Damage / Round | Ignite time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Candle | 1d2 (one location) | 1d4 Rounds |
| 2 | Torch | 1d4 | 1d3 |
| 3 | Campfire | 1d6 to 1d4+1 locations | 1d2 |
| 4 | Room fire | 2d6 to 1d4+1 locations | 1d2 |
| 5 | Lava | 3d6 all locations | Instant |
Burning gear damages the material and flesh beneath (worn armour may still protect you). Drop prone and succeed at Athletics (helpers make it easier) to smother.
Disease and poison
Toxins list Application, Potency, Resistance (usually Endurance or Willpower), Onset, Duration, Conditions, and any Antidote. Resist with an Opposed roll of the resistance skill vs Potency—win and shrug it off; lose and suffer every listed Condition on schedule (Agony, Bleeding, Fever, Paralysis, Death, and so on). First Aid and Healing matter; so does not licking mysterious blades.
Field note: Red Pox
Contact, Potency 50, Endurance, onset 1d6+6 hours, lasts 1d6+3 days. Contagious when it shows; a day later Fever and Bleeding, with a Fatigue level each weeping day until the disease ends. Healing skill can cure it. Treat outbreaks like the threat they are.
Survival priorities
- Stop life-ending bleed and Major abdominal/chest/head timers.
- Spend Luck to Mitigate a Major if the character still has a story.
- Only then optimise long-term recovery and scars.
You are durable until you are not. Play wounded characters as wounded—that is where Endurance, First Aid, comrades, and Passions earn their keep.