Health and Damage

= DRAFT STAGE = This proposal is under construction. The purpose is to define standards and pre-specifications that can be used by the programming team to flesh out parts of the game engine such as HUD and other status screens.

Original planning document can be found here: Zenbitz:Thoughts_on_wounding

= Status (Health) of a Character =

A character has three numerical gauges (Damage, Fatigue, and Stress - DFS) that measure how fit and capable he is in a general sense. In addition, body parts have a "damage status" representing specific wound or disease states. The numerical gauges start at 0 (perfectly healthy) and if any one goes to 100, the character is incapacitated (temporarily). There is no effect until a given hits the following thresholds: 50, 75, 90, 0. The effect is a global penalty to all skills of (roughly 10%, 30%, 50%, and 100% when a gauge hits 100). At 100 the character is helpless, unconscious, or a quivering ball of nerves and can take no actions other than rest and recovery. If "hits" are taken on more than one Gauge, the penalties are applied in series (i.e, if Damage, Fatigue, and Stress are all "90", then all skills are multiplied by 0.125 (.5 x .5 x .5).

Because some damage to DFS gauges are disease or environment based - and hence might have a different recovery rate, they cause of the damage has to be tracked internally by the engine.

The specific wound states are characterized by specific penalties to skills, stats or tasks and defined by the following parameters
 * Magnitude of penalty
 * Class of tasks affected
 * Recovery rate
 * Recovery conditions (special)

For example if you had a wound state of "sprained right knee" (or minor leg damage class 2, if you prefer generics), you might have a -40% to running and jumping tasks, and a -20% to Melee combat, which recovers at 5%/day, with no special conditions. If the leg was fractured (or major leg damage class 4), the penalties might be slightly higher, but the recovery rate would be slower (and may require a "significant" first aid or medical success to be performed before any recovery can occur)

Damage
This gauge measures "subdual" or non-lethal damage that accumulates during the course of adventures. This is mostly bumps, bruises, scrapes and mild muscle strains. Most attacks and falls will cause some Damage in addition to having some chance of causing a specific wound. First Aid treatment (outside of combat) will cause some Damage to be restored immediatly, but the majority recovers in time. Damage recovery is faster when Fatigue and Stress gauges are low, as well as if the character is resting.

Fatigue
This gaugee simply acts as a brake on characters engaging in a high level of (stressful) or high exertion activity for long periods of time. Actions actions (running or other physical exertion, fighting, even mental exertion)

Stress
= Disease and Environmental Effects = = Drugs and temporary "health boosts" = = Specific wounds and hit locations =