Hi,

I'm just wondering how y'all handle damage and injuries.

Few games actually have any effects from damage/injuries apart from a generic "-1 to actions"...
...But I find that unsatisfying.

The example I tend to use if someone who falls of a building and survives, but takes 'x' amounts of damage.
That damage would be broken legs and possible damaged knees...
...And the effects from those are more than just "-3 to actions" - unable to walk, pain, broken bones.

Normally, no-one can fall off a building of more than 3 floors or so [about 30-40 ft] and land on their legs without them being driven upwards and causing all manner of horrific wounds [only seen it once, from someone who was abseiling - messy, and took a year of recuperation and physiotherapy to get back to normal].

Magical healing would probably be able to repair the damage, and remove the modifiers, but only because it's a "spell" or "ritual".
But broken bones need setting, else the bones won't set right - and that'll mean permanent effects.

Maybe damage doesn't reflect injuries because of the timescales involved - broken bones don't heal quick, most people are in a cast for a month or more.


So how do you lads and ladies handle damage and injuries ??

Copy-paste from one of my post on another topic:

Personally I use the following "rules" (more like guidelines, since they are very open and require a lot of GM/Player discretion):

When a character is hit, the localisation and exact nature of the wound are decided (this depends on the position/cover of the victim and the damage taken). The basic wound modifiers are for the whole character but if the character tries to do something that's specifically hindered by his wound, he adds a local wound modifier (generally, I add 3 damage boxes to get the local wound modifier) and may worsen the wound. First aid can help ignore the modifiers and prevent worsening (up to a point) but won't cure them. Only medical attention and rest can remove the wound boxes. Magical healing works as usual, but prevents any use of mundane medical healing afterwards.

For example, if the character is hit in the arm for 3 damage boxes, the arm will be considered to have 6 damage boxes. If the character tries to use this arm, he'll get a -3 modifier (-1 global modifier + -2 local modifier) and might worsen the wound (that depends on the wound and what the character tries to do). For all healing puroposes, only the global damage boxes are considered, which means that you still need only 3 net hits to heal the whole arm. Getting the 2 basic hits on the first aid test will prevent worsening (up to a point), any following hit will remove 1 damage box for the modifiers.
If the character is hit in the arm for 8 damage boxes, the arm is considered to have 11 damage boxes, which probably means it's just gone or at least completely crippled.

Do you have hit locations? Do you specify where each and every wound is located? Do you have different penalties for each wound location?

Shadowrun does not have hit locations nor does the game mechanics generally support such. What you are proposing, IMO, requires a total revamp of the armor and damage mechanism.

I usually abstract damage, but do interesting wound effects on glitch results. Like a heavily bleeding headwound getting blood in the character's eyes, or a broken leg.

Also, if I don't want to kill a character because of an unlucky roll on his or her part, I might pick something interesting but not lethal, like a bullet through the spine causing paraplegia, or a punctured lung, or the loss of a limb or organ.

Erm, no.

Falling and breaking both legs shouldn't require any sort of special rules for hit locations...
...Just common sense.

Though, thank you for your answer which indicates that you consider someone breaking their arm would incur no penalties nor negative effects.


As far as I recall, helmets are only for the head, yet are in Shadowrun...
...And are only used when the head is attacked - which seems to fall under the description of a "hit location".

As well, there's that little rule about "Called Shots" - you know, where you can aim for a specific part of the target...
...I believe that would attack a "hit location".

I, to a degree agree with tutori, in that the astract system is there to allow for easy flow of gameplay. Unlike toturi though I am happy to bend the rule system for drama purposes similar to how you describe. The danger though, is if your to realistic the PC fall over and stop moving long before the rules would have them do so.

Now I have had a PC rolled over by a Juggernaut. By a miracle he staged down the damage to serious, so he survived but I told him he had broken most of his ribs and that the ground was soft enough to give way under him saving his life. He walked around on -2 for the rest of the run after first aid. If I had been realistic he would be going to hospital and thats about it.
On another occasion the same PC was helpless with two company men, so in torture I just took one of his eyes. No roll, no resist, no modifier. Just gone.

In my opinion the best game play is flexible between the rules and common sense.

First of all you could just use the rules in Augmentation.

Otherwise I generally just attribute damage to the torso so it makes sense with the mechanics unless there is some reason why it has to be a certain area.

I choice to ignore where the damage is. When they get hit i randomly choose (well i consider the situation) where they get hit and how the injury is but its mostly fluff; ie you get it in the calf by the arrow, digging into your leg. Now when the chars have some real major damage or they glitch their damage test or a healing test, then i have fun with it. I never have anything that will be completely permanent, but i don't consider limb loss permanent. (they can grow a new one or get a cyber one.)

Page 120, Augmentation - Severe Wounds

Falling could break both legs. Falling does not necessarily mean you break your legs. You could break your arms or land on all four limbs before kissing the pavement.

Someone breaking an arm would already be suffering from wound penalties from the damage that caused that broken arm.

Adults who fall more than 15 feet generally land on their feet. Unlike kids, who generally land on their heads.

Do adults landing on their feet generally happen regardless? Say if they trip and fall or are pushed, do adults generally still land on their feet? Or where those adults falling with their feet first in the first place?

Adults typically do a fair job of breaking their fall with their hands, arms, or back.

Small children/babies have freakishly large heads for their body mass so, given enough distance to fall, they have a propensity of cratering on their noggins. The term typically referenced in an emergency room is "Lawn Dart".