Health and Status
Your character can bleed, heal, and rise — or fall — in the eyes of the world. This chapter covers the two numbers that follow you everywhere: health, and status.
Health
Every hero and adventurer has 10 health. Track the number on your sheet as it changes. When the fiction calls for it, health drops — a blade, a fall, a fever, exhaustion, or a bad mistake.
Bloodied
When your health drops to 3 or fewer, you are bloodied: you roll one fewer die on all checks until you recover above 3. Bloodied is a fact of the fight — the wound that slows your hands, the ringing head that muddles your aim. It changes the fiction, and it changes your odds.
Taking damage
The GM tells you how much health you lose and why. Damage is static — never rolled. In combat it comes from weapons, abilities, and enemy stat blocks (see Combat); outside combat it comes from the fiction: a wound costs 2–4, a long fall costs 6, a poisoned meal costs 2. When you are hurt, say what it looks like — a shallow cut, a ringing head, a strained ankle — and the GM records the consequence.
A mixed success in a dangerous situation often means you succeed, but you pay for it with health. A failure can cost more. There are no abstract hit rolls; every point of damage should be explainable in the scene.
Recovery
Health returns through rest and care:
- A good night's sleep in a safe place restores 3 health.
- A day of full rest — no work, no travel, no danger — restores all of it.
- Care and medicine (a healer, a well-made poultice, a professional) can restore extra health or shorten the time it takes.
Wounds that reach 0 health are serious. You are out of the fight and in the fiction's hands: bleeding, unconscious, feverish, or captured. You do not die instantly unless the situation is truly lethal — the GM should give you a chance to be found, to crawl, to be tended, or to owe your life to someone. Reaching 0 is the start of a problem, not the end of the story.
Status
Status is your wealth and standing: how much property you start with and how people treat you. It is a fact of the world, not a score to grind. Choose one:
| Status | You begin with | How people treat you |
|---|---|---|
| Destitute | Little more than the clothes you wear. | Doors close, prices rise, blame finds you first. People assume the worst. |
| Poor | A few possessions and no cushion. | You are useful but never trusted with much. Debt is always near. |
| Working | A home or room, tools of your trade, and enough to eat. | You are ordinary and mostly invisible. Guards, clerks, and merchants treat you as unremarkable. |
| Comfortable | A good home, savings, and property that earns. | Doors open with a nod. You can buy time, privacy, and second chances. |
| Wealthy | Property, servants, and a name that carries. | People come to you, ask favors, and assume influence. Envy follows. |
| Noble | Land, title, and obligations that go with them. | Bows and deference — and schemes. Your name opens rooms and starts conspiracies. |
Status sets the frame for your starting possessions and property (see Making a Character), and it shapes every interaction. A destitute character asking a guard for help is a beggar; a noble asking the same question is a matter of honor. The GM plays the world's assumptions — and you can always surprise them.
Moving up and down
Status changes through the fiction, not through points. A successful commission can move a working artisan toward comfortable. A ruined venture, a scandal, or a burned-down shop can drop you a tier. When your circumstances change materially — a new home, a title, bankruptcy, a reputation — the GM tells you your status has changed and updates your property accordingly. Status is a description of your life, and your life is allowed to change.