Trauma and Death
Life in the black is difficult and dangerous, and characters can find themselves grievously wounded if they are careless. Even the most trivial fight can surprise a badly prepared group of freelancers.
Injuries and Wounds
Whenever a character takes damage in combat, they may choose to mitigate that damage by making some of it more permanent. A character does this by taking an Injury or a Wound.
Injuries
Injuries are a kind of physical trauma; minor cuts, sprains, scrapes and bruises that can temporarily impair a character but are relatively easy to treat and recover from. A character may accrue injuries either from taking damage, environmental hazards or any other dangers they may encounter.
Whenever a character takes damage, they may choose to instead take an Injury and subtract their Endurance + Vitality Rank from the total damage dealt to them. When a character receives an injury, they may be assigned one by the GM or randomly determine one by rolling 1d3;
[1] Strength Injury; The character loses use of one of their hands at random. They may not carry any items or make attacks with that hand and any actions that require two hands to use are done at Major Disadvantage.
[2]Endurance Injury; The character gains Exhausted(+1) and their Exhaustion cannot be reduced until the injury is treated.
[3]Dexterity Injury; The character loses use of one of their legs at random. They gain the Slowed condition.
Injuries are removed either by treating them with an Intelligence[Medicine 3] test (Only one attempt to treat a specific injury can be made per day) or by taking a short rest (at least 1 hour). If a character receives the same Injury twice, they instead take a wound of the same type.
Wounds
Wounds are major physical trauma and they usually take weeks or months to properly heal. Whenever a character takes damage, they may choose to take a wound to half the total amount of damage dealt to them.
Wounds can affect Strength(1), Endurance(2) or Dexterity(3) and are assigned by the GM or randomly determined by 1d3, and when a character first receives a wound these are untreated and confer a Disadvantage to any tests using the wounded characteristic.
A wound may be treated with an Intelligence[Medicine 3] test or a full night’s rest (8 hours) and once it is treated the wound inflicts no penalties and penalties from several wounds of the same type do not stack.
Unlike injuries, wounds can persist for several weeks. Each wound requires between 25 and 50 successes to heal depending on the length of your campaign, after each long rest, a character may attempt either a Endurance[Viltality] or get it treated with an Intelligence[Medicine], then the counter is reduced by the amount of successes obtained.
If the character receives more wounds of the same type the counter increases by an extra 25 to 50 successes for each wound past the first. The total number of wounds a character has received is tracked based on how many successes are still required to heal.
Additionally, when a character receives a wound they already have (be it treated or untreated) they must also roll on the Permanent conditions table for the corresponding wound, in the Trauma and Death section.
Stress
Stress is an optional rule Game Masters may use to represent mental and emotional strain and functions much like wounds would, but for the Intelligence, Insight and Charisma characteristics.
Depending on the campaign a Game Master is looking to run, they may decide whether or not to use Stress, but it is recommended for campaigns that are based on Intrigue, Political/Social Maneuvering or Horror. Stress can also be used to simulate the effect violence and danger can have on people who are otherwise not accustomed to it.
Some Psionic trees also interact with Stress, so it is ideal to include Stress in campaigns which include Psions, specially Theurgic and Gnostic Psions.
Be mindful of the fact Stress is not meant to be a faithful representation of mental or emotional distress, it is simply a game mechanic and Players and GMs can decide how to represent its effects on their Player Characters, whether it is played seriously or tongue-in-cheek, if they use it at all.
Inflicting and Reducing Stress
Giving a character stress is a GM decision, but it is ideal to keep in mind the character’s Background, reaction and specific situation. Whenever a character takes a long rest (8 hours) they get to roll to reduce 1 point of stress in one of their attributes;
Charisma + Presence (2) for Charisma Stress
Insight +Willpower (2) for Insight stress
Intelligence + Knowledge (2) for Intelligence stress.
Here are some recommendations of times when the GM may choose to give a character a point of Stress. Depending on the situation, the GM may give the character a chance to resist the Stress via a Skill test.
Intelligence
Whenever the character sees something completely incomprehensible.
Whenever the character is directly exposed to pre-blackout technology.
Whenever the character critically fails an intelligence test.
