Page 172 - World of Darkness

States of Being o o o o o o o o o o o o

Combat is about hurting and killing opponents. You
therefore need a means of gauging your character’s physi- X X ///
cal condition during and after a fight, whether he’s simply -1 -2 -3
bruised and battered or crippled or dead. But there are Should your character take more damage, he suffers a
other states of being (and forms of injury) beyond those -2 and then a -3 penalty as the second-to-last and the last
resulting from combat. The World of Darkness is a dan- of his boxes are checked off.
gerous place. All forms of harm may befall your character, Wound penalties also affect movement, reducing your
from fire to disease to electrocution. And yet, when he’s character’s Speed trait by the amount listed for the
faced with the horrors that lurk in the night, and super- rightmost box filled on your character’s Health chart.
natural creatures threaten his very existence, he may dis- Wound penalties do not apply to your character’s Defense
miss the pain as best he can and forge ahead against the or other Resistance traits — Stamina, Resolve or Compo-
unknown.
sure — when those traits are subtracted as penalties from
opponents’ dice pools.
Health

Chapter 4 quickly captures your character’s vigor with
the Health trait, which is determined by adding Stamina Marking Health
and Size. Typically, the bigger and more resilient your The injuries that your character suffers are
character, the more punishment he can endure before he recorded on your character sheet by filling in
goes down for the count. The average person is 5 Size and the squares of his Health chart. Bashing wounds
has 2 Stamina, for a total of 7 Health. are marked with a “/,” lethal wounds are marked
Your character sheet offers a chart for keeping record with an “X,” and aggravated wounds are marked
of your character’s changing state of being. The dots are with an “*.” As injuries of different severity are
filed in from left to right, one for each Health that your suffered, lesser wounds shift right. You don’t have
character has. The squares shown are used to gauge his to erase and re-draw every wound on your
current condition — his Health points. If he has no inju- Health chart, though. You can transform a bash-
ries at all — no squares are checked off— your character ing mark into a lethal one by drawing an criss-
is in perfect condition. Each time he suffers damage, mark crossing line to create an “X.” You can turn a
a square from left to right across the row. Multiple points lethal wound into an asterisk by drawing a hori-
on a damage roll inflict extensive harm. For example, if zontal and vertical line through the center of the
your character’s opponent achieves one success on an at- “X.” Just be careful not to “lose” any wounds in
tack roll and your character is currently in perfect condi- the translation.
tion, that damage is marked in the leftmost box on your When your character heals and recovers
sheet. If in a subsequent turn he suffers two more damage, from wounds, you do need to erase those marks.
you mark off the second and third boxes.
The more injuries your character suffers, the more
impaired his actions are. Penalties are imposed on your
dice rolls thereafter. The more damage your character Applying Damage
takes, the more difficult it becomes for him to act at full Three different types of damage can be inflicted: bash-
capacity, as follows. Remember that wounds are marked ing, lethal and aggravated. Bashing damage includes any
off from left to right on your character’s Health chart, so wounds inflicted by blunt instruments, punches, kicks or
the wounds on the right of your character’s chart indicate other similar trauma. Lethal damage comes from knives,
whether he suffers any penalties from injuries. bullets or any type of attack that actually pierces or cuts
Health Boxes Marked Penalty flesh. Aggravated damage is usually reserved for supernatu-
Third-to-last -1 ral sources — forms of harm that exceed the mundane or
Second-to-last -2 even reality as people know it. Anyone can incur aggra-
Last -3 vated harm, however, when bashing and lethal injuries
Subtract the dice penalty listed for your character’s turn so grievous that a victim falls into a coma and/or
current Health from your dice pool for every action he bleeds to death.
performs (including Initiative rolls, but excluding Stamina All types of injuries are cumulative and the resulting
rolls to remain conscious — see “Incapacitation,” below) total determines your character’s current Health points.
until the wounds heal. Specifics on each type of damage are provided below.
So, if your character starts with 7 Health and suffers When marking your character’s damage in the Health
five points of damage (there’s a wound mark in his third- chart on your character sheet, record a “/” for bashing, an
to-last box), his actions suffer a -1 wound penalty until “X” for lethal and an asterisk (“*”) for aggravated dam-
that fifth Health point is recovered. age. The last is best described as drawing a cross (“+”) on

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STATES OF BEING-HEALTH