Book 1 Wounds

[RobertFisher]

I found myself a little unsure how to handle wounds the other day. I just reread the relevant section of Book 1, & I now think I never really understood it correctly.

Anyhow, here's my current (new) understanding of it:

An unwounded character (987777) gets hit for 5D of damage. The rolls are 6, 5, 4, 3, & 2.

For the 1st die of damage (the 6?), you have to roll randomly to determine which characteristic to apply it against. The roll indicates End, so the char's End is reduced to 1.

The remaining dice are then applied to the physical characteristics at the player's choice. He applies the 5 & 2 to Str; & the 4 & 3 to Dex. So he ends up with 1 point left in each of his physical characteristics.

If the character had previously been wounded, the only difference in procedure would have been that the allocation of the "first wound" could have been decided by the player instead of rolled randomly.

Is that right?

 

[RobertFisher]

I found myself a little unsure how to handle wounds the other day. I just reread the relevant section of Book 1, & I now think I never really understood it correctly.

Anyhow, here's my current (new) understanding of it:

An unwounded character (987777) gets hit for 5D of damage. The rolls are 6, 5, 4, 3, & 2.

For the 1st die of damage (the 6?), you have to roll randomly to determine which characteristic to apply it against. The roll indicates End, so the char's End is reduced to 1.

The remaining dice are then applied to the physical characteristics at the player's choice. He applies the 5 & 2 to Str; & the 4 & 3 to Dex. So he ends up with 1 point left in each of his physical characteristics.

If the character had previously been wounded, the only difference in procedure would have been that the allocation of the "first wound" could have been decided by the player instead of rolled randomly.

Is that right?

 

[jappel]

I always applied the first die of each wound randomly, which matched my interpretation of the spirit of the rule. The idea was that a single round could incapcitate a character, and that PCs had limited control over that.

But it's been a long time since I've run CT combat, so I could easily be wrong.

John

 

[jappel]

I always applied the first die of each wound randomly, which matched my interpretation of the spirit of the rule. The idea was that a single round could incapcitate a character, and that PCs had limited control over that.

But it's been a long time since I've run CT combat, so I could easily be wrong.

John

 

[mike wightman]

Originally posted by RobertFisher:
I found myself a little unsure how to handle wounds the other day. I just reread the relevant section of Book 1, & I now think I never really understood it correctly.

Anyhow, here's my current (new) understanding of it:

An unwounded character (987777) gets hit for 5D of damage. The rolls are 6, 5, 4, 3, & 2.

For the 1st die of damage (the 6?), you have to roll randomly to determine which characteristic to apply it against. The roll indicates End, so the char's End is reduced to 1.

The remaining dice are then applied to the physical characteristics at the player's choice. He applies the 5 & 2 to Str; & the 4 & 3 to Dex. So he ends up with 1 point left in each of his physical characteristics.

If the character had previously been wounded, the only difference in procedure would have been that the allocation of the "first wound" could have been decided by the player instead of rolled randomly.

Is that right?

I'm not sure that is right. My understanding of the first shot rule is that the entire rolled damage is applied to the randomly determined characteristic.

It's explained a bit better in The Traveller Book, and in Starter Traveller. There is even as example given.

So in your example the character would take 20 points of damage to his/her END. Thus the character is unconscious, and the remaining 13 points (6,4, & 3) are applied as the player decides.
Any leftover points carry over to the next characteristic.

I don't use the first hit rule. I use it as a critical hit rule instead, where if you roll 4 higher than you need to hit then it's a critical hit and you apply the first hit rule.

 

[mike wightman]

Originally posted by RobertFisher:
I found myself a little unsure how to handle wounds the other day. I just reread the relevant section of Book 1, & I now think I never really understood it correctly.

Anyhow, here's my current (new) understanding of it:

An unwounded character (987777) gets hit for 5D of damage. The rolls are 6, 5, 4, 3, & 2.

For the 1st die of damage (the 6?), you have to roll randomly to determine which characteristic to apply it against. The roll indicates End, so the char's End is reduced to 1.

The remaining dice are then applied to the physical characteristics at the player's choice. He applies the 5 & 2 to Str; & the 4 & 3 to Dex. So he ends up with 1 point left in each of his physical characteristics.

