DAMAGE

DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND uses a Damage Track to record a character's health. Whenever a character is struck by an attack, that character rolls their Toughness save against the total Damage of the attack. This is a roll of a d20 plus the character's Toughness save bonus against a base damage of 15 plus the attacker's Damage bonus. If the Toughness save fails to match or exceed the total Damage, the character is injured, with the degree of injury depending on the amount by which the Toughness save missed the total Damage.

Toughness Save = d20 + Constitution + Feats + Modifiers

Total Damage = 15 + Weapon Damage Bonus + Strength + Feats + Modifiers

The amount by which a missed Toughness save is missed determines how severe the damage is. If the character misses the save by less than 10, they take a Hurt condition. If they miss by 10 to 14, they take a Wounded condition, if they miss by 15 to 19 they take a Disabled condition, and if they miss by 20 or more, they take a Dying condition.

There are 3 Hurt boxes and one box for each of the other conditions. If a target suffers a result for which all boxes are already checked off, check off the next highest result. Note that boxes may be checked off at a higher level even if lower level boxes are still open due to the severity by which the Toughness save failed: thus if a character has suffered NO damage but misses a Toughness save by 15, they still take the Disabled condition (and mark an "X" in the Disabled box) even if every other box below that is open.

Here is the standard DPoNI character sheet's Damage Track:

Note that there's also a box for "Dead" even though, well, if you check that one off, you're dead. But we thought you'd appreciate the drama of the gesture.

Non-lethal Damage

Non-lethal damage uses the same damage track, but with different results - Bruised, Dazed, Staggered and Unconscious. Lethal damage always includes the corresponding non-lethal damage. For example, this means that Disabled characters are also Staggered, and therefore lose one full-round action after suffering a Disabled result.

If the target suffers non-lethal damage, mark it on the damage track with a "/" (and lethal damage as "X"). Non-lethal damage comes always on top of lethal damage, and overflows to the next damage level. Eg., if you have 2 Hurt marks, and suffer 2 Bruised results, mark 1 Bruised. The second Bruised overflows into the next level - Dazed.

When you suffer additional lethal damage, put it into the free boxes. If there are no free boxes on a given level, convert the non-lethal damage marks into the lethal. In the above example you have 2 Hurt marks, 1 Bruised mark and 1 Dazed mark. If you suffer 2 Hurt results, both your Bruised and your Dazed marks get converted to lethal damage — Hurt and Wounded, respectively.

You don't have to erase and re-draw every mark on your Damage track. A non-lethal mark can be transformed into a lethal one by drawing an crisscrossing line to create an X.

Getting Knocked Out

Bad guys very often look to deal non-lethal damage in DPoNI, and as a result, characters getting knocked unconscious ought to be more common in this game than in many other RPGs. This enables the GM to worry less about relative power ratings -- if the heroes run into someone much more powerful than they are, and refuse to run away, well, the campaign doesn't grind to a halt. They just wake up in prison with a gloating bad guy (and almost certainly a bumbling prison guard or two, if not a sympathetic princess or a mysterious fellow prisoner...).

To make this outcome easier, all weapons that normally deal only lethal damage can always deal non-lethal damage at the user's desire, at no penalty on the attack roll.

Impossible Toughness Saves

A natural 20 on a Toughness save never results in damage beyond bruised or hurt, no matter how much the Toughness save was missed by. Even in cases where a result of 20 + the character's Toughness save would not be enough to avoid higher damage, on a natural 20, fate intervenes and spares the character anything other than a slight injury.

Damage Conditions

Damaged characters can suffer from any of seven conditions given on the Damage Track and described on the Conditions page.

Recovery

Recovering from damage requires a Constitution check (Difficulty 10). You recover from the worst damage condition only. A successful check transforms a lethal damage mark into non-lethal damage or erases a non-lethal damage mark, while an unsuccessful check means there is no significant improvement for that time period. One recovery check removes or transforms only one mark. You remove the mark of the most serious level present, lethal before non-lethal. Eg - Wounded before Hurt, Disabled before Staggered.

