All characters in our world can withstand various amounts of damage, there are those with bodies they have built to withstand a world of punishment, their toughness unmatched, and as a result they can be extremely difficult to put down. Conversely there are those who focus more on other areas, and as a result can be gravely injured far more easily. This section will go over our rules for best emulating this in a way that feels right, while still being fair and balanced.
Damage
Every attack made has the potential to do a varying amount of damage depending on the strength of the attacker and the actions the target makes to protect themselves. This section will cover the rules for how to determine the amount of damage you will deal or take from each attack.
Damage Rating
When making an attack you will need to list the Damage Rating (DR) of it so that both parties can determine the outcome of it, their actions against it, and the final damage of it.
Damage Rating Formula
DR adds the Base Power of a Jutsu to either your BOD or POW depending on its category. Taijutsu and Bukijutsu scale with BOD, while Ninjutsu Scale with POW. If you are making a basic attack and not using a Jutsu, like slashing with a sword or throwing a simple punch, you only use your BOD for the DR.
Base Power by Jutsu Rank
| D-Rank: | 1 |
| C-Rank: | 5 |
| B-Rank: | 10 |
| A-Rank: | 20 |
| S-Rank: | 40 |
| Capstone: | +30 |
| AoE Capstone: | +20 |
Capstones Base Power is added to the Rank BP. AoE Capstones receive a smaller bonus.
Non-Capstone Area of Effect Attacks are treated as being a Rank Lower. If it is already a D-Rank Jutsu then it gets no BP.
Holding Back
Sometimes, when fighting a lower ranked player, you might want to hold back to avoid accidentally killing a person. When doing this, you can only hold back to the Base Power (BP) of the technique.
For example, if you were to use an A-Rank Ninjutsu and had 20 POW, the lowest DR you could use it at would be 20.
It is possible you could hold back in other ways though if you chose to do so. Like intentionally missing the opponent.
Persistent Damage
Persistent Damage is a type of damage that continues to be applied to a target at the end of each of their turns until the Condition ends or is removed. Persistent damage tends to run its course and automatically ends after a certain amount of time as fire burns out, blood clots, and the like. Typically this is within 10 rounds of the effect starting.
Assisted Recovery
You can take steps to help yourself recover from persistent damage, or an ally can help you, allowing you to attempt an additional flat check before the end of your turn. This is usually an activity requiring 1 Action, and it must be something that would reasonably improve your chances. For example, you might try to smother a flame or wash off acid. This allows you to attempt an extra flat check immediately, but only once per round.
Depending on the type of persistent damage the effects of an Assisted Recovery may vary, especially depending on how the help is being given. If you are unsure of how it would help ask a member of Staff. Some examples are listed below.
- Reduce the DC of the flat check to 10 for a particularly appropriate type of help, such as dousing you in water to put out flames.
- Automatically end the condition due to the type of help, such as healing that can end persistent bleed damage, or submerging yourself in a lake to end persistent fire damage.
Multiple Persistent Damage Conditions
You can be simultaneously affected by multiple persistent damage conditions so long as they have different damage types. If you would gain more than one persistent damage condition with the same damage type, the higher amount of damage overrides the lower amount. The damage you take from persistent damage occurs all at once, so if something triggers when you take damage, it triggers only once; for example, if you're dying with several types of persistent damage, the persistent damage increases your dying condition only once.
Armour
Wearing Armour is the easiest way to give a baseline reduction to the DR of all attacks against you. While it won’t completely negate damage, it can lead to you surviving an attack that would have killed you without the armour. The DR Reduction of Armour is applied after most other modifiers like Ninjutsu Clashing or Dodging.
Damage Rating Reduction of Armour
| Light | 5 |
| Medium | 15 |
| Heavy | 30 |
| Reinforced | +10 |
Normal armour only reduces the damage of Physical attacks. To reduce the damage of Ninjutsu you need to have Chakra Armour.
Reinforced armour adds additional reduction to the base type of armour.
If your Armour would reduce the DR of an attack to 0 you take no damage at all. If there is DR remaining, you can use the Body Clashing rules to attempt to reduce it further.
