Resolving Damage
Characters gain special Conditions when injured, called Injury Conditions.
There are four general categories, corresponding to increasing levels of Complication severity: Bruised (−1), Injured (−2), and Maimed (−4). Beyond that, you’re Taken Out. Except for Taken Out, characters don’t often get Injured or Maimed, they get Broken Arm or Crushed Skull. Be descriptive when applying these Conditions — weapons can only apply Injury Conditions that would be narratively logical. If an Injury Condition wouldn’t affect your character (say, they’re trying to shoot someone while suffering from a broken leg) the Condition effect or Momentum generation simply doesn’t apply.
Injuries needn’t represent actual wounds; at the Storyguide’s discretion, they can be “Fated Injuries,” which are curses, injuries held in abeyance, or close calls that throw off the character and keep them off balance. Having a character dodge a hail of bullets only to catch the fateful one that Takes them Out is perfectly in-genre.
Calculating Injury Conditions: Anyone can take the Bruised or Maimed Condition levels (or the equivalents thereof caused by weapons). With a Stamina rating of 1, they can take Injured (create a small box for the level). For every additional 2 above (round up), the character can take one additional Bruised Condition. Scale can add directly to this, creating one additional Bruised Condition per Scale level.
Example: At 3 they have Taken Out, Maimed, Injured, and two Bruised. At 5, they have Taken Out, Maimed, Injured, and three Bruised. At 11, it’d be six Bruised, and so on. Any time the character takes damage, he must take an Injury Condition. His player chooses to take a Bruised, Injured, or Maimed Condition, if available. If none are available, he is Taken Out.
If the attack is from a weapon with the Aggravated tag, the Condition becomes Persistent. Against mortal characters, lethal damage is Persistent. The four-point Critical Hit Stunt allows you to inflict an additional Condition.
You’re beaten up a bit.
Effect: Special; see below, or Storyguide or player’s choice depending on Injury.
Momentum: The injury gets in your way later in the scene, adding +1 Difficulty to an action.
Resolution: Various Calling or other healing magic; otherwise, wait two days.
You have been solidly hit, and are suffering from a serious but still heroic wound.
Effect: Special; see below, or Storyguide or player’s choice depending on Injury.
Momentum: The Injury gets in your way later in the scene, adding +2 Difficulty to an action.
Resolution: Healing magic, or wait two weeks.
You have suffered an incredibly serious, and potentially permanent, wound.
Effect: Special; see below, or Storyguide or player’s choice depending on Injury.
Momentum: The Injury gets in your way later in the scene, adding +4 Difficulty to an action.
Resolution: Healing magic, or wait two weeks.
You have been hurt enough to take you out of a fight. You might be dying, trapped under serious amounts of rubble, or simply knocked out cold or too bruised to move. You might be able to talk, but can’t make any serious efforts at convincing someone of something.
Effect: You may not take any more actions during the scene in which you’ve taken this Condition. Any successful hit in a later scene has the same effect until you resolve this Condition. Add three Momentum to the pool when you first acquire Taken Out, and for every time a definite lack of your presence in the fight harms your companions.
Resolution: The Injury that caused you to be Taken Out, while no longer incapacitating, gets in your way in a later scene, adding +3 Difficulty to an action
If a character is Taken Out, they can no longer actively participate in the fight. This doesn’t mean that they’ve been killed outright, and the workings of Fate mean that PCs will never be killed by enemies of a lower Tier. It’s up to the Storyguide to judge the tone of the campaign and determine whether or not a character has been permanently slain.
An Injury Condition can only be downgraded once, and only if the character has empty Injury Condition boxes of a lower level available. The Bruised condition is removed when downgraded. Knacks and Boons may allow first aid to be applied more readily, more often, or simply heal the level.
• Bruised: Two
• Injured: Three
• Maimed: Five
• Taken Out: One success per other Condition the target has on them
There are four general categories, corresponding to increasing levels of Complication severity: Bruised (−1), Injured (−2), and Maimed (−4). Beyond that, you’re Taken Out. Except for Taken Out, characters don’t often get Injured or Maimed, they get Broken Arm or Crushed Skull. Be descriptive when applying these Conditions — weapons can only apply Injury Conditions that would be narratively logical. If an Injury Condition wouldn’t affect your character (say, they’re trying to shoot someone while suffering from a broken leg) the Condition effect or Momentum generation simply doesn’t apply.
