Book:Adventures
Contents
Health and Healing
As mentioned earlier, a character's life-force is measured in Health Points. Most folks start off with 30 of these at character creation, though some characters and monsters have more or less.
When a character rests at the end of a day, chances are that character has lost some Health Points. A character regains a number of lost HP equal to their Endurance score plus their Vitality score for each night they rest peacefully. Injured characters can also be tended by healers and medics overnight, which yields more HP recovery. The character attempting to administer overnight healing to the wounded one rolls either a Lore: Medicine and Healing, Occupation: Healer or Surgeon or Medic, or other applicable skill check against a DL of 12. For each point of success, the attended character regains an additional HP (in addition to Endurance + Vitality). Healers may tend to themselves overnight in this way, but cannot tend to more than one person per night.
It is important to remember that a character can never regain more HP than he or she has in total.
It is said that there exist elixirs which instantly heal wounds and restore life force. Some elixirs are rumored to enhance the prowess of the drinker or to restore youth. The availability of these elixirs is most certainly rare and they would be pricey at best. Only practitioners of magic or experienced alchemists would have the knowledge of the workings of these concoctions, let alone be able to produce them.
The natural world, as opposed to the magical one, however, is rich with verdant energy. Finding herbs and nectars that can help in restoring a character's health is much easier. If an adventurer is seeking it, he or she should be able to purchase things like herbal salves, ointments, poultices, etc. that can be applied to a wound. Other legends tell of flowers that cure specific illnesses. Some say that the fruit of rare trees can heal in much the same way. Generally speaking, these items assist the process of healing when a character rests overnight. The GM should be the final authority on the availability of healing supplements and their price.
Diseases
In addition to the physical dangers of the world, characters are often accosted by sniffles and common ailments, as well as many serious bacterial and viral diseases. In Elysium, when it comes to disease and plague, nearly anything goes.
When a character comes in contact with a disease, the character must make a save to avoid becoming infected with the disease. The exact save may vary according to the specific disease, but mostly these are Mutation and Grunt Saves. Some diseases are spread through touch, others through injury and direct contact with the blood, and others still are airborne. The DL is dependent on the type of disease, but GM's may decide that a particularly resistant or deadly strain of the disease attacks the character and so the DL would be higher. If the initial save is failed, the character is infected and will suffer the effects of the disease daily until a subsequent save is passed. Whenever the character rests, he or she may attempt another save to avoid suffering the ill effects of the disease for that day. If the character makes another successful save the next time he or she rests, the character is considered to have beaten the disease. So, really, after being infected the character needs to make two consecutive saves in order to shrug off a disease completely.
If a character with ranks in Lore: Medicine/Healing or other medical-related skill is on hand, he or she can make a skill check instead of the character's save. If successful, this works just as if the character had rolled a successful save.
Listed below are some simple diseases.
- Minor Malaise - The infected character begins each day at Stage Two on the Knockout Chart as sniffles, a low-fever, and aches and pains gently pelt the body with slight discomfort. Most employers will ask for a note from the doctor if the character misses work.
- Icy Shivers - The infected character begins to shiver violently and suffers from a feeling of extreme cold, dizziness, and numbness in extremities. Fatal if endured for long. Writing becomes impossible, and skill-checks requiring manual dexterity or steady hands, including Attack Rolls and Defense Rolls, suffer a -4 penalty. The infected character becomes increasingly dependent on extreme heat, and in bad cases, may attempt to burn themselves.
- Rusty Leg - Flu-like symptoms including nausea, weakness, and vomiting accompany a nasty red-orange rash which causes the inflamed skin to flake like rust. Character has a hard time walking faster than a shuffle due to pain in the shins and feet, which is where the symptoms usually first manifest. Speed is reduced to 5 ft./AP and Attack and Defense Rolls, as well as any skill checks which require speed and agility suffer a -4 penalty.
