Wounds // Trauma

Getting Hurt

Instead of a pool of Hit Points, Player Characters (PCs) suffer Conditions, Wounds, and Traumas.

Conditions

Conditions are temporary afflictions.
Physical, Situational, or Psychological problems that cause trouble in the short-term.
When a Condition is relevant to a check being made, it adds +1 Threat Dice MINUS to the pool.
There is no limit to the number of Conditions you can have a time.

• Conditions typically go away on their own after some time, or can be treated with simple actions.
  - For Example: Moving away from the source of the problem, applying pressure to a wound, etc.
• If not dealt with, a Condition could be compounded upon to become a Level 1 Wound.
  - For Example: Bleeding -> Minor Bloodloss, or Drained -> Tired.
• In the right context, a condition could also be a positive, adding Advantage Dice PLUS to checks.
  - For Example: Drunk/High and resisting pain.

Example Conditions:

The Conditions and Effects in the table above are purely examples.
Follow the fiction and only apply PLUS/MINUS when it makes sense.

Wounds

Wounds are specific, longer-lasting Injuries
Wounds can be Minor (Level One), or Severe (Level Two).
Once per Scene, per Wound, the GM can invoke the Wound to add +1 MINUS per level of the Wound.
The Wound must be relevant/hindering to the Check being made.

Minor Wounds (Level One)

Minor Wounds are the logical step up from Conditions.

• Minor Wounds are removed when Recovering during Downtime.
• During a Job, in a moment of brief respite, Minor Wounds can be treat with First-Aid and/or the right gear.
• There are no hard-limits to Minor Wounds. However, if you ever take the same, or similar one twice, it becomes a Severe (Level Two) Wound.

Major Wounds (Level Two)

Severe Wounds are serious injuries, on track to becoming life-threatening.

• Severe Wounds require medical attention during Downtime. Recovery in this way turns them into Minor Wounds.
• During a Job, in a moment of brief respite, Severe Wounds might be treatable with First-Aid and the right gear, either reducing or removing them.
• Unlike Conditions and Minor Wounds, you can only have at most 3 different Level Two Wounds.
  - This limit can be increased by Augmentation.
  - If ever you need to write a Severe Wound, but all your boxes are full, immediately write a Trauma instead.

Trauma

Traumas are desperate, life-threatening injuries.
Traumas always add +2 MINUS to checks.

• Traumas require serious medical attention during Downtime. Recovery this way turns them into Severe Wounds.
• During a job, Traumas can only be temporarily mitigated at best, enabled by specialist medical gear and augmentations.
• You can have at most 2 different Traumas at a time.
  - Upon filling your last Trauma box, you are Lost.
  - This limit can be increased by Augmentation.

Incapacitation

When writing a new Trauma, you must immediately make the following Check to avoid being incapacitated.

• Add PLUS for Toughness, or any other skill with expertise that provides resistance to pain and trauma.
• Add 1 MINUS as a base.
• Add 1 MINUS for each current Trauma and Condition.
• Add 1 MINUS if you are currently within a dangerous environment that is actively harming you (toxins, fire, etc.)

• On a Major or Minor Success: You persist and stay standing.
• On a Hollow Success or Bane: You succumb and fall to the floor, incapacitated.

While incapacitated, you require assistance from an ally soon, or else you will become Lost.
Use common sense to judge how long “soon” is. At most its the end of the scene, or a little longer than that.

Becoming Lost

Signal Terminated
This dangerous life finally caught up to you.

Becoming “Lost” could mean a number of things:

• If it makes sense, and the player and GM agree, you die.
  - Either immediately, or very soon.
  - You might get a check to do something heroic, and a last breath to say something dramatic.
• You fall into a Coma.
  - You aren’t dead, but you ain’t coming back any time soon, and not without life-changing issues.
• Physically/Mentally Devastated
  - By some cruel twist of fate, you’re alive, but is that truly the better outcome?
• M.I.A.
  - Your crew lost sight of you in the chaos. You might not be dead, but you never made it back.

At an appropriate moment, either immediately, or at the end of the session, the Player or the GM narrate a brief vignette, depicting (or alluding to..) the fate of the character.

And yet you persist..

A character who is lost doesn’t have to be gone for good.
The GM and the Player discuss options and come to a satisfactory compromise.

If it makes sense, the character may be able to return in some form:

• As an NPC, likely much later on, potentially as a shell of their former selves.
  - The GM takes control of your character, but you might be allowed to speak for them in specific scenarios.
• As a PC, but only after significant time and recovery, and with a permanent debuff.
  - You won’t be able to play as them while they recover. You might be able to do brief vignettes involving them during Downtime, if their whereabouts are known, but they’re fully out of action otherwise.
  When they return, you have a new, and highly intrusive Flaw:
  - Phantom Pains from a missing limb, visible and obvious burns/scarring, a personality disorder, panic attacks, etc.
  You have one fewer Trauma boxes.
  - No amount of recovery will get you back to your former strength.
  Your luck is used up.
  - The next time you become lost, it’s Game Over.