Anyone curious about these matters might want to take a look at the CT Errata. It makes clear a few points that are in the rules text, but not always spelled out as well as they should.
First, "hits" in CT are full dice values. After the first hit the Player gets to decide which dice are applied to which characteristics. So if a 6 and 2 are rolled for damage the Player can assign the six or one characteristic and the 2 to another to keep his character conscious.
However in first blood the first incoming hits are applied to a randomly rolled characteristic. This means the player loses that advantage and might lead to the PC being knocked unconscious on the first hit.
The rules say that any time a characteristic goes to zero any left over damage points must be applied to another characteristic. In fist bold the characteristic is determined randomly. Otherwise the player chooses.
The rules never state what happens when a characteristic is lowered but doesn't go to zero. It certainly never says such a wound stays at the wounded level. The example in the text, however makes it clear that a characteristic that is dropped from 8 to 4 goes to 6. This example is buried in the middle of a paragraph about what happens when one characteristic goes to zero. (Note: Recovery for a wounded character who does not become unconscious or has one characteristic driven to zero is medical attention or three days of rest. ([Per the CT Errata: “30 minutes with a medical kit and an individual with at least medical-1 skill, or three days of rest.”]))
I believe this is because the text is contrasting what happens when two characteristics go to 0. In such a case, the wounded characteristics do not rise to the mid-point between the wounded value and the starting value of the characteristic, but remain where they are or rise from 0 to 1. (Note: Recovery for a character with two characteristic driven to 0 is dependent on a medical facility and an individual with medical-3 skill. [Per the CT Errata: “Recovery is dependent on medical attention (a medical facility and an individual with Medical-3 skill; recuperation to full strength without medical attention is not possible).” Such medical attention should require between 5 and 30 days (5D days) to complete.])
If we do not read the rules this way we end up with the situation in S4’s example, where a man shot and driven unconscious will end up with higher characteristics than a man who only had the characteristics driven down a few points. This is, let’s be honest, weird. Which is why it is awesome the CT Errata makes it clear that a man who has taken wounds but is not knocked unconscious will have his characteristics set between the wounded value and the starting value before the combat.
These rules put pressure on characters:
The more they fight without rest, the lower their characteristics will get.
The lower their characteristics, the more likely the first shot will knock them unconscious, seriously wound them, or kill them.
The lower their characteristics the less effective they become with firearms, melee weapons and brawling.
Recovery will often depend on time — time the PCs do not always have. If a medic is not available then minor wounds or light wounds will required three days of rest. (And rest is defined as doing nothing.) A character who has suffered serious wounds will need medical attention for 5D days — a long time if you are being chased by adversaries, rushing to beat someone to a treasure, needing to get off planet to keep making money for your ship, and so on.
A seriously wounded character might well have a modified UPP of 116786. Such a character would go into a fight knowing it might well be his last.
The wounding system, as it stands, is a lovely design of pressure applied to the PCs (and their players), forcing them to make decision about what fights to start, when to show their faces, what risks to take, how best to lie low, seeking out medical help in hostile environments, whether to risk a fight when weakened, or take the time to heal, the need to make allies or provide bribes when looking for a safe place to heal, and so on.
Like most of the Classic Traveller rules it is a fiercely clever piece of work, much more interesting in an application of wounds than, say the Hit Points of D&D, in that there more implications for wounds and much more for the players to consider as wounds place more and more pressure on them.
