I have a player who went through something rough. They were robbing a vault from a criminal organisation on a space station. To escape they launched the vault out of the station while being inside it while waiting for their pick-up. As soon as the ship locked onto the vault it flew to the nearest planet to let the group out. Because of the turbulence the group got bombarded by the containers and the stacks of credits inside the vault during the flight and became buried. One player, who already suffered from previous critical injuries, got another one and endad up on The end is nigh. As soon as they landed the medic helped her and she survived, but it was **** close.

Now we are discussing if the player should suffer some permanent damage or effect, because she suffered through all of that and was on the brink of death. I mean, she had concussion and a few broken bones at least. Is there anything in the rules about suffering some permanent effect because of conditions like this like reduced strain threshold or something? Or can she make a full recovery if she just gets the proper medical treatment without any sort of setbacks?

What you are wondering is already covered in the critical hits! While comparatively rare, a character can roll critical hits that blind them, crush their limbs, or even permanently reduce their characteristics. This could range from acid splashes or severe burns for Presence, a joint injury that falters under heavy loads for Brawn, a head injury that reduces Intellect, and so on.

Basically, there is no need to incorporate a permanent disability for the character because there is already a mechanic for it. It would be like making a player roll a social check to avoid taking on a massive debt to a Hutt, then when they succeed deciding the Hutt is not so easily persuaded and still inflicts the debt.

Over the critical hit table, there are three results that are permanent without dying, for up to a 15% chance of permanent injury. If the player wants this kind of arc, then go ahead, but critical hits are bad enough without further penalizing a player. Remember that these high-end criticals are extremely difficult to heal and the rate of attempts is once a week with a resilience check and once a week with medical help. That Hard or Daunting critical might be around for months if the PC doesn't take time off to heal.

Don't forget scar talents as an option as well

5 hours ago, RickAllison said:

What you are wondering is already covered in the critical hits! While comparatively rare, a character can roll critical hits that blind them, crush their limbs, or even permanently reduce their characteristics. This could range from acid splashes or severe burns for Presence, a joint injury that falters under heavy loads for Brawn, a head injury that reduces Intellect, and so on.

Basically, there is no need to incorporate a permanent disability for the character because there is already a mechanic for it. It would be like making a player roll a social check to avoid taking on a massive debt to a Hutt, then when they succeed deciding the Hutt is not so easily persuaded and still inflicts the debt.

Over the critical hit table, there are three results that are permanent without dying, for up to a 15% chance of permanent injury. If the player wants this kind of arc, then go ahead, but critical hits are bad enough without further penalizing a player. Remember that these high-end criticals are extremely difficult to heal and the rate of attempts is once a week with a resilience check and once a week with medical help. That Hard or Daunting critical might be around for months if the PC doesn't take time off to heal.

Also remember that these rolls are after a week of rest

3 minutes ago, syrath said:

Also remember that these rolls are after a week of rest

Oh yes, which generally correspond to hyperspace time for my players, hopping around the galaxy to evade whoever is chasing them.

I have only ever killed one PC (usually I only have to weaken them and my players will find some way to kill themselves), and that one was where they accumulated like 7 low-level critical injuries, didn't bother resting up, and then rolled a 97. I didn't even use my tricked out assassin, the killer was a shmuck!

16 hours ago, RickAllison said:

What you are wondering is already covered in the critical hits! While comparatively rare, a character can roll critical hits that blind them, crush their limbs, or even permanently reduce their characteristics. This could range from acid splashes or severe burns for Presence, a joint injury that falters under heavy loads for Brawn, a head injury that reduces Intellect, and so on.

Basically, there is no need to incorporate a permanent disability for the character because there is already a mechanic for it. It would be like making a player roll a social check to avoid taking on a massive debt to a Hutt, then when they succeed deciding the Hutt is not so easily persuaded and still inflicts the debt.

Over the critical hit table, there are three results that are permanent without dying, for up to a 15% chance of permanent injury. If the player wants this kind of arc, then go ahead, but critical hits are bad enough without further penalizing a player. Remember that these high-end criticals are extremely difficult to heal and the rate of attempts is once a week with a resilience check and once a week with medical help. That Hard or Daunting critical might be around for months if the PC doesn't take time off to heal.

Oh yeah, you're right! I just found it, cant believe I missed that. Thanks!

Generally speaking, unless a critical injury says otherwise, the game mechanic effects (such as being staggered, disoriented, blinded) go away at the end of the combat.

It's only when the critical injury result specifically says that it sticks around after combat that you'd run the risk of "permanent" injuries.

For instance the "Temporarily Lame" injury result cites that until the critical injury is healed, the victim cannot use their free maneuver. Crippled and Horrific Injury both have similar wording, in that until the injury is treated their respective effects stick around. Gruesome Injury is the only critical injury result (apart from Dead, but a character is beyond caring at that point) that has an effect which is truly permanent and sticks around even after the critical injury has been treated.

Now, for injury effects such as Blinded, At the Brink, or even Bleeding Out, there's no text that says they cease at the end of the encounter, but there's also no text that says they stick around until healed either.

With regards to Blinded, I would probably put that in the same category as Crippled, Horrific Injury, and Temporarily Lame in that the effects stick around until the injury is treated, since it's not exactly fun for a PC to have all their difficulties permanently upgraded and cyber-eyes are very expensive to acquire, especially if the GM isn't prone to handing out large credit rewards. That said, I'd certainly upgrade the difficulty of the Medicine check, and if a Despair result comes up and the check fails, then the PC is permanently blinded, using whatever narrative justification fits.

For instance, Kanan got a lightsaber raked across his eyes courtesy of Maul, and during the trip back to Chopper Base he and Ezra tried to treat the injury, with the check upgraded due to less-than-stellar resources available and failing with a Despair, which was then spun as the injury being too severe and having pretty much destroyed Kanan's eyes. Now, had the check succeeded with a Despair, then Kanan might have a permanent yet cosmetic injury (the scar across his face and eye color being a bit off) but mechanically he'd be able to see and not suffer the upgraded difficulties that the Blind critical injury incur.