Armour Penalty
Wearing heavier armour can result in greater difficulty Dodging attacks. Treating your SPD as being lower based on the armour’s weight category as listed in the table below.
Speed Reduction by Armour Category
| Medium | -5 |
| Heavy | -20 |
Toughness
How Tough a character is will vary greatly, but all characters will continue to grow in toughness as they get more combat experience, whether it’s becoming physically stronger and being able to shrug off a punch to the face, or having the mental fortitude to force themselves to fight through the pain. But it is the combination of things that truly make a character Tough.
Body and Toughness
Every character gets to add half of their BOD score to their total Toughness. Some characters may have Traits or Flaws that alter this. Having a higher BOD simply means that your character can take far more physical punishment than the average person.
Base Toughness by Character Level
Toughness gained through level is the representation of a character's ability to push through pain that comes from repeated exposure to similar injuries. As such, the player starts with 5 Toughness at level 1, and gains +5 Toughness with every level they gain.
Wounds
After an attack's final DR has been calculated, you take that remaining DR as Damage to your Toughness. As a fight continues on, and you accumulate more and more injuries, your percentage of toughness remaining will give you an indication of the level of Wounds you have in total, and will result in penalties to your actions for the rest of the fight.
Remaining Toughness before Wound Penalties
For every 20% of Toughness a character has lost they will suffer an increasing tier of wounds. When taking damage, you do not suffer the penalties of a Wound Tier until your Toughness reaches the amount written in the table above based on your character’s Letter Ranking.
Example
If you were a level 10 character with 20 BOD and no traits or feats that improve your toughness, you would have a maximum of 70 Toughness, you would not Suffer a Minor Wound until your current Toughness reached 56. Then at 42 Toughness you would suffer the effects of a Moderate Wound.
Wound descriptions by current percentage of Toughness remaining
| Minor (80%): | Shallow cuts, sprains or minor breaks. Easily treated Wounds. |
| Moderate (60%): | Deeper cuts than a minor wound, fractured bones, heavier bruising etc. |
| Heavy (40%): | Severe cuts, dislocated joints, torn muscles and ligaments etc. |
| Extreme (20%): | Bad breaks, possible loss of smaller body parts like fingers, deep cuts etc. |
Wound Penalties
Every time you are Wounded make a note of which drawbacks you are suffering from.
| Minor | Take a -5 penalty to ALL Actions and Reactions. |
| Moderate | Take a -10 penalty to ALL Actions and Reactions. |
| Heavy | Take a -20 penalty to ALL Actions and Reactions. |
| Extreme | Take a -40 penalty to ALL Actions and Reactions. |
Once you move down to a worse tier of Wound, you no longer suffer the lesser tier of penalties. For example; if you had a minor wound and were suffering a -5 penalty, and then took enough damage to move down to a moderate wound, you would now have a -10 penalty and not a -15.
Reaching 0 Toughness
Once a Character reaches 0 Toughness, that is when combat starts to get extremely dangerous. At this point in the fight, any additional damage the character takes is applied to their BOD and SPD. If a Character reaches 0 in both, they are at risk of dying, gaining the Dying Condition.
Massive Damage
Sometimes a character is exposed to an extremely devastating attack, something that has so much raw power behind it, that even after clashing the attack, its remaining DR is still overwhelming. When the remaining DR of an attack is equal to a character's maximum Toughness, they are instantly knocked out. If the remaining DR is equal to double their maximum Toughness the character instead dies immediately if the attack was intended to be lethal.
Death
Character deaths are always a very real possibility when engaging in higher stake fights and missions. Once a Characters BOD and SPD have both reached 0 they enter the Dying State, and have the Dying Condition applied to your character.
Healing
Healing Ninjutsu may not be the most common thing in the world, but they exist, and can easily turn the tide of a battle if used properly. However, as powerful as they can be, most will have severe limitations.
