Health

A character's physical well-being is represented by Injuries, which accumulate each time a character takes damage, and Wound Levels, which represent the total impact of your accumulated Injuries.

A character's Wound Level is equal to the severity level of their highest Injury plus the total number of other Injuries they have. Injuries take quite a while to heal and they can leave both aesthetic and debilitating scars. Furthermore significant injuries will degrade if not treated. Being wounded makes performing physical actions more difficult and if you accrue too many injuries and your Wound Level exceeds a certain threshold, you die.

Injuries

Injuries usually occur during combat or from other types of damage.

Whenever a character takes a damage, they receive an Injury. The severity level of the injury is determined by the amount of damage the character took. For example, taking six damage grants a severity six, Critical, injury. Players should record each injury their character suffers on their character sheet.

The severity of an injury determines how long it takes to heal, how difficult it is to stabilize, and how likely it is to leave a debilitating permanent scar known as a Battle Scar.

Severity Description Stabilization Roll Improvement Time Full Recovery Time
1 - Minor A deep cut, a small fracture, a sprain. Not completely ignorable, but doesn’t demand attention. Even wounds at this level may leave aesthetic scarring. When acquired as a degenerative effect from an unstabilized injury, this represents blood loss, an infection, etc. N/A 1 Week 1 Week
2 - Moderate A deep gash, a small but severe burn, muscular blunt trauma. These injuries self-stabilize, but are difficult to ignore. N/A 1 Week 2 Weeks
3 - Threatening A puncture, a medium sized burn, a fracture. These injuries do not require advanced medical skills to stabilize, but they do require attention and first aid. Not permanently debilitating Wits + Medicine difficulty 5, 3 Weeks 5 Weeks
4 - Serious Maimed hands, punctured lung, shattered ankle. Injuries of this severity leave permanent Battle Scars that will never fully heal. Wits + Medicine difficulty 6, requires first aid kit 1 Month 9 Weeks
5 - Severe Lost fingers, multiple stab wounds, a nasty gunshot. Injuries of this severity leave permanent Battle Scars that will never fully heal. Wits + Medicine difficulty 7, requires well-equipped first aid kit 1 Month 13 Weeks
6 - Critical Critical injuries include severed extremities, multiple or severe abdominal stab wounds, body-wide injuries etc. They often require advanced medical care to stabilize, but can be treated by a well-equipped and well-practiced medical professional. Battle Scars can include lost limbs, loss of athletic ability, chronic pain (requiring Trauma rolls and / or significant medication). Wits + Medicine difficulty 8, requires equipped facilities (vet clinic, doc office) 2 Months 21 Weeks
7+ - Deadly If you survive an injury like this, it’s a miracle. Examples: being shot in the head / neck, body-wide compound fractures, severed arteries, etc. Stabilization generally requires advanced medical facilities. Requires massive rehab, leaves significant battle scars such as para or quadriplegia, reduced intelligence, loss of speech, loss of sight. Wits + Medicine difficulty 8, requires advanced facilities (hospital) 2 Months 29 Weeks

Degradation and Stabilization

Any injury of severity 3 (threatening) or higher requires medical attention. Wounds that are Stabilized are treated, disinfected, and on the road to recovery. Any unstabilized injury degrades, causing your character to accrue one minor injury a day until stabilized.

Injuries heal in parallel at the rate specified for their severity level.

Battle Scars

Not all injuries heal cleanly. Battle Scars represent permanent disabilities brought on by injuries. Some examples are a severed hand, a lost eye, or a wheezing cough. Battle Scars can only be healed by powers. Any Injury of severity level 4 (Serious) or higher leaves a Battle Scar. It is up to the GM to decide how the Battle Scar will manifest, either at the time of the Injury or during treatment. Extremely good medical treatment administered promptly might prevent some battle scars from certain serious Injuries. Likewise insufficient or shoddy medical care can cause less serious Injuries to produce Battle Scars, or cause Battle Scars to be worse than they would be.

