Damage

Physical Damage

V5 applies calculates damage a little differently then previous versions. The winner of each contest applies the success margain as damage. This applies to all types of damage in the system.

Example: Joe punches Sam. He rolls 6 successes to hit, Sam rolls 4 successes to dodge. Joe has a success margin of 2, so does 2 points of damage.

That is the base system of damage. Sometimes there are things that add extra damage, such as weapons.

Example: Joe shoots Sam with a shotgun. He rolls 6 successes to hit, Sam rolls 4 successes to dodge. Joe has a success margin of 2. Adding the shotgun's weapon rating of +4, Joe does 6 damage to Sam.

Types of Damage

There are two types of Damage. There is Superficial damage and Aggravated damage.

Superficial damage: causes bruises, sprains and things along those lines but not immediate life-threatening injury. Fists, kicks and non-lethal weapons do Superficial damage to humans. Standard weaponry does Superficial damage to vampires. Vampires take half Superficial damage.

Aggravated damage: causes broken bones, wounds and lifte-threatening injuries. Sharp and piercing weaponry does Aggravated damage to humans. Normally, only fire, sunlight and some supernatural creature abilities do Aggravated Damage to vampires. Vampires take full Aggravated damage.

Tracking Damage

Each level of Superficial damage is marked on the sheet on the health tracker as a / . Aggravated damage is marked on the sheet as an X.

Once you have taken enough Superficial damage to fill a tracker you are considered Impaired. Impaired characters lose 2 dice to all relevant pools, such as Physicals and any other pools that the ST believes weakened. Mortals can be incapacitated at this stage at ST discretion. If you continue to take Superficial damage at this point, the / turns into an X on the track, making it Aggravated.

When a character's tracker is filled with X's they are considered comatose or dead (mortal), or fall in to torpor (vampire). Any additional Aggravated damage from fire or sunlight will cause Final Death, as does decapitation or total destruction of their body.

Torpor

Vampires that have fallen into torpor, remain in that state for the length of time dicated by their morality. While in torpor, the vampire lies completely dead to their surroundings, reduced to the appearance of a shriveled corpse. They can not use any disciplines or react in any way to ordinary stimuli.

Once their time in torpor is finished and they are not staked, they can make a Resolve + Awareness test (diff 2) every time a victim enters their area. If successful they can wake long enough to feed, likely entering hunger frenzy. Once their Hunger drops to 4 or below, they rise fully recovered.

Vampires enter Torpor in three different ways. Hunger, damage or voluntarily.

• Hunger: If a vampire is at Hunger 5 and attempts to wake up and fails their Rouse check, they enter torpor.
• Damage: If a vampire takes enough Aggravated Damage to fill their tracker, they enter torpor.  They will unconsciously attempt to heal the damage, one point per night. If they fully heal themselves, they can rise again.
• Voluntarily: If a vampire enters through this way, their Hunger increases by one each night until they fall into torpor as above.

To cut short a period of torpor, you can feed a vampire enough blood of a higher potency to slake one hunger.

Stakes

For combat staking, it is a called shot at -2 penalty and inflict 5 or more points of damage before halving. This damage can be from ranged or close combat. Close combat is a Strength + Melee attack, using the stake as a weapon. A stake always has a damage modifier of +0, regardless to how it is applied or used.

Being staked through the heart with a wooden stake paralyzes a vampire, and they initially remain conscious. By spending a Willpower point, the vampire can do small minute movements, like twitch a finger or open their eyes. They can still use mental disciplines, such as Auspex, Presence and Dominate but can not issue commands witouth telepathy.

While staked, a vampire still makes a Rouse Check each night to wake up. If they reach 5 Hunger and fail a Rouse check they will enter torpor.

Weapon Damage:

Armour