I've only been playing a few weeks, and most of the time it hasn't mattered, but I can't figure out one thing.

The rulebook says several times that "exceeding" your threshold causes you to be, essentially, incapacitated. Down, out, unconscious, whatever.

Then for wounds, it says that in order to get back up, you must heal wounds until they are "below" your threshold. What if you are right at the threshold? Say your threshold is 12 and your wounds reach 12. Are you up still?

I want to say yes, but the part about having to heal "below" your threshold is throwing me off.

Yes, you have to be "above" your threshold. Remember your thresholds are the "amount" of damage you can take. So if you are at the threshold limit of 12, then you are ok. You have to exceed your threshold.

Don't look at thresholds as hit points that you count down. instead, you start at ZERO damage, and count the damage up to your threshold. This is the limit/amount of damage you can take. After you go above your threshold you are in a lot of danger.

So if you take 15 damage and can get healed to were you are down to 12 points and your threshold is 12, you are ok as you are no longer over your threshold.

I hope this helps a little, and I didn't make it more confusing for you.

He isn't confussed, he is correct.

p215 (EotE): "When a PC suffers wounds greater than his wound threshold, he is knocked out and incapacitated until his wounds are reduced so that they no longer exceed his wound threshold (likely through healing)."

p216 (EotE): "He must heal wounds until his wounds are below his wound threshold before he is no longer incapacitated."

p229 (AoR) uses very similar language. At the start and end of the section "Exceeding wound threshold" the above rules are repeated and pages 157 & 158 (F&D) uses the same language yet again.

According to EotE p215 you'll recover once you no longer exceed your threshold, while p216 has you needing to go under.

As such I would say it is a GM call, I would lean towards the idea of "no longer exceeding the threshold" myself. As this issue is most likely to arise in a time driven encounter/adventure where the players have to be back into the action ASAP. It is also quite dangerous either way for the character who probably won't have had time to heal from the critical and so will be taking +10 as soon as he takes damage.

Dave's got a Wound Threshold of 12 but gets shot in the face for 14 damage after Soak. As his Current Wounds is now 2 more than his WT, he can't do ****.

On his turn Mike leaps into action and slaps a Stim on his incapacitated buddy, healing 5. Dave's Current Wounds* tally is now 9 and, as he's now within his WT can act normally. Well, as normally as his characterisation allows.

* Rules As Written, I think, you stop counting Current Wounds at WT x2 (which means, yeah, that skinny guys heal quicker than bruisers).

Both RAW quotes are correct. You are not unconcious until your Wounds or Strain exceeds you Threshold. Once it does and you are unconcious, the threshold works in reverse; you now have to get UNDER that threshold to be concious again.

In each instance you have to completely cross the threshold to change your character's state of conciosness. This further separates FFG's system in that the "hit point mechanic" works just a little differently than other systems.

Dave's got a Wound Threshold of 12 but gets shot in the face for 14 damage after Soak. As his Current Wounds is now 2 more than his WT, he can't do ****.

On his turn Mike leaps into action and slaps a Stim on his incapacitated buddy, healing 5. Dave's Current Wounds* tally is now 9 and, as he's now within his WT can act normally. Well, as normally as his characterisation allows.

* Rules As Written, I think, you stop counting Current Wounds at WT x2 (which means, yeah, that skinny guys heal quicker than bruisers).

Nope, you keep tracking wounds and keep taking criticals each time you add wounds. There isn't a "stop at x2 your threshold" nor is there a "die at x2 your threshold" rule. You only stop when a crit rolls the magic 141+ result.

"Nope, you keep tracking wounds and keep taking criticals each time you add wounds."

So are you saying that you take a new crit every time you take damage once you are over your threshold? My group ha been playing it that you only take crits each time you pass the threshold again. For example, Bob has a threshold of 10 and he has already taken say 9 wounds. Bob then takes 12 more wounds putting him at 21 wounds. We have been playing that he would receive 2 crits from that because he has passed his threshold twice. But what you are saying is he would only take one crit from that hit? Then if he gets hit for 1 wound after that he would then take another crit?

I have another question about Strain. I can not find anywhere in the rules where you can heal strain other than at the end of a fight or by sleeping the night. So if in the middle of a fight some one takes more strain than their threshold then they are out tell the fight is over? There is no way to heal strain during the fight?

Realistically how many times are your characters getting damaged after they've already been knocked out?

Nevermind the 'strategy' of a Stormtrooper walking around shooting unconscious people in the head, that is completely within your control as a GM. In my games, once someone was knocked out, it would take a pretty remarkable circumstance for them to get hit multiple times again.

