Damage (Action)

Heroic Action Role-Play

Damage in Action is cinematic; heroes can take vast amounts of damage while others collapse from a single punch. The size of the weapon matters much less than the hand that wields it.

Damage

An attack has an Outcome and a damage value. Add the outcome to the damage value, this is the final damage inflicted. Compare this to the target's soak attribute, most commonly Toughness, but different Damage Types use different soak attributes, and some powers use special rules.

Soak Attribute: If final damage is equal to or greater than the soak attribute, the target takes a Hit.

Critical Damage Threshold: If final damage is equal to or greater than the sum of Body, Mind, and Reflexes the target also suffers a Damage Setback.

In special cases the soak attribute might be greater than the targets critical damage threshold, but this should be very rare. In these cases, setbacks should not generally involve hits or damage but more sublte effects such as losing your balance.

Hits

Damage is measured in hits. Each attack that does any damage inflicts one hit. The number of hits you can take before serious injury is determined by your Role. Only when you have taken this much damage do you actually suffer any actual injury.

This table lists the number of hits and fortune points by role.

Role	Hits	Fortune
Hero/Villain	Body*	Mind*
Henchman	3	3
Victim/Minion	1	0

• A Hero/Villain always has at least 3 Hits and 3 Fortune points.

Hits disappear once the scene is over. You brush yourself off, wipe your brow, and examine yourself for damage, finding that what looked like serious injury was only superficial bruises. Sometimes, a scene will be a series of fights in sequence, if a rule is needed for how long a scene is it should generally not be more than 15 minutes.

In most campaigns the player characters are heroes, with hits equal to their full Body, but if a grittier game is required they can be extras or even victims.

Damage Setbacks

Some attacks are severe enough to cause additional effects. If the attack roll was a critical success or the attack inflicted enough damage there is a damage setback in addition to the Hit. A damage setback works much like a normal Setback, but the creature taking the setback has more of a say in what it is; it is more dramatically appropriate that the player describes the effects of injuries than that the game master does so, tough the GM must approve all suggested damage setbacks.

Zero Hits

A character that takes their last hit is knocked out of the action. Depending on the situation and the GMs whim, they might run away, be knocked out, lie screaming on the ground holding their guts, or otherwise make a scene of it. They no longer have the will to fight or oppose their opponents in any way. They might rally and return later, usually hours or days later.

Recovering from zero hits occurs at the end of the scene. Named characters bind their wounds, grit their teeth, and get back into the action, possibly with a scar or bandage but otherwise unhurt. Unnamed characters generally need someone to rally them, as described in schticks like Lackeys.

A creature that takes damage matching their Damage Setback Threshold on the attack that took them to zero hits is more severely injured. Unimportant NPCs generally die horribly in this situation, a reminder that combat really is lethal and deadly. Depending on the campaign player characters either die or get away with severe damage, similar to a Damage Setback but more lasting.

Healing

Except for Crippled, all damage is temporary. Hits disappear at the end of the fight or action scene. Serious Damage Setbacks might require recuperation, which takes a few days and generally happens between adventures. The GM might make a short montage in a hospital or the character might just lie low for a while depending on the needs of the story. This can also be a good time for characters to make changes to their characters, changing attributes to reflect injuries or adding prosthetics or cybernetics.