Journey: Trauma
An extrapolation from the Combat page.
Contents
Critical Hits / Trauma
...yeah, this is a subsystem I'm really looking forward to writing.
The term "critical hits" might be used to refer to trauma.
How Do You Get Traumatized?
Trauma occurs whenever you take a significant amount of damage, reach a certain point of health, or when someone specifically goes out of their way to try to inflict a grievous wound upon you (a "called shot").
For the vast majority of creatures, there are six points of trauma: head, chest, right arm, left arm, right leg, and left leg. For four-legged creatures (that do not also have arms), the "arms" are understood to mean front legs, while the "legs" are understood to be back legs.
For unusual creatures, there are additional points of contact for major areas, such as wings, additional arms, etc. Depending upon how this system gets written, special attention may be paid to unusual body parts that standard humanoids do not possess.
Called Shots
You may attempt a called shot whenever you make an attack; if you do, you must specify what body part you are attacking. Your attack is then resolved against that hit location. Called shots are resolved somewhat differently from most attacks; the key differences are outlined here.
- Targets are Smaller: When attempting to hit a specific location, your target is much smaller than it normally would be. As such, any combat skills you use to make the attack are considered one rank lower.
Standard armor is understood to protect your chest. You must wear gloves if you want to protect your arms; footwear to protect your legs; and a helmet to protect your head. These additional armor pieces do not contribute to your overall armor value, but have an independent armor value used against called shots.
If you hit with a called shot, roll the damage dice pool; however, the attack does not (usually) deal damage - instead, you will usually inflict a status effect or outright incapacitate your target.
Suffering Trauma
You gain a trauma token in one of several ways.
- Called Shot: A called shot inflicts a trauma token.
- Excessive Damage: If you take damage from a single attack that deals damage equal to or greater than half your health, you suffer a trauma token.
- Bloodied: When you take damage that reduces you to less than half your health, you suffer a trauma token.
- Swooned: When you swoon (fall unconscious), you suffer a trauma token.
For anything other than a called shot, determine the hit location randomly.
d12 Location 1-2 Right Leg 3-4 Left Leg 5-6 Right Arm 7-8 Left Arm 9-11 Torso 12 Head
Severity
Once a location has been determined, severity must be determined. This is a complicated opposed roll.
The attacker makes a Skill: Proficiency check with whatever weapon he is using, and adds how many trauma tokens the attack inflicts. The defender makes a Trait: Health roll, to which is added the armor value of the equipment worn on the given hit location, and from which is subtracted the defender's current number of trauma tokens.
Note that for non-called shots, the Skill: Proficiency check used is the value that granted the trauma token.
(Skill: Proficiency + Trauma Tokens) vs. (Trait: Health + Equipment Armor Value - Trauma Tokens)
Taking average is acceptable here.
The amount by which the opposed roll is overcome indicates severity.
Range | Category |
---|---|
< 1 | Scratch |
1 - 2 | Minor |
3 - 5 | Light |
6 - 9 | Moderate |
10 - 12 | Serious |
13 - 15 | Dire |
16 - 18 | Severe |
19 - 20 | Critical |
21+ | Lethal |
Alright, that looks good.
The type of weapon used - slicing, crushing, or puncturing - should also be noted, as that's important for determining the effects of trauma.
Trauma Tables
You now have a hit location, severity, and type of weapon. The effect of the trauma can now be determined.
Scratch
SCRATCH for ANY HIT LOCATION No effect: A scratch indicates that, while you were struck by the attack, it was not with sufficient force to inflict injury.
Don't worry, they won't all be that simple.