Damage and Injury

Damage from combat, burns, or falls can be brutal and debilitating because their effects must be role-played as determined by the rules. Without the cooperation of a supportive party, any serious injury will leave a character at a significant disadvantage and may exclude them from the game entirely.

Damage Tables...

Close combat strikes and missile hits that penetrate armour cause minor, serious or mortal wounds to particular body areas. The damage table details the effects of such wounds depending upon how the damage is caused.

Damage Effects

The GM should describe the injury and make it appropriate to the action and weapon that caused it. Unimportant NPCs who are severely injured can be regarded as taking no further part in the game if the GM finds this convenient. The following descriptions of the game effects of injury should be used as a guide to maintain a level of consistency only. A player may negotiate Wyrd Points to mitigate the effects of injury, generally 10 points mortal to serious, and 5 points serious to minor.

Bleeding

The wound will stop bleeding of its own accord with blood loss insufficient to cause any loss of skills or abilities. The wound will heal within one week. The wound is sufficient to leave a scar. Each such wound has a Wound Rating (WR) of 10. This represents the % chance that the wound will lead to serious bleeding if a further wound (to the same location) is suffered. Wound ratings are cumulative for all bleeding wounds. For example, if a character suffers a Bleeding wound and before the week is up in which the wound would have healed, the character suffers another bleeding wound the chance is then 20% that it will become a seriously bleeding wound.

Serious bleeding

The wound will not stop bleeding of its own accord. A person with first aid skill and or field dressing skill, a physician or medic with some skill rating in this area is required to stop the bleeding. An attempt to stop the bleeding takes 5 minutes with a base difficulty rating of 5, and difficulty rating 6 for neck, throat, thigh and groin wounds. Any subsequent violent movement will restart the bleeding. 22 - Mettle weeks are required for the wound to fully heal, the time is halved if the wound is stitched by a skilled person. Stitching takes 30 minutes with a difficulty rating equal to that for stopping the bleeding. After Mettle weeks the wound is treated as a Bleeding wound with WR 10 for cumulative purposes.

1 pint of blood is lost per hour. This is doubled for neck, throat and groin wounds. Deduct one from all physical skills and Vigour for each pint of blood lost after the first. Deduct one from Mettle for each pint of blood lost up to the third; deduct two for the fourth and for any subsequent pint. If Mettle reaches zero the character dies. Once the bleeding is stopped recovery of Mettle takes five days for the fifth pint, four for the fourth and so on. i.e. fifteen days to recover from the loss of five pints of blood.

Bruising

The damage is insufficient to cause any loss of skills or abilities although the character will be stiff and sore. The bruising will heal within one week.

Fracture

Each fracture will have different healing times and different effects on the injured character. If a second fracture is inflicted on the same area before the first is healed treat the injury as a crush. to heal effectively the fracture must be set by a physician or medic with some skill rating in this area. Each attempt to set takes 10 minutes with suitable materials (splints etc.,) with a difficulty rating of 6.

Fracture	Healing Time	Effect
Hand	10 days	loss of use
Arm	10 weeks	loss of use
Shoulder	4 weeks	loss of use of arm
Foot	4 weeks	may not put weight on leg
Leg	6 weeks	may not put weight on leg
Thigh	16 weeks	may not put weight on leg
Ribs	2 weeks	reduce all physical skills by 1
Nose/Cheek	2 weeks	no game effects
Spine/Neck	12 weeks	complete immobility. 25% chance of paralysis initially and with each violent movement
Skull	3 weeks	10% chance of unconsciousness for each violent movement.
Pelvis	20 weeks	complete immobility

Crush

Mettle is halved (rounded down) immediately. Effects of crush are the same as for a fracture of the same area except healing times are doubled. Any violent movement of the injury has a 20% chance of causing serious bleeding. Natural healing is unlikely to be complete and the character will have a permanent limp or loss of movement.

Stun

The character is unable to hold initiative and all skills are reduced by 1 for 10 - Mettle rounds. Some creatures may not be subject to stun or magical effects may prevent stun. If a stun result is obtained against such creatures they may not act on the following round.

Fumble

The character immediately drops anything held in that hand.

Stumble

The character immediately falls to the ground.

Shock

The character must make an immediate Mettle roll with difficulty 8 (Feat Level = 8 – Mettle). If the Mettle roll is failed the character will be helpless although conscious. To determine how long this state will last the GM rolls a d100:-

1 - 60: treat as the number of rounds shock lasts.
61 - 100: roll again.

1 - 60: 1 - 60 treat as the number of minutes shock lasts.
61 - 100: 61 - 100 make a Mettle roll with difficulty 10, if failed roll again and treat the result as the number of hours the shock lasts, if the Mettle roll succeeds treat as the number of minutes.

If the initial Mettle roll succeeds or the character’s shock lasts for less than ten rounds treat the character as stunned for 10 - Mettle rounds.

Unconscious

Determine the duration of unconsciousness in the same manner as shock except that no initial Mettle roll is allowed. Any character unconscious for more than 1 minute must make a successful Mettle roll with difficulty 8 or become concussed. Concussed characters have all physical skills and Vigour is reduced by half. Mettle is reduced by half of the original Mettle (rounded down). i.e. if the character’s Mettle is reduced for other reasons it is half of the unreduced Mettle that is lost. Mettle is restored at 1 point per day of rest. If Mettle is reduced to 0 the character will die.

Limb temporarily or permanently crippled.

The injured limb is useless. In the case of temporarily crippled limbs ability will be restored when the injury has healed. A permanently crippled. limb may not be restored by natural means.

Blind or temporarily blind

The injured eye is blind. In the case of temporary blindness sight will be restored when the injury is healed. A permanently blind eye may not be restored by natural means. When initially blinded in one eye a character’s missile skill is reduced by 2. Missile skill may be restored by training and experience.

Slow Death

The character is dying and will be shocked during this time unless he makes a successful Mettle roll (difficulty 8) and in any case will be shocked for 10 - Mettle rounds. To determine the length of time a character takes to die from his injuries the GM rolls a d100:-

1 - 60: treat as the number of rounds to death.
61 - 100: roll again.

1 - 60: treat as the number of minutes to death.
61 - 100: make a Mettle roll if it succeeds roll again and treat the result as the number of hours to death, if the Mettle roll fails treat as the number of minutes to death.

Instant death

The character dies immediately.

Death of a Character

If a player character dies in the course of a game the player must create another character. The GM and the player should co-operate to develop a character’s life events so that the player may rejoin the adventure as soon as practicable. If the player character died as a result of helping the game to progress or acting particularly well within character, the GM may allow the player to add some or all unused Wyrd Points to the new character’s total. The GM should take note of any progress the party have made in terms of skills etc., when setting the stage of life of the new character (novice, journeyman or expert) so that the new character is not at a disadvantage.

It is possible that the whole party may die simultaneously as a result of an adventure. In this case, the players simply create new characters together as at the start of an adventure.

Players must be careful not to use knowledge that was only available to their previous character.