On page 176 of the Core Rulebook, it says ‘a character may alternatively Avoid an Injury by suffering a Complication, which represents a minor injury, or some other consequence of the attack such as a bystander hit, damage to machinery nearby, etc.‘
Long-time followers of this blog know I’m terrible at coming up with Complications on the spur of the moment, and it slows my game down immensely. And now my players tend to ask for such Complications in place of Injuries. So, I’ve designed a table to quickly decide on such Complications. I hope you find it useful too.
Here’s how to use the table:
If you are looking for a quick hit location, that’s the first subtable, BODY. Roll 1d20 to get a range of body parts in the first column. You can stop there, but if you want more details, then roll a Challenge die. Three options are given – Blank, Pip (1 or 2), and Effect will generate a specific part. As per rules on page 177, these Complications persist but can be removed with Control + Medicine with Difficulty 2, with additional Complications removed for 2 Momentum each (Repeatable).
What if you want to throw more variety in there? Well, I provide 4 additional subtables. To make things interesting, each has a different stats for Complication removal. Sense (Fitness+Medicine), Environment (Insight+Security), Team (Presence+Command), and Gear (Daring+Engineering).
Sense refers to a hit that impacts a sense or other function. Environment means that the surroundings have been hit, with negative effects. (Cover, in particular, will be addressed specifically in a point below.) Team applies to a disruption in teamwork cause by panic or other incompatibilities caused by the avoided hit, and should only be used if the combatant has active allies. To remove this problem in team dynamics (which persists until the team issues have been worked out), it has to be sorted out with Presence+ Command. Gear means equipment or weapons have been hit.
Each has three detailed variants that you can use instead of a generic +1 Difficulty, or to inspire you.
Under Environment -> Cover, you can change the Cover type as suggested by game designer Nathan Dowdell, drawing these types of Cover from the 2d20 SRD. This was originally from a post of his, which I repeat here because I’m always looking for this.
Cover takes the form of one or more Challenge Dice – a fence may provide 2[CD] of Cover, for example – but the GM may rule that a specific instance is different in some way, by applying one or more of the following effects:
Sturdy X: the Cover grants an additional +X to total Resistance rolled for each Effect rolled.
Fragile: the Cover is fleeting, and each Effect rolled reduces the number of Challenge Dice it provides in future by 1. If this reduces the number of Challenge Dice to 0, then that instance of Cover is destroyed.
Uncertain: the Cover may be troublesome later, and it adds 1 to Threat for each Effect rolled.
Volatile X: the Cover is dangerous, and risky to use. If one or more Effects are rolled, the character/s protected by it suffer X[CD] damage and the conditional Resistance is destroyed. At the GM’s discretion, it may instead cause a complication instead of damage.
The Sturdy and Fragile effects are self-explanatory, representing especially cover that holds up well or which crumbles under attack. Uncertain Cover may represent protection from something load-bearing or important, which could have consequences later. Volatile Cover could represent containers of something explosive or flammable, or something that could collapse.
Download the PDF here:
Complications In Place of Injuries (PDF)
another amamzing resource!!!!!!!!!!!