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Chapter 10: Damage

[ | Taking Hits | Types of Damage | Types of Red Damage | Permanent Injuries | Armour & Penetration | ]

Taking Hits

Once combat rolls have been resolved, you then determine any damage done by a successful attack. First, take the base damage of the attack (or the base damage of the offending weapon) and the penetration stated (unarmed attacks have 0 penetration). If it is a melee or thrown attack, you may add your damage and penetration bonus.

Resolving PFb and Penetration is in another section (likely the GM will handle it for you). When you are hit, even if the attack does no damage, you must do the following two things:
  • Reduce your hitpoints by the stated amount.
  • Reduce your PFb by 1 if it is active.

Taking Red Damage

So what do you if you take too much damage from an attack? It's possible that you received serious injury. If you take too many serious injuries, you're out of the fight or potentially dying. This is determined by your Red Limit.

Red Limit means this: if you take 7 points of Red Damage, you are in serious danger of dying in the fight. There are also other situations where you must Resist Death (read up on the section). Remember, if you REALLY want to stay in the fight, simply spend a point of Chakra to ignore all Red Damage.

Each time a player takes Red damage, he should put a small tick on the Red Chart in the area indicated by the GM.

The GM should call for a Resist Primal Nature at any time if he doesn't think the character would have the balls to stay in the fight.

There are two common ways to take Red Damage. Either the attack does enough damage or enough penetration.

  • Shock Red Damage: Every time the damage on an attack meets your Shock value, you take Red damage. If your Shock is 4 and you take 9 damage, you take 2 Red damage (9/4 rounded down is 2).
  • Penetrative Red Damage: This actually works exactly the same way as above. Whatever penetration is left, compare it to the victim's Shock Value. The difference is that you may only do one point of Red Damage in this manner. Penetration does not do damage to hitpoints.

    Example: Bob has a PFB of 5 and a Shock Value of 8. He gets shot by a laser cannon that does 20 damage, 15 penetration.

    Bob activates his PFB of 5. His PFB stops 5 penetration and the rest of the attack gets through. In the end he takes 20 damage, 10 penetration. His Shock Value of 8 against the damage means he takes 2 Red Damage. His Shock Value of 8 against the penetration (10 remaining) means he takes another Red Damage. In the end, the attack does 3 Red damage to an area.

    Recovering from Red damage is up to the GM, however here are some guidelines:
    • The healing rate for an area with 1 point of Red is typically a few days.
    • The healing rate for an area with 2 points of Red Damage is usually a few weeks. The penalties and point of Red Damage stay until then.
    • The healing rate of an area with 3 points is a few months.
    • The healing rate of an area with 4 points is up to a year...or damage is irreversible.
    The healing rate can be doubled or tripled with proper medical attention.
    • 1 point to the arm means that it is badly bruised or cut up.
    • 2 points to the arm means it is dislocated or fractured.
    • 3 points to the arm means that it has broken beyond use (possibly the wrist is also broken).
    • 4 points to the arm means it could very well have been torn off, burnt to a crisp, or vaporized.
    The severity of Red damage is determined by the GM, the attack, and the area which is hit. Larger areas (head, chest, limbs) can take up to 4 Red damage. Small specific areas can only take 2 Red (eyes, ears, wrists, fingers) before being cut off or completely destroyed. Not all Red damage is equal in it's severity; each Red injury effect is determined by the GM.

    If the character spent a point of Chakra to ignore Red Damage, it simply causes no pain or penalties. However, the effects of this Red Damage will kick in at the end of the scene, unless the character chooses to spend more Chakra.

    If the character takes too much Red to an area, he will lose that limb (including the head) whether he spends the point of Chakra or not. Chakra does not ignore reality, it is simply the character's sheer will and spirit to keep going through the pain.

    • Blood Loss

    If an area takes a severe hit (multiple points of Red Damage), there will be Blood Loss. Wounds cause a loss of 1 BP per minute (or round if the character stays in combat and aggravates the wound). The loss can be slowed to every few minutes if the character is lying down and not taking any chances. A place with a lot of damage (3 or 4 Red) could be causing 2 or 3 Blood loss instead of just 1 (GM's call). Blood Loss continues until the open wound is treated properly. Note that while all Red Damage may not cause Blood Loss, repeated Red to the same area can cause internal bleeding (which is far worse, since it is harder to stop). Characters have 20 Bloodpoints. If the character hits 0, he dies. And that's the end of that.

    To make things easy, consider blood loss and organ failure (after a certain time) to be dependant upon Blood.

    GMs, tell the players how much Blood they each lose before each initiative for the next round. Players, record your loss on your Red Chart. If you aren't in combat, let the GM eyeball it based on how much time has passed and how badly damaged your character is.

    Not every point of Red damage causes blood loss. Only ones that cut or smash vital areas.
    Copyright (©) 2006 by Charles Roy and Michael Vendittelli. Chaos Fantasy System created by Charles Roy and Michael Vendittelli.