Wounds & Critical Wounds

Physical injuries in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay are represented with wound cards. Normal wounds are the general cuts, abrasions, burns, and the effects of the harsh environment. Critical wounds are more severe, representing significant injuries and debilitations – a smashed knee, a vicious cut, a deafening blow to the head. Both normal wounds and critical wounds are represented by cards.

When a card from the wound deck is face down, so the red side with the blood spatter is showing, it represents a normal wound. When a card from the wound deck is face up, so the name and effect of a specific injury are showing, it is a critical wound. In both cases, a single card represents one wound – a critical wound is simply a more serious version of a normal wound.

Damage & Critical Damage

Many attacks have the potential to inflict damage to the target. Damage is a representation of the potential wounds the target may suffer from. When an effect lists a result such as +1 damage, that modifies the attack’s damage potential. Different sources with this sort of notation are cumulative. +1 damage from one effect and +2 damage from a second effect would have a final result of +3 damage.

When an effect lists a result such as critical damage or +1 critical damage, that does not modify the attack’s damage potential – rather, it influences how many of the final wounds inflicted become critical wounds. Therefore, a result of +1 critical damage means "one additional wound among those inflicted becomes a critical wound" and is generally cumulative with any other critical effects (see below for clarification).

Clarifying Critical Damage

An effect that states "inflicts critical damage" means that at least one of the wounds inflicted will be a critical wound.

However, unless there's a specific number referenced (such as +1 critical) the effect is not cumulative. So three different sources that each say "inflict critical damage" will only result in 1 critical wound among those wounds inflicted. Conversely, three different sources that say "+1 critical" would be cumulative, indicating that three of the wounds inflicted would be critical wounds.

And finally, if one source states "inflicts critical damage" and a second effect states "+1 critical" the net result is two critical wounds among those wounds inflicted -- "inflicts critical damage" sets the baseline to one and "+1 critical" adds to that baseline.

Oooh that could be really nasty, if you flip over criticals AFTER you've received all of your wound cards:

PC: "Okay, so the Orc damages me for 6 wounds. MEh, that isn't too bad."

GM: "Hang on a sec. The Orc was using a Choppa, which gives +2 Criticals. Flip two of those six wound cards over. Ha ha."

OC: "My PC was giving a thumbs up for surviving his wounds, and his thumb just fell off. He swears loudly!"

On page 63 of the rulebook, it looks like some text may have been cut off under Character Death.

What happens if the character does not have more critical wound cards than his toughness? Just unconscious?

And, btw, the game is a blast. We can't wait to get a campaign going.

Olrik Fen

OlrikFen said:

Just unconscious. The check is just to determine if the character has died or not.

ynnen said:

Your wording 'sets the baseline' confuses me a bit. Do I have to have a "inflicts critical damage" result for the "+1 critical" to do anything? In other words, if the only result I get is "+1 critical," does that mean that one card will be critical even though I did not get a "inflicts critical damage?"

If I understand right:

a) any number of "inflicts critical damage" with no +X criticals = 1 critical wound

b) any number of "inflicts critical damage" and one +1 Critical = 2 critical wounds

c) any number of "inflicts critical damage" and two +1 Critical = 3 critical wounds, etc.

d) no "inflicts critical damage" with one +1 critical = 1 critical wound

e) no "inflicts critical damage" with two +1 critical = 2 critical wounds, etc.

Yep, that's how I understand it to be, Steve.

If it doesn't have a "+" it counts as a single non-cumulative Wound. Anything with a "+" is cumulative and stacks with everything else.