Character Injury and Advancement

Damage
When struck with a weapon, or otherwise injured, a character takes Damage. Like abilities, Damage is measured in dice and is subtracted from Action and Defense Rolls (but not from Second Rolls). Damage is the total of the below 4 values. The main difference between these different types of Damage is how rapidly they can be healed.


 * Stun (STN) is momentary disorientation. All Stun is removed immediately after Action Rolls are made.
 * Fatigue (FAT) is reduced by 1 die after each turn of rest or 3 turns of very light activity (eg. unburdened walking).
 * Wounds (WND) gets a Healing Roll every every 3rd dawn.
 * Long-Term-Damage (LTD) gets a Healing Roll every 13rd dawn. All WND must be healed before LTD begins to heal.

STN and FAT are recovered automatically and without a need for die rolls. WND and LTD, however, need a Healing Roll.
 * The patient rolls dice equal to his remaining HP against his Healing Threshold.
 * Success heals 1 WND or LTD.
 * Each Wound healed is transformed into 1 Fatigue; each LTD healed is transformed into 1 WND.
 * All LTD must be healed before any WNDs can be healed.
 * Without a Healing Kit, a Healing Roll has Disadvantage


 * "Remaining HP" = maximum HP minus (WND + LTD).
 * "Healing Threshold" = WND + LTD rounded up to the next multiple of 3

Medicine
There are a number of ways to increase the speed of healing.


 * 1) Bed rest will allow one day to count as 3 days of healing.
 * 2) A medic making 1 use of a healing kit can replace a healing roll with an enhanced healing roll.
 * 3) First Aid is a special Healing Roll for fresh Wounds (but not LTD). First Aid must be applied shortly after combat.
 * 4) Doctor's Ingredients when applied by a medic can give various bonuses to healing. (See Potions)

PCs with the Medicine skill can use Doctor’s Ingredients at full power. If a Herbalist does try to administer Doctor’s Ingredients, he uses his Herbalism skill and rolls at Disadvantage. Anyone else gets no Narrow Skill dice and rolls at Double Disadvantage. It is not impossible for a loss to cause further harm to the patient. Other potions are “off the shelf”. No special skill is needed to administer them.

Definitions
 * "Medic" is any character with dice in the narrow skill of Medicine
 * "Healing Kit": A healing kit contains various medicines plus bandages, alcohol, sterile knives and scissors, needle, thread, and clean water. A healing kit has a limited number of times it can be used. Any use of a healing kit will temporarily prevent infection.
 * "Bed Rest" means devoting the full day to healing. Bed rest will have reduced effects under certain conditions (GM's option).
 * "Enhanced Healing Roll": Normally the better of the normal healing roll and the medic's medicine roll, but if the medicine roll results in more than 1 loss then the healing roll is reduced by 1 victory.

System Shock and Death
System-Shock occurs when total Damage >= Hit-Points; Bob falls unconscious immediately and must make a Healing Roll on the table below at the end of the combat. Automatic death results when Wounds + LTD >= Hit Points.

Ghosts and Reincarnation
When Bob dies or retires he has several options:

1. If dead, Bob may continue to play as a ghost. Bob may at any time choose to change from ghost to one of the other after-death options.


 * A ghost perceives only what the other PCs perceive.
 * A ghost can cast his own spells through another PC; this action takes the place of the PC's action.
 * A ghost can lend lend the die value of a Narrow Skill to replace that of a PC.
 * A ghost cannot earn any experience points.

2. If an appropriate NPC is available, Bob's player can take control of that NPC as his new incarnation. Bob may cultivate a henchman to be his successor.

3. Bob's player can create a new PC. This new PC will have certain advantages.
 * The new PC starts with ½ (round down) the previous incarnation's values for Narrow Skills with >= 4 dice.
 * The new PC starts with ½ (round down) the previous incarnation's values for General Skills and Attributes (with a minimum of 3 dice).

Ancestral Boon: Upon the death or retirement of a PC, that PC incarnation bestows an Ancestral Boon on all future PC's of that player. The player chooses one of his Narrow Skills to become an Ancestral Boon. The Boon allows subsequent incarnations to use that Narrow Skill once per day with the dice from the ancestor's Basic Die Pool. Choosing a second Ancestral Boon for the same Narrow Skill will replace the existing Ancestral Boon.

Character Advancement
To increase an ability Bob must pick his field of study before each session of play. At the end of that session he will receive experience points (EP)in that ability. Note that EP Awards are based on what you attempt, not on what you successfully accomplish.

When Bob has earned enough experience points in an ability, he gets a permanent increase of 1 die. Narrow Skill cost is based on the number of dice to which the skill is being raised. Attribute and General Skill cost is based on the total value of all Bob's Attributes or all Bob's General Skills. The only limit on ability increases is that neither MUS nor NER can exceed the greater of 7 or 2 x SPI.