PAIN AND SUFFERING

Injury

There are three measures of injury: Stamina, Health, and Sanity.

A character loses stamina by taking damage or through heavy exertion. When the Stamina of a character is reduced below zero, he falls unconscious.

Stamina can fall to negative numbers. This makes recovery time longer, but has no other ill effects.

An unconscious individual is senseless and can take no action. Any attacks directed against him need only hit the spot where he is lying. The character does get the benefits of his strength and armor (or willpower and focus negation, in the case of sorcerous assaults).

A character loses health through serious injury or disease. If health falls below zero, the character dies.

A character loses sanity through serious psychological shocks or certain sorcerous attacks. If sanity falls below zero, the character becomes permanently catatonic. The body still lives, but the mind is gone.

Recovery

A character recovers from harm through rest.

Stamina is the easiest to recover. One hit of stamina is recovered for each round of inaction. The maximum stamina of a character is limited by its current health and sanity.

An unconscious character recovers Stamina at the normal rate and wakes up when it is greater than zero. However, there is no limit to how far negative Stamina can fall. A character who has taken massive amounts may go into a coma and take a very long time recover.

Health and Sanity levels are more difficult to recover. Unlike Stamina, they do not return automatically.

To recover Health, a character must make a Strength roll against the amount of Health taken from each wound. If successful, that wound is reduced by the Dos. When the amount of Health lost in that wound goes to zero, the wound is healed.

Sanity works the same way except that the character must roll Willpower.

Recovery checks are made once per day, usually when the character wakes up from a decent amount of sleep. Only one roll is made (or two, if the character has taken damage to both Health and Sanity), but this roll is checked against each injury.

Rest must be in a comfortable environment with adequate warmth, sleep, and nourishment. Sanity recovery also requires peace and quiet. Less than comfortable circumstances will slow the rate of healing, increasing the difficulty of the roll. Light exertion, such as walking or moderate lifting (or thinking, in the case of Sanity), will increase the difficulty of recovery rolls as well. The increase in difficulty is at the discretion of The Master.

Strenuous activity, such as fighting or spellcasting, will prevent any healing at all.

Healing

The aid of a skilled healer can make recovery much easier. Once per day, a healer may make a Healing roll for the injured character. This roll is compared to every injury, mental and physical. Every success heals an injury by a number of points equal to the Dos.

Healing rolls are made after the injured character's normal recovery checks.

Poison

A poison is a harmful substance that does internal damage to a character.

Some poisons must be eaten, injected, or inhaled. Others take effect upon direct contact with the skin.

In game terms, a poison is an attack that does damage to a character at regular intervals (once a round, minute, hour, day, etc) for a certain duration. This damage is resisted as any other attack, except only Strength is used. Armor does not help against poison.

If a character survives until the duration runs out, he fought the poison off.

Some poisons (drugs) may work against Sanity rather than Health. These work the same as the others except that they are resisted with Willpower.

Some poisons work more slowly than others. Most diseases can be treated as poisons with very long durations.

Darkness and blindness

Characters who cannot sense their opponents will find themselves at a distinct disadvantage.

When characters are unable to see, any skill that requires sight will have a -4 penalty to the skill roll. This applies whether a character is somehow blinded or just surrounded by darkness.

For situations that are dim, but not completely dark, The Master should assign a difficulty number - the lower the light, the higher the number. Any character who can make a Perception roll higher than this number is able to see for that round.

These rules apply also to other senses - any skill that requires hearing will be at -4 if the character cannot hear.

Of course, these rules do not apply to Perception itself - if a character is blinded or deafened, he cannot perceive anything with that sense. The same goes for Observation.

Falling

The Master should ignore damage from falls of less than four yards. A hero is not likely to injure himself falling such a short distance unless he lands on something unpleasant.

For more significant falls, characters should take an amount of damage equal to the number of yards fallen. A character who falls six yards (18 feet) should take 6 damage, a character who falls 15 yards should take 15 damage, and so on up until the maximum of 20 (terminal velocity).

This damage is applied against the character's strength. Armor does not help protect against falling damage, though it may help to protect the character from any extra damage if he falls on something sharp like spikes or broken rock.

Characters may use an Acrobatics roll to break a fall. This roll is made against a challenge level equal to the number of yards fallen (maximum of 20). The Dos of this roll (if successful) can be added directly to the character's Strength to help endure the damage.