Torpor vs Final Death
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 8:48 pm
A question came up a couple games back about whether a character near torpor from lethal damage would "pop" if they took enough aggravated damage to drop them. I hate to be a rules nazi, but in this particular case it makes a huge difference how a character fights in combat, as well as the potential for PC death... So, quoth the rulebook page 173:
When your character acquires a mixture of bashing,
lethal and/or aggravated damage, mark the most severe
damage at the left in his Health chart; it pushes any lesser
damage right. For example, if you mark that your charac-
ter has taken a point of bashing damage in the leftmost
box, and she then takes a point of lethal damage, mark
the leftmost box with an “X” for the lethal damage and
move the bashing damage right one square by putting a “/
” in that box. Any further bashing damage goes in the
third box and keeps going right. Any further lethal dam-
age pushes the entire thing right again until all the boxes
are marked with either an “X” or “/.”
(the same applies for aggravated in another lengthy paragraph)
Also of note:
And that’s the first rule of tracking your character’s
Health: A more severe wound always “pushes” a less se-
vere wound to the right. Wounds that are “pushed off”
the right edge of the Health chart as a result are ignored.
Which means if someone has 7/8 health levels of lethal damage and they take 5 agg, they would be at 5 agg and 3 lethal damage. Interestingly the same result would occur if they took 6 lethal, due to damage "upgrade".
The upshot is, your "status" depends on the rightmost box (your final health box). If it is bashing, as a vamp I think you ignore it. Lethal = torpor. Agg = final death. But damage "sorts" so, torpor only occurs when all health are lethal/agg, and final death, only when all damage is agg.
Unless we're deviating from the book in this matter in some way, which, as an agg-dealing combatant, I would really like to know about.
Duncan
When your character acquires a mixture of bashing,
lethal and/or aggravated damage, mark the most severe
damage at the left in his Health chart; it pushes any lesser
damage right. For example, if you mark that your charac-
ter has taken a point of bashing damage in the leftmost
box, and she then takes a point of lethal damage, mark
the leftmost box with an “X” for the lethal damage and
move the bashing damage right one square by putting a “/
” in that box. Any further bashing damage goes in the
third box and keeps going right. Any further lethal dam-
age pushes the entire thing right again until all the boxes
are marked with either an “X” or “/.”
(the same applies for aggravated in another lengthy paragraph)
Also of note:
And that’s the first rule of tracking your character’s
Health: A more severe wound always “pushes” a less se-
vere wound to the right. Wounds that are “pushed off”
the right edge of the Health chart as a result are ignored.
Which means if someone has 7/8 health levels of lethal damage and they take 5 agg, they would be at 5 agg and 3 lethal damage. Interestingly the same result would occur if they took 6 lethal, due to damage "upgrade".
The upshot is, your "status" depends on the rightmost box (your final health box). If it is bashing, as a vamp I think you ignore it. Lethal = torpor. Agg = final death. But damage "sorts" so, torpor only occurs when all health are lethal/agg, and final death, only when all damage is agg.
Unless we're deviating from the book in this matter in some way, which, as an agg-dealing combatant, I would really like to know about.
Duncan