Remember that until you remove the worse condition, you cannot attempt recovery from the lesser condition. Eg you cannot recover from Bruised, Dazed and Hurt conditions if you are Wounded. The Warrior core ability is an exception to this rule.

When You Recover

Recovery ordinarily takes place at the end of a scene. Warriors can use their role's core ability to spend a Conviction point to erase all Bruised and Hurt conditions at any time, even during combat.

You can make a single damage recovery check at the end of any scene. Note that at the end of a scene, if you have no worse condition, you automatically recover any Bruised, Hurt, Dazed, Staggered, and Unconscious conditions. However, if you have a Disabled or Dying condition, that will prevent you from automatically recovering lesser conditions, since those can only be removed once the more serious conditions are removed. Even if you recover from a Disabled or Dying condition at the end of a scene, you do not get to automatically recover lesser conditions. In addition, you will suffer a carry-over condition as listed in the scenes rules. Again, the Warrior core ability is an exception to this rule.

Anyone can spend a Conviction point to get an immediate recovery check DURING a scene from any single damage condition, rather than having to wait. You can also spend Conviction on your recovery check (which usually ensures passing it). Note that because you can only spend one Conviction point per round unless disabled, you can't do both (gain a recovery check AND spend Conviction on the check).

Recovering from Ability Damage

Ability damage is recovered just like regular damage, except that a character can choose to recover ability damage before or after any regular damage.

Damaging an Object

Objects are easier to hit than characters because they usually don't move, but many are tough enough to shrug off damage.

Object Defense and Bonuses to Attack

Objects are harder or easier to hit depending on several factors.

Ineffective Attacks

The Narrator may determine certain attacks just can't effectively damage certain objects. For example, you will have a hard time breaking open an iron door with a knife, or cutting a rope with a club. In these cases, the Narrator may rule that you inflict no damage to the object at all.

Effective Attacks

The Narrator may rule certain attacks are especially effective against some objects. For example, it's easy to light a curtain on fire or rip a piece of cloth. In these cases, the Narrator may increase your damage bonus against the object (or apply a penalty to its Toughness save) or simply say the object is automatically destroyed by a successful attack.

Object Toughness

Each object has a Toughness score representing how well it resists damage. An object's Toughness works like a character's Toughness. To determine how much damage an object takes from an attack, roll d20 + Toughness against a Difficulty of 10 + the attack's damage bonus. The Toughness scores given on the Substance Toughness table are for approximately 1 inch of the material. Heavier objects increase their Toughness by +1 per doubling in thickness, so a foot-thick stone wall has a Toughness of 12 (base Toughness 8, +4 for approximately four doubling of thickness). Characters can attempt to break through heavier objects a little at a time, rather than all at once, such as chipping away at a stone wall inch by inch.

SubstanceToughness Bonus
Paper-10
Glass+0
Ice+0
Paper+0
Rope+0
Soil+2
Wood+5
Stone+8
Iron+10
Steel+15

Damage to Objects

Objects suffer both non-lethal and lethal damage as lethal, but ignore non-lethal damage with a bonus less than their Toughness. A "wounded" object is damaged and suffers a 1 point reduction in Toughness. A "disabled" object is badly damaged. Disabled equipment and devices no longer function, while disabled barriers have holes punched through them. A "dying" object is destroyed. Damaged and disabled objects can be repaired. It's up to the Narrator whether or not a destroyed object is repairable; if it is, the Difficulty of the Craft check is the same as for creating an entirely new item.

Breaking Items

In the case of a character trying to break something outright, such as smashing down a door or snapping bonds, make a Strength check with a Difficulty of 20 + the object's Toughness. Success destroys the object, while failure does no damage. The only difference between this and attacking an object is the character can't slowly wear down an object's Toughness in this way.