Injuries needn’t represent actual wounds; at the Storyguide’s discretion, they can be “Fated Injuries,” which are curses, injuries held in abeyance, or close calls that throw off the character and keep them off balance. Having a character dodge a hail of bullets only to catch the fateful one that Takes them Out is perfectly in-genre.
Calculating Injury Conditions: Anyone can take the Bruised or Maimed Condition levels (or the equivalents thereof caused by weapons). With a Stamina rating of 1, they can take Injured (create a small box for the level). For every additional 2 above (round up), the character can take one additional Bruised Condition. Scale can add directly to this, creating one additional Bruised Condition per Scale level.
Example: At 3 they have Taken Out, Maimed, Injured, and two Bruised. At 5, they have Taken Out, Maimed, Injured, and three Bruised. At 11, it’d be six Bruised, and so on. Any time the character takes damage, he must take an Injury Condition. His player chooses to take a Bruised, Injured, or Maimed Condition, if available. If none are available, he is Taken Out.
If the attack is from a weapon with the Aggravated tag, the Condition becomes Persistent. Against mortal characters, lethal damage is Persistent. The four-point Critical Hit Stunt allows you to inflict an additional Condition.
BRUISED
You’re beaten up a bit.
Effect: Special; see below, or Storyguide or player’s choice depending on Injury.
Momentum: The injury gets in your way later in the scene, adding +1 Difficulty to an action.
Resolution: Various Calling or other healing magic; otherwise, wait two days.
INJURED
You have been solidly hit, and are suffering from a serious but still heroic wound.
Effect: Special; see below, or Storyguide or player’s choice depending on Injury.
Momentum: The Injury gets in your way later in the scene, adding +2 Difficulty to an action.
Resolution: Healing magic, or wait two weeks.
MAIMED
You have suffered an incredibly serious, and potentially permanent, wound.
Effect: Special; see below, or Storyguide or player’s choice depending on Injury.
Momentum: The Injury gets in your way later in the scene, adding +4 Difficulty to an action.
Resolution: Healing magic, or wait two weeks.
TAKEN OUT
You have been hurt enough to take you out of a fight. You might be dying, trapped under serious amounts of rubble, or simply knocked out cold or too bruised to move. You might be able to talk, but can’t make any serious efforts at convincing someone of something.
Effect: You may not take any more actions during the scene in which you’ve taken this Condition. Any successful hit in a later scene has the same effect until you resolve this Condition. Add three Momentum to the pool when you first acquire Taken Out, and for every time a definite lack of your presence in the fight harms your companions.
Resolution: The Injury that caused you to be Taken Out, while no longer incapacitating, gets in your way in a later scene, adding +3 Difficulty to an action
If a character is Taken Out, they can no longer actively participate in the fight. This doesn’t mean that they’ve been killed outright, and the workings of Fate mean that PCs will never be killed by enemies of a lower Tier. It’s up to the Storyguide to judge the tone of the campaign and determine whether or not a character has been permanently slain.
FIRST AID
After combat, characters can give and receive first aid. This allows a character to downgrade an Injury Condition to one of a lower level. Make an Intellect + Medicine roll at a Difficulty based on the severity of the Injury; a character can only remove one Condition this way per session, through a scene of picking glass out of bloodied arms, wrapping bandages around burned limbs, etc.An Injury Condition can only be downgraded once, and only if the character has empty Injury Condition boxes of a lower level available. The Bruised condition is removed when downgraded. Knacks and Boons may allow first aid to be applied more readily, more often, or simply heal the level.
DIFFICULTY
• Bruised: Two
• Injured: Three
• Maimed: Five
• Taken Out: One success per other Condition the target has on them
I GIVE UP
When a character faces an extreme amount of Injury Conditions or a particularly tough foe, or if they just feel like it, the player can opt to concede. In this case, the character is voluntarily Taken Out without going through Bruised, Injured, etc. first. The character takes no further damage, and adds three Momentum to the pool as normal. Losing a fight should be resolved in the same way as a Condition, leading to a new angle in a story. There are also multiple options for withdrawing from a fight; if the battle appears to be one-sided, the Storyguide should gently remind players of these options.
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