Character Health

Resolve and Willpower

Life in Chaesharin is harsh. Agriculture is hard, and decades spent with back bowed over stubborn fields is the only life that most of the land’s inhabitants will ever know. The weather in the Shadow Crescent is violent and unpredictable. Storms bring life giving water, upon which most farmers depend, but they can also bring waves of cutting sand that lash the flesh or bursts of lightning that unleash flashfires. Plenty is a concept most will only know as a rumor. Even the wealthiest of Chaesharin’s inhabitants, nobles and priests, merchants and army officers, even they for all their hoarded resources are only a small mistake away from destitute poverty, homelessness, exposure to the elements, and a swift and painful death that such a fate inflicts.

Whether it is by reflexive superstition, long ingrained into the collective muscle fibers of Chaesharin’s kinds, or by the result of real truths proffered by the royal cults, most mortals in the Shadow Crescent believe that elemental beings called jinn influence the weather and the fertility it allows. The jinn are only thought to act in the favor of the mortal kinds when they obey the dalaihal’s kaidir, which is their will and commandments. Some kaidir are held in common by all the mortals of Chaesharin, and still others are particular to one or a few kingdoms, or even to clans within a single kingdom. Kaidir structures both law and social interaction, to say nothing of the effect it has on the imagination or personal identity. The complex dictates of kaidir, which set rules for conversation, dress, behavior, transactions, romance, labor, worship, and war, require a sensitive mind attuned to subtle nuances in social experience. Violation of kaidir is seen as offensive, unnatural, and culturally taboo at best, and as treasonous, blasphemous, or both at worst.

Introduction

Player characters in TWE have two, six sided dice that permanently sit on their character sheets. One die is called the poise die, and by default it sits on the masque tier of the character’s face track. The other die is called the stamina die, and by default it sits on the might tier of the character’s body track. The two dice and the tiers of the two tracks represent the character’s mental and physical health. Stress, fear, disgrace, social pressure, fatigue, pain, injuries, and trauma can cause the dice to decrease in number. Especially severe forms of the same things can cause the dice to be forced down a tier. The higher the number on a poise or stamina die, the less likely the die is to be forced down a tier. When a die is forced down a tier it represents a deterioration of the character’s health. As the dice are forced down tiers on the tracks the character becomes subject to certain penalties, representing wounds and trauma.

The Body Track

The body track is a way of visualizing a character’s current vitality and endurance, and the place on the character sheet where the stamina die sits, indicating where on the track the character currently is in terms of health. Characters at high tiers of their body track are vital, fit, energized, and ready to leap into action. Characters at low tiers of their body track are pained, injured, disorientated, or crippled. There are three tiers on a character’s body track. From top to bottom they are: might, weakening, and fainting. Each tier is described below.

The might tier represents the peak of the character’s physical health and vitality. At this tier, the character is capable of doing anything they desire with maximum intensity. While a character’s stamina die is on their might tier they deal one additional damage to their opponents any time they deal any type of damage.

The weakening tier represents the point at which a character is truly hurting. Their pains and their injuries have caught up with them, they are out of breath, and having difficulty taking actions. There is no penalty associated with the weak tier, but it is the point at which another serious application of damage will take the character out of the fight at hand.

The fainting tier represents the maximum amount of physical harm a character can suffer before being completely defeated. At this tier, the character is barely holding on to consciousness, barely standing, and barely able to think through thick clouds of pain. While the character’s stamina die is on their fainting tier, all of the damage they deal is cut in half.

The fourth box on the body track is a place to record a character’s resolve. Resolve represents the character’s toughness, pain tolerance, and vitality. Resolve is the maximum value the stamina die can be set to. By default, a player character’s resolve is four, and with four resolve, the stamina die cannot go above four. If a character with four resolve suffers enough damage to move their stamina die down a tier, the die resets to four when it moves down and continues decreasing from there. If a player character ever recovers stamina, their resolve again acts as a maximum.

The Face Track

The face track is a way of visualizing a character’s current social and psychological health, and the place on the character sheet where the poise die sits, indicating where on the track the character currently is in terms of health. Characters at high tiers of their face track are focused, mentally resolute, and in complete control of their emotions. Characters at low tiers of their face track are shaken, strained, distracted, afraid, or ashamed. There are three tiers on a character’s face track. From top to bottom they are: masque, cracking, and breaking. Each tier is described below.

The masque tier represents the peak of a character’s social and psychological health. Their physical face literally shows whatever they desire it to show, as they have complete control over their thoughts and emotions. While a character’s poise die is on their masque tier they gain one action power on every test and save.

