Characters At 1 Body

When a character reaches 1 Body for ANY reason he/she is completely battered, exhausted, and on the verge of losing consciousness. A character at 1 Body cannot use Ability Points until he/she is healed above 1 Body. Characters at 1 Body must roleplay being battered and exhausted. This condition is called Staggered.

Death Count

When a character reaches zero Body he/she falls into the Death Count. The Death Count is divided into 3 stages. Each stage is 2 minutes long. Each stage determines what healing works on the dying character as well as what type of injury is sustained.

The stages of the Death Count are roleplayed as follows:

Injury Tokens

Injury Tokens are used to randomly determine the location of an injury.

All Medical Kits must have a set of Injury Tokens in a pouch. Injury Tokens are a set of wooden blanks with locations written on them. They should be kept in the pouch so they can be randomly drawn when needed. There are 6 Injury Tokens: Head, Left Arm, Right Arm, Left Leg, Right Leg, and Torso.

Injury Effects

When a character enters the Death Count he/she also sustains an injury. When someone wishes to use a medical skill to heal a dying character he/she must first draw an Injury Token to determine the location of the wound.

The Stage of the Death Count determines the severity of the injury. Injuries have tiers of severity.

First Stage → Light Injury (Tier 1 Injury)

Second Stage → Moderate Injury (Tier 2 Injury)

Third Stage → Severe Injury (Tier 3 Injury)

The severity and location of the injury determine the effect on the injured character. There are also Critical Injuries (Tier 4 Injuries) which can happen to a character when he/she is injured in the same location multiple times.

Example 1:

Charlotte is dropped to 0 Body and falls into her Death Count. She is healed by Marcus from the First Stage of her Death Count. Marcus randomly draws an Injury Token from his Medical Kit. The token reads “Right Leg.”

Charlotte suffers a Light Injury to her right leg. This is a Tier 1 injury, so she cannot use her right leg for 5 minutes.

Example 2:

Joshua is dropped to 0 Body and falls into his Death Count. He is healed by Marcus while in the Second Stage of his Death Count. Marcus randomly draws an Injury Token from his Medical Kit. The token reads “head.”

Joshua suffers a Moderate Injury to his head. This is a Tier 2 injury, so he must act disoriented and confused for 10 minutes. He also cannot use any FOC or PRE for 10 minutes.

Injuries to the Same Location

If a character suffers an injury to a location that has not yet healed, it becomes aggravated. The injury tiers add together to determine the new injury. Once an injury becomes Critical (Tier 4), the effect does not go away until the character has the injury treated. Injuries cannot progress past Tier 4.

Example 3:

Charlotte is dropped to 0 Body *again* and falls into her Death Count. She is currently still recovering from a Light Injury to her right leg. She is healed by Marcus from the First Stage of her Death Count. Marcus randomly draws an Injury Token from his Medical Kit. The token reads “Right Leg.”

Charlotte suffers another Light Injury to her right leg. She now has two Tier 1 injuries to her right leg. This creates a Tier 2 injury (Tier 1 + Tier 1 = Tier 2). Charlotte cannot use her right leg for 10 minutes.

Medkits

Medkits are used to perform many healing skills. Medkits are usually stocked with bandages, astringents, injectable analgesics, coagu-gel, sutures, thread, scalpels, forceps, and shock pads. A number of medical/healing skills require the use of a medkit. A medkit can be used 10 times before it needs to be resupplied. The need for a medkit will be listed in the skill description. Resupplying requires a character to sacrifice 1 unit of pharmaceuticals and 1 unit of textiles OR 1 unit of uncommon herbs and 1 unit of textiles. Resupplying a medkit has no Knowledge requirement. Uses of a medkit should be kept track of on its item card.

A medkit should be phys-repped by a plastic case with bandages in it and other applicable props. A medkit must also contain a full set of Injury Tokens.

Medipods and Reviving Dead Characters

When a character ends his/her Death Count without receiving proper medical attention, he/she expires. However, there is a chance that the character can be brought back to life. In order to do so, the character must be placed in a medipod (or “autodoc” as they are called in slang). Medipods are equipped with state-of-the-art medtronics for resuscitating individuals that whose heart and brain function have ceased.

In order to bring back a dead character he/she must be placed in the medipod. Characters that have been deceased for longer than 8 hours cannot be revived. The medipod must then be activated. To activate a medipod a character must have Medicine rank 1. Revival in a medipod takes 2 minutes. After the time has elapsed the deceased character will then roll two special d6 dice, known as Death Dice, to determine whether the medipod was successful. If a character rolls 2 skulls using the Death Dice he/she could not be revived and permanently passes away. Any other result means the character returns to life and is at 1 Body.

Each time a character needs to be revived the percentage chance of failure increases. The first time a character dies they have a 100% success rate to be revived. The second time a character is revived each Death Dice has 2 skulls, 1 on each die. Every successive revival attempt adds 1 skull to the total number of skulls on the Death Dice.

Biokinetics and Reviving Dead Characters

Some biokinetic pariahs have the ability to revive deceased individuals. In order to do so the biokinetic must have the skill Revive and spend the PRE to use it. This method also uses the Death Dice in the same way as a medipod or autodoc.

Permanent Death and Character Retirement

When a character suffers permanent death or is retired, the player now has the opportunity to begin a brand new persona! Players whose characters take a permanent death or who retire a character will recover 10% of the deceased character’s Build to start a new PC. This recovered Build can be used immediately to create his/her new character. New characters may have no relationship or knowledge of the previous character. Additionally, the previous character’s possessions may not be transferred to the new character.

Dispatch puts a character into the third stage of his/her Death Count. Any character may perform a Dispatch on any target that is disabled. Being disabled means that a target cannot attack, defend, or move; such as people who are in their Death Count, sleeping, unconscious, bound, or shackled. Stunned characters are not considered disabled and cannot be dispatched.

In order to perform a Dispatch the character must place his/her weapon on the target and use a three-count, “Dispatch 1, Dispatch 2, Dispatch 3.” After the count, the target is put into the third stage of the Death Count. If a firearm is used to Dispatch, then one round must be expended.