Health - Stress - Injury
ToC
Beneath their armor and behind their courage, characters can withstand a degree of punishment before any lasting injury is caused. This ability to endure is represented by the character’s ability to take Stress, while any lasting wounds they do suffer is called Injury.
Stress Track
Your characters stress track represents the amount of punishment your character can take before lasting harm sets in. Once any reductions have been made for soak or resilience any damage remaining affects the target, is recorded as stress. Each point of damage left over, adds a single point of stress. A character can only take a finite amount of stress at any one time. Characters may be able to increase their maximum stress through other means as well, such as Merits, Edges or Talents. Having any stress does not, by itself, cause any problem for the character: it imposes no penalty, nor does it impair a character’s actions or choices.Stress Examples
Stress Example One
Our hero was roaming the back streets asking too many questions when he bumps into a thug that he has history with. As they trade blows the thug swings his fist hard connecting with our heroes midsection.
The thug deals four damage reduced by the heroes armor soak of two, leaving two damage. This two damage is recorded as two stress on the heroes character sheet. This causes no injury.
4 Damage
2 Soak
2 Stress
Stress Example Two
Stress 2/7
Health 0/3
After knocking out his old sparing partner he smiled until his three buddies came around the corner guns blazing, "oh crap!" Our hero dives over the half wall as the hail of bullets pepper all around him. He grunts landing hard but knowing this will hurt far less than lead poisoning.
The thugs deal six damage reduced by the heroes armor soak of two, leaving four damage. This four damage is recorded as four stress on the heroes character sheet. This causes no injury.
6 Damage
2 Soak
4 Stress
Stress 4/7
Health 0/3
Health Track
Your characters health track represents how much injury and lethal damage they have taken and can sustain before they are defeated. Injuries may also commonly be known as harm or wounds.More or Less Health
Characters may have smaller or larger health tracks for a variety of reasons. One major reason is when the game master is using minor characters like extra in a movie that are meant to be dispatched quickly and easily. Their primary purposes would be to slow a hero down or to use overwhelming odds against them. A characters species, archetype or talents may grant them a higher health track.
For example minor characters or minions.
They are defeated when their injuries are equal to or greater than their health.
In the case of a minor character with 0 stress and 1 injury this means one successful hit defeats them.
Characters do not suffer complications until they record injuries in the final three health boxes.
For example vampires have one additional health box from Kindred Endurance.
4 Health (Supernatural Threat)
3 Health (Threat)
2 Health (Minor Threat)
1 Health (Minion or Thug)
Less Health
More Health
Example Health
Receiving Injuries
If your character suffers too much stress, they receive an injury. You can receive more than one injury if two of the conditions are met at the same time. The ways in which you can receive an injury are as follows:- Inflict five (5) or more stress in one attack or hazard after soak, resistance or reduction.
- Inflict sufficient damage to completely fill the target's Stress track.
- Inflict one (1) or more stress in one attack or hazard after soak, resistance or reduction when the targets Stress track is already full.
Tip
Conditions B and C are mutually-exclusive: if the attack is filling the target's Stress track, then the Stress track was not full before the attack, and if the Stress track was already full at the start of the attack, then you can't be filling the stress track with that attack.
Injury Examples
Injury Example One
Doors on both sides of the old warehouse open issuing forth a half dozen no-neck thugs. They move into the room as our hero is beginning to get a bad feeling about this tip. After several lumps and near-swings a smaller thug with a weaselly face drives his knife deep into the heros side catching him off guard as blood begins to soak his cloths.
The mob of thugs deal eight damage reduced by the heroes armor of two soak, leaving six damage. This six damage is recorded as six stress and one injury on the heroes character sheet. The hero now has a one complication or wound penalty.
8 Damage
2 Soak
6 Stress
1 Injury
Injury Example Two
Stress 6/7
Health 1/3
Our hero reeling from the overwhelming numbers and a deadly knife wound staggers missing a step. Instinct and skill allow him to disarms the knife wielding thug, breaks the nose of one, and break the wrist of another before being grabbed fast and pummeled.
The hero already with six stress and one injury while this round the mob of thugs deal four damage, reduced by two for armor soak, leaving two damage. These two damage is recorded by filling the last stress box and discarding the remaining 1 damage, and another one injury box. The hero now has a two complication or wound penalty.
