CT Only: Minor Wound Variant

[Supplement Four]

In CT, damage is applied to a character's physical stats.

Superficial Wounds = Stats damaged but none at zero.

Minor Wound = One stat at zero.

Serious Wound = Two stats at zero.

Death = Three stats at zero.



I've always had a little bit of an issue with Minor Wounds. The wounds are minor. They can be healed quite quickly (30 minutes with medical help).

My problem with Minor Wounds is that, one stat at zero also indicates that the character is knocked unconscious for 10 minutes!

Now, I can think of a lot of minor wounds where the character is not knocked out for 10 minutes. Like a stun--maybe the character just can't act for a round (which is 15 seconds--quite a long amount of time for a stun). Or, maybe a blow from a chair being broken over the character's head badly bruises the character, but it doesn't knock him out. It hurts like a mutha for a moment or two, but the pain dissipates in seconds.

So, I've got a suggestion...





To liven up Traveller combat, allow a one-stat-at-zero damage result serve as a trigger for something cool.

It can be a knockdown from a shotgun blast, where the character's armor took most of the kinetic energy.

It can be a stun result, as I suggested earlier in this post. The character cannot act for a round.

It can also be a knock unconscious effect--as the RAW. The difference here is that it's not automatic to happen every time a character suffers a single stat at zero.




Or...

Do something even more cool.

By the RAW rules, the character would be unconscious anyway, so any of these ideas are not doing anything worse to the character.

Consider that the character has been flipped or tripped, allowing his foe to get advantage on him. Maybe his foe did a round-house kick and knocked him flat on the ground.

Consider that the character now finds himself in a headlock, and he's starting to see spots.

Consider that the foe has gotten behind him, with knife drawn, now pressed against the character's throat.

Or, a foe has grabbed a chain hanging from the ceiling of the cargo bay and has just swung, planting both feet into the character's chest, knocking him down, breathless.



In all situations, when the effect is over, whatever that effect is, raise the zeroed out stat to halfway that of its healed mark, and keep on gaming.





EXAMPLE:

PC Boyd is barehanded, facing a guard with a revolver. Boyd's brawling attack results in a zero stat on the guard.

Ref's description, "Boyd grabs the gunman's arm by the wrist! In a flash, he tugs the man to him while doing a 180. With the guard's arm now extended under Boyd's armpit, he uses the guard's weapon to blow away the second guard that is running up the corridor towards them!"

After this action, the guard, now behind Boyd, with Boyd grappling his arm, has his zero stat raised to halfway--and its the guard's turn to act.

 

[mike wightman]

I've always found this to be a problem too because of the language used.

Note that damage isn't classed as minor, major, serious or whatnot - it is always doled out in 1d6 sized chunks apart from the first blood damage (I use 'first blood' as a critical hit system rather than as described because people do no suffer more trauma from their first wound, they often don't even realise how serious the wound is at first).

Wounded, seriously wounded and dead are states the characters find themselves in as a result of damage.

 

[Supplement Four]

Note that damage isn't classed as minor, major, serious or whatnot - it is always doled out in 1d6 sized chunks...

Yes, think of a Traveller character's physical stats not as hit points but more along the lines of a wound threshold.

Damage more than "this much" will resort in "this type" of wound.

No stat at zero? Minor Wound. It heals quickly with medical attention. Bruises, scratches--temporary impairments.

One stat at zero? A Minor Wound that is a bit more serious in that it also means unconsciousness.





Two stats at zero? A Serious Wound. Here's where it gets a lot more serious. We're talking broken bone, a gunshot wound, a deep stab.

Three stats at zero? That the threshold that, if total damage crosses it, the character is dead.

 

[mike wightman]

Ever thought of using high TL medical technology...

a character reduced to one characteristic at 0 gets an immediate injection of 'combatmedstim' from the automedkit injector.
This cures unconsciousness - raise 0 characteristic to 1 (or half value as per regular healing).

 

[Supplement Four]

Ever thought of using high TL medical technology...

a character reduced to one characteristic at 0 gets an immediate injection of 'combatmedstim' from the automedkit injector.
This cures unconsciousness - raise 0 characteristic to 1 (or half value as per regular healing).

Great idea. Smart Armor.

Expensive, though.