Health Levels

As Characters can be killed, Players must keep track of their Characters' Health Levels. Some of the book rules for Health Levels are ambiguous or unclear, so this page will lay out clearly the rules regarding Health Levels in use at Dark Eclipse. Players are advised to review this page, and refer back to it if questions arise.

Basics
Any damage in the World of Darkness is one of three types: All Damage is awarded to the Character immediately. Any single event which causes 1 or more levels of Damage of 1 or more types is referred to as a source of Damage. Even if the same object or Character deals Damage multiple times, each strike is a separate source. For example, if Alice claws Bob 4 times, Bob has recieved Damage from 4 sources.
 * Bashing: Most blunt-force trauma. Anything that causes bruising qualifies as Bashing, including baseball bats, golf clubs, fists, slamming into walls, fall damage, shock waves, etc.
 * Lethal: Damage which causes major blood loss or significant organ damage. Excessive bashing may rise to the level of Lethal Damage, but more common sources of Lethal are bullets and bladed weapons. Other examples are non-supernatural poisons and sicknesses.
 * Aggravated: Truly severe Lethal damage may rise to the level of Aggravated Damage. All supernatural Damage is Aggravated, as well as truly severe mundane Damage, such as that from radiation, highly toxic waste, lava, or fire. Finally, any weapon made of a species allergen (silver for Garou) automatically causes Aggravated Damage.

Depending on how much unhealed Damage a Garou has recieved, he/she experiences different effects (called Wound Penalties, cumulative):

Extra Health levels will result in modifications to the above graph as appropriate. For example, if a Garou has an extra Healthy Level and and extra Bruised Level (from Merits, Gifts, Tribal Advantages, etc.), his/her Damage chart would look like this:

Incapacitation and Mortally Wounded
Once the Incapacitated Health Level has been reached, a different set of rules takes effect:
 * If 1 or more Aggravated Damage is taken, Character dies.
 * If damage from a single source of lethal is taken, Character falls to Mortally Wounded (detailed below).
 * If Bashing is taken that would reduce a 0-wound Garou to Incapacitated or below, Character falls to MW.
 * Any damage will kill a Mortally Wounded Garou.
 * The additional penalties listed for Mortally Wounded Garou may not be resisted by any means.
 * If a character loses consciousness as a result of reaching I (or MW), that character wakes up immediately upon healing to above I, or failing that, after 10 minutes. (Is MW status preserved if this happens?)

Rage Healing and Death
If a Character is reduced to Incapacitated, Mortally Wounded, or dies, a Rage-Heal may be attempted once per scene. A successful Rage-Heal always causes a battle scar and Frenzy. After calling for a Rage-Heal, the Player must decide which method he/she will use:
 * The Player may make a static Rage Challenge vs. 8, retest Rage. On a win, the Rage-Heal is successful, and the Character heals to 1 Health Level above Incapacitated.
 * The Player may spend a Permanent Rage to guaruntee success. Character heals to full.

There are a few additional death rules to be aware of:


 * Death and MW (if not Rage-Healed) takes effect at the end of a Round. The In order to take advantage of this, the Garou must ignore wound penalties.
 * Any damage that would reduce a character from ful health to below I from a single source reduces them to I (not MW) instead. This is known as the No One-Shots rule.


 * A Character may die to Aggravated Damage without stopping at Incapacitated first, provided the No One-Shots rule is observed.
 * A Character may be reduced to MW (by Lethal Damage) without being Incapacitated first, provided the No One-Shots rule is observed.
 * A Character may also be reduced to MW by Bashing Damage without being Incapacitated first. This happens if enough Bashing Damage is dealt to reduce the Garou to I, +8 or more. The No One-Shots rule must be observed.