Infinite Incarnations

A note about rules presented in this publication: No rules presented herein are considered 'official' until they get published as part of an official suppliement or added to an existing one. The new information and rules are purely optional for Incarna users.

Letters and Questions

I wont be addressing any specific letters, though there have been a few, in this issue.

Main Content

Taking a look at Traumatic Wounds

The Incarna system alone is not a system that should warrant any more deadliness than it already has. Many characters lack the capacity to survive even a single full-on strike from a heavy weapon - the system was built this way. Of course, there are many ways of circumventing death through mundane and mystical means, depending on setting and availability. However, there are always those players who want a further level of realism, an additional layer of grit that really adds flavor to combat - the "critical wound". Nothing adds character to a character quite like scars, limps, and obvious physical wounds which manifest the hard life and career of an adventurer or soldier. Of course, nothing makes such a career so short in reality, but we will overlook that aspect for now.

There is an easy way to envision wounds, and that’s to simply reduce attribute points or resilience it self. After all, both can be earned back and made up. This is probably the best way, but its also the most radical and painful way. Often times a wound affecting a key attribute will reduce it and remove the attribute skill bonus from several key skills - severely impairing the character.

In power gaming groups, this may be appropriate - its a great way for groups with lots of CP to be spending them. Its a good way for GM's to have more control in a power gaming group, keeping up the pace, the frequency, the amount of CP going into the group by also having a new and large sink for CP which the players are forced to use to keep their characters at peak operating capacity.

When Should a Traumatic Wound Be Delivered?

From a mechanics perspective, any time a character takes a critical hit - regardless of whether its reduced or not, its still considered critical. This is either a perfect result (a natural 01 check), or result shift adjusting the category to a perfect result. At this time, the character is taking a seriously traumatic wound either from the amount of damage or the location of where it was done.

From a story viewpoint, there's plenty of opportunities when a massive amount of trauma is suffered. If a character takes a massive amount of damage and barely lives, although it may bot be a "critical wounds", surely the sheer volume warrants some manifestation of trauma. A simple result of a dragon's claw may be enough to nearly kill any character - not even close to a critical on the result scale, but the logical conclusion is that the body suffering 50% of its total resilience in a single blow is likely to come out with more than a scratch to show.

Whats Fair?

Balance

> Game balance should be considered in this case. NPC's almost always go on to be killed or pass out of the game and as such, wounds have little to no impact - but on a PC it could mean life or death. The point cost to restore means they cannot develop powers or skills at the same rate as the other characters.. also jeopardizing their lives as the challenge rating increase and their skills do not. This sort of system is too difficult to use for NPC's anyway... with all the other aspects a GM has to track, its another layer that would slow the game. All traumatic wounds for an NPC should be considered incapacitating wounds, if they are counted at all.

Resistance

> Should you be able to resist the effects of a traumatic wound? The resistance is in not getting one. Once you have been wounded, its too late. Certainly the constitution of the victim should factor in the healing and recovery, but not the initial impact of the wound itself - a punctured lung is the same for everyone.

Intent

> What are you trying to do? Penalize characters and add realism, or tell a story and add flavor and depth? If the former, all wound effects should be considered difficult trauma; effects last until some healing of greater regenerative power is applied. If the intent is to enhance story, all wound effects should be treated as easy trauma; effects last until the end of the encounter. When the victim has a few moments to recover, the body relaxes and effects wear off.

Rewards

> Due to the intense and possible difficult nature of using a system like this, it may be recommended that additional rewards be added for each traumatic wound – like an AP for each one a character is willing to take on or receives. The increased short term peril may provide a life saving mechanism in the future... of course they may simply use the AP trying to offset penalties from the results of the wound as well. Some may argue the risk and story itself are the reward... though players should always get something tangible with which to measure their hard work and sacrifice. Action points are the likeliest way of achieving an offset of the enhanced danger that traumatic wounds brings.

Different Approaches

One approach is to actually have the damage itself take on a quality. This makes for difficulty in tracking damage - each wound needs to be tracked. Its not like it does not anyway, for the purposes of using the medical aid check, but it needs to be tracked in perpetuity with qualifiers such as a 'debilitating' wound which may only heal with real rest. While these sort of wounds are more likely, adjustment based wounds are better for tracking purposes. They are removed when the victim is fully healed for difficult trauma, or at the end of an encounter for easy trauma - no individual wound tracking.

An Example

The following is an example of a mix of effects resulting from a traumatic wound. Its easy to use as a printable set tokens which can be drawn at a game table or effects assigned through a game interface.

OPEN DOCUMENT FORMAT FILE (odt).

Feedback

Please send feedback directly to Kelly Berger.

Rules Clarifications

There is an entire version update for Incarna waiting in the wings. Its been impossible to play test for this release as everyone is really in the mode to be enjoying gaming and not testing. I may simply start releasing everything wihout much testing at all.

A portion of these rules may end up in the Combat Guide.

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Incarna / Infinite Incarnations; Kelly Berger 2011