Crippling and Bone Breaking

by Sean McGinity

Orignally this article was presented at "Zan's Super Home". Since the move to heroplay.com, it seems the article has been lost. Rather than lose such a nice article, we have reproduced it here for all.

In order to accomplish this, the attacking character's calculated Damage must be equal to or greater than one half of the target's TOTAL Health. This is not cumulative, and cannot be combined between several characters under a combined attack. The target must make an Endurance FEAT. Failure indicates the break or cripple has occurred. Success means the character was lucky, and the worst case is soreness. Crippling or bone breaking damage means that a large amount of Damage was inflicted on one part of someone's body, and that part of the body was unable to handle that much stress, and broke.

Regardless of whether a bone was broken, or a muscle torn, or whatever, the result is the same. That part of the body is now temporarily crippled and of little or no use. Special casts may be constructed to allow the character movement, but that part of the body is still suffering a penalty regardless. And that part of the body is much more susceptible to damage again until totally healed.

Any body part broken or crippled must be tended to by someone that has an associated Talent, such as First Aid or Medicine, or be permanently incapacitated. Once the body part has been set (whether in a cast, a sling, or something of that nature) healing takes place. The length of time for recovery is a standard 50 days. This is modified for higher Endurances as follows.

Subtract the actual Endurance Rank number from the 50 to determine number of days with the broken limb.

Example: Spider-Man is struck by a Force Blast from Megaton, which causes, after calculation, 80 points exactly. This is just enough to potentially break a bone on Spider-Man. Spidey rolls an Endurance FEAT roll and fails. He has broken a bone. Thing comes in and lends a hand and defeats Megaton. Since Spidey has an Endurance of 40, it will take 10 days for his broken bone to mend (50 - 40 = 10).

High Level Endurances: Those with higher Endurances heal broken bones much faster, to the point of someone with an Endurance of 50 or better heals within a matter of minutes or hours. Apply this rule to only those characters with an Endurance of 50 or better. Whatever Damage was taken to break the bone (100 points, 200 points, etc...) is what is needed to heal the bone.

Example: Thor, with a Health of 320 must take 160 points of Damage on one attack in one round to potentially break the bone. A giant magic serpent strikes Thor for a calculated 200 points of Damage. Thor makes an Endurance Feat roll and fails the roll. He has suffered a broken bone. Thor has an Endurance of 100, which is far better than 50. He will mend his broken bone once this initial loss of 200 is healed. Thor heals 100 points as recovery 10 rounds after combat, and an additional 100 points 24 hours later. His bone is mended. It took 24 hours and 10 rounds later.

How do you determine which bone was broken? Well, if the character making the attack stated "I was working on his arm," or "I kicked him in the chest," it's fairly obvious, however the Judge may decide to randomly roll for the point of impact. Why? Certain injuries are worse than others.

Roll	Body Part
1	Torso
2	Arm
3	Leg
4	Head

Roll for Body part on the above table then roll below for the appropriate sub-body part.

Torso
Roll	Part
01-50	Ribs
51-65	Left Clavicle
66-80	Right Clavicle
81-85	Pelvis
86-90	Right Shoulder Blade
91-95	Left Shoulder Blade
96-00	Spin

Arm
Roll	Part
01-20	Upper Left Arm
21-40	Upper Right Arm
41-60	Lower Left Arm
61-80	Lower Right Arm
81-90	Left Hand
91-00	Right Hand

Leg
Roll	Part
01-25	Upper Left Leg
26-50	Upper Right Leg
51-55	Left Knee
56-60	Right Knee
61-70	Lower Left Leg
71-80	Lower Right Leg
81-90	Left Foot
91-00	Right Foot

Head
Roll	Part
01-50	Jaw
51-85	Cheek
86-90	Cranium
91-00	Neck