Getting Hurt (and Getting Out)

When an attack succeeds, the shifts of harm have to go somewhere. Where they go is your decision, and it is one of the most interesting decisions in the game. Full rules in @Missing file.

Stress

Stress boxes are hit points that forgive. Check one box worth at least the shifts taken and the harm becomes narrative only — a graze, a bruise, a bad scare. You have two tracks: physical (boxes grow with Physique) and mental (with Will), from two boxes up to four or more. Stress is gone at the end of the scene; it represents almost being hurt.

Consequences

When the boxes won't cover it, take a consequence — a new aspect that says how you're hurt. A mild one absorbs 2 shifts, a moderate 4, a severe 6, and you can stack them with a stress box on the same hit. The catch: a consequence is an aspect, it is true, and the side that dealt it gets one free invoke against it. @Missing file is what that looks like on paper — Brea Fanning is playing through it right now.

Recovery is real time: a mild consequence clears after a full scene, a moderate after a session, a severe at the end of the scenario. Getting hurt in Fate is never a number that quietly refills — it's a story you carry for a while.

Taken out

Fail to absorb every shift and you are taken out: the winner decides what happens to you, within the stakes of the conflict. You don't get a vote. Which is why there's a better option —

Conceding

Before an opposing roll lands, you may concede. You exit the conflict on your own narration — beaten but not erased, captured but not searched, over the wall but without the ledger. You gain one fate point, plus one per consequence you took in this conflict. Concession is not defeat; it's selling the loss while it still has a price. The knights who limp away funded their rematch.