Recording Wounds

Once the final damage is determined, it is recorded on the wounded fighter’s character sheet. Each individual wound is described as a Scratch, Hurt (Light Wound), etc., as introduced in Wound Levels.

Use a Damage Capacity attribute as an easy way to record wounds. (In this case, Damage Capacity is not figured into determining wound severity.) Each hit that is greater than a Scratch reduces a character’s Damage Capacity attribute one level or more, if the GM deems the hit to be severe enough. (Scratches can accumulate as the GM desires perhaps three Scratches equal one hit.) When someone is reduced to Mediocre Damage Capacity, he is Hurt: -1 to all actions. When he is at Poor Damage Capacity, he is Very Hurt: -2 to all actions.

When he drops to Terrible, he is at -3 to all actions or Incapacitated, if a GM wishes to play it that way. Damage Capacity below Terrible is Incapacitated, at least possibly worse. (For characters of Mediocre or worse Damage Capacity, these levels only affect them when damaged. That is, an undamaged character of Mediocre Damage Capacity is not at -1 to all actions. However, if he takes even one hit, he drops to Poor Damage Capacity, and is at -2 to all actions.) Healing in such a system cannot raise Damage Capacity above a character’s undamaged level that can only be raised through Character Development.

A more detailed method requires a space on the character sheet to record wounds. This would look like:

Damage: 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9+

Wounds: Scratch Hurt Very Incapacitated Near Hurt Death

The numbers above the wound levels are discussed in Determining Wound Level.

The boxes below the wound levels represent how many of each wound type a fighter can take.

When a wound is received, mark off the appropriate box.

A character takes a Very Hurt result in the first round of combat. The character sheet would then look like:

Damage: 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9+

Wounds: Scratch Hurt Very Incapacitated Near Hurt Death

¾

This character is at -2 to all skills since he’s Very Hurt.

If he then received a Hurt result, he would check it off like so:

Damage: 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9+

Wounds: Scratch Hurt Very Incapacitated Near Hurt Death

¾ ¾

This character is still at -2 to all skills. The Hurt result is not cumulative with the Very Hurt result; only the penalty for the highest recorded wound level counts.

If there is no open box for a given wound result, the character takes the next highest wound for which there is an open box. If the character above, for example, takes another Hurt result, we see that there is no open box in either Hurt or Very Hurt, so we have to go to Incapacitated: the character is now incapacitated, and the sheet would look like:

Damage: 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9+

Wounds: Scratch Hurt Very Incapacitated Near Hurt Death

¾ ¾ ¾

Note that an “H” is recorded under the Incapacitated label. The character is indeed Incapacitated he can’t fight any more but for healing (and scarring) purposes, he has only received two Hurt wounds and one Very Hurt wound never an Incapacitating wound in one blow.

Since Incapacitating blows are harder to heal from, this is important.

As another example, a character that takes two Very Hurt results without taking any other hits is Incapacitated, since that is the next highest wound level.

Note that three boxes are provided under Scratch. This can be customized by each GM, of course. A Scratch wound will not make a fighter Hurt until he receives his fourth Scratch. Optionally, a Scratch will never raise a character’s wound level beyond Very Hurt, no matter how many he takes. The GM should not to use this rule when the PCs fight a monster of huge Scale. Otherwise, they’d never be able to kill such a creature when the worst wound they can inflict is a Scratch.

The wound progression above makes for a fairly realistic campaign. For a more cinematic campaign (especially those without magic or science fiction healing), add an extra box for Scratch, Hurt, and possibly Very Hurt:

lesser blows won’t accumulate so quickly to hinder the character. A moderately cinematic character sheet looks like:

Damage: 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9+

Wounds: Scratch Hurt Very Incapacitated Near Hurt Death

It wouldn’t be out of line, for an epic scale game, to add up to two more boxes to Hurt and Very Hurt.

Be warned that adding boxes can lengthen combat significantly.

Never add boxes for cannon-fodder NPCs, though you may wish to do so for major NPCs. In fact, NPC pawns don’t even need the system above. A simple three-stage system of Undamaged, Hurt, Out of the Battle is good enough for most of them. Simply make a mark under an NPC’s name for Hurt, and cross out the name for Out of the Battle.