Health and Healing

## Health

The amount of damage a character can take before
they die is reflected by their health points. All
forms of damage, unless otherwise stated, deal
only 1 damage per source or attack and it doesn’t
matter where on your body it hits.
Vital Strikes are a special skill that allows
someone to strike in just the right way to make the
limb unresponsive. They don’t cause any damage
to your overall health even if they would cause
pain and bleeding.
So if someone calls out “VITAL STRIKE” when
they hit you, you can’t use that limb but your
character doesn’t lose any health points.

**Unaffected**

Any Health Points Remaining.

Your character may be in pain but can act normally
unless another effect says otherwise (i.e. poisons).

**Walking Wounded**

0 Health Points

You feel light-headed and on the verge of passing
out. Unless you’re a wastelander or an Atlantean ,
you need support to help you stand or stagger and
can’t fight, resist grapples or use a core ability or
skill that requires focus. You can use Buffout to act normally for the next 30 minutes while walking wounded but you'll still be in a lot of pain unless you also take PainAway.

**Dying**

-1 Health Points

You are critically wounded and will start to
bleed out -- you will die in 1 minute. You remain
conscious and might moan, cry, weep or say some
final words.
gunfire. Persistent use of the “Stay With
Me” skill can extend your bleed
count. If a physician performs
surgery on you (which takes around 10 minutes), you
will be brought back to Walking
Wounded but will require a rest
(light activities only) for the next
10 minutes or else you’ll drop
straight to dying. The bleed
out timer stops the moment a
physician starts preparing for
surgery.

**NOTE:** Surgery brings a dying person back to 0 health points (i.e. walking wounded). The First Aid skill, physician-directed natural healing, Stimpacks or time to heal on one's own is required to return further health points.

### **Dead**

You can't be killed by being shot with way too many bullets. Death only results from one of a few causes:

* Ongoing damage (i.e. poison or radiation).
* Remaining within a smoke cloud for a minute after passing out.
* Someone attacking you and calling "Slay" while you are dying.
* Being hit by a damage-dealing spell ball while on 1 health point (counts as a "Coup de Grace").
* Someone spending several seconds to announce "Coup de Grace" to kill your character in a way that cannot be undone (i.e. beheading).

Those with nanite infusions from
Immunoboosts or Wastelander glands can be
brought back from death within 1 minute of the first three forms of death on the list. Anything that counts as a Coup de Grace can't be undone by any known medical procedure as the body and head are too badly damaged.

**NOTE:** If you can’t safely lie on
the ground for medical or terrain
reasons, sit or stand to one side
with a hand over your head.

## Healing

So now you know that your character can take
damage, how do you you heal it?

* 1 Health Point heals every 30 minutes naturally for wastelanders or those who are taking twice daily Immunoboost.

* 1 Health Point is healed every 10 minutes you receive Physician-directed care.

* 2 Health Points can be healed through First Aid or a Stimpack.

**NOTE:** Atlanteans and other robots can only be "healed" by using electrical or mechanical scrap.

## Vital Strikes

A Vital Strike is a special attack
that causes tendon damage or muscular injury
that causes the limb to be useless until it is either
healed through first aid, biofoam or time. Limbs
return to normal functionality after thirty minutes
or after they have been treated by someone who
has the first aid skill.