Insight
Whenever the character is knocked out of the fight or sees an ally die.
Whenever the character witnesses a gruesome or horrifying event or scene.
Whenever the character critically fails an Insight test.
Charisma
Whenever the character loses a Guile Encounter
Whenever the character is humiliated or badly defeated at some sort of competition or contest.
Whenever the character critically fails a Charisma Test.
Character can only accumulate up to three points of Stress on each Attribute. If they are forced to take a fourth point of Stress in an Attribute or the fail to clear a third point after a night’s rest, they will receive a Permanent Condition, after which all the stress in that attribute is cleared.
Permanent Conditions
Permanent Conditions occur when characters either;
Receive a Wound on an attribute that is already wounded.
Are unable to clear their third point of Stress in a specific attribute after a night’s rest or they are forced to take a fourth point of Stress. (If playing with the Stress rules)
Whereas Temporary Conditions (in Advanced Combat Rules) will usually disappear on their own after a few seconds or minutes, Permanent Conditions will linger under the Character fulfils the requirements needed to resolve them.
When a character receives a Permanent Condition on an attribute, they must roll 2d6 (selecting one die to represent tens and one to represent units.) and consult the table corresponding to that attribute to determine the effects on the Permanent Condition.
Addicted Permanent Condition
Addicted is a special permanent condition that can be obtained from substances with the Addictive quality and/or the Hooked trait. Be sure to talk to your group and make sure you are all are comfortable with depicting addiction in your game before giving a Player Character this condition.
Effect:
You gain the Exhausted(+1) and Fatigued(+1) Temporary conditions after every rest unless you’ve consumed the substance you are addicted to that day.
Resolve:
At the end of each day in which you did not consume the substance you are addicted to, you can make a Willpower(X) and Fortitude(X) test, where X is 6 minus the number of days since you last consumed the substance. The condition is removed if you succeed on both tests.
Once a character has managed to shake off their Addiction to a specific substance, consuming that substance will immediately give them the Addicted Permanent Condition again.
Death
A character can die for several reason, the most common being their body simply succumbing to a myriad of wounds and injuries or suffering massive catastrophic amounts of damage in one go.
A character will die if:
They receive more active wounds (both treated and untreated) than their total Endurance.
They are reduced to a number of negative hit points greater than their maximum hit points. (E.g. A character with 12 Hit points being reduced to -13 Hit points)
They are placed in a situation where the GM and Player there is no way for the character to survive.
It's best to discuss the way in which death and serious injury will be treated in the game with one's group beforehand. It's entirely possible to have characters be badly injured and retire instead of dying so as to maintain stakes if a group is not interested in a lethal game. Furthermore, its best to lay out the stakes for players clearly, so players always know when character death is a possibility and can take (or not take) risks accordingly.
Optional Rule: Heroic Sacrifice
A Player Character’s death should be a significant event, and a final, heroic sacrifice against a great enemy are a staple in many epic stories. Should a character die in combat, this optional rule allows them to inflict an automatic wound on whoever dealt them the final blow.
In a game where a character can usually only be incapacitated and not killed, this can serve as a choice for the player- allowing them to choose an epic farewell for their character in exchange for a clutch, final attack.
Optional Rule: Fates other than Death
A game not including Death does not mean the stakes can’t be high for characters. If the Game Master and Players agree that death is off the table for some of them, these are some options the group can use in situations where a character would have died;
The character is incapacitated but not dead, they are remanded to a medical facility where they remain until they have recovered from all wounds they received. In the meantime, the Player can use a follower or a temporary character. Once the character is healed and discharged, the Player can resume playing them or keep their temporary character.
Furthermore, consider a bill of 1000 credits for each week the character spent getting expensive regenerative treatments.
The character is permanently incapacitated, they may recover in time and with treatment, but for now they hang up their weapons and give up on freelancing.
The character’s body is beyond salvaging, but not their mind. Their still living brain is fitted in an expensive new mechanical body. The character trades in one of their positive traits for the Cyborg trait and a hefty 5000 credit bill. Additionally, if they have the Psionically Sensitive or Genetic Modifications trait, they also trade them for different traits.