Whenever a character is hit in ranged combat or melee, the character suffers damage. The amount of damage caused depends on the type of attack. The Ranged Weapons and Melee Weapons tables show how much damage each weapon causes.
Damage reduces a character's Stamina. If a character's Stamina score is reduced to zero or below, the character is dying or dead. Defensive suits and screens can protect characters from injuries, and a freeze field or staydose injection will preserve a dead character's body so it can be revived at a medical complex.
Shock and Unconsciousness
Whenever the roll to hit in combat is 01-02, the target is immediately knocked unconscious for d100 turns. Stimdose can awaken the character sooner. (If optional critical and grievous wound rules are used ignore this rule.)
Variable Power Settings
Laser pistols, laser rifles and heavy lasers can be adjusted to fire shots that cause from 1 to 200 points of damage. More information on variable power settings is included in the descriptions of laser weapons in the Equipment section.
Burns
Acids, fire and extreme heat cause burns, which are very painful. If a character suffers damage from burns that is more than half his Stamina score, the character is completely incapacitated and unable to do anything until treated at a hospital. Wounds caused by lasers are not burns.
Avoidance Rolls
Characters can avoid or reduce the effects of some weapons by leaping or twisting away from the attack, or by resisting its effects. When a character is attacked with one of the weapons listed below. he gets to make an avoidance roll on d100. If the result is equal to or less than the indicated ability score, the character has avoided or resisted the attack.
| Weapon | Avoidance Roll | Result |
| Electrostunner | current STA or less | No effect |
| Sonic Stunner | current STA or less | No effect |
| Stunstick | current STA or less | No effect |
| Anesthetic Needles | current STA or less | No effect |
| Doze Grenade | current STA or less | No effect |
| Tangler Grenade | RS or less | No effect |
| Fragmentation Grenade | RS or less | Half damage |
| Incendiary Grenade | RS or less | Half damage |
A character who passes an avoidance check against a fragmentation, incendiary or tangler grenade must move 3 meters to get out of the blast area. If the character has nowhere to move to, he cannot try to avoid the blast. A character can try to avoid only one grenade per turn.
Non-Lethal Damage (NL Damage) - Optional Rule
While most weapons are very lethal, some are not or are only partially lethal. Instead of a stun weapon be all or nothing (you're either knocked unconscious or suffer no effect, depending on the outcome of a STA roll) they can instead do NL damage. For example, a sonic stunner might do 5d10 NL damage, or half if a STA check is made. The effect of the damage is the character feels tired, mentally foggy, drained, or something similar until they have time to shake off the effects. Anti-Shock Implants will continue to work as advertised making the character immune to stun attacks.
Blunt weapons such as fists, clubs, nightsticks, etc. are considered partially lethal. Half of the damage done by such weapons, rounded up, is considered lethal while the remaining damage is non-lethal. Martial artists have finer control of their attacks and can choose to make up to 100% of the damage non-lethal if they don't want to cause real damage to their target.
NL damage recovers at a rate of 1 point per minute of rest, starting 5 minutes after rest begins. Thus, someone who has taken 10 points of NL damage will be healed one point after 6 minutes, two points after 7 minutes and so on until they are fully healed after 15 minutes of rest.
Defenses
Two types of defensive armor are available in STAR FRONTIERS games: suits and powerscreens. Only one suit and one screen can be worn at the same time. Each suit or screen protects the wearer from one type of weapon. The effects of these suits and screens are summarized below. (They are described in more detail in the Equipment section.)
Albedo Suit
An albedo suit can absorb up to 100 points of laser damage. When it is hit by a laser, the damage is subtracted from the suit's total of 100 points. The suit is destroyed and does not protect the wearer after it has absorbed 100 points of damage.
Albedo Screen
Like an albedo suit, the screen absorbs laser beams. Absorbing a laser beam uses a number of SEU equal to 1/5 the number of damage points caused by the beam. rounded up. For example, absorbing a beam that caused 11 damage points would use 3 SEU.
Skeinsuit
Skeinsuits absorb one-half of the damage caused by projectile and gyrojet weapons, fragmentation grenades. explosives and melee weapons. The suit is destroyed when it has absorbed 50 points of damage.
Inertia Screen
Inertia screens do the same thing skeinsuits do. The screen uses 2 SEU every time it is hit.
Gauss Screen
A gauss screen absorbs all the damage caused by electrostunners, shock gloves, stunsticks and other electrical attacks. It uses 2 SEU every time it is hit.
Sonic Screen
Sonic screens act as sound barriers, absorbing all sound that hits the screen. They absorb all damage from sonic stunners and disruptors. Absorbing a hit uses 2 SEU, and the screen itself uses 1 SEU every minute it is on.
Recovering From Wounds
Wounds heal naturally at a rate of 1 point for every 20 hours the wounded character spends resting. Resting means doing nothing more strenuous than taking short walks. A hospital can heal up to 20 Stamina points per day, at a cost of 1 Credit per Stamina point healed, plus 50 Cr per day.
Biocort
Biocortizone is a healing drug. An injection of biocort heals 10 points of damage immediately, when it is given by a medic or someone with first aid skill. (Biocort has no effect if given by untrained personnel.) Only one dose of biocort can be given in a 20-hour period; additional doses have no effect unless given during surgery.
Field Surgery
A medic can perform minor or major surgery on a wounded character to heal more than 10 points of damage. Surgery is described in detail under Medic skill.
Stimdose
Stimdose is a stimulant. If given by a medic to an unconscious character, the character will wake up immediately. A stimdose will restore 10 Stamina points if the points were lost to poison, disease or infection. These 10 points are restored even if the character is unconscious. If the character's Stamina has been reduced to -10 or less, however, the stimdose will not save him, because only one dose can be given effectively in a 20-hour period. The stimdose will not restore Stamina points unless the poison, disease or infection has been neutralized or cured with the proper drug, or has worn off.
Life-Saving Drugs and Equipment
A character whose Stamina has been reduced to 0 or less is dying, but he can be revived if his Stamina has not gone below -30. The body can be preserved with drugs or a freeze field, and revived at a hospital.
Staydose
An injection of staydose will bring a dead character back to life, but will slow down the body's functions so it can survive with 0 or fewer Stamina points. Staydose must be given within one minute (10 turns) of death or it will not work. A staydose injection will keep a character alive for 20 hours. After 20 hours, the body can not be revived and further injections will have no effect. Only a medic can administer staydose effectively.
Freeze Field
A freeze field is a device that places a body in stasis, a sort of suspended animation. The device is fastened directly to the body. Only medics are trained to activate freeze fields correctly. A freeze field must be activated within two minutes of death, or the body can not be revived. Activating the field takes five turns. Each freeze field device contains enough power to operate for 200 hours. If the power runs out, the body can not be revived. Freeze fields can be removed safely only at hospitals. A hospital charges 200 Credits to remove the field. The character then must pay normal costs to be healed.
Biocort
Biocort can be used to bring a character's Stamina score back above 0 if his score was not reduced below -9.
Field Surgery
Field surgery can save a character whose Stamina was not reduced below -30 if a staydose was used to preserve the character; surgery will not help a dead character. |