Examples

  • Chronic pain
  • Paraplegia
  • Quadruplegia
  • Loss of fingers or toes
  • Loss of limb
  • Loss of breath capacity through damaged lung
  • Severe aesthetic disfigurement of facial features
  • Loss of hand dexterity
  • Loss of senses such as site
  • Mental disorders from head trauma
  • A limp
  • Mental instability such as PTSD or phobia

Wound Levels

The overall effect of various Injuries on a character's physical health is summarized by their Wound Level. A character's Wound Level is equal to their highest severity Injury plus the number of other Injuries they have. If a player's Wound Level goes above 7, their death is imminent and only a miracle (or a Power) could stabilize them enough to recover.

Wound Levels also determine Wound Penalties, which are dice penalties stemming from a character being in intense pain. These generally only apply to physical actions that the character wishes to take. A character may ignore their wound penalties for the turn by spending a point of willpower.

Insert table from the Google document here.

Wound Level Wound Penalty
1 - Bruised None
2 - Hurt -1 Dice
3 - Injured -1 Dice
4 - Wounded -2 Dice
5 - Mauled -3 Dice
6 - Crippled -4 Dice
7 - Incapacitated Unconscious or unable to move
8 - Dead Rip up your character sheet

Example Scenarios

Insufficient care

Joe Freerunner tries to make a daring jump over a crevice and falls pretty far. He takes a Critical (6) injury from the fall. His wound level is now 6, Crippled. His High-roller friends then find a bridge to cross the crevice and leave him to die due to the fast pace of the game. He lays at the bottom of the crevice unable to treat his multiple compound fractures and internal bleeding. In 24 hours he receives an additional Minor wound in the form of internal bleeding. His wound level is now 7, Incapacitated (Highest rated injury, 6, + number of other injuries, 1). He loses consciousness as his life slips away over the next day. 48 hours after the initial fall, he is dead.

Many Threatening injuries

Alexa loves to knife fight, but Rachel is a bit better. On the first attack, Rachel stabs Alexa in the arm, dealing 3 damage. Alexa receives a Threatening (3) injury, and her wound level is now 3, Injured. Next round, Rachel attacks again, dealing another 3 damage in the form of a slash across the abdomen. Alexa now has two Threatening (3) injuries and her wound level is 4 (highest injury, + number of other injuries). Alexa is attacked twice more in the upcoming rounds, taking 3 and then 2 damage. She now has three Threatening (3) injuries, and one Moderate (2) injury. Her Wound Level is 6 - Crippled. Her wounds are not particularly difficult to stabilize, but she will still degenerate (at one level a day) if she doesn’t treat herself or get treatment. If she gets proper treatment at this point, she will be fully healed in 5 weeks (the time it takes her Threatening injuries to heal). She will receive no debilitating Battle Scars from this rough encounter, but probably a few aesthetic ones.

A bad situation made much worse

Let’s say two cowboys, Mcree and Graves, get into a shootout. Mcree catches some shotgun shot in his shoulder and takes a Threatening (3) injury. Next round, a lacky sneaks up on his position behind cover and stabs him for 2 damage before being quickly dispatched with a stun grenade and a headshot. Mcree now has a Threatening (3) injury and a Moderate (2) injury. His wound level is 4, Wounded. Next round he runs between hiding spots and catches a really bad shot in the abdomen for 5 damage. He now has a Severe injury (5), a threatening injury (3), and a Moderate injury (2). This puts his wound level at 7, incapacitated. If his buddy takes out his assailant for him and finds him a doctor, he will heal completely in 13 weeks (time it takes his Severe injury to heal) and be left with a debilitating Battle Scar.

Resurrection

A Gift cannot be used to resurrect a dead character. By definition, the Harbingers consider dead characters to be "losers" not worth the effort, regardless of what the players want. Resurrection abilities, when allowed at all, involve hefty permanent stat penalties.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License