Page 174 - World of Darkness

The third point upgrades the leftmost, least severe When the spell wears off, he loses his right
wound that he has remaining. In this case, the lethal in- two bonus Health. That means all of his normal
jury in his third Health box is increased to an aggravated Health boxes have injuries attributed to them.
wound, like so: Since a bashing wound was assigned to one of
o o o o o o o o o o o o his bonus Health, it upgrades the least severe
wound that he has remaining among his normal
+++ XX XX Health boxes. In this case, that would be the
X X X
bashing wound in his seventh box, which be-
-1 -2 -3 comes a lethal wound. His Health chart then
looks like this:
If your character continues to take more bashing or
gravated for each new point of damage. If he incurs any o o o o o o o o o o o o
lethal damage, another lethal wound is upgraded to ag-
more aggravated injuries, they push his lethal wounds ++ XX X XX /
X X
right, as stated by the first rule of tracking Health.
With bashing and lethal injuries being upgraded as -1 -2 -3
more harm is suffered, it’s possible to be beaten to death
— even by suffering repeated bashing damage alone. All If he had suffered a bashing wound in both
boxes of your Health chart are filled with slashes. When of his two bonus Health, his chart would have
they’re full, you go back and upgrade each to an “X” from been filled with aggravated and lethal wounds
left to right as your character continues to take a beating when the two extra dots were lost, as follows:
full of X’s, he’s utterly overcome, comatose and dying. o o o o o o o o o o o o
and suffers more bashing injuries. Once all the boxes are

Suffering even more harm upgrades each lethal wound to ++ XX X XX X
X X
an aggravated one. X’s change into asterisks.
Remember that before any wounds are “upgraded” in -1 -2 -3
severity, all of your character’s Health boxes must be filled In the first case, your character could fall
and there can be no less severe injuries to push to the right.
unconscious (see “Incapacitation”). In the sec-
ond case, he would be dying.

Temporary Health Dots
It’s possible that your character might ac- Incapacitation
quire extra Health dots that make him more Anytime all of a character’s Health boxes are marked,
robust for a temporary period of time. A spell
regardless of damage suffered, and he has a bashing slash
or supernatural effect might increase his Stamina, remaining in his rightmost box, a reflexive Stamina roll is
Size or even his Health trait directly. These bo-
made each turn for him to remain conscious. This roll
nus Health dots are added to the right side of does not suffer your character’s -3 wound penalty. It’s made
your character’s Health chart, and each also has
at the beginning of your character’s action each turn. So,
a corresponding box where any wounds are re- if your character’s last Health box is filled with a slash,
corded.
you must make a Stamina roll when he acts next, whether
The question arises, though, if he incurs in this turn or the next.
wounds in such extra Health and then the spell
A failure means he falls unconscious. A success means
wears off, what happens? While his extra Health your character is conscious and can continue to act in
dots are lost, any wounds in them are not. Your
that turn. The standard -3 wound penalty does apply to
character returns to his normal Health dots. Any any action he performs.
wounds that were assigned to his bonus points
These Stamina rolls continue from turn to turn until
now upgrade the least severe wounds that he your character passes out completely or is healed and his
already has, from left to right on his Health chart.
rightmost Health box is emptied. Of course, if that last
Imagine that your character gets two extra box gets marked with lethal or aggravated damage, your
Health dots from a supernatural effect applied
character is on death’s door or leaves this mortal coil.
to him. His normal Health of 8 increases to 10. A character who falls unconscious from a failed
He now has 10 Health dots and boxes in his
Stamina roll remains incapacitated until he regains at least
chart. He’s been beaten up pretty badly, and has one Health (his rightmost box is emptied again — see
wounds in nine of his 10 boxes, as follows:
“Healing,” below).
o o o o o o o o o o o o way is getting hurt or killed. A mortal being who has le-
Of course, the danger of putting one’s self in harm’s
++ X XX X /// thal marks in all of his Health boxes is utterly overwhelmed
X X
-1 -2 -3
173
STATES OF BEING-HEALTH