F Is for Feelings and Other Things That Get Hurt
Yesterday, I explained hit points. An earlier post talked about action resolution, which includes combat. It now seems like a good time to talk about damage. For an extended action, such as a fist fight or playing the dozens, a successful attack inflicts 1 point of damage to Kung-Fu, Brains, or Cool, depending on the nature of the attack, plus 1 more point of damage for every full 4 points by which the attacker won the challenge.
A hero might also take damage from failing an unopposed or simple action. Attempting to leap from one rooftop to the next, which would be an unopposed action, could result in an injury. So could attempting to catch that knife lobbed at you by that seven-foot-tall Chinese sorcerer, a feat that could be resolved as a simple action. In these cases, treat the opposing number, be it a Difficulty Number (DN) or dice total, as the attacker. Then, figure damage as normal.
As mentioned above, damage doesn’t always mean actual damage. A Trash Talking Gang Leader can beat a hero down with his fists, which will result in bruises and broken bones (a loss of Kung-Fu hit points), or he can beat a hero down with threats and insults while his gang stands around laughing, which will result in a bruised ego and a broken will (a loss of Cool hit points). In the former case, a trip the ER is in order; in the latter, a hug and a pep talk might suffice.
In addition to having three sets of hit points (Kung-Fu, Brains, and Cool), each ability score has four wound levels: Hurt, Wounded, Messed Up, and Out of It. The following table shows the wound levels and number of hit points each wound level encompasses. The first three wound levels impose a penalty to any action. The penalty is shown in parentheses in the table. When a hero is Out of It, he can take no further actions until healed to at least Messed Up.
Speaking of healing, The Boogie Knights of the Round Table has no standard rule for recovering hit points. How much a hero heals in any given amount of time is a subjective decision made by the GM based on the source of the damage and, more importantly, what makes the story more entertaining.
