Health
Actions: gen(main-action) chk|sv +M(this), hp=HX•(1+M), hp/r=½•HX+M\
A trait skill that rates your constitution and vitality.
Maximum Health Points (hp,max)
Your health points represent your luck, vitality and your physical fortitude or constitution. Those with high health points are die hard stalwarts, those with few health points are more fragile and sickly.
Your health points change throughout the game from damage or healing, ranging from your maximum down to 0. You lose health points when you take damage, and regain them through healing.
Your Health affects your maximum health points (hp,max), which are found by:
hp,max = HX • (1 + M(Health))
That is, add 1 to your Health modifier, and multiply the result by your HX.
Health Point Recovery (hp/r)
Health point loss is regained through healing. The healing is most commonly done by the abilities of the body, through nanobot repair on machines, the application of advanced medicine, or through the miraculous actions of a psion. You cannot have more health points than your maximum, even if a healing effect would give you more. For example if you are on 16 health points and your maximum is 22, then you can only be healed by 6 points. If a medi-bed is able to grant you 12 points of healing, you will still only get the 6 back, the other 6 are wasted.
Your Health also affects the rate at which your health points recover after a rest (hp/r), which is found by:
hp/r = ½ • HX + M(Health)
That is, halve your HX and add your Health modifier.
Dropping to 0 Health Points (getting zeroed)
If you drop to 0 health points you either die, or you become unconscious. This is your zeroed state, and you may be zeroed and stable, or zeroed and unstable.
Instant Death
You will die instantly if you are zeroed, and the amount of damage remaining is equal to or greater than your health point maximum. For example, if you are on 16 health points and your maximum is 22, and you suffer 45 points of damage, then the first 16 of that damage will reduce you to 0 health points, while the remaining 29, greater than your health point maximum, will kill you.
Falling Unconscious
If you are zeroed, but the damage fails to kill you, you are rendered unconscious. The unconsciousness ends when you regain any health points (but not temporary health points).
Death Saves
If you are starting your turn zeroed, you must make a death save. This is one of the few d20 rolls that is not modified by any skill. A roll of 10 or better means that you succeed, otherwise you fail.
Keep track of your successes and failures. If you collect three successes you become stable and, while you are still unconscious, you do not need to make any more death saves. If you collect three failures, you die.
Critical success and failure. If on your death save you roll a natural 20, you become instantly stable. However, if you roll a 1 you instantly die.
Damage while unconscious. If you suffer damage while zeroed, it counts as a death save failure, if you suffer critical damage while zeroed, it counts as two death save failures. If you suffer damage equal to your health point maximum while zeroed, you will instantly die.
Stabilising a Creature
Other than having three death save successes, stabilising a creature is done through some kind of medical aid. A quick and ready way of doing this is using a medicine-tool kit, and applying first aid. To stabilise a creature using first aid, you use a main-action, and make a successful 12(Medicine) skill roll.
A stable creature does not make death saves, even though it is zeroed. After 24 hours, a stable creature will regain 1 health point and will become conscious.