Damage

Damage is handled different ways in the game depending on whether the target is a player character, a nonplayer character, or an object.

Damage to PCs

Attacks on you that inflict physical damage appear as wounds. The attacker's stats indicate the severity of the wound they inflict.

Wounds

Creatures, NPCs, and physical hazards typically inflict damage to PCs in the form of wounds. Wounds have three categories of severity—minor, moderate, and major.

A core character can take three minor wounds, three moderate wounds, and three major wounds. Your type might allow you to take additional wounds, and some characters have abilities that allow them to take more than the normal number of wounds.

Each time you take a wound, mark off the appropriate wound box on your character sheet.

Minor Wounds: These are nicks, scratches, bruises, and other inconsequential injuries that no longer hurt after a few hours. Individual minor wounds don't negatively affect your character in any way.

When you've taken all of your minor wounds, any other minor wounds you take become ("roll over to") moderate wounds.

Moderate Wounds: These are open cuts, weapon grazes, sprains, minor fractures, and other injuries that no longer hurt after a few days. Individual moderate wounds don't negatively affect your character in any way.

When you've taken all of your moderate wounds, all of your actions are hindered, and any other moderate wounds you take become ("roll over to") major wounds.

Major Wounds: These are fractures, large open cuts, gunshot wounds, and other significant injuries that generally take anywhere from days to weeks to recover from.

Each individual major wound hinders all of your actions. When you take your third major wound, you die.

Damage to Pools

Some special attacks may instead damage your Pools, such as a disease that inflicts Might damage, a numbing poison that inflicts Speed damage, or a psychic attack that inflicts Intellect damage. A few very dangerous attacks can inflict wounds and Pool damage at the same time.

If damage reduces your stat Pool to 0, any further damage to that stat (including excess damage from the attack that reduced the stat to 0) turns into wounds.

For example, if your Intellect Pool has 3 points and you take 6 points of Intellect damage, your Intellect Pool drops to 0 and the remaining 3 points convert to a minor wound.

This conversion to wound damage doesn't change the type of incoming damage or your defenses against it. For example, if your Intellect defense tasks are eased and you're attacked by a psychic blast, your defense against it is still eased even if your Intellect Pool is at 0 and the Intellect damage you take converts to wounds.

Inflicting Damage on NPCs

An NPC has a stat called health, which often is the same as their target number (three times their level). When an NPC takes damage of any kind, they lose health (the GM tracks this). When their health reaches 0 or lower, they're defeated.

The attack you use either has standard base damage or specifies how much damage it inflicts when it hits an NPC. For instance, weapons inflict 2, 4, or 6 damage depending on whether they are light, medium or heavy damage respectively, whereas a Blast spell from a Mage specifies 4 damage. And so on.

There are many ways to add damage to your attack, including character abilities (such as Combat Prowess from the Paladin type), using Effort, or getting a special roll of 17 or higher.

If your attack brings an NPC to 0 or lower health, you decide whether it kills the NPC or they're merely unconscious. You don't have to declare this ahead of time; if the GM says your attack defeats the NPC, you can tell the GM if you only want to knock them out. (The GM also has the option of having the NPC surrender near or at 0 health.)

An NPC may have an Armor stat (usually 1, 2, or 3) that reduces physical damage they take. If the NPC's Armor reduces the incoming damage to 0 or less, the NPC takes no damage at all. For example, a strange crab mutant covered in a thick shell probably has 3 Armor, so damage from every physical attack against them is reduced by 3 points. Mental attacks like a psychic blast ignore Armor, and some unusual physical attacks (such as poison on a blade) can bypass Armor.

Damage to Objects

An object doesn't have wounds or stat Pools. Instead, its level acts like Armor and health. To damage an object, make an attack roll against its level. If you are successful and inflict enough damage to get through its Armor, the excess damage reduces its level on a one-for-one basis. If you damage it enough that its level becomes 0, the object is broken and no longer works. If you keep attacking the level 0 object and inflict additional damage equal to its original level, you destroy it.

For example, if you attack a level 2 window and inflict 4 damage, 2 points get through its Armor, reducing it from level 2 to level 0. Now the window is broken; parts of it still have glass, but there's enough gone that you could carefully crawl through it. If you inflict 2 more damage, the window is completely destroyed.

If you attack a level 6 steel door and inflict 7 damage, 1 point gets through its Armor and reduces it to a level 5 door. Another hit for 7 damage means 2 points get through and makes it a level 3 door. Another hit for 7 damage means 4 points get through and reduce its level to 0. Now the door is broken and no longer an obstacle. If you inflict another 6 or more damage to it, you destroy it.

If you're using another physical tool (such as a stick or sword) to attack an object, the tool has to be as hard as the object; otherwise the attack has no effect. For example, you can't break a steel door by hitting it with a flimsy plastic chair.

Shields: A shield being used defensively by a PC is a special case for objects taking damage—it takes wounds like a PC instead of reducing its level.