Pain and Suffering

Unconsciousness, Death, and Madness

Adventurers often get hurt. Sometimes they die or go insane. The Adversary and players must decide in advance how deadly they want their campaign to be. Each survival roll decribed below involves rolling Fortitude vs total wounds, Willpower vs total shocks, or Healer vs either. Each of these rolls gets to add a Survival Bonus (SB) based on how much death the players and Adversary want. For a gritty game, the SB may be 0. For a high-powered game, it may be 10. The recommended SB is 3.

A character with ten or more wounds is incapacitated. He is senseless and defenseless. What this means depends on the circumstances. If the wounds were suffered in a boxing match or barfight, the victim is just knocked out and will awaken in a few minutes. If the wounds were the result of lethal weapons or spells, the victim is seriously injured and may die without assistance from a Healer. The lethality of some attacks may depend on the intent of the attackers. Characters can try to subdue enemies without killing them.

A character with ten or more shocks is panicked and delirious. He may faint, flee, curl up into a little ball, wander about aimlessly, stare into space, or any other useless action the player desires. Whether this is temporary, or risks being permanent, depends on the nature of the attack - which often depends on the will of the attacker. The victim may regain his composure after a few moments or may require the assistance of a Healer to escape permanent insanity.

The Adversary is advised to ignore these thresholds for minor villains. Those who suffer any wounds or shocks should just fall or retreat.

If an incapacitated adventurer is beyond the help of any nearby Healers, he gets one last chance to survive. After one hour, have the adventurer make a Fortitude check vs his total wounds. Add the SB to the check. Upon success, the adventurer wakes up - on death's door, but alive. Upon failure, the adventurer dies a tragic death. He may awaken long enough to utter some famous last words.

A delirious adventurer has the same last chance, only he rolls Willpower vs his total shocks and adds the SB. Upon success, he calms down. Upon failure, he goes stark raving mad.

Healers

Those with the Healer skill can help others recover from injury or insanity.

A Healer can help an unconscious or injured friend by making a skill check, plus the SB, vs the total number of wounds suffered by the victim. Success means the character is stabilized and awake. He recovers a number of wounds equal to the mox. Failure means that saving the character is beyond the Healer's abilities.

A Healer can save panicked or delirious friends by making a skill check, plus the SB, vs the total number of shocks suffered by the victim. Success means the character is calmed and back in touch with reality. He recovers a number of shocks equal to the mox. Failure means that saving the character is beyond the Healer's abilities.

Juk the Barbarian has taken 16 wounds from arrows. He is down and dying. Thomas, a level 3 Healer, makes a trait check to try and bring him back. He rolls an 8 for a total of 11, then adds this games SB (3) for a total of 14 - less than Juk's wounds, so he is beyond Thomas's help. Sarah, a level 9 Healer, tries a few minutes later. She rolls a 6 for a total of 18; subtracting Juk's 16 wounds gives a mox of 2. Juk is awake, stable, and down to 14 wounds.

Rest and Recovery

Recovering from the perils of adventuring requires rest.

Fortune returns quickly, at a rate of a few points per hour of rest. This is somewhat up to the discretion of The Adversary, based on the condition of the party and their environment, but eight hours of rest ought to be enough to fully recover Fortune under most conditions. Four hours should be enough to recover half.

Wounds and shocks are more difficult to recover. After a week of rest, a character will recover a number of wounds equal to his Fortitude and a number of shocks equal to his Willpower (minimum 1 of each - adventurers with 0 Fort and Will still recover). Rest must occur in an environment with adequate warmth, sleep, and nourishment. Recovering from shocks requires a comfortable mental environment as well (this may differ from person to person). Strenuous activity - such as travelling, fighting, or spell use - prevents healing.

Healers can aid recovery. After a week in the care of a skilled Healer, a wounded adventurer may subtract the Healer's trait level from his wounds and shocks.

Juk gets into a fight with a large bear on a Thursday and takes 20 wounds. Healers manage to save him before he bleeds to death, but don't restore any wounds (mox = 0). After a week of rest, Juk recovers his 6 Fortitude and is left with 14 wounds. Juk is tended to by a level 4 Healer on week two. At the end of the week, Juk recovers 10 wounds - 6 for his Fortitude, 4 for the Healer. He is down to 4 wounds and will be fully healed in a week.

Poison

A poison is a harmful substance that does internal damage to a character.

Some poisons must be eaten, injected, or inhaled. Others take effect upon direct contact with the skin.

In game terms, a poison is an attack that does damage to a character at regular intervals (once a round, minute, hour, day, etc) for a certain duration. This damage is resisted as any other attack, except only Fortitude is used. Armor does not help.

If a character survives until the duration runs out, he fought the poison off.

Some poisons (drugs) may work against sanity rather than health. These work the same as others except that they are resisted with Willpower and inflict shocks rather than wounds.

Some poisons work more slowly than others. Most diseases can be treated as poisons with very long durations.

Darkness and Blindness

Characters who cannot sense their opponents will find themselves at a distinct disadvantage.

When characters are unable to see, any action that requires sight will have a penalty to the trait roll: -1 if it's dim, -2 if it's dark, -3 if it's pitch black or the character is blinded.

These rules apply also to other senses - any action that requires hearing will be at -1 to -3 if there is lots of noise in the area or the character is deafened.

Of course, these rules do not apply to Perception itself - if a character is blinded or deafened, he cannot perceive anything with the affected sense.

Falling

The Adversary should ignore damage from falls of less than two spaces. A hero is not likely to injure himself falling such a short distance unless he lands on something unpleasant.

For more significant falls, characters should take an amount of damage equal to twice the number of spaces fallen. A character who falls three spaces (6m) should take 6 damage; a character who falls eight spaces should take 16 damage, and so on up to a maximum of 20.

This damage is applied against the character's Fortitude. Armor does not help protect against falling damage, though it may help to protect the character from any extra damage if he falls on something sharp like spikes or broken rock.

Characters may use an Athlete roll to break a fall. This roll is made against a challenge level equal to the amount of damage the character faces. The mox of a successful roll is added to the character's Fortitude to help endure the damage.