Damage & Injury     “Damage” points are an abstract measurement of the physiological harm done to a character. Damage has many sources both in and out of combat, and other chapters will mention many of these. Points of damage alone do not actually do anything to your character, and there is no absolute maximum amount of damage that you can take. In practice, damage will hamper and eventually kill your character by causing injuries. Injuries come in 5 types: Superficial, Perception, Core, Hand/Arm, and Mobility. Each type of injury has various degrees, which represent progressively worse effects on your body. You gain degrees of injury by accumulating damage, and you remove them by healing damage.

Injury Factor     All characters have an injury factor. To obtain this number, multiply your bCON by your WGT, then divide by 5. It cannot be less than 2. Large creatures use their AWGT instead of their WGT. Your injury factor is how many points of damage it takes to give you one degree of injury (or, how much damage you must heal to remove one degree of injury).

    Your character sheet has a row of spaces listed after your injury factor; simply fill these in with the multiples of your injury factor, to make it easier to remember when you need to gain/remove injuries.

Changes in Injury Factor    Your injury factor will very rarely change; only when you gain bCON or WGT. Whenever your injury factor changes, multiply your current damage by the same proportion by which your injury factor changed, so that your total damage is still between the same multiples. You cannot gain or remove degrees of injury as a result of changes in your injury factor.

Gaining Injuries     Whenever you take damage, simply compare your old damage total to your new amount, and see how many multiples of your injury factor the number has met or surpassed. For example, if a character has an injury factor of 5 and goes from 0 to 12 damage, they have passed two multiples (5 and 10). Therefore, that character gains two degrees of injury.

Every source of damage will typically have rules specifying what type of injury it inflicts. For example, if the above character took that 12 damage as a result of falling, the falling rules specify that their two degrees of injury would be degrees of Mobility Injury. Other sources of damage may require a roll to determine their injury type, such as most attacks in combat. For damage sources not detailed in the rulebook, the GM may decide the injury type, or simply default to Superficial Injury.

    Any amount of damage that does not cross an injury factor multiple does not inflict any degree of injury (of course, it does mean that a lesser amount of damage will be needed to reach your next multiple).

    Unless otherwise indicated, one source of damage will inflict only one injury type (though the degrees may be many or few). The exception is that many injury types can only have a maximum number of degrees - any further degrees over this maximum will become another injury type instead.

Endurance Rolls     Some degrees of injury have an endurance roll for a character to resist being incapacited (see Status below for the effects of incapacitation). These are always rolls on CON; this means a high-bCON character is not only less likely to be severely injured (due to their higher injury factor), but better at enduring injuries that do occur. If a character fails their endurance roll, they are incapacitated. If they succeed, they may continue acting normally (at least until they take another degree of injury that requires an endurance roll).

Bleeding & Weapons     Some degrees of injury state that they cause the bleeding status "if valid." Generally, attacks are capable of inflicting bleeding, with the following exceptions: weapons with the Blunt tag, or a weapon that inflicts any amount of fire, frost, electric, or particle damage (since the energy tends to cauterize wounds).

    If a degree of injury inflicts a bleeding status but does not specify whether it is major or minor, consider whether or not the attack (or other incident of damage) would have still inflicted bleeding if it had inflicted 2 fewer degrees of injury; if yes, the status is major.

Injury Types     The listed effects for a degree of injury replace the effects of all lesser degrees of the same type. When resolving the effects of injuries, consider only the final degree reached by a given incident of damage (such as an attack). For example, if a character goes from 0 to 3 degrees of Core Injury, they make only the endurance roll for 3rd-degree, not both 2nd- and 3rd-degree.

Superficial Injury     1st- to 3rd-degree: Upon injury, you must add 1 Hindrance to all rolls on any stat except CON until the end of your next turn (if inflicted on your own turn), or the end of your attacker's next turn (if inflicted by an attack). Unlike other Injuries, higher degrees of Superficial Injury do not add worsening effects; no more than 1 Hindrance is added by any amount of Superficial Injury. Once the Hindrance is over, this Injury has no lingering effect.

    You can take a maximum of 3 degrees of Superficial Injury. Any further degrees called for will become degrees of Core Injury instead.

Perception Injury     This injury interferes with the body's ability to perceive or process information. In virtually all organic creatures, this also represents highly-dangerous damage to the head.

    Examples: Brain or nerve trauma, injured eye, skull fracture, extremely distracting pain, damaged technological sensors or processors.