Nope, you keep tracking wounds and keep taking criticals each time you add wounds. There isn't a "stop at x2 your threshold" nor is there a "die at x2 your threshold" rule. You only stop when a crit rolls the magic 141+ result.

p216: "When wounds exceed a character's wound threshold, the character should track how many wounds he's exceeded the threshold by, to a maximum of twice the wound threshold." Stop tracking at 2 times is very, very, hidden away as the text is all wibbly wobbly.

"Nope, you keep tracking wounds and keep taking criticals each time you add wounds."

So are you saying that you take a new crit every time you take damage once you are over your threshold? My group ha been playing it that you only take crits each time you pass the threshold again. For example, Bob has a threshold of 10 and he has already taken say 9 wounds. Bob then takes 12 more wounds putting him at 21 wounds. We have been playing that he would receive 2 crits from that because he has passed his threshold twice. But what you are saying is he would only take one crit from that hit? Then if he gets hit for 1 wound after that he would then take another crit?

Once you go over you threshold you are incapacitated and take a critical, if you are damaged again while incapacitated you would be "further" incapacitated and take another critical. Though as progressions points out why would you GM this? Having the players wake up bound and in a gladiators arena with three large beasties heading their way will be much more fun for players and GM alike than a shot to the head.

As per p158: "However, if the roll generates enough advantage to trigger the critical rating of the weapon multiple times, the character can choose to add + 10 to the critical injury roll for each subsequent trigger." So hitting with a critical and exceeding the targets threshold will result in the character being given the option to add +10 to the critical roll.

He isn't confussed, he is correct.

p215 (EotE): "When a PC suffers wounds greater than his wound threshold, he is knocked out and incapacitated until his wounds are reduced so that they no longer exceed his wound threshold (likely through healing)."

p216 (EotE): "He must heal wounds until his wounds are below his wound threshold before he is no longer incapacitated."

p229 (AoR) uses very similar language. At the start and end of the section "Exceeding wound threshold" the above rules are repeated and pages 157 & 158 (F&D) uses the same language yet again.

According to EotE p215 you'll recover once you no longer exceed your threshold, while p216 has you needing to go under.

As such I would say it is a GM call, I would lean towards the idea of "no longer exceeding the threshold" myself. As this issue is most likely to arise in a time driven encounter/adventure where the players have to be back into the action ASAP. It is also quite dangerous either way for the character who probably won't have had time to heal from the critical and so will be taking +10 as soon as he takes damage.

Both RAW quotes are correct. You are not unconcious until your Wounds or Strain exceeds you Threshold. Once it does and you are unconcious, the threshold works in reverse; you now have to get UNDER that threshold to be concious again.

In each instance you have to completely cross the threshold to change your character's state of conciosness. This further separates FFG's system in that the "hit point mechanic" works just a little differently than other systems.

OK, except saying its both (to KO you have to go past it, but to heal you have to completely pass it again) contradicts page 215, from the post I quoted, where it says you simply must heal until it no longer exceeds. Being at the threshold would mean it no longer exceeds.

So are you saying that you take a new crit every time you take damage once you are over your threshold?

That's my understanding. Each time even 1 point of damage gets though your soak after you're past WT it's a critical hit (I don't know if Lethal Blows / Vicious has any effect though (I suspect not), unless the attack behind it was enough to trigger a crit ordinarily).

I have another question about Strain. I can not find anywhere in the rules where you can heal strain other than at the end of a fight or by sleeping the night. So if in the middle of a fight some one takes more strain than their threshold then they are out tell the fight is over? There is no way to heal strain during the fight?

Don't know if its RAW, but our group has Advantages generated by Medic rolls recover Strain for the guy being patched up.

p215 (EotE): "When a PC suffers wounds greater than his wound threshold, he is knocked out and incapacitated until his wounds are reduced so that they no longer exceed his wound threshold (likely through healing)."

p216 (EotE): "He must heal wounds until his wounds are below his wound threshold before he is no longer incapacitated."

Dave's got a Wound Threshold of 12 but gets shot in the face for 14 damage after Soak. As his Current Wounds is now 2 more than his WT, he can't do ****.

On his turn Mike leaps into action and slaps a Stim on his incapacitated buddy, healing 5. Dave's Current Wounds* tally is now 9 and, as he's now within his WT can act normally. Well, as normally as his characterisation allows.

In the example above, what happens when Mike heals Dave only 2 points. That would put Dave at his WT of 12. Is he still out of the action because he is not below his WT?

