Hey, how have you guys been handling the more ambiguous critical results (Blinded in particular)? One of my PCs got Blinded in a vibroknife fight with a squad of stormies tonight; I'm leaning towards the damage being permanent (requiring cybers of some sort), but I though I would ask before I made call. It occurs to me that the chart differentiates between temporarily crippled limbs and missing limbs, which makes me think that if it was supposed to be temporary blindness, it would say so.

The criticals are different for each level

Easy: minor lasts less then the encounter

Average: lasts until end of encounter

Hard: Until critical injury is healed (except for knocked senseless)

Daunting: Near death or maiming

So, yes, I would consider the character "Blind" until he seeks medical aid that heals the critical injury. It could be temporary, or a chance to get replacements.. up to GM

Yeah, blinded doesn't mean the eyes are completely destroyed. It could just require some time in a Bacta tank and they'd be repaired. Or it could mean that blood had gotten down into the eyes, so can't see until the head wound is dealt with.

For a minor/easy crit involving blindness...anyone ever get sweat in your eyes? Its not permanent blindness, stings something fierce, and for the most part you don't want to do anything but clear your eyes. Its almost worse than being pepper sprayed....almost.

The effects of a Critical Injury lasts until the end of the encounter or until healed. I think it's easier if you take a narrative look at the injury: If the group's medic healed it after/during the fight then it was only a temporary blindness, like getting something in your eyes, a knock to the head that made you temporarily lose your sight, or something like that. If the doctor didn't make a successful Medicine check it turns out that the injury was more severe and will require time in a bacta tank.

In short: roll dice first, then explain how bad it is/was.

All of the critical hit results state (or clearly imply) their duration in the description. If no particular duration is given, then it is understood that the effect is permanent.

Healing a critical injury removes the injury itself from the character (it no longer adds +10 to further critical injury rolls, for example). However, the effect of the injury lasts until stated (or implied); and in several cases the effect is permanent even after the injury itself has been healed.

The Blinded effect is permanent. If a character is "Blinded" by a critical hit then he "can no longer see" (period). He would have to get a cybernetic replacement or something, the same as if he had lost a limb to the Maimed effect.

Since players get attached to their characters, I'm reluctant to maim or blind or disfigure a character for good because of a lousy roll without a good story plot point behind it. Vader cutting off your arm and then telling you your secret parentage? Fine. Random Mook shooting you in the head in a bar fight, catching you in the eyes? Nope!

So I'd resist making it permanent. Medicine in Star Wars is pretty fantastic and magical and can do a lot - just leave them blind for the moment until they can get proper medical attention.

You may want to use it as a story arc. the player is blinded and now needs to find....

...medicine capable of healing him which may require travel to a remote location and lots of research to find that location.

...the necessary cybernetic replacements to restore his eyesight.

... a force sensitive who can help them train their innate force ability to know their surroundings in spite of their blindness (i.e. sense talent tree with some narrative modifications).

in the end I would suggest using whatever adds to your campaign and allows everyone to have fun. If making it Permanente would ruin the game for you and your players then give them an out. If making it permanent adds to the game then make it permanent.

All of the critical hit results state (or clearly imply) their duration in the description. If no particular duration is given, then it is understood that the effect is permanent.

Healing a critical injury removes the injury itself from the character (it no longer adds +10 to further critical injury rolls, for example). However, the effect of the injury lasts until stated (or implied); and in several cases the effect is permanent even after the injury itself has been healed.

The Blinded effect is permanent. If a character is "Blinded" by a critical hit then he "can no longer see" (period). He would have to get a cybernetic replacement or something, the same as if he had lost a limb to the Maimed effect.

Maimed doesn't mean the limb is gone. Maimed means the limb is useless. So, an arm could be crushed to pulp; the muscles could be severed to no longer connect; nerves could be damaged or impaired. All of those are a form of maiming. All of those might be healed by Medicine or time in a Bacta tank. These kinds of injuries won't heal normally to restore function, but outside measures aren't the same as natural healing, heheh.

I'm referring to the "Maimed" effect on the critical injury chart.

It's up to you how you narratively describe the injury ("crushed", "severed", "horrifically mangled", whatever); but the rules as written make it clear that the limb is permanently useless until the victim receives a cybernetic replacement (or undergoes some other comparably severe and expensive procedure). Bacta won't cut it.

Well, given that a tank + fluid is about 10,000C, that isn't exactly chump change. Add in the doctor/medical droid and that raises the cost as well. I wasn't referring to the simple Bacta patches that deal with cuts and such.

Wasn't Solo blinded after carbonite freezing? I'm pretty sure he didn't need to have cybernetic replacements.

