Injury System

With how many intense battles are waged across the Dragon Universe, it should come as no surprise that not every warrior walks away whole from each battle. Through this set of Optional Rules, you can mark your players with Injuries in your DBU Campaign.

Injuries are lasting marks made from Combat Encounters, temporarily or perhaps even permanently scarring a character and leaving them in a weakened state compared to how they would be when healthy.

Inflicting Injuries

Injury Method. The catch-all rule for Injuries is that to inflict an Injury, you must successfully strike (hit) an Opponent with an Attacking Maneuver. If that Attacking Maneuver, after applying your target’s Soak Value, deals Damage that exceeds 1/2 of your target’s Maximum Life Points, then it will inflict an Injury. This is the typical rule for calculating Injuries, but there are some additional rules:

• If your Attacking Maneuver deals Lethal Damage after all modifications to Damage Category (such as the Armored Form Aspect), it needs only to exceed 1/3 of your target’s Maximum Life Points in Damage to inflict an Injury.
• If your Attacking Maneuver is a Called Shot, then treat the Damage as if it was +1/2 for the sake of calculating an Injury. However, you can only inflict an Injury if you have stated an Injury Type (see – Injuries, below) you intend to inflict at the time of Attack Declaration and therefore can only inflict that intended Injury Type.

A character who is given an injury is known as an Injured Character.

Injury Thresholds. Injuries are separated into three Thresholds, ‘No Injury’, ‘Minor Injury’ and ‘Major Injury’. To decide the Injury Threshold, look at the current Health Threshold of the Injured Character at the time of receiving the Injury:

• No Injury. To inflict an Injury, the character must be at least below the Bloodied Health Threshold. This typically only applies when the amount of damage required to inflict an Injury is reduced through some means.
• Minor Injury. If an Injury would be inflicted to a character who is below the Bloodied or Injured Health Threshold, then it would be a Minor Injury.
• Major Injury. If an Injury would be inflicted to a character who is below the Wounded Health Threshold or would be Defeated by the Attacking Maneuver responsible for the Injury, then it would be a Major Injury.

A Minor Injury will usually involve breaking or temporarily damaging a part of the body, while a Major Injury will be far more severe; including loss of limbs and gouging out large portions of a character’s body.

If a Minor Injury of the same type is inflicted twice while the Injured Character hasn’t recovered from the first, it becomes a Major Injury.

Injuries

Injuries appear in many forms within the Dragon Universe, some far more dramatic than one would expect from the (typical) hand-to-hand combat commonly engaged in by Ki-empowered warriors.

When a character has an Injury inflicted to them, there are several steps to the process:

• Injury Declaration. The Injured Character declares that this Attacking Maneuver would inflict an Injury before any Damage is deducted from their current Life Points, immediately after they are aware the Damage exceeds the required amounts to inflict an Injury.
• Injury Type. The attacking character will then choose the type of Injury to inflict. At this point, the attacking character can choose the maximum Injury Threshold they will allow their Attacking Maneuver to inflict. For example, selecting the ‘No Injury’ Threshold as the maximum Injury Threshold would mean that no matter the damage inflicted, the Attacking Maneuver will not cause an Injury.
• Injury Resolution. The Injured Character deducts the Damage from their Life Points and declares the Injury Threshold (see above) met. They then suffer the Injury. A player can choose not to suffer an Injury by spending 2 Karma Points.

Injuries. Injuries are permanent scars on a character that last between Combat Encounters and cannot be recovered from except through certain means (see – Recovering from Injuries below). An Injured Character has their Maximum Ki Points and Capacity Rate reduced by -1/10 for each Minor Injury and -1/4 for each Major Injury they are suffering from (this applies before any Combat Conditions).

In addition to this, particular types of Injuries can be inflicted and each have their own unique penalties, each one tied to a part of the body. Naturally, Injuries can only be inflicted to a body part that a character actually possesses.

To know the effects of a particular Injury, check the table below.

Injury Type	Minor Injury	Major Injury
Body Blow	The Injured Character is knocked Prone and suffers from the Weakened Combat Condition. The Injured Character recovers from this Injury once they are no longer Prone.	The Injured Character is Defeated as soon as the Injury is inflicted, regardless of their current Life Points. Additionally, the Injured Character cannot regain Life Points until they recover from their Injury. The attacking character must pay a Karma Point to inflict this effect, otherwise the Injury defaults to a Minor Injury instead.
Eyes	The Injured Character suffers from the No Sight rules (see – Battle Grounds). Additionally, reduce the Injured Character’s Tier of Power by -1 for the duration of any Strike or Dodge Rolls. If this matches or exceeds their Tier of Power, reduce their Strike or Dodge Rolls by -1(bT) instead. The Injured Character recovers from this Injury after two Combat Rounds.	The Injured Character suffers from the No Sight rules (see – Battle Grounds). Additionally, reduce the Injured Character’s Tier of Power by -2 for the duration of any Strike or Dodge Rolls. If this matches or exceeds their Tier of Power, reduce their Strike or Dodge Rolls by -2(bT) instead.
Hand/Arm	The Injured Character reduces their Strike and Wound Rolls by -2(bT).The Injured Character’s chosen arm becomes unusable.	The Injured Character reduces their Strike Rolls by -3(bT) and their Wound Rolls by -4(bT). The Injured Character’s chosen arm is lost.
Foot/Leg	The Injured Character reduces their Dodge and Strike Rolls by -1(bT). The Injured Character’s chosen leg becomes unusable. If they are unable to fly, reduce their Speed by -1/2.	The Injured Character reduces their Dodge Rolls by -2(bT) and their Strike Rolls by -1(bT). Additionally, if the Injured Character fails a Steadfast Save, they are knocked Prone. The Injured Character’s chosen leg is lost. If they are unable to fly, reduce their Speed by -1/2.
Internal	The Injured Character suffers from the Fatigued Combat Condition. Additionally, reduce their Normal and Boosted Speed by -1/2.	The Injured Character suffers from the Impediment Combat Condition on all Combat Rolls and the Fatigued Combat Condition. Additionally, their Normal and Boosted Speeds are reduced to 0.
Tail	The Injured Character suffers from Impediment on all Strike and Wound Rolls during a Tail Attack. If the Injured Character does not possess a Tail Attack, instead reduce their Combat Rolls by -1(bT).	The Injured Character loses their tail and access to their Tail Attack or any other effects that revolve around their tail. Additionally, reduce their Combat Rolls by -1(bT).

