Hazards (IB)

Starfox's Blades Hack

A compilation of common consequences and hazards.

Harm

This consequence represents long-lasting debility — or death.

Level	Description	Example	Penalty
6+	Disintegrated	Cut to pieces	Instant death
5	Dismembered	Lost leg	Need help within 1 minute
4	Fatal	Macerated leg	Need help within 1 hour
3	Severe	Shattered leg	Need help within 24 hours
2	Moderate	Wounded leg	–1d
1	Lesser	Drained, Battered	Reduced Effect

Further Harm Examples

• Disintegrated (Level 6): Flattened, Cut Into Pieces, Brain Dead.
• Dismembered (Level 5): Lost Limb, Crushed Torso, Coma.
• Fatal (Level 4): Electrocuted, Drowned, Mauled limb, Catatonic.
• Severe (Level 3): Impaled, Broken Leg, Punctured Chest, Badly Burned, Terrified.
• Moderate (Level 2): Exhausted, Deep Cut to Arm, Concussion, Panicked, Seduced.
• Lesser (Level 1): Battered, Drained, Distracted, Scared, Confused.

Harm such as Drained or Exhausted is a good fallback consequence when nothing else is immediately threatening — for example, after spending all night Studying old books in search of a foe’s weakness.

Tracking Harm

When you suffer Harm, record the specific injury on your character sheet at the level of Harm you suffer. See the harm tracker and examples below.

Your character suffers the penalty listed for a row if any Harm recorded in that row applies to the current situation. For example, if you have Tired as Lesser Harm, you suffer reduced Effect when trying to run.

When you are affected by Severe Harm (Level 3) or worse, your character is incapacitated and cannot act unless you receive help from another character or Push yourself to act. You still get the normal benefits of Pushing; desperate action has its rewards.

If you need to mark Harm but the appropriate row is already full, the Harm moves up to the next row:

• If you suffer Moderate Harm but the Level 2 row is full, it becomes Severe Harm.
• If you suffer Harm that must be recorded in the bottom row and there is no space, your character immediately dies.

Harm Track

Level	Harm Boxes		Penalty
5			Need help within 1 minute
4			Need help within 1 hour
3			Need help within 24 hours
2			-1d
1			Reduced Effect

Level 6 harm is not on the character sheet as it is instantly fatal.

Example

This example character has three Harm: Drained and Battered (both Level 1) plus Shattered Right Leg and Head Trauma (both Level 3). If they suffer another Level 1 Harm, it moves up to Level 2. If they suffer another Level 3 Harm, it moves up to Level 4: Fatal. If they suffer Level 1 Harm three times, it will fill both Moderate Harm boxes and a level 4 box, Fatal.

Level	Harm Boxes		Penalty
4			Need help within 1 hour
3	Shattered leg	Head trauma	Need help within 24 hours
2			–1d
1	Drained	Battered	Reduced Effect

Recovering Harm

At the end of an operation, all Harm is reduced by one level of severity. Further recovery is done using the Heal downtime activity. There are also special methods, notably the Philosopher's Medicine ability and the Praxic's Surgeon ability.

Radiation

Radiation represents cumulative, invisible harm caused by exposure to charged particles, neutrons, gamma rays, and secondary showers. Unlike Harm, it often manifests late and escalates unpredictably.

Exposure

Radiation exposure occurs when characters operate:

• Near the Sun, flares, or Solar Alchemy remnants.
• A space around gas giants that grows with it's size.
• Around damaged reactors, isotope work, or breached shielding.
• Under sustained beam, flare, or particle storm conditions.
• From certain weapons of mass destruction.

Exposure is rated by Intensity (Low, Moderate, Severe) and Duration (Momentary, Prolonged, Chronic). It is usually predictable, tough radiation from the sun gives very little advanced warning in Mercury's orbital zone.

Radiation Clock

Radiation damage uses an 8-tick Radiation Clock.

• Low exposure: 1 tick
• Moderate exposure: 2 ticks
• Severe exposure: 3 ticks

Extreme sources may inflict more than 3 ticks at once. Personal protective gear can reduce ticks by one, shutters, and shielding may reduce ticks by 1 or more. Water is a very effective barrier to radiation, but anything solid and heavy will do. Unprotected characters continue to mark ticks as long as the radiation source is active.

Radiation action will usually involve characters moving from cover to cover. Starting out hiding behind a water tank or other solid cover, characters have to move out of cover in order to take action, whether combat, rescuing victims, or salvaging an objective. In such situations, ticks of radiation are an additional consequence of each action. Likewise, vehicles can hide behind terrain like asteroids or terrain but have to pop up in order to act.

When the Radiation Track fills, start a new one with any overflow and keep track of the number of filled clocks (you can use a second 8-tick clock for this), and if it is the third or later clock, also apply immediate Level 1 Harm, which stacks with earlier harm in the normal manner. Typical Harm effects include fatigue, nausea, headaches, bleeding, burns, and confusion.

The more insidious effect is long-term. After the Operation is completed, the target suffers Harm of a level equal to the number of Radiation Clock filled. This can be resisted using Prowess, reducing damage by two levels. High-level damage comes with effects like bone marrow failure, cancer, neurological deterioration, immunity system collapse, and genetic damage, often lasting effects rather than immediately lethal.

Resistance

Radiation ticks are consequences that can be resisted, reducing the ticks suffered by 2. This is separate from resisting any other consequences.

It is also possible to resist the long-term damage using Prowess, reducing the level of Harm by 2.

Treatment

Radiation damage is treated somewhat differently than other damage, but in game terms it is reduced in the same was as any other damage. A Neme will keep track of radiation damage suffered, so there is a prognosis of the damage to be suffered.