Cohort Harm & Healing

From Blades in the Dark Rulebood Copyright © 2017 John Harper. All rights reserved.

Cohorts suffer harm similarly to PCs. A cohort can suffer four levels of harm:

1. Weakened. The cohort has reduced effect.
2. Impaired. The cohort operates with reduced quality (-1d).
3. Broken. The cohort can’t do anything until they recover.
4. Dead. The cohort is destroyed.

All of your cohorts heal during downtime. If circumstances are amenable for recovery, each cohort removes one level of harm (or two levels of harm instead, if a PC spends a downtime activity helping them recuperate).

If a cohort is destroyed, it may be replaced. Spend coin equal to your Tier +2 to restore it, plus two downtime activities to recruit new gang members, or hire a new expert.

The Bloodletters send their gang of Thugs to defend their lair against the Red Sashes, while the PCs deal with a rather urgent demon problem. Unfortunately, the already injured gang gets wiped out by the deadly (and numerous) Red Sash sword-fighters (The GM makes fortune rolls—the gang gets a 2 and the Sashes get a critical).

During the next downtime, Arcy restores the gang. She goes down to the docks and recruits a new batch of thugs fresh off a boat from Skovlan. The Bloodletters are Tier II so Arcy needs to spend 4 coin to restore the cohort. This takes both of Arcy’s free downtime activities.