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Chapter 10: Damage
[ | Taking Hits | Types of Damage | Types of Red Damage | Permanent Injuries | Armour & Penetration | ]
Potential Force Blocked
There are two types of PFb: that provided by armour/magic and that provided naturally by the character. As you would expect, the two PFbs
will add up together; also your natural penetration bonus adds to the penetration of all melee attacks.
Natural PFb: It's simple. If an opponent punches you for 5 damage, you can activate your PFb to stop it.
Therefore, you would stop 3 damage and only take 2 damage.
If an attack successfully does Red damage to you, your PFb is de-activated. Reactivating PFb always
costs 1 Ki. Each time you are successfully attacked (regardless of damage), your natural PFb will drop by 1.
If the attack is entirely stopped by an artificial PFb, then you were NOT successfully attacked.
If someone attacks a weakpoint (wrists, eyes, fingers, ears) or an exposed injury (2 Red or more), you get only half your PFb.
Artificial PFb: If you have armour, the PFb is automatic. If the attack fails to get through the armour's PFb, you take no damage.
The only way to recover is to repair the armour.
Every source of artificial PFb will not only have it's PFb rating listed but also have a Soak value. Every time an attack
eats up (either with damage or penetration) your Soak value in PFb, the armour's total PFb rating drops by 1. It's analogous to the Shock value
for hitpoints regarding living creatures.
Ex. Joe is wearing armour that has a PFb of 12 with a Soak Value of 3. An attack does 5 damage, 7 penetration. The armour
stops it successfully and Joe is unharmed. His armour is reduced by 1 PFb, because the attack did 5 damage against it's Soak
of 3. His armour is reduced by 2 PFb because the attack did 7 penetration against a Soak of 3.
In total, his armour's PFb was reduced by 3. Do not simply add damage and penetration together against Soak as that would affect your results.
Some armour have different soak values against penetration and damage. In other words, one will be more effective than the
other against certain types of armour.
Some armour may have reduced PFbs listed for certain parts or against types of attacks. ie. kevlar has reduced PFb against
melee attacks.
Weapon PFb: Sometimes a weapon is used to block the damage from an incoming attack (normally in a parry). When this happens, the rules
do not change. Every melee weapon has a listed PFb and a listed Soak Value. When the weapon is used to block an attack, treat it as artificial
PFb. The only difference is that if an attack overcomes the weapon's PFb, the defender takes no damage and the weapon may break if it has
been drastically overcome.
Penetration
Quite simply, Penetration cancels out PFb. In other words, let's say a knife does 5 damage. If a person
has armour that has a PFb of 6, than the knife fails. But, knives are pretty sharp weapons. As a result, this one has a penetration of 4.
The Penetration cancels out some of the PFb and the knife gets through.
In other words, 4 Pen cancels out 4 PFb and there is only 2 PFb left (for this current attack). The knife is
going to do 3 damage to the user. If the Pen is higher than the PFb, then obviously all damage goes to the user.
Pen does not add to damage. It merely cancels out PFb.
If armour, the drop in PFb is permanent until repaired.
Penetration itself can do bonus Red Damage to a target; consult the Red Damage rules for more information.
Weapon Backlash
Backlash is when your weapon's effectiveness is reduced. If you meet certain conditions in combat, you risk dulling and
damaging your weapon.
Backlash only affects melee weapons. When you receive backlash, your weapon's PFb goes down. Here are the ways backlash can occur:
- Using weapons will naturally wear them out after awhile. After each combat, the GM should consider if a weapon's PFb is reduced. Consider
how much damage the weapon caused and how long the combat took. The GM will likely lower it anywhere from 1 to 4 PFb.
- If an attacking weapon is blocked entirely by a defending block, reduce the attacking weapon's PFb by 1.
- Follow Soak rules for lowering a defending weapon's PFb from an attack.
- Doing a critical strike with the weapon will reduce it's PFb by 1.
- Doing a shatter with the weapon will reduce it's PFb by 3.
Once a weapon's PFb is reduced to zero, it is completely broken.
For every 2 PFb a weapon loses, it also loses 1 penetration.
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