If the character had previously been wounded, the only difference in procedure would have been that the allocation of the "first wound" could have been decided by the player instead of rolled randomly.

Is that right?

I'm not sure that is right. My understanding of the first shot rule is that the entire rolled damage is applied to the randomly determined characteristic.

It's explained a bit better in The Traveller Book, and in Starter Traveller. There is even as example given.

So in your example the character would take 20 points of damage to his/her END. Thus the character is unconscious, and the remaining 13 points (6,4, & 3) are applied as the player decides.
Any leftover points carry over to the next characteristic.

I don't use the first hit rule. I use it as a critical hit rule instead, where if you roll 4 higher than you need to hit then it's a critical hit and you apply the first hit rule.

 

[jappel]

Ah, bingo, Sigg is (as usual) correct. I remembered that the idea was that the shock from the first hit could incapacitate someone, but misremembered the mechanic.

John

 

[jappel]

Ah, bingo, Sigg is (as usual) correct. I remembered that the idea was that the shock from the first hit could incapacitate someone, but misremembered the mechanic.

John

 

[Random Goblin]

How can it kill, though, as the book claims?

It doesn't seem like the first wound is any more likely to kill than any other given wound.

How do you decide where the surplus damage carries over?

 

[Random Goblin]

How can it kill, though, as the book claims?

It doesn't seem like the first wound is any more likely to kill than any other given wound.

How do you decide where the surplus damage carries over?

 

[Lord Iron Wolf]

Goblin,

Try a FGMP-15 and see how well the character survives a hit.

Lord Iron Wolf

 

[Lord Iron Wolf]

Goblin,

Try a FGMP-15 and see how well the character survives a hit.

Lord Iron Wolf

 

[The Oz]

Originally posted by Random Goblin:

How do you decide where the surplus damage carries over?

As it says (in later versions of Book 2), any damage left over after the first characteristic is reduced to zero is randomly assigned to the remaining two physical characteristics, on a die by die basis.

So if you rolled 4D for damage and got 6,5,3,2 as results against a UPP 869A95 character, it'd go like this:

First a random physical characteristic would have to try to take all the damage from the weapon. Let's say it's Endurance. There's only 9 points of END and 16 points of damage, so this character has at least a minor wound. Exactly which of the 4 dice to use to reduce the character's stats is not specifically stated, so I always went for dice that were as close to the stat as possible. In this example I'd use the 6 and 3 results to reduce END exactly to zero, and then apply the remaining dice in order from largest to smallest, which would result in the 5 being assigned to either STR or DEX depending on a die roll. The 2 points of damage would then also be randomly assigned to either STR or DEX.

Note that for this character (UPP 869A95) if the remaining two die get split up, or both go to STR, he'll only be minor wounded and be conscious in 10 minutes, but if they both go to DEX he's seriously wounded and out of it for a while.

The major reason I used this method of assigning the dice of damage was to reduce the number of random die rolls needed to distribute the damage. If I just worked from highest to lowest, in the above example I'd have had to make one more random die roll to find out where the 2 points of damage left over from the "5" result would have to go (The "6" reduces END to 3, and the "5" reduces it to zero with 2 pts left over).

It was sometimes said that my way did tend to make things harder on the characters since with fewer rolls the damage was being assigned to the remaining stats in bigger chunks with a slightly higher chance of reducing two stats to zero, but I liked that anyway as I wanted players to think that these weapons were dangerous.

 

[The Oz]

Originally posted by Random Goblin:

How do you decide where the surplus damage carries over?

As it says (in later versions of Book 2), any damage left over after the first characteristic is reduced to zero is randomly assigned to the remaining two physical characteristics, on a die by die basis.

So if you rolled 4D for damage and got 6,5,3,2 as results against a UPP 869A95 character, it'd go like this:

First a random physical characteristic would have to try to take all the damage from the weapon. Let's say it's Endurance. There's only 9 points of END and 16 points of damage, so this character has at least a minor wound. Exactly which of the 4 dice to use to reduce the character's stats is not specifically stated, so I always went for dice that were as close to the stat as possible. In this example I'd use the 6 and 3 results to reduce END exactly to zero, and then apply the remaining dice in order from largest to smallest, which would result in the 5 being assigned to either STR or DEX depending on a die roll. The 2 points of damage would then also be randomly assigned to either STR or DEX.

