Knighthawk's Alternate Damage System
by Dave "Knighthawk" Simpson <dsknighthawk@yahoo.com>

    For anyone else who thought that the old damage system for CP2020 (Interlock) was too unrealistic, here's an alternate system I created, and have been using for more than five years.  It is tried and true, and goes great with my expanded hit chart <link it up>.  Ok, saddle up, because here comes the explanation:

    First thing's first, it needs to be explained that damage is now split into 2 categories, lethal and bruise (effectively non lethal).  Lethal is anything that penetrates the body.  Knives, bullets, rail guns, lasers explosives, they all fall into this category.  Unarmed combat falls into this category.  Now, some may be questioning things like attacks with cyberlimbs, heavy clubs, brass knuckles, etc.  These still typically fall under bruise damage, but are much more potentially lethal (explained later).  The difference between lethals and bruise damage types are several fold.  Here's how they compare and contrast:

LETHAL - uses normal healing rules, requires both stun and death checks (as applicable), written as an 'X', much more severe

BRUISE - heals at a rate of 1 point per hour, requires stun checks only, written as a '\', more potential to be a nuisance

Sample combat below will help illuminate.


Here we see an undamaged character.  Well, this poor metalhead has bitten off more than he could chew, and now is gonna have some nasty heartburn.  Being assaulted by two guys, one with a knife, the other just his bare, fleshy fists.


The first guy misses (no damage) the second guy is a bit quicker and lands a punch on our dumbass hero.  He takes 5 points of bruise damage (after all modifiers).


The next round, he is reeling from the punch (failed his stun save) and the other assaulter stabs him for 3 points of lethal damage (after all modifiers).  Lethal damage, when recorded starts at the beginning or the last point of lethal.  It effectively overrides bruise damage.  The damage the hero has suffered so far is only put him into light lethal, and serious bruise therefore he still doesn't need to worry about making death saves.


The next round he is stabbed again for the same amount of damage.  He is now halfway through serious, all his bruise damage has been overridden with lethals, the bruise hasn't gone away, it's just being viciously overshadowed by the numerous stab wounds he's receiving.  Our hero is quickly going down hill.


Giving the first assailant a break, the second steps in and kicks our hero while he's down on the ground slowly bleeding out, doing 2 points of bruise damage (after modifiers).  This bruise damage gets tacked on the end of the lethals.  Bruise damage starts at the beginning, at the end of the last bruise, or at the end of the last lethal.

    Now I'm sure someone is asking right about now, "what about being beaten to death."  And if you haven't, shame on you.  It usually takes quite a bit of pounding to really kill someone with your fists, particularly if you're not a martial artist.  Here's how you beat a person to death - first assault the target with non-lethal attacks until the entire damage tracker is filled with non lethal damage marks.  Once damage exceeds the last box of Mortal 6, start marking off boxes starting in Light, making X's (representing lethal damage)  Once the new lethal damages reach MORTAL 0, the character better start making his/her Death Saves.  Now, here's one other thing, After the character is filled up on bruise, and has filled up light with lethals, the character is automatically unconscious no matter what the save would normally be (exhaustion, trauma, the simple punishment, the body shuts down due to pain overload).

Obviously this system is not going to apply to the metalled up conversions out there, sorry guys, if you're taking damage, it's already too late.