If the original damage Dave took was 12, he would be still up since you have to exceed your WT to go down. It just seems weird that damaged to 12, you're still up. But if you're healed to 12, you're still down.

In the example above, what happens when Mike heals Dave only 2 points. That would put Dave at his WT of 12. Is he still out of the action because he is not below his WT?

I would assume that since the wound threshold is not exceeded, that Dave is up and running again. Mind you, a stiff breeze could knock him over again, but he's awake and shooting!

True. I'd house rule it in that case. (When you're within threshold you can act (even if you're at it's limit).)

I do wonder why there isn't a item similar to a stimpack that removes strain. Adrenal stem or something.

I have another question about Strain. I can not find anywhere in the rules where you can heal strain other than at the end of a fight or by sleeping the night. So if in the middle of a fight some one takes more strain than their threshold then they are out tell the fight is over? There is no way to heal strain during the fight?

Don't know if its RAW, but our group has Advantages generated by Medic rolls recover Strain for the guy being patched up.

Oh ya, I forgot about that one but you can only perform a medicine check once per encounter. So if some one is over there strain and a medicine check does not bring them equal to or below their threshold then they are out for the rest of the fight because there is no other way to recover strain.

We have created a house rule based on a sentence in the book (sorry do not have it with me so I can not quote verbatim) that says you can reduce strain by catching you breath but does not give any rules to go with it. Our house rule has 2 parts. You can spend your who round "catching your breath" and make a cool check with difficulty following the medicine chart and reduce your strain by 1 for every success. The second part is if you fall unconscious due to strain every round you can make a cool check with a hard difficulty recovering 1 stress for every success.

So you can be taking any action and potientally recover strain, just like your gm can give it to you in be exact opposite way by spending your threat/despair.

I consider, rp wise, recovering strain while say doing ranged might be that your shots are visibly making an enemy take cover giving you a chance to catch your breath and realize your doing well thus living your spirits or during melee/brawl that your opponent is loosing ground and having to spend most of their time ducking and weaving instead of fighting back boosting your confidence as you get into a good grove of combod swings, etc

I have another question about Strain. I can not find anywhere in the rules where you can heal strain other than at the end of a fight or by sleeping the night. So if in the middle of a fight some one takes more strain than their threshold then they are out tell the fight is over? There is no way to heal strain during the fight?

Don't know if its RAW, but our group has Advantages generated by Medic rolls recover Strain for the guy being patched up.

Oh ya, I forgot about that one but you can only perform a medicine check once per encounter. So if some one is over there strain and a medicine check does not bring them equal to or below their threshold then they are out for the rest of the fight because there is no other way to recover strain.

We have created a house rule based on a sentence in the book (sorry do not have it with me so I can not quote verbatim) that says you can reduce strain by catching you breath but does not give any rules to go with it. Our house rule has 2 parts. You can spend your who round "catching your breath" and make a cool check with difficulty following the medicine chart and reduce your strain by 1 for every success. The second part is if you fall unconscious due to strain every round you can make a cool check with a hard difficulty recovering 1 stress for every success.

you don't even need to house rule that though, page 206 under the chart "spending advantages and triumph in combat", it says under spending one advantage or a triumph "recover 1 strain (this option may be selected more than once)"

So you can be taking any action and potientally recover strain, just like your gm can give it to you in be exact opposite way by spending your threat/despair.

I consider, rp wise, recovering strain while say doing ranged might be that your shots are visibly making an enemy take cover giving you a chance to catch your breath and realize your doing well thus living your spirits or during melee/brawl that your opponent is loosing ground and having to spend most of their time ducking and weaving instead of fighting back boosting your confidence as you get into a good grove of combod swings, etc

For the most part I am talking about healing strain after falling unconscious, but we created the take a breath rule because the group has a tendency to roll more threat than advantage and add in combat and they where straining out long before wounding out.

Ah, well as for after exceeding strain threshold I'd just avoid that aside from medical checks accomplishing it with advantages which I think (mind you I don't have my book by me at the time) is raw. Reason being if you make someone able to recover suddenly knocking them out just isn't really that effective and outside of structured combat it's not neccessary to even track usually. Aside from that as for the catch breath check another option might be discussing with the GM other ways to spend threat as it shouldn't be often that they're granting strain when they can be used for tons of other things. When I GM I use them to have a players shot blast out lights blinding him to the position his opponents in, drop his weapon, have a bystander witness the fight and call the guards, have the shot attract the enemies nearby allies who didnt know the conflict was occurring, etc etc inflicting strain happens but it's more often my throwaway resort