Hit Points, Wounds, and Healing

Points of damage are deducted from a character’s hit points. Hit points cannot fall below zero, so do not record a negative value. When a character’s hit points reach zero, they fall unconscious and, in some situations, may die.

Major Wound

When a character takes damage of greater than or equal to half their full hit points in a single blow, they have received a “major wound”—they must make a CON roll or fall unconscious. If a character with a major wound falls to zero hit points they are close to death (dying). They must make a successful CON roll at the end of the following round and every round thereafter or die. Only successful use of the First Aid skill can alleviate the dying condition, through stabilizing the character. If a character suffers points of damage greater than or equal to their maximum hit points in a single blow, they die instantly.

Note that if a character is reduced to zero hit points but has not suffered a major wound, they will not die: death is only a possibility if a major wound has also been suffered.

Healing

• Characters without a major wound naturally heal 1 hit point per day.

• Characters with a major wound must make a healing roll (rolling equal to or under their CON) at the end of each week—if successful, they regain 1D3 hit points, or 2D3 points for an Extreme success. The major wound condition is removed if either an Extreme success is rolled or current hit points are healed to half their maximum value or greater. Thus, it may take a number of weeks for a major wound to heal.

Successful  First Aid can heal 1 hit point as well as rousing a character from unconsciousness. If First Aid is used on a dying character it, extends the character’s life so that the Medicine skill can use used. The Medicine skill can heal 1D3 hit points, but takes at least one hour and appropriate equipment and supplies. If Medicine is used on a dying character, it allows a healing roll at the end of one week.

Example: Brian starts with 12 hit points. On Monday he gets in a barroom brawl, taking damage from three separate slugs to his jaw of 4, 2, and 4 points. This is a total of 10 damage, reducing his hit points to 2. He has not taken a major wound (as no single attack delivered significant damage) and will recover at the rate of 1 hit point per day. On Thursday, Brian (now at 5 hit points) clumsily falls out of a window; suffering 7 hit points of damage. This is a major wound (7 damage is more than half of Brian’s maximum hit points). A friend administers First Aid and rushes him to hospital.

After seven days have passed, a successful CON roll is made for Brian and he regains 2 hit points on a 1D3 die roll. At the end of the second week, Brian’s player rolls an Extreme success on the CON roll and regains 4 hit points on a 2D3 roll of the dice, and his current hit points now stand at 6. This erases his major wound marker (he has regained half his maximum hit points), after which he heals at 1 hit point per day.

Other Forms of Damage

Often the Keeper will be forced to judge the amount of damage caused by some random event. Whatever the cause, consider the likely injury and rate it against the left-hand column on the Other Forms of Damage Table. Each injury type is for one incident or one combat round (one round of being punched by one attacker, one bullet, one round of drowning, one round of being burned, etc.). The character will take further damage on each successive round that they are exposed to the source of the harm.

Other Forms of Damage Table

*Asphyxiation and Drowning: a CON roll should be made each round; once a CON roll is failed, damage is sustained each round thereafter until death or until the victim is able to breathe. Death occurs at zero hit points (ignore the major wound rule).

**Poisons: an Extreme CON roll halves damage from poisons.