Supplement Four
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In Mike Wightman's thread, he pondered the meaning of what he calls a "side bar" on page 47 of The Traveller Book.
It is the section on the combat cheat sheet that refers to "Wounding And Death". The passage he cited....
Now, let me direct your attention to page 36 and the last paragraph of the Wounding And Death section. There is an example of how wounds are meant to be applied in Traveller.
There are three characters. All of them have attributes of 777777.
CHARACTER ONE.
He is wounded by a Rifle, taking 3D damage: 1, 1, 1.
This is the character's first wounding, so the First Blood rule kicks in. The damage is taken as a whole and applied to a random stat.
STR is rolled randomly, and it is reduced by 3 points.
Character One's stats are now 477777.
OK, we all know this. Where this gets interesting is with Character Two.
CHARACTER TWO.
The second character also gets hit from a shot of a Rifle, doing 3D damage: 6, 3, 4.
Again, this is the character's first wounding, so the First Blood rule kicks in. But, look at how the rule is used!
First, all three dice are taken as a whole--13 points of damage, applied to a stat randomly.
That random stat is STR. So, stats become 077777.
But there is still damage left over. Note how the example takes the remaining dice in order, first the "3" (which has been reduced to "2" because one point was used earlier on STR), and then the "4" die.
Also note that each of these dice are not taken as a whole, like the total above that reduced the character's STR to zero! Each remaining die, the 2 and the 4, are applied randomly to the two remaining stats.
The 2 is applied randomly to the character's END.
The 4 is applied randomly to the character's DEX.
Leaving the character with these stats: 035777. That is, if you follow the text. The numbers printed say 054777, which seems to be a typo.
This supports the page 47 "side bar" that Mike discusses above.
CHARACTER THREE.
He is also hit by a Rifle, doing 3D damage: 6, 6, 6.
First, the damage is taken as a whole, 18 points, applied randomly to DEX. This reduces the character's stats to 707777, and the remaining damage is: 5, 6.
The 5 is applied randomly to STR, making the character's stats 207777.
Then, the last 6 die is applied randomly, again to STR, wiping it out, so that stats are 007777.
4 points of damage still haven't been applied (this is the last 6 die, reduced to 4 after 2 points where applied to STR), and that can only go on the remaining physical characteristic of END.
This leaves Character Three with the stats 003777.
FIRST BLOOD RULE PROCEDURE
From these examples, and the information on page 47, the method for using the First Blood rule is:
1. Total all damage and take the from a physical stat randomly.
2. Keep the dice in order. If the stat rolled in step 1 requires some points from another die to be reduced to zero, then those points come off the second die rolled.
3. After the total of the throw is applied, as is done in step 1, then any remaining dice are taking singly and randomly applied to remaining physical attributes.
It is the section on the combat cheat sheet that refers to "Wounding And Death". The passage he cited....
Each die rolled for wounds is treated as a group of hits that should not be divided; for example, a 1D result of 5 should be treated as 5 hits to be applied as one group to one of the physical characteristics. Select the first physical characteristic to receive wounds randomly; the wounded player character may select all subsequent physical characteristics to receive wounds.
Now, let me direct your attention to page 36 and the last paragraph of the Wounding And Death section. There is an example of how wounds are meant to be applied in Traveller.
There are three characters. All of them have attributes of 777777.
CHARACTER ONE.
He is wounded by a Rifle, taking 3D damage: 1, 1, 1.
This is the character's first wounding, so the First Blood rule kicks in. The damage is taken as a whole and applied to a random stat.
STR is rolled randomly, and it is reduced by 3 points.
Character One's stats are now 477777.
OK, we all know this. Where this gets interesting is with Character Two.
CHARACTER TWO.
The second character also gets hit from a shot of a Rifle, doing 3D damage: 6, 3, 4.
Again, this is the character's first wounding, so the First Blood rule kicks in. But, look at how the rule is used!
First, all three dice are taken as a whole--13 points of damage, applied to a stat randomly.
That random stat is STR. So, stats become 077777.
But there is still damage left over. Note how the example takes the remaining dice in order, first the "3" (which has been reduced to "2" because one point was used earlier on STR), and then the "4" die.
Also note that each of these dice are not taken as a whole, like the total above that reduced the character's STR to zero! Each remaining die, the 2 and the 4, are applied randomly to the two remaining stats.
The 2 is applied randomly to the character's END.
The 4 is applied randomly to the character's DEX.
Leaving the character with these stats: 035777. That is, if you follow the text. The numbers printed say 054777, which seems to be a typo.
This supports the page 47 "side bar" that Mike discusses above.
CHARACTER THREE.
He is also hit by a Rifle, doing 3D damage: 6, 6, 6.
First, the damage is taken as a whole, 18 points, applied randomly to DEX. This reduces the character's stats to 707777, and the remaining damage is: 5, 6.
The 5 is applied randomly to STR, making the character's stats 207777.
Then, the last 6 die is applied randomly, again to STR, wiping it out, so that stats are 007777.
4 points of damage still haven't been applied (this is the last 6 die, reduced to 4 after 2 points where applied to STR), and that can only go on the remaining physical characteristic of END.
This leaves Character Three with the stats 003777.
FIRST BLOOD RULE PROCEDURE
From these examples, and the information on page 47, the method for using the First Blood rule is:
1. Total all damage and take the from a physical stat randomly.
2. Keep the dice in order. If the stat rolled in step 1 requires some points from another die to be reduced to zero, then those points come off the second die rolled.
3. After the total of the throw is applied, as is done in step 1, then any remaining dice are taking singly and randomly applied to remaining physical attributes.
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