Temporary Damage

Only one quarter of any damage inflicted in brawling combat is normal. Divide the damage from each attack by four and round down. The result is the normal damage from the attack; all remaining damage is temporary. If a single attack inflicts less than four points of damage it is all temporary damage. (Two humans with average Strength scores pummeling each other with bare knuckles can inflict only temporary damage.)

Temporary damage automatically heals at the rate of one point per combat round (or standard round if the Player’s Option combat system is not in use) no matter what the injured character does. It is helpful to keep track of temporary damage separately.

Characters reduced to –10 hit points by temporary damage (or a combination of temporary and normal damage) are still dead. Characters reduced to between 0 to –9 hit points recover one temporary damage point each combat round (instead of losing a point each round), but remain unconscious for 2d6 full turns or until healed. Normal damage takes precedence over temporary damage. If a character has suffered enough normal damage to reduce his hit points below zero, he loses one hit point each round (as described in Chapter One under Damage and Dying) and regains no temporary damage.

The attacker in an unarmed combat can opt not to inflict damage—this is called pulling the punch, though it applies to all forms of unarmed combat. The attack may still generate special effects such as knockouts, knockdowns, holds, locks, and pins, but it inflicts no damage at all.

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