Baseline Healing Amount by Technique Ranks
While the exact amount of healing provided to an Attribute or Toughness will vary from one Technique to the next, and will also be dependent on the user of said technique, each Technique has a starting Baseline for the amount of healing they can do as listed in the table below.
| Technique Rank | Healing provided per use | Healing per turn for ongoing Techniques |
| D-Rank | +5 Toughness or +1 Attribute Points | +1 Toughness or No Attribute Points |
| C-Rank | +10 Toughness or +2 Attribute Points | +2 Toughness or No Attribute Points |
| B-Rank | +15 Toughness or +3 Attribute Points | +4 Toughness or No Attribute Points |
| A-Rank | +20 Toughness or +4 Attribute Points | +10 Toughness or 2 Attribute Points |
| S-Rank | +25 Toughness or +5 Attribute Points | +15 Toughness or 3 Attribute Points |
| Capstone | +10 Toughness or +2 Attribute Points | +5 Toughness or +1 Attribute Points |
Depending on the RP, and the specific circumstances, a lower rank Ninjutsu might be able to stabilise a person who would otherwise die with no treatment at all. If a situation like this pops up, be sure to ping a member of Staff for a decision. Just be prepared to keep using the technique every turn until proper aid can be given.
Some Techniques may also be capable of healing both Toughness and Attribute Points at the same time with a single use, though typically those would be less effective at each type of healing.
Healing Attributes
While the exact amount of Attributes healed per usage will vary from one Jutsu to the next, and will also be dependent on the user of said technique, each Jutsu has a maximum limit to how many Attribute Points it can heal a character up to.
This means that, in order to heal a Character who has 30 points in BOD back up to their maximum of 30 BOD you would need to use at least a B-Rank Technique.
| D-Rank | Can only heal a character up to 10 in an Attribute. |
| C-Rank | Can only heal a character up to 20 in an Attribute. |
| B-Rank | Can only heal a character up to 30 in an Attribute. |
| A-Rank | Can only heal a character up to 40 in an Attribute. |
| S-Rank | Can only heal a character up to 50 in an Attribute. |
| Capstone | Doubles the limit that can be healed based on the techniques Rank. |
Healing Fatigue
As a fight draws on, and a character is repeatedly healed, they will grow more and more fatigued. Eventually reaching a point of collapse, even if their Wounds have all been repaired. To represent this each time a healing jutsu is used to treat a character's wounds, that character's maximum Toughness will be temporarily reduced for the rest of the scene by an amount based on the technique. The table below will give a basic outline of the loss.
When a Characters Maximum Toughness is reduced, their Wound Penalties are still calculated from their normal Maximum Toughness.
Some higher ranking Techniques may be capable of restoring Maximum Toughness, and there may be some conditions or Techniques that are capable of reducing it.
Healing Fatigue by Jutsu Rank
| D-Rank | -15 Maximum Toughness. |
| C-Rank | -10 Maximum Toughness. |
| B-Rank | -5 Maximum Toughness. |
| A-Rank | -3 Maximum Toughness. |
| S-Rank | -1 Maximum Toughness. |
| Capstone | No Penalty. |
Once a character reaches 0 Maximum Toughness the penalties do not stack into the negative.
Conditions
As you navigate the world, and participate in combat, you might find yourself being stricken with one of several different conditions. These can range from simple things like being Restrained, up to far more dangerous things like Dying.
Conditions with Values cannot be stacked with the same Condition, only the highest value takes effect, overriding any other effects that inflict the same Condition.
Blinded
You can't see. All normal terrain is difficult terrain to you. You can't detect anything using vision. You are immune to visual effects. Blinded overrides dazzled.
Clumsy
Your movements become clumsy and inexact. Clumsy always includes a value. You take a status penalty equal to the condition value to any SPD based Actions.
Concealed
You are difficult for one or more creatures to see due to thick fog or some other obscuring feature. You can be concealed to some creatures but not others. While concealed, you can still be observed, but you're tougher to target. A creature that you're concealed from must succeed at a DC 5 flat check when targeting you with an attack, spell, or other effect. If the check fails, you aren't affected. Area effects aren't subject to this flat check.
Confused
You don't have your wits about you, and you attack wildly. You are off-guard, you don't treat anyone as your ally (though they might still treat you as theirs).
You must use all your actions to Attack with Basic Attacks or D-Rank Techniques, though the condition can have you use other actions to facilitate attack, such as draw a weapon, move so the target is in reach, and so forth. Your targets are determined randomly by rolling a dice, when making this roll you must first specify what number is associated with which target. If you have no other viable targets, you target yourself, automatically hitting. If it's impossible for you to attack or cast spells, you babble incoherently, wasting your actions.