    1st-degree: You automatically fail all detection rolls. Upon injury, you are stunned until the end of your next turn (if inflicted on your own turn), or the end of your attacker's next turn (if inflicted by an attack). You must also make a d20 endurance roll.
    2nd-degree: Upon injury, you are incapacitated and have the minor bleeding status. Even once stabilized, you are considered blinded.
    3rd-degree: You are dead and cannot be revived.

    Characters whose brains are not located in their head (such as revenants and non-sentient technologicals) will not be stunned or incapacitated by this injury, but will be blinded by a 2nd-degree injury. For such characters, any further degrees beyond 2nd will become degrees of Core Injury instead.

Core Injury     This injury represents damage to the central workings of the body which interferes with most physical activities.

    Examples: Punctured lung, concussion, other internal organ damage, cracked ribs, severe blood loss, damaged technological motors.

    1st-degree: Adds 1 Hindrance to any roll on STR or DEX.
    2nd-degree: Adds 2 Hindrance to any roll on STR or DEX. Upon injury, make a d6 endurance roll. Inflicts the bleeding status if valid.
    3rd-degree: Adds 3 Hindrance to any roll on STR or DEX. Upon injury, make a d12 endurance roll. Inflicts the bleeding status if valid.
    4th- to 5th-degree: Upon injury, you are incapacitated. Inflicts the bleeding status if valid.
    6th- to 7th-degree: You are dead.
    8th-degree: You are dead and cannot be revived.

Hand/Arm Injury     This injury represents damage to the hand or arm, or equivalent appendages on exotic creatures. Left and right limbs can be injured separately.

    Examples: Fractures, torn ligaments, or severed wires in one's shoulder, arm, or hand.

    1st-degree: Adds 2 Hindrance to any roll on STR or DEX if this hand is involved in the action.
    2nd-degree: Adds 3 Hindrance to any roll on STR or DEX if this hand is involved in the action.
    3rd-degree: This hand is completely disabled. Upon injury, anything you are holding only in this hand is immediately dropped. Inflicts the bleeding status if valid.
    4th-degree: This hand/arm is completely dismembered. Upon injury, an organic character must make a d20 endurance roll, and receives the major bleeding status if valid.

    The last degree can only be inflicted by an appropriate source of damage; see Severing Limbs below. Any further degrees called for, or any 4th degree from an unsuitable source, will become degrees of Core Injury instead.

Mobility Injury     This injury affects whatever means the character uses to move around. Unlike Hand/Arm Injuries, Mobility Injuries are not tracked separately for each limb, and can describe the total damage to either. If this injury is called for against a creature that uses its whole body to move (such as snakes), it becomes a Superficial Injury instead.

    Examples: Fractures, torn ligaments, or severed wires in one's leg, knee, or foot.

    1st-degree: Adds 2 Hindrance to any roll on SPD. You cannot rush.
    2nd-degree: Adds 3 Hindrance to any roll on SPD. You cannot rush. Upon injury, make a d20 roll on DEX to avoid a knockdown, unless you are mounted or flying
    3rd- to 4th-degree: Unless mounted or flying, you are immobilized and knocked down; you cannot recover from the knockdown or move normally without assistance. Inflicts the bleeding status if valid.
    5th-degree: One leg/foot is completely dismembered. Upon injury, an organic character must make a d20 endurance roll, and receives the major bleeding status if valid. Non-organics are knocked down and cannot get up or move normally without assistance.

     The last degree can only be inflicted by an appropriate source of damage; see Severing Limbs below. Any further degrees called for, or any 5th degree from an unsuitable source, will become degrees of Core Injury instead.

    Koh-Trr can only be knocked down by a Mobility Injury of at least 3rd-degree. They immediately recover if the injury is healed below 3rd-degree (even if this is on another character's turn).

d20 Injury Rolls     Other chapters list results for a d20 roll that the GM makes to determine the type of injury from various damage sources. Those results are copied here for convenience:

Melee Attacks

Removing Injuries     Whenever you subtract damage due to healing, simply compare your old damage total to your new amount, and see how many multiples of your injury factor the number has passed below. For every multiple passed, you remove one degree of injury.

    When removing injury, you do not apply any effects that the lower degree of injury inflicts "upon injury" (for example, going from a 3rd- to 2nd-degree Core Injury does not demand the endurance roll from 2nd-degree).

    If the healing came from an intelligent source (such as an Ability), the healer always chooses which injury types' degrees are removed. If the healing is natural healing over time, it removes degrees one at a time, each time from the highest-degree injury type. When more than one injury type is tied for the highest degree, the injury type listed first in this chapter (or leftmost on your character sheet) is healed first.

