As we've gotten a bit further into the story, I think it should be OK to help answer some questions about how the mechanics of the system work for the story. The characters have uncovered the basics of the system in the "Beginner's Dungeon", so it shouldn't hurt to lift the veil up over some of the mechanics behind the system more to the readers at this point. ;)

Feel free to post any questions about the story/game mechanics, or technical questions about WHY somethings work and others don't, here and I'll answer what I can for you without giving away too much of the story itself. (Asking, "What's Bloody Hell do?", isn't something I'd answer at this time as the character's have no way of knowing that. It'll be revealed -- at some point down the line. For now, have fun guessing! ;))

To start us off, let me just post a question from a different thread and answer it here so it doesn't get lost later in the sea of old topics and buried deep in the ocean of lost posts somewhere.

01/01/2016 01:54:13Treyon Wrote: [ -> ]Darkbringer... i wanted to ask an issue regarding bones fractures... lets say that you get your right arm broken so bad that you have an exposed fracture that under normal ways would require surgery.... Do the system places the bones in the correct place and setting bone fragments where they belong while healing it the flesh, mending the tendons and muscle??... Also if you lose an arm can you regenerate it or you get the disadvantage of amputee right arm? or something?, or you must get the arm and put it im place and then it will reconect by itself??....

Based on brandr she can tear her own meat and it will regenerate on its own... so this makes me wonder about losing an organ or a limb... does it appears again? .... and the final question... what is fatal now? how is the damage calculated? lets say i got a weapon that does a fkng ton of damage, capable of desotroying the most sturdy armor... but you get hit by it in an arm... will you die or will your arm get useless until healed?

Technical System Mechanics -- got to love questions like these!

Damage has taken on a very game-like aspect for people in the new world, and is broken down into two distinct things:

Basic damage. This is simply where your health drops from max to the point where you die. Like most games, damage location doesn't matter. Play "World of Warcraft" and the game doesn't track if you get hit in the head or in the little toe. You take 30 damage, it's simply 30 damage subtracted from your total. Puncture wounds (like Drake being impaled with the goblin spear), chunks carved off (like Brandr did for food), and other forms of general damage all follow the basic "fight until zero" rule.

Players have from max health to zero health to fight. Zero is NOT instant death; it's incapacitation. At this point, they may attempt to use their WILL to force themselves to stay conscious, but they are too injured to attack anymore. The most that could possibly be done is sitting and watching things unfold. They are on the verge of total blackout. For each point below zero they fall, they have a -1 to their WILL check to avoid passing out.

So Bob has 100 life, 10 WILL. From 100 life to 0, Bob fights fine. When Bob hits 0, he starts making a will check (roll against his will of 10, on a 20 sided dice -- see why a 20 is considered the normal human max?) to see if he stays conscious. Let's say he rolls a 3 (below his 10), so he's awake but on his ass...

Now, Bob gets hit by an area spell while injured and takes another 5 points of damage. He's now at -5 life. He has to make a will -5 check to remain conscious. He rolls a 6. His will is normally 10, but with a -5 from intense damage, he needed to roll below a 5. 6 > 5, so Bob now passes out...

At -WIL, all folks will pass out regardless.

Now, they're down and unconcious, but not dead yet. When does actual death occur?

When they reach - (CON + WIL).

So, to continue with Bob as an example, let's say he has 100 life, 10 WIL and 10 CON. He was beat down to -5 life and is now unconscious. Where's his death point? At negative (CON + WIL) or -20 life.

At -5, he's out of the fight but not deceased.

Higher CON and higher WIL means you have a greater degree of "buffer" between being knocked out and being deceased.

So from max to 0, you fight normal.

At 0, you start making will checks or pass out.

At -(CON+WIL), you die.

In Isabella's case, there was no real chance of Drake kicking her to death. He does 10 damage or so as a max damage from a kick (even on a crit; he's just not a skilled kicker yet). Isabella would need to go to - (CON + WIL) before dying, which means she'd need to hit -30 life. That's multiple stomps after she hits 0, and Drake didn't continue to kick her once her health bar had bottomed out.

Now, how do we deal with something like a broken arm? amputated arm?

Those are handled under the second aspect of the damage system: EFFECTS and DISADVANTAGES.

When Drake injured his sense of smell with the perfume bomb, it was listed as a 7 day effect. Smacking him in the nose, breaking it, and smearing it half across his face would be standard damage. With his high CON, he'd recover from it quickly and his nose would heal back into place as good as new in no time. But, the perfume caused a DISADVANTAGE which lingered and left an EFFECT until healed with magic and cured, or until the duration runs out.

Think of it along with Brandr's DISADVANTAGE: Mute. Cut her throat and she'd heal -- usually without even a scar to show for it. And yet, her voice isn't healed... It's due to the effect from the disadvantage. :)

Diseases and Poisons and such work the same way.

DISADVANTAGE: Flu -- suffers coughing, hacking, chills, and headaches until cured, reducing all skills and abilities by 50% during the effect. Time Remaining 3:06:14

DISADVANTAGE: Cancer -- a disease of the internal organs that causes 5 damage per hour.

DISADVANTAGE: Strong Cancer -- a disease of the internal organs that causes 10 damage per hour.

DISADVANTAGE: Terminal Cancer -- a disease of the internal organs that causes 15 damage per hour.

So the flu would give negatives to someone when under it, and they only recover with time and rest.

Cancer is a drain on the healing process. Since most people have a 10 CON as average, they normally heal at 10 points an hour. With cancer their healing rate is halved. With strong cancer, they're simply not healing normally anymore. With terminal cancer, they're dying -- losing life faster than they can heal from it.

So to apply this concept to the idea of a massive axe being swung and doing tons of damage -- it'd all simply go under category 1 damage and subtract from your total life. An axe that hits for 50 on someone's arm, isn't going to amputate that arm by itself. It just means they're going to suffer 50 points of damage from their total and perhaps pass out or die.

On the other hand, someone with a skill or ability which grants a cleave or maim type disadvantage might cause an amputate effect even with minimal health loss. Is a Massive Axe that hits for 50 damage better than a Vorpal Dagger which has a 50% chance to amputate the area struck, but only does 3 damage?

Normal broken bones and such are classified as simple "damage" and heal rapidly.

Bones which break and pierce the skin are often "disadvantages" and require special treatment -- but they're an effect that requires special means of inflicting damage to occur.

Drake's stomp does simple damage only, with no added effect causing bonus to it. No matter how many times he kicks someone, he's not going to crack their rib cage and poke a rib through their gut. His damage is basic damage only with his kicks. ;)

Technical game aspects off.

And that, my friends, is the mechanics behind how damage is dealt and applied in the new world. Now, who else out there can explain the mechanics behind their story system to such a fine level of detail when questioned. :P

Got any questions of your own? Feel free to ask them below, and I'll do my best to answer when I can. ;)