4 Damage
2 Soak
1 Stress Track Full
1 Injury
Injury Example Three
Stress 7/7
Health 2/3
The hero fights to stay conscious while realizing this was a setup, a trap and he walked right into it. Another thug strikes him in the back as he falls to his knees surrounded still held on both sides by strong arms. The mastermind steps out of the shadows, "tie him up, he is coming with us. I have a few questions for him and I hope he resists."
The thug deals four damage reduced by the heroes armor soak of two soak, leaving two damage. No stress in recorded as his health track is full. As his final health box is filled he is defeated and the GM decides the hero is captured for questioning.
4 Damage
2 Soak
0 Stress Track Full
1 Injury - Defeated
Stress 7/7
Health 3/3
Hunter with Banes by Graylion on midJourneyAI
Aggravated
Certain types of damage are so horrific they cause immediate, grievous injuries that often take much time to heal and may leave lifetime scars. If a certain type of damage would be considered aggravated, the target takes stress as normal and any injuries have an Aggravated condition attached to them. Any such attack that successfully generates stress deals a minimum of 1 Aggravated Injury. Aggravated injuries generally take twice as long to heal and recover from. Some examples would be acid used against mortals, silver used against werewolves, sunlight or fire against a vampire or cold iron used against a changeling.Defeated
The exact details of defeated are determined by the Storyteller using the most appropriate narrative description to remove the defeated character from the scene. They could be sprawled in a daze as the rest of the event unfolds around them. This could be knocked unconscious, knocked unconscious and dragged off by the enemy, this could be dramatically injured or even killed. This could be falling off the bridge into the raging river, drifting away to later be discovered by the mad hermit and nursed back to health. It is also possible that your allies are not aware of the situation until the dust settles.
There are a couple of opportunities to avoid Defeated, two examples could be Undefeated or Last Stand. It is also not unheard of for a very driven or dedicated character to achieve a Last Ditch effort before succumbing to defeat. This is where the stories of legends and martyrs are told. Also known as Taken Out.
Undefeated
The character may spend one Fortune when they are Defeated or at some point later in that scene to immediately return from defeat. Some narrative could be our hero is shot at close range in this heart. He falls backward as the villain moves on, while the silver dollar coin rolls out of the heroes pock. The coin is dented while the hero is badly bruised.
The character may spend one Fortune when they are Defeated or at some point later in that scene to immediately return from defeat. Some narrative could be our hero is shot at close range in this heart. He falls backward as the villain moves on, while the silver dollar coin rolls out of the heroes pock. The coin is dented while the hero is badly bruised.
Last Stand
If the Storyteller deems this acceptable to the scene and the story the defeated character may swap two injury boxes for one aggravated injury. Some narrative examples of this would be turning an arm wound into aggravated arm wound which could leave the characters arm broken or dismembered.
Note: Storytellers are encouraged to continue engaging the player once they have been Defeated which could be giving them control of an ally or contact, maybe an interesting NPCs or quite possibly one of the enemy force if they are up to the challenge. Players will not be well pleased to sit while hours of game unfold without their involvement. This also depends on how much session time if left.
Battlefield Triage by Graylion on MidJourneyAI
Healing
After being beaten to a pulp, characters need time to heal. Normally, a character can heal without medical attention, though use of Medicine Skill helps them recover. The only exception is if the storyteller has specified that a character is bleeding out or near death they need urgent medical attention.Healing & Recovery Times
Given a brief rest between scenes most characters recover themselves. All stress boxes clear automatically as long as the storyteller agrees that you have a lull between scenes.
Many supernatural creatures handle injury and healing differently. For example werewolves regenerate damage quickly, vampires only heal using up their Vitae and mages may use Life magic to repair their pattern.
Action Dodge by Graylion on MidJourneyAI
Battlefield Triage by Graylion on MidJourneyAI
2d20 World Builders Logo Black
The 2d20 World Builders logo is a trademark of Modiphius Entertainment and is used with permission via the OBS Community Content programme. All 2d20 rules in this product are copyright 2022 Modiphius Entertainment Ltd.
Comments