Natural Healing    Elixir Thaumaturgy - Major Healing (Nature) and Restoration (Arcana) are popular Abilities well-loved by adventurers for their quick effects. The downside is that all artificial means of healing inflict exhaustion. Many adventurers and nearly all commoners must sometimes rely on the old-fashioned way of healing from injury, particularly the hardy antecessoroid species. Due to a range of factors including genetic engineering, trace amounts of elixir compounds in food supplies, and an oxygen-dense atmosphere, characters in Lur-Asko tend to recuperate from any given injury more quickly than humans would on Earth.

    Your own body's natural processes will heal you over time, and this is represented by a natural healing roll. This is a d20 roll on CON, rolled once per night (if you have damage). The effects of the roll determine whether you remove any damage, contract an injury complication, or remain as you are:

    Natural healing rolls can receive Easing from Healing elixirs and/or Conventional Medicine (Nature), and Hindrance if you have been in an extremely unsanitary environment.

    Severe wounds healed by natural healing typically leave visible scars; wounds healed entirely by external means do not. Any significant amount of external healing tends to remove previous scars, except those older than around a half-season.

    Any type of non-organic character which still uses natural healing rules is immune to complications, and simply heals no damage on any amount of failure.

Severing Limbs     To successfully inflict a 4th-degree Hand/Arm Injury or a 5th-degree Mobility Injury and thereby sever limbs, a weapon's drive must be above the character's armor range, and the attack must inflict damage at least equal to injury factor. Some types of weapons have additional restrictions:

    -Firearms, railguns, bows, and crossbows can only sever limbs if the damage taken is at least 3 times the victim's injury factor. If such a weapon is used in a Rapid Fire Attack or full-auto mode, consider the lesser of the total damage taken or the normal single-shot damage of the weapon when resolving this rule.
    -Attacks consisting entirely of energy damage can only sever limbs if the damage taken is at least 4 times the victim's injury factor. If a Rapid Fire Attack, consider the lesser of the total damage taken or the largest single-shot damage.
    -Slings cannot sever limbs.
    -Melee weapons with the Blunt or Overprecise tags cannot sever limbs.

Restoring Severed Limbs         If you have taken a 5th-degree Mobility or Hand/Arm Injury, the severed limb cannot be restored through normal healing alone. The damage and degrees of injury are removed with healing as normal, but the limb does not regrow from the healed stump. Only specific Abilities or devices can regenerate severed body parts. The most common sources are Elixir Thaumaturgy - Major Healing (Nature), and Restoration (Arcana)

    Anything which can regrow a severed limb can typically reattach one much more easily. In order to preserve a limb for reattachment, the damage of the attack which severed it must have been less than 7 times the victim's injury factor. It must also be reattached soon - within 1 day normally, or 2 days if the limb has been kept in a cold environment.

    Limbs that have been severed for more than 50 days can never be restored, even by regrowth. At this point, the remaining elements of the body have adapted to the loss to such a degree that no type of regeneration can reconstruct it.

Healing at Hospitals     If a heavily-damaged party lacks healers or elixirs, they can find help at city hospitals. Located in all the major cities of Lur-Asko, these institutions frequently employ “retired” Medics and Hedgedoctors.

    As a general rule (potentially modified in times of great disaster), hospitals will heal at a rate of 1 coin per 5 damage. For 10 extra coins, they can make this healing effective on a dead (but revivable) character, provided the character died within the last 15 minutes. Hospitals will reattach limbs for 10 coins, and regrow limbs for 40 coins (10 coins per day). All such services inflict 7 exhaustion per degree of injury healed, or 3 exhaustion for an amount of damage less than injury factor.

    Hospitals also offer two lesser services. Consult Conventional Medicine (Nature); hospitals offer both the first-aid and resting-healing aspects of that Ability (the latter requires you to remain in the hospital). Thanks to many philosophical charities and wealthy benefactors, these services are typically either free or cost only a handful of infras.

Injury Modifiers     The default injury rules are appropriate for all playable species, as well as nearly all techs and other humanoid creatures. Some creatures list an injury modifier, which causes them to follow modified rules for injury degrees based on their body shape. Possible injury modifers are:

Simplified Injuries     At the GM's discretion, some characters may follow simplified injury rules. This typically only occurs when the party is fighting large numbers of markedly inferior foes (especially if your characters have weapons or Abilities that can injure multiple enemies at once). Additionally, they may be used when a large amount of minor characters need to track damage (for example, the crews of ships). PCs, party NPCs, and any enemy approaching the party's effectiveness will never follow simplified injury rules. They are intended only to prevent the game from slowing down due to excessively large amounts of injuries to nameless hordes, and focus solely on whether or not a given character is still a threat.

