Page 173 - World of Darkness

top of an “X,” for an eight-pointed star. These marks go in
the boxes of your character’s Health chart. o o o o o o o o o o o o
When it comes to your character’s long-term survival,
lethal damage is crippling and aggravated damage is ulti- XX XX / / /
mately fatal. If your mortal character’s Health chart is filled -1 -2 -3
with X’s, he’s on death’s door. He’s horribly beaten and in
a coma, barely holding onto this mortal coil. Any subse- Or, if your character’s Health chart looks like this:
quent injuries upgrade boxes with X’s in them to aster-
isks. Once all boxes are filled with asterisks, your charac- o o o o o o o o o o o o
ter is dead and gone.
++
When your character acquires a mixture of bashing, X X X XX / /
lethal and/or aggravated damage, mark the most severe -1 -2 -3
damage at the left in his Health chart; it pushes any lesser
and he suffers another point of aggravated damage
damage right. For example, if you mark that your charac- (*), his Health chart changes to this:
ter has taken a point of bashing damage in the leftmost
the leftmost box with an “X” for the lethal damage and o o o o o o o o o o o o
box, and she then takes a point of lethal damage, mark
” in that box. Any further bashing damage goes in the + + + X XX /
move the bashing damage right one square by putting a “/
X
X
X
third box and keeps going right. Any further lethal dam- -1 -2 -3
age pushes the entire thing right again until all the boxes His less severe lethal and bashing wounds are pushed
are marked with either an “X” or “/.” to the right by the newest aggravated one, and one bash-
Aggravated damage works the same way. Say your ing wound is pushed off the chart and ignored.
character has already suffered a point of lethal damage Once all the boxes on your character’s Health chart
(first box) and a point of bashing damage (second box). are filled and there are no less severe wounds to push right,
He then suffers a point of aggravated damage. As the most any new injury upgrades the least severe wound that he
severe injury that he’s incurred, the aggravated goes in already has. These upgrades occur from left to right. That’s
the leftmost box, the lethal moves right to the second the second rule of tracking your character’s Health.
box and the bashing moves to the third. Any more aggra- So, say your character’s Health chart looks like this:
vated points suffered continue to push those lethal and
And that’s the first rule of tracking your character’s o o o o o o o o o o o o
bashing injuries right.
Health: A more severe wound always “pushes” a less se-
vere wound to the right. Wounds that are “pushed off” ++ X X ///
X X
the right edge of the Health chart as a result are ignored. -1 -2 -3
Tracking your character’s Health may seem complex He then takes a point of bashing damage. There are
at first, but it’s easy to learn once you try it out. The sys- no empty wound boxes left to fill, and there are no less
tem also makes recovery from injuries easy to record. While severe wounds to push to the right (your character’s least
wounds are taken from left to right, they’re healed from severe wound is bashing and the new one he incurs is bash-
right to left. That way, your character’s least severe, fast- ing). The new point of bashing damage therefore “up-
est-healing wounds are always healed (erased off your char- grades” his leftmost, least severe injury by one kind. In
acter sheet) first. The system also makes supernatural ef- this case, it means the bashing wound in his fifth Health
fects that temporarily grant extra Health easy to record box is upgraded to a lethal wound and his Health chart
(see the “Temporary Health Dots” sidebar). looks like this:
Say your character with 7 Health is in bad shape with
a chart that looks like this: o o o o o o o o o o o o
o o o o o o o o o o o o ++ XX X / /
X X
-1 -2 -3
XX X // / / If your character then suffers three more points of

-1 -2 -3 bashing damage, the first two of those points upgrade his
two existing bashing wounds like this:
He takes another lethal wound. The new injury pushes
his bashing wounds to the right. Since your character’s o o o o o o o o o o o o
seven Health boxes are all full of injuries, one of his bash-
X X
ing wounds is essentially pushed off the right edge of the ++ XX X XX
chart and is ignored. Your character’s Health chart be- -1 -2 -3
comes:

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Chapter 7- COMBAT