Note that for this character (UPP 869A95) if the remaining two die get split up, or both go to STR, he'll only be minor wounded and be conscious in 10 minutes, but if they both go to DEX he's seriously wounded and out of it for a while.

The major reason I used this method of assigning the dice of damage was to reduce the number of random die rolls needed to distribute the damage. If I just worked from highest to lowest, in the above example I'd have had to make one more random die roll to find out where the 2 points of damage left over from the "5" result would have to go (The "6" reduces END to 3, and the "5" reduces it to zero with 2 pts left over).

It was sometimes said that my way did tend to make things harder on the characters since with fewer rolls the damage was being assigned to the remaining stats in bigger chunks with a slightly higher chance of reducing two stats to zero, but I liked that anyway as I wanted players to think that these weapons were dangerous.

 

[RobertFisher]

Ah! Starter Traveller! That example makes it all almost completely clear.

The ST example is how I used to think it work. (Probably where I first learned it from.) But then I went back & read Bk1 & got myself confused.

(Bk1 says each die is a "wound", so when I read it this time, I misinterpreted "first wound" to mean "first die".)

Anyway, the ST example cleared up a lot of questions I had. I'm going to try to read it again tonight, 'cause I think I still might have a couple.

Then, once I understand how it is suppossed to be done, I'll have to figure out how I'm going to do it. If you, like Oz, do anything slightly different, I'd love to read about it.

(I edited the title of this thread to be more descriptive...)

 

[RobertFisher]

Ah! Starter Traveller! That example makes it all almost completely clear.

The ST example is how I used to think it work. (Probably where I first learned it from.) But then I went back & read Bk1 & got myself confused.

(Bk1 says each die is a "wound", so when I read it this time, I misinterpreted "first wound" to mean "first die".)

Anyway, the ST example cleared up a lot of questions I had. I'm going to try to read it again tonight, 'cause I think I still might have a couple.

Then, once I understand how it is suppossed to be done, I'll have to figure out how I'm going to do it. If you, like Oz, do anything slightly different, I'd love to read about it.

(I edited the title of this thread to be more descriptive...)

 

[daryen]

The way my group always did it (which is not canonical) was to randomize each die for attribute, first or not. We also threw out extra damage.

So, for example, if you got hit by 5,4,4 and your UPP was 698xxx, then each damage die was rolled for UPP "location". This way it is possible (though not likely) a character can take a first hit and still function. And if, say a 5 and 4 both hit STR, then STR was reduced to 0 and the extra three damage points were discarded.

This method is more forgiving to the characters, doesn't (almost) automatically knock them out on the first hit, and does allow for the "loss" of some damage points. But it's still plenty deadly.

 

[daryen]

The way my group always did it (which is not canonical) was to randomize each die for attribute, first or not. We also threw out extra damage.

So, for example, if you got hit by 5,4,4 and your UPP was 698xxx, then each damage die was rolled for UPP "location". This way it is possible (though not likely) a character can take a first hit and still function. And if, say a 5 and 4 both hit STR, then STR was reduced to 0 and the extra three damage points were discarded.

This method is more forgiving to the characters, doesn't (almost) automatically knock them out on the first hit, and does allow for the "loss" of some damage points. But it's still plenty deadly.

 

[aramis]

I always read it as first landed hit, all dice to the random attribute, til 0 or below, then pick rest of dice. Each later landed hit: each hit's first die randomly allocated.

houseruled:
Excess damage to an attribute on second or later hits takes it negative, not gets shuffled, and for each (value) points below 0, permanent reduction of 1d to the attribute. So, if at -14 Str on a 7 base, you'll be losing 2d from that 7; you may be untennable...

 

[aramis]

I always read it as first landed hit, all dice to the random attribute, til 0 or below, then pick rest of dice. Each later landed hit: each hit's first die randomly allocated.

houseruled:
Excess damage to an attribute on second or later hits takes it negative, not gets shuffled, and for each (value) points below 0, permanent reduction of 1d to the attribute. So, if at -14 Str on a 7 base, you'll be losing 2d from that 7; you may be untennable...