For any character that will follow simplified injury rules, track a critical damage value equal to 3 times their injury factor. Rather than normal rules for injury types and degrees of injury, use the following:

    -A character whose damage meets or exceeds their critical damage is considered down. They may or may not be dead, but are no longer in the fight and do not need to receive turns.
    -A character whose damage meets or exceeds their injury factor but is less than their critical damage is considered injured. They must add 2 Hindrance to STR, DEX, and SPD rolls, but do not make endurance rolls. They cannot function as ship crew.
    -If a character is struck by a critical hit that would normally cause their attacker to choose the injury type, they take triple damage instead.
    -If even more simplicity is desired, the GM may decline to track exact damage values for each character, paying attention only to the damage value of the attack and whether or not the victim is already injured. In this case, a character who is injured twice becomes down.

    These rules may apply whether or not the character is sentient or organic.

    If for whatever reason it is important to determine whether or not characters are dead or just incapacitated, compare their damage to their critical damage again. If it is at least equal, they are incapacitated. If it is at least 1.5 times critical damage, they are bleeding. If it is double critical, they are dead. If it at least 2.5 times critical, they are dead and cannot be revived.

    Simplified injury rules do not affect anything related to healing, other than whether degrees of injury are removed. Continue to use injury factor for the purposes of any healing rule that refers to it. If desired, instead of making natural healing rolls for a large number of characters with identical TNs (such as a ship crew), you may make a lesser number of rolls that represent a portion of the number, or even one roll for all.

    On average, a character following simplified injury rules will go down slightly easier than one following normal rules. Although these rules are designed for expediting gameplay, they can be justified in-setting: large groups of lesser combatants typically have less motivation to push through injuries to remain in the fight, instead allowing their uninjured comrades to replace them.

Status     Certain negative effects suffered by characters in combat (or other dangerous circumstances) are called a status. Statuses are inflicted by many other rules, but follow the same rules of their own no matter how they were gained:

Bleeding     Although any number of injuries or minor scuffs might technically cause bleeding, the bleeding status describes more severe, life-threatening blood loss. Only organic creatures and liches can receive this status; creatures without blood or some equivalent vital fluid are immune. Injuries to bionic limbs do not cause bleeding.

    Unlike other statuses, bleeding comes in minor and major varieties. Minor bleeding causes you to take an amount of damage equal to 50% of your injury factor once every 30 seconds, beginning 30 seconds (6 rounds) after first receiving the status. Major bleeding does the same, but once every round. Bleeding damage occurs at the end of your turn, and causes Core Injuries.

    Regardless of source or severity, you may roll d20 on CON to end the status once per minute (that is, after every 2nd instance of damage for minor bleeding, or after every 12th instance of damage for major bleeding). Characters with a free hand can also purposefully treat bleeding as a major action by rolling a d20 on either DEX or INT. If performed by a character on someone else, this counts as a touch. If performed on yourself, 1 Hindrance must be added to the roll, and rolls cannot be received from someone else until after your next turn. One successful roll ends a minor bleeding status; major bleeding statuses require 4 consecutive successful rolls, but you do not take the bleeding damage at the end of your turn if you have had at least 1 successful roll since your last turn. If you receive another major bleeding status during treatment, any progress towards your four consecutive successes is lost. All bleeding statuses are removed by any amount of healing. Major Healing elixirs also end any bleeding status, even though they don't cause immediate healing.

    Receiving a minor bleeding status when you already have one does not result in major bleeding, and receiving a major bleeding status replaces any minor bleeding. Any rule that states it ends the bleeding status, without specifying minor or major, will end either.

Blinded     A blinded character has lost most or all of their sight. Though arguably not as detrimental as being completely stunned (blinded characters can still take their turn), you cannot make any ranged attacks, and all melee attacks must be blind attacks (see Combat). Characters you are grappling with are an exception to either, and may be attacked normally. You still retain enough sight, hearing, and/or memory to touch allies and participate in group defense. You may make defense rolls, but all attacks against you are unwarned stealth attacks. You must add 2 Hindrance in movement rolls, and cannot rush. You can still attempt movement to combat-important locations, based on memory, hearing, or directions from allies. Your travel speed is reduced to 1/2, or to 3/4 if an unblinded character can guide you.

    Besides these specific rules, you generally cannot use any Abilities, actions, or rulesets that require sight or concern another character or object at greater than engagement range, and anything that affects an unwilling non-grappling character at engagement range requires a d20 roll on DEX, much like a blind attack.

