Hazards

Falling

A fall of 10 or more feet may injure a character. The chance of injury increases with the distance fallen. When your character drops from a height, subtract 10 from the distance fallen in feet and find the corresponding value on the resolution chart. Make a resolution check against that value. On a white result, the character has miraculously avoided injury. Any other result causes commensurate injury (1 point for a marginal "success", 2 for acceptable, and so on).

As with a hit from a weapon, a heroic result on a fall resolution check may cause a specific wound. Roll on the random hit location table to determine which body area is threatened with a specific wound. PCs and foes may make a resolution check to avoid the specific wound.

Armor provides no protection against damage from a fall.

Characters who are injured in a fall are stunned for a number of combat turns equal to the distance fallen in feet divided by 10. Stunned characters can take no action at all.

Characters who fall more than 100 feet onto a hard surface are killed outright. Those who fall more than 100 feet onto a yielding surface such as sand, or into (sufficiently deep!) water may survive. It is left to the referee to determine how much damage is mitigated is by the circumstances of a fall.

Fire

Fires are rated based on their intensity. A fire's rating determines how likely it is to injure characters who come into contact with it. The rating is used to "attack" a burnt character in the same manner as a fighters use their weapon Talent ratings. Characters who are at liberty to move away from a fire may subtract their Movement rating from the fire's rating.

Fire may cause a specific wound on a heroic result. Armor, regardless of type, provides 1 point of protection against fire damage.

Drowning

Characters must make a Swimming resolution check to stay above water whenever an unusual challenge is presented. Such challenges may include:

  • falling or being tossed into water with no forewarning

  • diving from a height of more than 20 feet

  • swimming in armor

  • beginning a swim in water with a rating of 10 or greater

  • every turn spent swimming in water with a rating of 25 or greater

Bodies of water, like fires, have a rating. Water does not "attack", however; rather, its rating is subtracted from the swimming character's adjusted Swimming rating. When a character makes a resolution check to stay afloat, double his Swimming rating and subtract any Movement penalty imposed by armor. (This may very well result in a negative rating.) Any degree of success means the swimmer has kept his head above water. Failure means he has taken 1 point of damage from choking on water.

Characters may hold their breath for a number of combat turns equal to 6 plus their Stamina or General Endurance ratings. On every subsequent turn they do not breathe, they suffer 1 point of damage.

After some struggling, Esmis pries a melon-sized ruby free from the grasp of a statue. The statue responds by seizing Esmis by the throat and throttling him. Esmis has a Stamina rating of 7; therefore he has 13 combat turns to free himself from the statue's grasp before he begins to suffer strangulation damage.

Poison

Poisons have three ratings: a venom rating, a wound rating, and a duration rating. The venom rating shows the poison's virulence, the wound rating determines the damage done by the poison, and the duration rating shows the poison's onset time.

When a character is poisoned, the referee makes a resolution check against the poisoned character's Poison Endurance or General Endurance rating minus the poison's venom rating. Failure means the poison takes full effect. Marginal success reduces damage by 1 point. Acceptable success reduces damage by 3 points. Total success reduces damage to a single point, and heroic success means the character shrugs off the effects of the poison completely.

Following her escape from the bazaar, Galya has lit out across the desert. As she beds down in the shadow of a dune to sleep through the heat of the day, she feels a sharp pain in her ankle; a scorpion, Perun blast it! Scorpion poison has a venom rating of 6. Galya has a Poison Endurance of 8. She makes a resolution check with a modified rating of 2 and gets an acceptable success. The scorpion's poison has a wound rating of 5, but because of her resolution check Galya will suffer only 3 points of damage. The poison's duration rating is 6 hours. Galya has 6 hours to find an antidote. If she succeeds in time, the poison will do her no damage at all.