CRITERIOS DE EVALUACIÓN

We ended the ranged combat example with Able taking a hit from a pistol at short range. If we say this is something like a 9mm, then the damage will be around 2d+1 lethal. We have already done examples of armor, so we will say Able has no body armor and takes the full 2d+1. The dice are rolled, and the result is a total of 7. Able has taken no hits before this, so he just marks off seven ’s on his hits track. This means he has crossed the -0d

and -1d thresholds for damage effects (you only

count the highest one). The important thing is that he has crossed a damage threshold and has to make an easy(5) Will roll to avoid being stunned. Able has a normal Will roll of 2d+2, but he takes a -1d penalty for severity of his injuries, giving him a 1d+2 to reach a difficulty of 5, a 50-50 chance. If he fails, he could immediately try again as a major action on this turn, but his roll would take all penalties for previous major actions on that turn.

If he failed the initial roll, then on the following turn he might try again as his first major action, on his normal turn initiative. This puts him in a bind, as he really wants to go first so he does not get shot again, but he needs to make the Will roll, and even if he does make the Will roll, doing so will use some part of his turn bonus for that turn, leaving him less or even none to apply to his combat skills. The moral of the story? Have a decent Will roll and keep a little turn mod unspent if you think you will need it.

DAMAGE EXAMPLE

In the melee combat example, we ended with Danielle clocking Carmen with a 1d+1 punch. Carmen has a Will of 7, which means she has a Toughness of 2. So, she can ignore the first 2 points from any non-lethal hit. Danielle rolls her 1d+1 damage for a total of 5, so Carmen takes 3 non-lethal hits, marking three ’s on her hits track. This crosses the -0d damage threshold, so she has to make a Will roll with no penalty and a difficulty of 5. Rolling 2d+1, she can ‘take 2’s’ to automatically get a 5. She has not taken enough damage to suffer any ill effects...yet.

RECOVERY

Once you have taken damage, and usually after the fighting is over, you can start to recover from it. This is where your Recovery stat comes in.

stamina: Whenever you could recover any

non-lethal hits due to time spent resting, you recover all lost Stamina. Stamina will be used more in some gameworlds than others. The next important mention of it will be in the Advanced Combatchapter.

non-lethal hits: When

the time level spent resting plus Recovery equals 20, you recover 1 non-lethal hit, and 1 more non-lethal hit each time this interval elapses.

lethal hits: When the

time level spent resting plus Recovery equals 32, you recover 1 lethal hit, and 1 more lethal hit each time this interval elapses.

If you have a Recovery of +1, you recover one non-lethal hit each 11 minutes and one lethal hit each 11 hours. Also, after 11 minutes you would get back all Stamina that had been used.

When we say ‘each time this interval elapses’, we mean each time the clock runs out the amount of time for the initial recovery. So, if you recover your first non-lethal hit at a time level of +20 (15 minutes), you recover another non-lethal hit every 15 minutes.

level time recovery

+18 8m +5 +19 11m +20 15m +6 +21 23m +22 30m +7 +23 45m +24 1h +8 +25 1.4h +26 2h +9 +27 3h +28 4h +10 +29 6h +30 8h +11 +31 11h +32 16h +12

Realistic recovery

The basic recovery rules are meant to get adventurers back on their feet fairly quickly, and are far faster than is realistic for lethal damage, even with modern medicine. To make things more realistic, hits after the first are recovered after an elapsed time of +2 time levels, not for

each time the initial time level repeats. In the

previous example, this would mean Able would not get back the seventh lost hit until 16 days after he had been shot, and that is assuming he does not engage in activity to slow the recovery process. Severe injuries can take months or even years to fully recover from. If you want to compromise, use an elapsed time of +1 instead of +2. In the previous example, Able would take 2 days to recover his injury at that rate.

In the damage example for melee combat, Carmen had taken 3 non-lethal hits from getting punched. If Carmen had a Recovery of -1, then after the fight, she would get back the first non- lethal hit (and all lost Stamina) after a time level of +21, or 23 minutes, and the second and third hits at further 23 minute intervals. If we were to use the advanced rule mentioned above, she would recover the first non-lethal hit at a time level of +21, the second at a time level of +23 and the last after a total time level of +25. That’s it for basic combat! Everything else is

Advanced Combat, the tweaks, special cases and details that are only relevant to certain gameworlds. You will surely use some of them, but probably not all of them.

There are things you can do that can affect your recovery rate. Rest, supplies necessary for recovery and comfortable surroundings can add +1 or +2 to your Recovery. In the case of lethal injury, medical care using an enhanced skill can add +2 to your Health, which is good for a +1 to your Recovery. Advanced tech (or magic or other powers) can also provide benefits, especially for wound recovery. Regen tanks and autodocs are staples of the science- fiction genre, and magical spells to speed healing are part of the fantasy genre.

On the other hand, pushing yourself when you are injured, ignoring doctor’s advice, poor medical care or conditions can decrease your recovery or negate it altogether. Recovery implies not doing the things that caused the problem in the first place. Strenuous activity resets the recovery clock for lethal and non- lethal hits.

If you would normally recover one lethal hit each 16 hours and you do something to strain yourself 8 hours into it, you lose that 8 hours and restart the clock from when you stop aggravating your injury.

What counts as ‘strenuous’ is fairly subjective and up to the gamemaster, but the player would be advised to err on the side of caution for their adventurer...

In the damage example for ranged combat, Able took 7 lethal hits. If that is where he was when combat ended, then he would be able to start recovering that damage. Let’s say he has a Recovery rate of +0 and ends up in a hospital, for a bonus of +3, giving him a total of +3, as long as he stays in the hospital. A time level of +29, plus his Recovery of +3 is +32, so he gets back the first lethal hit of damage after a time level of +29, or 6 hours. Assuming he stays in the hospital, he continues to get back lost hits, 1 every 6 hours, so it will take 42 hours for him to recover the 7 lethal hits he took.