    Aside from any rule or Ability that specifically removes the blinded status, it is also removed by anything that would heal any amount of damage, except for natural healing rolls.

    Blinded status rules are also used for characters in total darkness, or characters otherwise deprived of sight (such as via blindfolding).

Deafened     A deafened character has temporarily lost their hearing. If deafened, it is difficult to communicate with other characters, and you obviously cannot hear them. Verbal actions are unusable if deafened.

    Dwarves and some animals have echolocation, a sound-based form of "sight." Such characters' normal vision can be blinded, but they do not suffer the negative effects of blinding listed under the blinded status unless they are simultaneously deafened. Echolocating characters can "see" in total darkness, but also lose this if deafened. Echolocation is completely unaffected by such things as smoke grenades and foggy weather, though it has no special effect on illusions.

Incapacitated     Incapacitated characters are unable to act in any meaningful way, and have partial to no consciousness. Incapacitation is generally the result of severe injury, though it can also describe characters who are asleep. Incapacitated characters automatically fail all defense rolls, as well as any other rolls that involve conscious effort. They cannot move or take any kind of actions. Incapacitated characters are also considered to be knocked down; they must recover from that status separately, even if their incapacitation is removed.

Ignited    Ignited characters are on fire. Until extinguished, they take heat damage equal to injury factor at the end of each of their turns; any injuries inflicted are Core Injuries, and not valid for bleeding. Ignited characters may extinguish themselves by spending a major action and rolling d20 on DEX, or d6 if the character voluntarily suffers a knockdown as part of this action. A character may also attempt to extinguish an ally they are able to touch; this is a major action that requires a d12 roll on DEX. Unless otherwise stated by the source of the status, being struck by at least 10 frost damage (regardless of drive) will extinguish an ignited character without a roll, as will any large quantity of water.

    Organic characters are particularly susceptible to the pain and panic of being ignited; attempting a major action other than extinguishing themselves requires a d20 roll on CON. Sentient characters may substitute a d20 on WILL. If failed, they attempt to extinguish themselves instead.

    Characters who are completely non-flammable, and whose clothing & armor (if present) is also non-flammable, are immune to this status. Generally, organic creatures and reanimators are flammable, while other non-organics are not. Characters with high-precision energy shielding valid against heat damage are immune to this status (with no need to spend shielding points against its damage); no other precision level of shielding is effective.

Knocked Down     You may be knocked to the ground by special attacks, Abilities, falls, or many other events. From the time you are knocked down until you recover on your own turn, you automatically fail all SPD rolls, and you have 3 degrees of melee disadvantage against all attackers. You are not counted for defending others in group defense, nor for outnumbering dice. You may recover from a knockdown as a minor action. You should always get up from a knockdown; getting down on the ground deliberately is represented by other rules, such as grappling or cover. If you take a knockdown as a result of your own actions on your turn, you may still recover on the same turn (if you have a minor action available).

Stabilized     Stabilized characters are identical to incapacitated characters, except that they regain a few capabilities. Stabilized characters cannot move a significant distance on their own, and automatically fail all rolls involving physical activity (that is, virtually all STR or DEX rolls). They retain consciousness and the ability to perform other sorts of actions, such as verbal actions or purely mental Abilities. Characters who are incapacitated by something other than injury cannot be stabilized.

    Incapacitated characters are stabilized by any amount of healing. An incapacitated character may also roll d12 on CON to stabilize; this roll is made once per minute, beginning one minute after the last incident of damage. 1 Easing may be added to this roll if another character is tending to the incapacitated character (or 2 Easing if the character has Conventional Medicine (Nature)); only one character may assist in this way. Major Healing elixirs also stabilize.

Stunned     A stunned character is temporarily reeling from some type of disturbance, such as an electric attack or mental overload. If you are stunned, you may not talk, participate in the movement phase, nor take actions on your own turn, essentially losing it. Even purely mental actions are impossible. If you are stunned by your own action, you lose the remainder of your turn after that action. You may still make rolls that do not arise from your own actions (such as defense rolls) and may use reactive +TNs, but you must add 3 Hindrance to all rolls on STR, DEX, or INT. You are not counted for defending others in group defense nor for outnumbering.0

Duplicate Statuses     Unless otherwise stated, receiving another status you already have does not result in an increased effect or a stacking duration (for statuses with a duration, consider only the duration that ends later). Statuses are not affected by the rules for other statuses (for example, you continue to bleed while being stunned).