Each time you take damage from any source, you can attempt a check to recover from your confusion and end the condition.
Controlled
You have been commanded, magically dominated, or otherwise had your will subverted. The controller dictates how you act and can make you use any of your actions, including attacks, and reactions. The controller usually doesn't have to spend their own actions when controlling you.
Dazzled
Your eyes are overstimulated or your vision is swimming. If vision is your only precise sense, all creatures and objects are concealed from you.
Deafened
You can’t hear. You automatically fail any sort of attempt to find or detect anything with your hearing. You take a -10 Penalty to Investigation checks, or any other check that involves sound but also rely on other senses. You are immune to auditory effects while deafened.
Difficult Terrain
Difficult terrain is any terrain that impedes your movement, ranging from particularly rough or unstable surfaces to thick ground cover and countless other impediments. While moving through Difficult Terrain every metre you move counts as two metres from your total Movement Speed.
Movement you make while jumping ignores the terrain you're jumping over. Some abilities (such as flight or being incorporeal) allow you to avoid the movement reduction from some types of difficult terrain.
Drained
Your health and vitality have been depleted as you've lost blood, life force, or some other essence. Drained always includes a value. You lose an amount of Toughness equal to your level (minimum 1) times the drained value, and your maximum Toughness is reduced by the same amount. For example, if you become Drained 3 and you're a 3rd-level character, you lose 9 Toughness and reduce your maximum Toughness by 9. Losing these Hit Points doesn't count as taking damage, and the loss cannot be reduced by any means. However, some entities may be immune to the condition, such as Puppets, Undead, and Constructs.
Each time you get a full night's rest, your Drained value decreases by 1. This increases your maximum Toughness, but you don't immediately recover the lost current Toughness. Some Medical Techniques may also be able to remove or lower the Drained value which will have the same effect.
Dying Condition
You are bleeding out or otherwise at death's door. While you have this condition, you are unconscious. When you are dying, you must roll a d20 to make a Recovery Check at the start of your turn each round to determine whether you get better or worse. Your dying condition increases by 1 if you take damage while dying.
Results of dice rolls while dying
A success happens on a 11 or higher, a failure on a 10 or lower. Critical success is a Natural 20, and Critical Failure is a Natural 1.
| Critical Success: | Your dying value is reduced by 2. |
| Success: | Your dying value is reduced by 1. |
| Failure: | Your dying value increases by 1. |
| Critical Failure: | Your dying value increases by 2. |
If you lose the dying condition by succeeding at a Recovery Check when your Dying Condition is at 0, and are still at 0 BOD and SPD, you remain unconscious, but you can wake up as described in that condition. You lose the dying condition automatically and wake up if you ever have at least 1 BOD or SPD. Any time you lose the Dying Condition, you gain the wounded 1 condition, or increase your wounded condition value by 1 if you already have that condition.
Encumbered
You are carrying more weight than you can manage. While you're encumbered, you also have the Clumsy 1 Condition and take a 10 metre penalty to your movement Speed. As with all penalties to your Speed, this can't reduce your Speed below 1 metre.
Enfeebled
You're physically weakened. Enfeebled always includes a value. When you are Enfeebled, you take a status penalty equal to the condition value to all BOD-based Actions and Checks.
Fascinated
You're compelled to focus your attention on something, distracting you from whatever else is going on around you. You take a -10 Penalty to all Actions and Checks unless they are related directly to the subject of your fascination. For example, you might be able to make an attack against the subject without penalty.
Fatigued
You're tired and can't summon much energy. You take a –5 status penalty to all Actions and Checks until you either get a full night of rest, or the Condition is removed by some other means.
Fleeing
You're forced to run away due to fear or some other compulsion. On your turn, you must spend each of your actions trying to escape the source of the Fleeing condition as expediently as possible (such as by using move actions to flee, or opening doors barring your escape). The source is usually the effect or entity that gave you the condition, though some effects might define something else as the source.