Wasn't Solo blinded after carbonite freezing? I'm pretty sure he didn't need to have cybernetic replacements.

He was, and it was described as being a symptom of hibernation sickness rather than being a long-term injury (though there was a Star Wars Infinities story where due to extra complications, Han's blindness wound up becoming permanent).

As for the original question, we've had the Blinded critical injury come up twice in our games, both times courtesy of a disruptor pistol (I really hate those things).

The first time was to my own character, and our "medic" (Chiss Tactician with a non-career skill rank and emergency medpac) was able to treat the injury after the combat, thus the GM describing it as a case of "flash blindness" that her timely treatment was able to heal well enough that my character could see, but that there would still be some minor scarring for a few days and that Valin would need a more through check-up once we got back to base.

The second time was to our Sullustan Fringer (group pilot), only this time a Despair was rolled (GM flipped a Destiny Point since the critical injury that resulted in him being Blinded came about due to the PC being incapacitated by the disruptor pistol) when the Chiss tried to treat the injury on top of her failing the Medicine check. As such, the GM ruled that the Sullustan's eyes were permanently damaged, and that he'd need to get cybernetic replacements if he wanted to be able to see properly again. But he'd made it clear that had it not been for the Despair, then the failed check simply meant that the Sullustan would either have to wait a week before someone could try again or take a prolonged swim in a bacta tank.

The Wookiee Commando and (self-professed) Minor Jedi have agreed that anyone spotted using a disruptor pistol or rifle on a member of our team gets bumped to Priority Target Number 1 with said weapon being subject to being Sundered. And given our weapons of choice (vibro-ax with mono-molecular edge and a mephite crystal lightsaber respectively), the target in question probably won't last very long.

So the point of this? Ultimately, it's up to the GM, but in most circumstances I'd treat Blinded as being a long-term injury that hangs around until the critical injury itself has been removed.

Nothing in Star Wars needs to be more permanent than waiting until you reach specialized treatment (bacta, cybernetics, etc.). Also, "blindness" is a word that covers lots of different possibilities. The best effects, IMNSHO, would be any that allow the story to continue and for the player to still be a part of it rather than being shuffled around and pushed into cover. Central or peripheral vision might be lost without impairing the other, for example. So, maybe the character's perception is hurt but not her ability to aim and shoot or vice versa.

Since players get attached to their characters, I'm reluctant to maim or blind or disfigure a character for good because of a lousy roll without a good story plot point behind it. Vader cutting off your arm and then telling you your secret parentage? Fine. Random Mook shooting you in the head in a bar fight, catching you in the eyes? Nope!

So I'd resist making it permanent. Medicine in Star Wars is pretty fantastic and magical and can do a lot - just leave them blind for the moment until they can get proper medical attention.

In my game we've only come across this once. I think it was the maimed crit, the player was about the lose an arm. We had a Medic in the group who rolled for "It's Not That Bad" and removed the crit right when it happened. The GM let the player decide if it needed to be replaced by cybernetics or if the medicine roll let him keep the arm. As a wanna-be Jedi, he kept the flesh arm.

I would run it exactly as Dono described his GM running it.

Blindness could mean any number of things, so I find it very unnecessary to come down on an issue like this and say that no, you're this kind of blind and only this kind of blind.

Let the dice help you tell the story, and try not to infer a mountain where a molehill is implied.

It's an old topic, but relevant!

How does Blinded critical injury work on a creature that has no eyes, like the Melitto? Could they just not be able to sense things?

14 hours ago, Lukey84 said:

It's an old topic, but relevant!

How does Blinded critical injury work on a creature that has no eyes, like the Melitto? Could they just not be able to sense things?

I would use the same mechanical penalty and give it a proper narrative flavour. I don't know Melitto, but I would desrcibe the injury as it deprives it from its main sense.

5 hours ago, Rimsen said:

I would use the same mechanical penalty and give it a proper narrative flavour. I don't know Melitto, but I would desrcibe the injury as it deprives it from its main sense.

Melittlo basically have fibers covering their body that pick up sensory input. I find Blinded to be a difficult ability narratively in this case.

But what about duration? If they are permanently "blind" how is their sense of sight replaced? Or are they just going to be useless permanently??

11 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Melittlo basically have fibers covering their body that pick up sensory input. I find Blinded to be a difficult ability narratively in this case.

But what about duration? If they are permanently "blind" how is their sense of sight replaced? Or are they just going to be useless permanently??

As it could be healed, I guess it should be treated as reversable. Or healing it means installing a prosthetic implant as for Dr Taltron in the Reach of the Empire.