Chaos Fantasy: Source

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Chapter 10: Damage
[ | Taking Hits | Types of Damage | Types of Red Damage | Permanent Injuries | Armour & Penetration | ]
Types of Damage

The type of damage a character takes will determine the kind of Red damage they'll have to deal with. The three most common ways to take damage are listed here:

Blunt: If a character is attacked by a blunt object, Red damage is likely to break bones and cause some pretty nasty bruises. It might dislocate joints or simply make the limb numb or shattered and useless.
Slashing: Getting hit with a slash is likely to draw some serious blood. It can spill guts, spread Red damage across a victim's body, or even remove parts of the body when enough damage is done.
Piercing: The same idea as a sharp attack with slashing, however this is meant to leave holes in the victim, possibly damaging organs in the attack and maximizing blood loss.
These are just guidelines to help the GM determine how he wants damage from attacks to affect his players.

Burning Damage

When an attack fries, electrocutes, or otherwise burns the character in any way (acid also counts) then the damage it does is over time. In other words, once the attack gets through the armour, it will do so much damage every few ticks. Until the victim finds a way to stop the attack, he will take damage at the specified times. The damage is CUMULATIVE. That means that you must consider the total amount of damage done so far by the attack whenever you wish to resolve Red Damage or determine what is stopped by PFb.

Burning attacks have no penetration beyond the initial blast.

Metal will conduct the heat, offering no protection against fire. Electricity against metal will usually conduct evenly, spreading the damage over the victim's body. Any other type of armour will likely catch fire in a burning attack (unless the burning attack is not considered flammable in any way).

Red damage will normally result in painful burns, crisping and splitting the skin. This kind of damage can go very deep and permanently disfigure the character if left for too long.

Ramming Damage

Getting hit by a car, being charged by a moving combatant, or even falling out of a moving vehicle can all do ramming damage.

Simply put, ramming damage is the kind of damage you take from speeds. It has the same effects as blunt damage. Ramming damage adds to the kind of melee damage you would normally do. Ramming damage does not apply to attacks done at less than 20kph. For every 5kph at or over 20, the ramming damage bonus is +1.

50kph is +7 damage (in-town speed).
70kph is +11 damage (normal highway speed).
100kph is +17 damage (freeway speed).
160kph is +29 damage (usual max speed of common vehicles).
Ramming adds a damage bonus to normal attacks. The actual object used in the ramming itself will do damage and penetration (spikes on the front bumper, or whatever may be used; attachments will list how much ramming damage they normally add).

For every 50kg of the attacker that directly hits the victim, the ram does 1 damage.

Using any object to try and ram a victim is always at a Moving penalty (Combat Rules for more details). When ramming, the object that does the ramming takes the ramming damage bonus back upon itself as well.

Long range attacks have their damage included; doing Ramming damage for an arrow is therefore stupid and won't work. Players add their damage bonus for thrown attacks and do not need to consider ramming damage.

If a character is completely bowled over by an oncoming vehicle (or thrown from a car or mount, thus ramming into the ground), the player is always given the opportunity to Tumble with the damage. If this Tumble is successful, he still takes full damage, but the Red damage is spread evenly.

Ex. A horse rams a victim at full speed. The horse tramples, doing 4 damage. The direct weight hitting the victim is determined by the GM to be unimportant, but the horse does it at 40kph. The attack does 9 damage + the strength bonus from the horse.

Ex. A warrior charges his victim at full speed; the warrior can run 30kph, doing +2 in his attack. The warrior hits with the shoulder, doing another +2 damage (determined by the GM) because of the warrior's weight and armour weight. The victim takes +4 damage from the attack; since the warrior used his weight to hit rather than his Strength, he gets no damage bonus otherwise.

Ex. A vehicle hits a victim; the car was moving at 100kph and about 600kg directly hits the victim. That's +17 from speed and another +10 from the weight. The victim takes 27 damage total. The victim successfully rolls tumble and Red damage is evenly spread starting with his arms and legs.

Falling Damage

When falling from a particular distance, characters and objects may take damage. Armour does not help against falling damage (unless specifically designed for it), but natural PFb does. Falling damage is also blunt like ramming damage. The GM should consider how much damage is done before adding the Falling Damage bonus. If the player lands awkwardly (knocked down from a previous attack) or on a harsh or spiky surface, he should take anywhere from 10 to 15 damage.

The general rule is that it is safe to fall 3 metres. At that point, every extra metre does +1 falling damage.

10 metres would do +7 falling damage (average height of a two storey house).
Terminal velocity on the average human does +40 damage (~200kph).
Soft ground does half the falling damage. This could be long grass with soft dirt, sand, falling through branches, rolling down a rocky hill (a grassy hill would likely do no damage) or falling down stairs, landing in water; whenever the GM feels the ground would not do full falling damage, he is free to choose a lesser number. Certain materials are quite soft and bouncy, doing no falling damage to anything that lands in it.

Players are always given the opportunity to Tumble with falling damage. If the Tumble is successful, the Red damage is spread evenly. Tumbles will only work on an accomodating surface and the player will take the falling damage bonus only.

If a player successfully dives into water, this is a Tumble. If the player flares (puts his body flat) to move as slowly as possible to spread damage, he will Tumble if he falls *great* distances. Landing and rolling works too for anything within a few dozen metres).

If the faller lands on someone, they do not Tumble but are rather likely doing a Strike. That victim takes the falling damage and +1 damage for every 50kg of the attacker that directly hits them.