- Violet Death - A plague-like sickness which begins with itching and a bile-like taste in the mouth. Purple splotches begin to appear first around the armpits, feet, and crotch of the victim, then appearing on the neck, elbows and knees and spreading outwards. Shortly thereafter, open sores appear on the skin, which turn necrotic and begin to rot. The character takes 2 points of damage per day on the first week of the disease, 4 points per day the second week of the disease, 8 points per day the third week, 16 points per day the fourth week, etc. Also, the character takes a -6 penalty on all rolls involving social interaction with strangers.
- Hematic Scourge - Three days after becoming infected, the character is wracked by terrible pain. They are considered KO'd, but still conscious, and so are incapable of skill checks or attack and defense rolls. The body begins to seep blood out of the pores and orifices (ten tainted damage each day). Screaming and moaning are commonplace, as are last will and testaments.
Damage and Death
When a character suffers hurts, whether from the actions of foes in combat, bad luck, or naturally occurring hazards, they suffer damage. Whereas Hurt is a term used to describe the lethal power of weapons and the like, Damage means the amount of injury a character sustains in the form of lost Health Points. When a character reaches 0 HP, they die. Cry you may, but die you must.
Tainted Damage is a form of damage which cannot be healed in the normal fashion of resting and healing. It is so insidious that it must be healed by magical, supernatural or highly specialized means. Forms of healing will always say if they heal tainted damage. Tainted damage is often caused by dark and destructive magic, the natural weapons of monsters, or cursed items and traps. When a character suffers tainted damage the GM should be sure to point it out. The player may want to jot down somewhere obvious how much tainted damage the character has accrued, since those lost HP will not be recovered in the normal way.
When a character dies, there's no denying, that kind of sucks. The dead character is not playable anymore and the player has to create a new character if he or she wants to continue playing with that group of gamers. Some GMs will allow for things like resurrection, so maybe it isn't the end for your character. Often, however, these magical rites are costly and rarely performed. The main thing to remember is not to get discouraged. This has happened to many of us veteran gamers and it has happened to us innumerable times. There are even some gamers who have come to embrace the fact that their characters never seem to last long. Just draw up a new character and keep playing. The reaper comes for us all, eventually.
See the House Rules section for some more information on injury, healing, and death.
Poisons
Not all warriors fight on the open battlefield with sword and shield. Some fight on the tiles of noble houses and royal palaces with beguiling wit and goblets of wine. Sometimes those goblets of wine contain worse things than cheap merlot. Then there are the exotic animals and monsters of the world with their natural venoms. Anything that poisons the blood and causes impairment is considered a poison. Poisons work in much the same way as Diseases. When a character comes into contact with a poison, a save is required. If passed, everything is fine. If failed, the character has been poisoned.
Saves
A Save is a roll that a player makes to save his or her character from pitfalls or misfortune. Saves are used when a Defense Roll just doesn't make sense: some dangers can't be ducked or swatted away. Most often, saves are used in opposition to certain skills and spells.
Condition
Sometimes a character can be impaired through other causes than the loss of blood and HP. Often, diseases, poisons, spells, or strong emotions can affect how well a character feels.
The Knock-out Chart
As a character becomes increasingly demoralized, enraged, panicked, exhausted, or ill, that character moves further down the Knock-out Chart. The further down the chart a character is, the more penalties are applied to skill checks, attack and defense rolls, and saves.
| Status | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Stage One | -2 |
| Stage Two | -4 |
| Stage Three | -6 |
| Stage Four | -8 |
| Stage Five | -10 |
| Knocked-Out | N/A |
- Blinded - Unable to see at all. Blind characters automatically fail Spot checks as well as Discern checks that rely only on sight.
- Dazed - Confused or beguiled. A dazed character
- Deafened - Deafened characters
- Grabbed - Currently held in a Grab by another character.
- Paralyzed - Unable to move. A character who is paralyzed may not engage in actions or checks that require physical movement.
- Prone - Off your feet and on the ground. Prone characters suffer a -4 to Defense rolls until they stand up.
- Unconscious - Helpless and unresponsive.
- Wide-eyed - Surprised and unprepared for the action at hand. A character who is wide-eyed in combat adds only their Armor score and Endurance score to Defense Rolls (i.e. no Cunning, Weapon Skill, Agility, or Dodge).