Friendly
This condition reflects a creature's disposition toward a particular character, and only supernatural effects (like a Genjutsu) can forcibly impose this condition. A creature that is friendly to a character likes that character. It is likely to agree to Requests from that character as long as they are simple, safe, and don't cost too much to fulfil. If the character (or one of their allies) uses hostile actions against the creature, the effect ends immediately if it was forced on the creature through the usage of a Technique or Ability.
Frightened
You're gripped by fear and struggle to control your nerves. The Frightened condition always includes a value. You take a Status Penalty equal to this value to all your Actions and Checks. Unless specified otherwise, at the end of each of your turns, the value of your frightened condition decreases by 1.
Grabbed
You're held in place by another creature, giving you the off-guard and immobilised conditions.
Hidden
While you're hidden from a creature, that creature knows the space you're in but can't tell precisely where you are. You typically become hidden by using Stealth to Hide. When Seeking a creature using only imprecise senses, it remains hidden, rather than observed. A creature you're hidden from is off-guard to you, and it must succeed at an Investigation or Sensory check when targeting you with an attack, Technique, or other effect or it fails to affect you. Area effects aren't subject to this flat check.
A creature might be able to use the Seek action to try to observe you.
Hostile
This condition reflects a creature's disposition toward a particular character, and only supernatural effects (like a Genjutsu) can forcibly impose this condition. A creature hostile to a character actively seeks to harm that character. It doesn't necessarily attack, but it won't accept Requests from the character.
Immobilised
You are incapable of movement. You can't use any actions that have the move trait. If you're immobilised by something holding you in place and an external force would move you, the force must succeed at a check against either the DC of the effect holding you in place or the relevant defence (usually Usually BOD Check) of the Entity holding you in place.
Invisible
You can't be seen. You're undetected to everyone who doesn’t have some ability to detect you. Creatures can Seek to detect you; if a creature succeeds at its Investigation or Sensory check against your Stealth Check, you become hidden to that creature until you Sneak to become undetected again. If you become invisible while someone can already see you, you start out hidden to them (instead of undetected) until you successfully Sneak. You can't become observed while invisible except via special abilities or techniques, such as Sensory.
Observed
Anything in plain view is observed by you. If a creature takes measures to avoid detection, such as by using Stealth to Hide, it can become hidden or undetected instead of observed. If you have another precise sense besides sight, you might be able to observe a creature or object using that sense instead. You can observe a creature with only your precise senses. When Seeking a creature using only imprecise senses, it remains hidden, rather than observed.
Off-Guard
You're distracted or otherwise unable to focus your full attention on defence. You take a -10 Penalty to all forms of Dodging and Clashing. Including passive reductions to damage granted by BOD and SPD.
Some effects give you the off-guard condition only to certain creatures or against certain attacks. Others—especially conditions—can make you off-guard against everything. If a rule doesn't specify that the condition applies only to certain circumstances, it applies to all of them, such as “The target is off-guard.”
Paralyzed
You're frozen in place. You have the off-guard condition and can't act except to Recall Knowledge and use actions that require only your mind. Your senses still function, but only in the areas you can perceive without moving, so you can't Seek.
Persistent Damage
You are taking damage from an ongoing effect, such as from being lit on fire. This is tracked as “X persistent [type] damage,” where “X” is the amount of damage dealt and “[type]” is the damage type. Instead of taking persistent damage immediately, you take it at the end of each of your turns as long as you have the condition, rolling any damage dice anew each time. After you take persistent damage, roll a DC 15 flat check to see if you recover from the persistent damage. If you succeed, the condition ends. Some Persistent Damage Conditions may allow for other Checks to be done instead.
See Persistent Damage Rules for further details.
Petrified
You have been turned to stone. You can't act, nor can you sense anything. You become an object with double your normal weight. If the statue is destroyed, you immediately die. While petrified, your mind and body are in stasis, so you don't age or notice the passing of time.
Prone
You're lying on the ground. You are off-guard as long as you remain prone. The only Move Actions you can use while you're prone are Crawl, which reduces your maximum movement speed per turn to just 10 metres, and Stand. Standing up ends the prone condition. You can use an Action to Take Cover while prone to hunker down and reduce the damage of any ranged attacks made against you by 10. This bonus lasts until the start of your next turn, and is not applied to area effects unless you have something to take cover under or behind.