The cracking tier represents the first serious diminishment in a character’s mental faculties. Their thoughts are scattered, their emotions betray them, and their pains are plainly visible on their faces. There is no penalty associated with the cracking tier, but again, it is the point at which a single serious application of damage will take the character out.

The breaking tier represents the maximum amount of strain a character can be put under before breaking entirely. A character at this tier is panicked and unable to focus, and they are in danger of being incapacitated. When a character's poise die is on their breaking tier, all of their degrees of success are reduced by two, to a minimum of zero, and all of their degrees of failure are increased by two.

The fourth box on the face track is a place to record a character’s willpower. Willpower represents the character’s emotional fortitude and mental health. Willpower is the maximum value the poise die can be set to. By default, a player character’s willpower is four, and with four willpower, the poise die cannot go above four. If a character with four willpower suffers enough damage to move their poise die down a tier, the die resets to four when it moves down and continues decreasing from there. Again, if a player character were to recover poise, willpower acts as a maximum for how much can be gained.

Taking Damage

The most common cause of a poise or stamina die being decreased or forced down a tier is from damage. Damage is the involuntary decreasing of a poise or stamina die on account of the character being exposed to some kind of mental or physical harm. In social or martial conflicts, being manipulated, terrified, attacked, or wounded are all examples of damage. Other things in the world like poisons, extreme fatigue or pain, falling, or fire and other environmental hazards can also cause damage. For each point of damage a character suffers, their poise or stamina die decreases by one.

There are four basic types of damage in TWE.

Flush damage is experienced as a weakening of the will and a loss of control over one's emotions and thoughts. Flush damage might not feel like damage at all, only a drying up of a character's confidence or constitution. Flush damage is most commonly caused by social manipulation, in which case it represents the slow erosion of a character's resistance to another's ideas. Flush damage can also be caused by fear, stress, and sorrow. Flush damage reduces the poise die when it is taken, and taking too much flush damage can cause a character to act erratically and uncontrolled.

Chaos damage is experienced as mind warping horror and a maddening inability to distinguish between the real and the unreal. Chaos damage is most commonly caused by exposure to demons and other supernal beings, the underworld, or strange and evil forms of magick. Chaos damage reduces the poise die when it is taken, and taking too much chaos damage can cause lasting psychological harm or death.

Bashing damage is experienced as blunt force trauma, scrapes, bruises, and pain from impacts and collisions. Bashing damage is commonly caused by hand to hand combat, some weapons, falling, or extreme fatigue. Bashing damage reduces the stamina die when it is taken, and taking too much bashing damage can cause a character to slip into unconsciousness.

Lethal damage is experienced as intense pain and severe physical injury. Lethal damage is commonly caused by anything that stands a reasonable chance of killing a character outright, including most weapons, many environmental hazards like poison, fire and lightning, and the teeth and claws of animals and supernal creatures. Lethal damage reduces the stamina die when it is taken, and taking too much lethal damage can cause a character to suffer a debilitating physical injury or death.

When the poise or stamina die is reduced to 1 and the character takes more damage, the die is reset to its maximum value and moved down one tier on its appropriate track, where the die continues to decrease until all the damage is applied.

Damage Resistance

Characters in TWE can have resistance against each of the four types of damage. For each point of resistance they have, whenever they take that type of damage, the damage is reduced by one before being applied. The most common source of damage resistance is armor, which typically provides both bashing and lethal damage resistance, but only applies to damage that comes from sources that could plausibly be blocked by armor. Bashing damage from falling or lethal damage from fire, for example, would not be prevented by armor. Light armor grants two bashing and lethal damage resistance, full armor grants three bashing and lethal damage resistance, and heavy armor grants four bashing and lethal damage resistance. Costumes, talismans, traits, feats, and Whispers can also provide damage resistances of various kinds.

Penetrating Damage

Sometimes, damage is described as penetrating damage. Penetrating damage is a particularly aggressive form of flush, chaos, bashing, or lethal damage which ignores any resistances that a target has when considering the damage inflicted. If a character has three lethal damage resistance and suffers three lethal damage, they end up taking none. If a character has three lethal damage resistance and suffers three penetrating lethal damage, they end up taking all three points. No amount of damage resistance can mitigate against penetrating damage.

Elemental Damage

Elemental damage is second way to describe damage, though it is only ever applied to lethal and bashing damage. Elemental damage is fire and lightning, freezing cold and wind, poison and acid, and other violent natural forces. Elemental damage is also penetrating damage, in that it ignores resistances, but there are some beings and magicks that are outright immune to elemental damage. If something grants immunity to elemental damage, then it always treats elemental damage of every kind as zero damage.

Incapacitation

If the poise or stamina die is on the third and final tier and the character takes enough damage to force the die down a tier, then the character is incapacitated in some way. How the character is incapacitated depends on the type of damage they last took.