Recovering from Injuries

Recovering from an Injury removes all penalties associated with them. It’s not always easy to recover from an Injury, but there are several ways to do so:

• During Downtime, you can spend 1 DT to recover from a Minor Injury. If you have access to a Base with Medical Facilities, you may recover from a Major Injury for the same DT cost.
• If you are in a Base with a Medical Facility, a Minion with 2+ ranks in the Medicine Skill can be spent to allow you to recover from a Minor Injury but you must remain at the Base for the duration of that Minion being spent. If you have a Major Injury, the Minion must have 3+ ranks in the Medicine Skill and will only reduce the Major Injury to a Minor Injury (at which point they can be spent again to allow you to recover completely).
• If you would gain a stack of the Cybernetic Enhancement Manifested Power, you may remove all Minor Injuries you are suffering from and one Major Injury you are suffering from.
• A Senzu Bean will instantly allow you to recover from all Injuries.
• A character with the Healing Hands Magical Ability can remove Minor Injuries by spending 10 minutes outside of a Combat Encounter and 1/4 of their Maximum Ki Point Pool focusing on the Injured Character. Increase the amount of time to an hour and the Ki Point cost to 1/2 of their Maximum Ki Point Pool to remove Major Injuries.
• Your ARC may allow you to temporarily ignore the effects of Injuries by spending Karma Points.

Racial Differences

Some races are, for lack of a better term, simply built differently. They can recover from Injuries with no problem! Though, as a result, they tend to receive them much more easily.

Namekians, Majins, Bio-Androids (who have selected Namekian through the Genetic Splicing Trait) and Custom Species (if they possess the Regenerative Anatomy Racial Trait) have a few unique traits:

• When using a Healing Surge through the effects of their Racial Traits, they may automatically recover from a single Injury, regardless of being Minor or Major.
• At the end of each Combat Encounter, if they possess any Injuries, they are automatically recovered from.
• If an Opponent would inflict a Minor Injury, they can choose to inflict a Major Injury instead. This does not apply to the Body Blow Injury Type.

This effect also applies to:

• Arcosians who selected the ‘Mutant’ option of the Divergent Evolution Trait, but only while they are in the first three stages of Metamorphosis. However, unlike the other options listed here, Arcosians have no Racial Traits that give them Healing Surges – instead, when they leave Full Suppression, Limited Suppression or Partial Suppression, they recover from all Minor Injuries suffered in any of those stages, and all Major Injuries suffered in any of those stages become Minor Injuries, in that order.
• Any character who has the Cybernetic Enhancement Manifested Power and selected the Nanomachine Repair Cybernetic System. However, any Healing Surge is treated as if it was used through the effects of a Racial Trait.

Additional System Tools for dealing with Injuries

There are various ways to deal with Injuries beyond what is shown above. All of these are considered optional and may not apply to your table, ask your ARC if any of these options are available:

Spellbook Advancement: Healing Hands

Instant Recovery

• Technique Point Cost. 10 TP
• Prerequisite. Healing Expertise, Scholarship Score 10+, Personality Score 10+

If you would target an Injured Character with the Healing Hands Magical Ability, you may spend an additional 6(bT) Ki Points to remove all of their Minor Injuries or 10(bT) Ki Points to remove all of their Major Injuries.

Bases: Healing Pods

Healing Pods

• Dev Point Cost. 2
• Square Occupancy. 1×1
• Prerequisite. Medical Facilities (must be placed in Medical Facilities), 3+ Skill Ranks in Medicine

You may recover from all Minor Injuries by entering the Healing Pod for an hour outside of a Combat Encounter. Additionally, during this time, you may apply the effects of the Recovery rules (see – Attacking & Conditions) an additional time.

Super Saiyan 4: Primal Surge

Super Saiyan 4 gains the following Trait:

Primal Recovery. After receiving a Minor Injury, if you would use the Primal Surge Maneuver, you may forgo regaining any Life Points or Ki Points from that Primal Surge to recover from that Injury. To use this effect, at least 2 Combat Rounds must have passed since you received the Injury.

Talent: Autotomy

Autotomy

– Once per Combat Encounter, if you would receive an Injury, you may choose to automatically change the Injury Type to the Tail Injury Type.

– Ignore the penalties to Combat Rolls from having a Major Injury of the Tail Injury Type.

Prerequisite – Arcosian Race, Tenacity and Personality Scores 10+