Page 154 - World of Darkness

Circumstance Factors might announce, “You plunge your knife into the guy’s
Beyond a target’s Defense and/or armor rating, other dead flesh and pull upward, wrenching until the blade hits
conditions can affect your character’s efforts in combat. bone. The bastard screams in agony, but there’s no blood.
Extreme weather might make it difficult to stand or draw You watch as his chest collapses and begins to decay at an
a bead on an enemy. Darkness obscures vision. The Sto- accelerated rate.” By being evocative, your Storyteller cre-
ryteller decides what “ratings” these environmental con- ates atmosphere, entertaining you and lending a sense of
ditions have, which are subtracted from attack rolls. This narrative continuity to what would otherwise be a series
chapter, Chapter 3 and Chapter 6 discuss a variety of cir- of dice rolls.
cumstances that might diminish attack dice pools. It’s
possible for some conditions or events to be extremely Damage Types
debilitating, inhibiting your character’s very capacity to Each success gained on your attack roll inflicts one
function. The effects of wounds, poisons, drugs, diseases Health point of damage to the victim. Based on the na-
and vicious supernatural powers may apply, too. ture of the attack, one of three different types of injury
It’s also possible for situational conditions to improve result.
your character’s chances of making a successful attack. You • Bashing: Your character punches, hits with a blunt
already gain bonus dice for your character’s use of a weapon instrument or otherwise pummels her victim. This type of
or special effect. In addition, the Storyteller can announce damage probably doesn’t kill the target instantly, though
extra benefits. Maybe your character’s hand is guided by a repeated application could. Bashing damage heals fairly
supernatural spell or he has a scope on his rifle. These quickly (see p. 175 for more details).
conditions grant you additional dice, the number usually • Lethal: Gunshots, blades and even crushing dam-
being stated in these rules or decided by the Storyteller. age may prove fatal. Lethal injuries take quite a while to
heal for ordinary people.
Note that firearm attacks that normally deliver le-
The Rule of Five thal damage do only bashing damage to vampires. The
creatures are undead; their organs are inert, their blood is
As stated in Chapter 6, each tool, weapon
congealed. Their bodies simply don’t suffer harm like those
or circumstance does not normally add or sub- of the living.
tract more than five dice from any pool. Such
• Aggravated: Different beings are vulnerable to dif-
ratings range from one to five. Only truly im- ferent forms of attack, such as vampires to fire or
pressive phenomena or devious supernatural
werewolves to silver. Such assaults inflict aggravated dam-
tricks may increase or decrease modifier dice by age, which those beings heal very slowly. Humans are not
more than five, and the Storyteller usually dic-
necessarily vulnerable to certain kinds of attacks — fire
tates when that happens. or a silver dagger does lethal damage to them, for example
— but some supernatural effects can inflict aggravated
harm on ordinary folks. Wizards’ spells or vampires’ blood-
Damage based powers can cause injuries to normal people that take
extensive time to heal. Any person or being who is so
The harm that your character inflicts in an attack is badly injured that she is comatose, bleeding to death or
determined by the number of successes that you get with fading altogether also incurs aggravated wounds. So, all
your attack roll. Each success inflicts one Health point of denizens of the World of Darkness are subject to aggra-
damage. vated damage under one circumstance or another.
Example: You roll five dice for your character to stab
an opponent and get 1, 4, 8, 8 and 9. You get three Zero Attack Dice
successes. Your character’s opponent therefore loses three
Health points. If a target’s Defense, armor or other factors reduce
your attack dice pool to zero, you still get to make a chance
The type of damage done in a successful attack is de- roll to pull off a long-shot attack. Any successes gained
termined by the weapon used or the nature of the attack inflict Health points of damage on the target, as usual.
(see “Damage Types”). See “The Chance Roll” in Chapter 6 for complete de-
If you get no successes on your attack roll, your char- tails.
acter does no harm to his target. The attack misses alto- It’s therefore possible to get a dramatic failure in an
gether or is ineffectual. attack, too. A result of 1 on a chance roll imposes a dra-
After you determine the damage that your character matic failure. See “Dramatic Failure” in Chapter 6 for full
inflicts upon her target, the Storyteller portrays the dam- details. The Storyteller may invent the results of a dra-
age in descriptive terms, narrating the outcome of the at- matic failure based on the circumstances.
tack. Rather than simply say, “Okay, the guy loses four
Health,” the Storyteller makes events interesting. He

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COMBAT TURNS-ATTACK