Shattering and Afflictions

If the damage was chaos damage then the character suffers a psychological wound called an affliction, determined by the roll of two dice, and they are considered shattered. The character's will is reduced to ashes and their mind becomes haunted void of nightmare images. A shattered character can do nothing but maneuver slowly and make saves, though they cannot choose contested ends if they are successful. Shattered characters still suffer from the breaking tier penalties, but any additional flush damage they take is converted into bashing damage, and any additional chaos damage that they take is converted into lethal damage. The following scene the player regains full control of their character, the shattered effect ends, and their poise die is reset to 1 on their breaking tier. But the affliction remains until the character recovers during a long break.

Dispirited (2-4): The character’s passions are extinguished like a small flame, and their beauty attribute is treated as if it were 0.

Panicked (5-7): The character’s body is racked with painful spikes of adrenaline and they lose control of their limbs. The character’s strength attribute is treated as if it were 0.

Terrified (8-9): The character’s thoughts are gripped by the icy talons of true horror, and their wisdom attribute is treated as if it were 0.

Stilled (10-11): The character finds themselves rendered passive before the hard and unyielding will of the world. The character's lesser attributes are all treated as if they were 0.

Killed (12): The character’s soul gives out beneath a crushing tide of fear and despair and they die.

Rivening and Critical Wounds

If the damage was lethal damage then the character suffers a critical wound, determined by the roll of two dice, and they begin a process called rivening where the manna in their veins erupts in long, flailing tendrils of white fire. The character experiences excruciating pain as the manna begins to burn their flesh, but their Whispers are also drastically empowered by the flares of supernal energy. The character's poise and stamina die are removed from their character sheet and replaced by a single rivening die which is set to a starting value of 2. The character becomes immune to damage and gains an action power bonus to all Whispers equal to the number on the rivening die. If the character succeeds on a contested action, the die increases by 1. If the character fails on a contested action, the die decreases by 2. If the rivening die would ever decrease to 0 or below, the character is killed. If a scene ends and the character has at least 1 on their rivening die, the rivening effect ends and the player returns the character's poise and stamina dice to their character sheet on their third health tiers with values equal to their willpower and resolve. The critical wound remains until the character recovers during a long break.

Cut Down (2-4): The character’s feet, legs, or hips are damaged to the point that normal movement is no longer possible.  The character can only move slowly, and only as a major action. Anything the character attempts, test or save, that requires them to move quickly or precisely is penalized by -3 action power.

Crippled (5-7): The character’s back, shoulders, or arms are so mangled that it is impossible for them to carry anything anymore. The character drops anything in their hands and can no longer pick things or use tools like weapons and shields.

Run Through (8-9): The character’s torso has been pierced clean through, making all physical actions excruciatingly painful and preventing the recovery of stamina. The character’s stamina die cannot be raised above their fainting tier.

Blinded (10-11): The character’s face, head, or eyes are so wounded that seeing is all but impossible. Any action, test or save, that relies on a precise use of the senses in general is penalized by -3 action power, and any action that relies on sight specifically is penalized by -6 action power.

Killed (12): The character has suffered far too much damage. The manna in their bodies is insufficient to repair it. With a burst of white fire, the character is incinerated and dies.

Sacrifice

If a character does not have a critical wound, and they suffer lethal damage that is less than or equal to their resolve, they may choose to take a critical wound instead of taking the damage. The damage is ignored, and then the player of the character or the gamemaster rolls two dice and applies the corresponding result from the critical wound list. If the "killed" result is rolled, the dice are rerolled until a different result is achieved. Since the sacrifice choice can only be made if a character does not already have a critical wound, it cannot be done twice in the same scene.

Knocked Out

If the damage was bashing damage, then the character is knocked out. Characters that are knocked out are unconscious and can no longer take actions until the beginning of the next scene.

Staying in the Fight

If a character is to be knocked out from bashing damage, they may choose to stay conscious and take a critical wound instead. First, the character's stamina die is set to 1 on their fainting tier, and then the player of the character or the gamemaster rolls two dice and applies the corresponding result from the critical wound list. If the "killed" result is rolled, the dice are rerolled until a different result is achieved. If a character with a critical wound would take enough bashing damage to be knocked out, the damage is treated as if it were lethal. Non-player characters are likely killed outright. Player characters suffer a second critical wound determined by dice roll and begin the rivening process.

The Four F's

If the damage was flush damage, then the character has one of the four F’s applied to them at the choice of the character who dealt the damage. The four F's are described below.

