PAIN AND SUFFERING

Unconsciousness, Death, and Madness

A character who takes ten stuns falls unconscious. He is senseless and defenseless; he can do nothing until his stuns fall below ten.

A character with more than ten wounds is seriously injured. This causes penalties to physical actions: -1 for each wound beyond ten. If his wounds reach twenty, the character dies.

A character with more than ten shocks is somewhat delirious. This causes penalties to mental actions (including Perception rolls): -1 for each shock beyond ten. If shocks reach twenty, the character goes hopelessly insane.

Recovery

A character recovers from harm through rest.

Stuns are the easiest to recover. A character that sacrifices one action to rest may roll Constitution or Willpower (whichever is higher) vs the number of stuns possessed. If the roll is successful, the resting character recovers a number of stuns equal to the dx.

An unconscious character is considered to be resting; said character may make two recovery rolls per round. He awakens when his stuns fall below ten. If this occures on his first action in a round, he may take his second action.

Wounds and shocks are more difficult to recover. Recovery rolls are made only once per day, usually when the character wakes up from a decent amount of sleep. Rest must occur in an environment with adequate warmth, sleep, and nourishment. Recovering from shocks requires a comfortable mental environment as well. This may differ from person to person.

Less than comfortable circumstances will slow the rate of healing, increasing the difficulty of the roll. Light exertion, such as walking or moderate lifting - or deep thinking, in the case of shocks - will increase the difficulty of recovery rolls as well. The increase in difficulty is at the discretion of The Master.

Strenuous activity, such as fighting or spellcasting, will prevent any healing at all.

To recover wounds, a character must make a Constitution roll against the number of wounds possessed. If successful, the number of wounds is reduced by the dx. When his wounds reach zero, he is fully healed.

Shocks work the same way, but the character must roll Willpower.

A character that has wounds and shocks may roll once for each.

Example:

Juk, Constitution 6, takes 10 wounds on Monday. He makes a Constitution roll when he awakens Tuesday morning: 2d6+6 for a total of 13. This gives a dx of 3, reducing his number of wounds to 7. He makes another Con roll Wednesday morning: 2d6+6 for a total of 14. This gives a dx of 7, reducing his wounds to 0.

Juk gets into a fight with a large bear on Thursday and takes 19 wounds. He is at death's door. Friday morning, he rolls a 7 and adds his Con for a total of 13. This is below the number of wounds, so his condition remains dire. Saturday morning, however, he gets lucky and rolls a 12 - though 18 is still less than the number of wounds, the natural 12 gives him a dx of 1, reducing his wounds to 18.

Healing

The aid of a skilled healer can make recovery much easier. Once per day, a healer may make a Healer roll for the injured character. This roll is compared to both wounds and shocks. Success heals a number of wounds and shocks equal to the dx.

Healing rolls are made after the injured character's normal recovery checks.

Example:

Sarah, a level 10 Healer, spends Saturday tending to Juk. After hours of treatment, she rolls her Healer trait and gets 20. This bests Juk's wounds by 2, reducing them to 16.

Poison

A poison is a harmful substance that does internal damage to a character.

Some poisons must be eaten, injected, or inhaled. Others take effect upon direct contact with the skin.

In game terms, a poison is an attack that does damage to a character at regular intervals (once a round, minute, hour, day, etc) for a certain duration. This damage is resisted as any other attack, except only Constitution is used. Armor does not help against poison.

If a character survives until the duration runs out, he fought the poison off.

Some poisons (drugs) may work against sanity rather than health. These work the same as others except that they are resisted with Willpower and inflict shocks rather than wounds.

Some poisons work more slowly than others. Most diseases can be treated as poisons with very long durations.

Darkness and Blindness

Characters who cannot sense their opponents will find themselves at a distinct disadvantage.

When characters are unable to see, any action that requires sight will have a -4 penalty to the trait roll. This applies whether a character is somehow blinded or just surrounded by darkness.

For situations that are dim, but not completely dark, The Master should assign a challenge level - the lower the light, the higher the number. Any character who can make a Perception roll higher than this number is able to see for that round.

These rules apply also to other senses - any action that requires hearing will be at -4 if the character cannot hear.

Of course, these rules do not apply to Perception itself - if a character is blinded or deafened, he cannot perceive anything with the affected sense.

Falling

The Master should ignore damage from falls of less than two spaces. A hero is not likely to injure himself falling such a short distance unless he lands on something unpleasant.

For more significant falls, characters should take an amount of damage equal to twice the number of spaces fallen. A character who falls three spaces (18 feet) should take 6 damage; a character who falls eight spaces should take 16 damage, and so on up to a maximum of 20.

This damage is applied against the character's Constitution. Armor does not help protect against falling damage, though it may help to protect the character from any extra damage if he falls on something sharp like spikes or broken rock.

Characters may use an Athlete roll to break a fall. This roll is made against a challenge level equal to the amount of damage the character faces. The dx of a successful roll is added to the character's Constitution to help endure the damage.