1.13.3 Wounds

When a character is wounded, the wound is rated for its severity:

Scratch - enough impact to get past his/her armour and cause a very minor cut or bruising, but not enough to cause any significant deterioration in the character's abilities;
Light wound - major bruising, concussion or a deep enough cut to cause some discomfort;
Medium wound - enough to cause significant short-term impairment to the character's abilities, e.g. muscle strained, twisted joint, cracked rib;
Serious wound - causes major short-term impairment to the character's abilities, and a chance of permanent disability, e.g. broken bone;
Critical wound - causes significant permanent impairment and may be rapidly life-threatening, e.g. severed limb, evisceration;
Fatal wound - the character is killed outright.

Each wound that a character receives should be recorded separately on his/her character sheet, until the wound is fully healed. A character will normally start play with no wounds.

There are a number of consequences of being struck by a blow or wounded:

Immediate reaction - when a character is wounded, the pain may cause the character to suffer a few seconds disorientation, drop what he/she is holding or even lose consciousness;
Knock-back - a character who is struck (even if his/her armour absorbs all the damage) may also be knocked back or over by the impetus of the attack;
Impaling - a character who is wounded by an impaling weapon may have the weapon stuck in his/her body and may suffer additional damage when the weapon is withdrawn;
Shock - As well as the immediate impact of a wound on a character's body, a significant wound may also cause additional shock damage in the minutes and hours following, due to blood loss and systemic overload;
Ongoing impairment - a character who is carrying wounds suffers an ongoing reduction in effectiveness as a result of cumulative effect of all wounds received;
Specific disability - a significant long-term or permanent impairment received as a result of a Serious or Critical wound;
Infection. Unless a wound is correctly treated using Medicine or Healing magic, the wound may become infected and become worse over time. Eventually, and infected wound will kill the character unless the wound is successfully treated.

A wounded character can recover from his/her wounds through resting over a period of time. Magical healing can also help.