seventeenth issue - RPG Review

A KO does not necessarily imply unconsciousness, but simply means that the victim is out of play – they can take no
actions, and will generally be lying on the ground. I.e., a knee to the groin can leave the victim curled up in the fetal
position, but they will generally be awake. A solid blow to the stomach can knock the wind out and cause a collapse,
but the victim will still be awake. The type of weapon and the hit location will define the result – the GM is the final
arbiter. Generally, recovery takes about one minute per point of damage done.
Unconsciousness
To keep die rolling down, characters reduced to 0 HT or less do not roll to remain conscious every round.
Consciousness rolls are only made when: ­
The character takes damage (even 1 point);
The character All­Out Attacks;
The character moves fast enough to qualify for a sprint bonus;
Other situations up to the GM.
Normal combat actions do not force a Consciousness Roll. Also, Strong/Weak Will modifies the Consciousness roll.
Once the combat ends (GM call), a final Consciousness Roll must be made, at ­1 per ­3 HT under 0, to represent a postcombat
adrenaline comedown.
Bleeding
As per B130 sidebar, the victim of a cutting, impaling or bullet would must roll against HT per minute or continue to
lose Hit Points due to bleeding. These are the modifiers to the roll: ­
­1 if the character moves more than 1 yd per turn
­1 for hit locations Groin, Thigh, Heart/Arterial, Neck
­1 per HT/2 hits taken
­1 if the bleeding wound is in a crippled limb
+1 if the character lies still
+1 if the wound is in a limb and the limb is elevated (applicable only if the character lies still)
A failure causes the loss of 1HP, critical failure the loss of 3HP. On a critical success, the bleeding stops completely,
on an ordinary success, no points are lost for that minute. Three ordinary successes in a row also cause a complete
stopping of bleeding.
A successful First Aid roll, either by the victim or an associate, will also stop the bleeding. Note that the First Aid
attempt takes a minute, which would mean sixty combat actions – perhaps not able to be done during combat, however
the First Aid roll is done before the bleeding roll.
With these modifications, a crippling gunshot wound in a leg, for instance, is very bad news in the long run ­ to get
even an HT­1 chance to resist bleeding, the character must lie down and elevate the hit leg. A crippling injury has
already brought him down to HT/2, so he should probably attempt first aid during the first minute. He will thus lose
the +2 for lying still and keeping the limb up, but at HT/2 he can still afford to lose a point of HT. If that fails, then
wait for the medics.
Another example: a groin hit from a 9mm pistol makes 2d+2 damage, on the average 9 points. An average HT 10
person, making his HT rolls for knockdown and stun (50% chance each, combined probability 25%), can return fire
after one second of operating at ­9, but if he keeps fighting, the collapse after one minute of bleeding can be
catastrophic. His bleeding roll would then be HT­3 (moving fast with a groin hit doing more than HT/2). His chance of
success is 16%, so it is very likely that he'll bleed for one more point. After that, he has to make an HT roll against
unconsciousness and a bleeding roll at HT­4 if he has foolhardily kept moving on, or at HT­3 if he lies down. The odds
of making a HT­4 roll are 9%, combined with the unmodified unconsciousness HT roll less than 5%. This means that
an average 9mm FMJ hit in a good but not optimal target location of an average person is not a reliable man­stopper
24 RPG REVIEW ISSUE SEVENTEEN September 2012