Forced to (F)ight

The character is forced to fight, so long as they earnestly believe they have a chance of victory. So angered by shame and so apathetic to the possible consequences, the character draws whatever weapon is available to them and attacks. It may be possible that the character is able to restrain themselves enough to simply slap the cause of their ire, or to order a servant to do it for them, but it is more likely that the character takes in hand their strongest weapon and immediately tries to end the life of the one who has offended them. In these circumstances the attack will appear unprovoked, at least enough that the character’s actions will appear inappropriate, gratuitous, and likely illegal. Fighting back against such a character will be considered proper self-defense, and though vengeance may be plotted in secret by the character’s allies should they fall, anyone witnessing the event will likely believe the character to be in the wrong for their actions.

Forced to (F)lee

The character is forced to flee, if flight is possible, or cower if it is not. So terrified, embarrassed, or frustrated by the verbal altercation, the character attempts to leave the immediate area by the quickest means possible. Supernal creatures will flee by whatever means is easiest for them, including vanishing in acts of power. Characters who flee are unlikely to return, either on their own or with allies, if they even work up to telling allies about what happened which is not itself likely to happen. Most who witness the character fleeing will believe them to be rightly shamed, and their flight to be confirmation of their moral faults or loss of reputation, depending on what was at stake in the conversation.

Forced to Become (F)riendly

The character is persuaded to see their influencer in a new, more friendly light. So convinced by their conversation and so positively inclined toward the one who influenced them, the character’s disposition toward their influencer is permanently increased. The gain in disposition is fragile, but it holds over any amount of time, so long as it continues to make narrative sense. Anyone who witnesses the change in disposition will believe it to be genuine, rather than the product of trickery or mere bribery, and their dispositions may change as well as a result.

Forced to Believe a (F)iction

The character is persuaded to believe in a concise but sophisticated lie of the influencer's design. The character's overall disposition toward their influencer is unchanged, but they do come to believe, as earnestly as they are able, something the influencer desires them to believe. The belief must be plausible, even if it is unexpected or flies in the face of some facts, and the belief cannot be about anything that the character has first hand experience to the contrary. The belief must be able to be stated in a short sentence but it can be complex in its content. The character will continue to believe the fiction until they are presented with proof to the contrary, though they will be skeptical of such evidence initially. Anyone witnessing the persuasion will believe that the character's acceptance of the belief is genuine and may be inclined to believe it was well.

Shifting the Consequences

If a player character suffers one of the four F's on account of flush damage from a non-player character, the player character may change the F applied to any other F result at the cost of voluntarily suffering an affliction. The player rolls two dice and consults the affliction list, applying the corresponding result. If the "killed" result is rolled, the dice are rerolled until a different result is achieved. The player then describes how their character manages to change their mind at the last moment to another F result.

The Limits of Persuasion

Player characters can never be persuaded of anything that violates their nature. "Nature" is a catch all term for several core convictions and personality characteristics that a player character has. A character's nature is built out of four elements.

1) Their sign, which represents the basic features of the player character's personality and morals.

2) Their belief, which represents their spiritual and religious convictions, especially with regard to their aihalan and the dalaihal of the five great kingdoms.

3) Their axis of atonement, which is composed of four themes that the character draws strength from and uses a guide on their path towards personal atonement.

4) Their threads, which represents the character's relationships with the various resource factions in the world of Chaesharin.

Player characters can be persuaded of things that do not directly contradict their beliefs, and players can claim any element of their nature as a defense against persuasion. If a persuasion attempt compels a player character to believe in or do something something directly contrary to their nature, the player may describe how the compelled belief or action changes slightly to fit in with the player character's nature. If a persuasion attempt compels a player character to believe in or so something that is not directly contrary to their nature, but nevertheless creates tension or difficulty with their nature, then the player must do their best to reflect this new belief or action.

Player characters and their natures are described in more detail on the Character Creation page.

Epic Damage

There is a fifth type of damage in TWE called epic damage. Epic damage represents physical destruction on a larger scale than the kind commonly inflicted by individual characters with conventional means and weapons. Epic damage is dealt by armies, war-faring naval vessels, siege engines, chariots, the largest demons, monsters, and creatures, and the most powerful Whispers. An epic character or group of characters, is a character that deals and can take epic damage. Epic characters are immune to other forms of damage in most instances and generally have things called epic tiers with hard points in place of their normal body health tiers with stamina points. If a non-epic character takes epic damage, each point of epic damage is treated as five points of lethal damage, and always results in the killed result when it comes to rolling for critical wounds. Characters cannot sacrifice to ignore epic damage like they can with lethal damage. When an epic character takes epic damage, it is applied just like lethal damage. It reduces their hard points, then lowers their epic tiers, and ultimately results in a critical wound or destruction if too much is taken.