I have a bit of a problem reading rules and over thinking it so I need a little help on this one.

When it say the critical injuries are cumulative what does that mean? Im wondering if it works like this example. A PC receives a critical injury check of 30, that critical injury goes unhealed and takes a second critical injury of 30 + 10 because of the 1 prior unhealed injury. Is your critical injury check stacked to a 70? and apply the affect of a 70 on the chart? or do you just take the effect of the 40?

What it means is that for each prior critical injury a character has, a +10 bonus is added to the next critical injury check made against that character. What the dice result was for those prior critical injuries isn't relevant.

So for the example you gave, the second critical injury check would only have a +10 modifier, so a dice result of 30 on the second critical injury check would be a critical injury result of 40.

Also the effects are culmulative.

Also the effects are culmulative.

Within the same combat.

It's quite possible for a PC to carry over a critical injury from a previous combat into the current one. So while the mechanical effects of that prior critical injury would not carry over (unless the injury's game text specifically states it lasts past the current encounter), the fact that the PC has an untreated critical injury would be a factor in regards to any further critical injuries suffered until they've been treated.

And this can be a factor, as I was in one session where we had a Wookiee Soldier/Commando carrying around 4 critical injuries (no real medic in the party and no time to really rest and heal between the three encounters). Player was certainly glad he'd stocked up on ranks of Durable.

Okay, here's an example:

You're in a fight and you take a Critical Injury (ouch)! The opponent rolls and gets a 26 on the chart. You go to 26 and see that you took a discouraging wound, and a Destiny Point gets flipped. It sucks, but it's not too bad.

A couple rounds later, a bad break means you take another Critical Injury. This time the opponent rolls and gets a 77. But, because you already took a Critical Injury earlier, that 77 gets +10, making it 87, meaning you're Compromised for the ready of the fight!

That sucks, but the party manages to pull it out, and you win the encounter. Your skill checks are no longer at +1 difficulty, because the effect of being Compromised only lasts until the end of the encounter. You heal up your Wounds and go about your merry way.

However, a couple of encounters later, the aggressive negotiations start again, and you get hit with another Critical Injury. Even though it's a different combat and you healed up your Wounds with stimpacks and Heal/Harm, the two Critical Injuries from the last battle are still there. They're not actively doing anything bad, but since they haven't been healed, they add +20 to the new roll. If your enemy rolls a 68, that +20 makes it an 88 - you're Compromised again, and on a lesser roll than before!

That's how Critical Injuries can be considered "cumulative:" if you have one you haven't healed (even if the effect has worn off), it makes any future Critical Injuries you take worse.

Also read the result text closely as some of the critical results only last until the end of an encounter but many do not, they will carry over, they'll be cumulative ... the result text will tell you if they do.

For example, "At the Brink", a roll of 91-95, says the target suffers 1 strain each time he performs an action (as opposed to say, "Head Ringer", a roll of 46-50, that says the target ...... until the end of the encounter). At the Brink will carry over into later encounters if it hasn't been healed, so if another critical injury happens, not only will +10 have to be added to the roll, but the effects will be in addition to those you may already have.

This is how a series of seemingly small critical injuries can catch up to you ... the penalty that gets added to the roll, as well as the numerous affects that could hinder/hurt your character.