If you would be knocked prone while you're Climbing or Flying, you fall. You can't be knocked prone when Swimming.
Restrained
You're tied up and can barely move, or a creature has you pinned. You have the off-guard and immobilised conditions, and you can't use any actions that require movement except to attempt to Escape or Force Open your bonds. Restrained overrides grabbed.
Sickened
You feel ill. Sickened always includes a value. You take a status penalty equal to this value on all your checks and DCs. You can't willingly ingest anything—including elixirs and potions—while sickened.
You can spend a single action retching in an attempt to recover, which lets you immediately attempt a BOD Check against the DC of the effect that made you sickened. On a success, you reduce your sickened value by 1.
Slowed
You have fewer actions. Slowed always includes a value. When you regain your actions at the start of your turn, reduce the number of actions regained by your slowed value. Because you regain actions at the start of your turn, you don't immediately lose actions if you become slowed during your turn.
Stunned
You've become senseless. You can't act. Stunned usually includes a value, which indicates how many total actions you lose, possibly over multiple turns, from being stunned. Each time you regain actions, reduce the number you regain by your stunned value, then reduce your stunned value by the number of actions you lost. For example, if you were stunned 4, and you normally have 3 Actions you would lose all 3 of your Actions on your turn, reducing you to stunned 1; on your next turn, you would lose 1 more action, and then be able to use your remaining 2 actions normally. Stunned might also have a duration instead, such as “stunned for 1 minute,” causing you to lose all your actions for the duration.
Stunned overrides slowed. If the duration of your stunned condition ends while you are slowed, you count the actions lost to the stunned condition toward those lost to being slowed. So, if you were stunned 1 and slowed 2 at the beginning of your turn, you would lose 1 action from stunned, and then lose only 1 additional action by being slowed, so you would still have 1 action remaining to use that turn.
Stupefied
Your thoughts and instincts are clouded. Stupefied always includes a value. You take a status penalty equal to this value on POW and MND Actions and Checks. Any time you attempt to use a Technique, special ability, or jutsu while stupefied, it will be disrupted unless you succeed at a flat check with a DC equal to 5 + your stupefied value.
Unconscious
You're sleeping or have been knocked out. You can't act. You have the blinded and off-guard conditions. When you gain this condition, you fall prone and drop items you're holding unless the effect states otherwise or a member of Staff determines you're positioned so you wouldn't.
If you're unconscious because you're Dying, you can't wake up while you have 0 BOD and SPD. If you are restored to 1 BOD or SPD or more, you lose the dying and unconscious conditions and can act normally on your next turn.
If you are unconscious and at 0 BOD and SPD, but not dying, you return to 1 Hit Point and awaken after sufficient time passes. A member of Staff determines how long you remain unconscious, from a minimum of 10 minutes to several hours. If you are healed, you lose the unconscious condition and can act normally on your next turn.
If you're unconscious and have more than 1 BOD and/or SPD (typically because you are asleep or unconscious due to an effect), you wake up in one of the following ways.
- You take damage, though if the damage reduces you to 0 BOD and SPD, you remain unconscious and gain the dying condition as normal.
- You receive healing, other than the natural healing you get from resting.
- Someone shakes you awake with an Interact action.
- Loud noise around you might wake you. Some effects make you sleep so deeply that they don't allow for noises to wake you.
- If you are simply asleep, the GM decides you wake up either because you have had a restful night's sleep or something disrupted that rest.
Undetected
When you are undetected by a creature, that creature can't see you at all, has no idea what space you occupy, and can't target you, though you still can be affected by abilities that target an area. When you're undetected by a creature, that creature is off-guard to you.
A character you're undetected by can guess where you are hiding to try targeting you. It must pick a location and attempt an attack. This works like targeting a hidden creature (requiring a DC 11 flat check), but as long as the attack would not force the Undetected condition to end, the attacker will not know IRP whether or not the attack was successful without some reaction from the target letting them know they picked the right location. Attempts to metagame against this will be punished. They can Seek to try to find you.
Unnoticed
If you're unnoticed by a creature, that creature has no idea you're present. When you're unnoticed, you're also undetected. This matters for abilities that can be used only against targets totally unaware of your presence.