Damage, Wounds, and Burdens
Momenta Core Rules · Moment 4 · Combat · Chapter 21
Wounds
Whenever a character’s Vitality is reduced to 0 or below:
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If you have no Wound slot remaining, you immediately gain the Defeated condition.
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Otherwise, you fill an empty Wound slot with a Wound and restore your Vitality back to maximum.
Whenever you gain a Wound, roll against the following table:
| 1d6 | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Gain the Impaired N condition, where N = number of Wounds you have (including the one just received) |
| 2 | Gain the Hindered condition |
| 3 | Gain the Exhausted condition |
| 4 | Gain the Slowed condition |
| 5 | Gain the Shrouded condition |
| 6 | Gain the Broken condition |
If the character rolls a condition that they currently have:
- For Impaired N, if N is greater than the current Impaired stacks, then the number of stacks gets reset to N.
- For other conditions, the character rerolls.
Conditions obtained from Wounds are cleared as per the normal rules for that condition.
Once the character has filled up their last remaining Wound slot, they also gain the Faltering 1 condition.
Burdens
Whenever a character’s Strain reaches or exceeds Max Strain:
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If you have no Burden slot remaining, you immediately gain the Lost condition.
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Otherwise, you fill an empty Burden slot with a Burden and reset your Strain back to 0.
Whenever you gain a Burden, you also receive an Affliction condition. Roll against the following table:
| 1d6 | Affliction | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paranoid | You cannot voluntarily end your turn adjacent to an ally. |
| 2 | Reckless | You cannot use Brace, or any reactive defenses, or take the Shift maneuver. The GM may also adjudicate that other reactions or maneuvers be included as well. |
| 3 | Obsessed | The GM names a fixation on the battlefield (either a combatant, an object, or a place). Each turn, your first maneuver must either move you closer to, or attack, the fixation, if possible. |
| 4 | Terrified | You cannot voluntarily move toward any combatant that has damaged you this combat; if you begin your turn adjacent to one, your first maneuver must be to move away, if possible. |
| 5 | Withdrawn | You cannot attack a combatant unless it has damaged you or an ally this combat. |
| 6 | Bloodthirsty | Each turn, your first attack must target the nearest combatant to you, regardless whether it’s an ally or enemy. |
If the character rolls an Affliction that they already possess, then they have to reroll again.
Affliction conditions are only removed when Burdens are healed. Whenever a Burden is removed, the player can choose to remove one Affliction.
Once the character has filled up their last remaining Burden slot, they also gain the Unraveling 1 condition.
Excessive Damage
When damage reduces Vitality to 0 or below, a Wound is taken, and Vitality refills. If there is any excess damage after reducing Vitality to 0, it carries over onto the refilled Vitality bar. For example, an unhurt character with a Max Vitality of 10 and no Wounds takes 15 damage from an attack. He will end up with 1 Wound and only 5 Vitality after the attack.
The same applies to Strain; when it reaches or exceeds Max Strain, a Burden is taken, Strain resets, and if there is excess Strain, the character will have to take it.
It is therefore possible for a single huge attack to cause multiple Wounds (or Burdens) at once, if the excess damage/Strain is large enough.
Defeat and Loss
- When a character becomes Defeated, their Vitality is set to 0. Defeated characters are essentially out of the combat until the Defeated condition can be removed.
- When a character becomes Lost, their Strain resets to 0. Lost characters are still in combat, but lose some player agency and must follow the GM’s commands until the Lost condition can be removed.
Healing
Wounds and Burdens persist after combat. They are healed during interludes and downtime (see Interludes and Downtime).