Death & Danger

Wounds are the countdown. The injury tables are what a wound costs you.

Out of Vitality: Wounds & Second Wind

What Happens

Running out of Vitality does not drop you. A hit that would push you past 0 Vitality inflicts a wound instead: a lasting injury, rolled on d4 plus however far past 0 that hit reached (below). You catch a Second Wind and stay conscious and fighting, coming back up with your Vitality and your Vigor both restored to full. The rest of that hit is negated. Your wound capacity is your Tier, counted from your active lasting injuries.

Sitting at 0 costs nothing. A hit that takes your last Vitality and no more leaves you at 0, on your feet, in the fight, with no wound spent. The wound is bought by the next hit, the one that reaches for Vitality you do not have.

This is what makes a KING character hard to put down: a Tier 3 hero has three more full sets of pools behind the one you can see, and each one costs a permanent injury to buy.

When you would take a wound and have none left to spend, you die.

There is no dying state, no death timer, and no death saves. Your wounds are the countdown, and everyone at the table can see it: a Tier 3 hero carrying three wounds is one bad hit from the end, and they knew it when they took the third.

NPCs never take wounds: a Major NPC out of Vigor and Vitality simply dies, and a Minor breaks and flees at Tier remaining in its pool or dies at 0, twice its Tier in total damage (Part 7B).

Staying Alive

Because there is no dying state to be rescued from, everything that keeps you alive has to happen before the killing blow:

• Heal the pools. Vitality and Vigor restored before a hit lands mean fewer hits that reach past 0 in the first place.
• Remove a wound. Wound-removal magic and the Treatment column give back capacity, and capacity is life. See the Treatment entries on each injury table.
• Do not be there. Disengage, Step, cover, and range are how a wounded character survives; at capacity there is no cushion left.

Lasting Injuries

A wound IS a lasting injury. Vitality is battle damage that returns on a Rest; a wound is what a hit costs you when it would push you past 0 Vitality (you are maimed but standing, and both pools refill: see Second Wind above). Roll d4 + how far past 0 the hit drove you on the table below; the GM chooses which table based on what caused the hit, or rolls randomly if the source was mixed. The GM may skip the roll if it is narratively inappropriate. You can carry wounds equal to your Tier; with no wound left to spend, you die.

A wound carries no ongoing penalty to your rolls. What it costs you is a slot, and a slot is a life. Carrying wounds does not make you worse at your job; it makes you closer to the end.

How Far Past 0: The Overflow

The number you add to the d4 is the overflow: the Damage left over once your remaining Vitality has been spent. Take what the hit asked for, subtract the Vitality you actually had, and add what remains.

• You stand at 2 Vitality and a hit takes 3. Two points empty the pool, 1 is left over. Overflow 1, so roll d4+1.
• You stand at 0 Vitality and a hit takes 1. There is nothing to spend, so the whole point is left over. Overflow 1, so roll d4+1.
• You stand at 3 Vitality and a Tier 5 crit rolls 12. Three points empty the pool, 9 are left over. Overflow 9, so roll d4+9.

The overflow is never less than 1, because a hit that merely empties your pool costs no wound at all (see Second Wind above). The smallest injury roll in the game is a 2.

What this means at the table. A wound bought by a scratch is a scar. A wound bought by a blow that overshot you by ten is a maiming. Severity is not a flat toll for running out of Vitality; it records how badly you were beaten at the moment you ran out. Low-Tier play is not punished by this, because low-Tier hits cannot overshoot far in the first place: it takes a Tier 5 crit to reach the bottom rows.

Severity

Every injury has a Severity from 1 (Minor) to 6 (Crippling), and severity does exactly one job: it decides how hard the wound is to heal. A Minor scar mends with a season's rest. A Crippling one needs a miracle.

Reading the Tables

Each table runs from 1 to 20+, and the whole range is live: a 1-point overflow lands in the scars, a heavy overshoot walks down into the maimings, and 20+ is Roll Twice, which a Tier 5 crit reaches on its own.

Result 1 cannot be rolled. The minimum injury roll is 2, so the Cosmetic row is never the result of a wound. It is there for the GM who wants to mark a character directly, without a roll: a fall, a brand, a brawl, a close call that left something behind. A Cosmetic injury costs no wound slot and fades on its own.

Healing a Wound

Wounds do not close on their own and a Rest does not touch them. There are three ways to get a slot back, listed in each injury's Treatment column:

Time. Where a Treatment lists a number of months, that many months of genuine rest and convalescence clears it. Not every wound offers this: from Serious upward, time alone will not mend you.

Care. Where a Treatment lists Healing N, a character with at least N points in the Healing skill tree can treat it over a Rest, given proper tools and supplies. Two points is the floor: below that you can dress a wound but not close one. Each further point into Healing lets you treat one step more severe, so a full healer can eventually mend anything mundane. One wound per patient per Rest.

Miracles. Where a Treatment lists a Litany, that litany clears the wound outright. Some injuries - a cursed soul, a fractured mind - list only a litany: no amount of skill or convalescence touches them.

Wounds persist through Rest until treated by one of the three.

Wound Injuries (Blades, Claws, Arrows, Teeth)

Trauma Injuries (Falls, Blunt Force, Crushing, Explosions)

Burn Injuries (Fire, Acid, Cold, Lightning, Energy)

Corruption Injuries (Poison, Necrotic, Psychic, Magical)

Disease Table

When exposed to illness or as a result of certain injuries, roll to determine the affliction.

Treatment Guide

Reading the Treatment Column:

• N months = N months of genuine rest and convalescence, no adventuring
• Healing N = treated over a Rest by someone with at least N points in the Healing skill tree, given proper tools and supplies
• Litany: Name = Requires that specific prophet litany

Treatment Options:

• Time: Safe but slow, and only wounds below Serious offer it at all. Character must avoid strenuous activity.
• Care: Two points in Healing is the floor for closing any wound, and each point past the second handles wounds one step worse. One wound, one patient, per Rest.
• Litanies: Divine intervention. Requires finding a prophet with the appropriate litany and convincing them to help.

Litanies Used for Treatment:

• Cure the Afflicted (Tier 1) - Cures disease and poison
• Restore Hope (Tier 1) - Cures supernatural despair, nightmares, intrusive thoughts
• Seal Wounds (Tier 1) - Closes serious wounds, heals internal damage
• Restore Sight (Tier 2) - Restores blindness from any cause
• Restore the Maimed (Tier 2) - Regrows lost limbs and organs, restores severe damage
• Break Great Curse (Tier 2) - Breaks curses, magical corruption, soul damage
• Cure Plague (Tier 2) - Required for actual plague

Poison

Poison

Application:

• Poisoned weapons
• Ingested poison
• Contact poison
• Inhaled poison

Saving: Body save vs poison DC

• Success: No effect (or reduced effect)
• Failure: Full effect

Effects:

• Immediate Vitality loss
• Vigor stripped each round (damage over time)
• Stat penalties
• Conditions (paralyzed, unconscious, etc.)

Treatment:

• Antidotes (instant cure)
• Healing magic (varies by spell)
• Time (poison runs its course)

Death

How Characters Die

A character dies the moment they would take a wound and have none left to spend. There is no dying state, no death timer, and no stabilization: the wound track IS the countdown, and it is visible to everyone at the table.

What this means in play:

• Help has to arrive before the killing blow, not after it
• Clearing a wound (Treatment or wound-removal magic) gives back a slot, and a slot is a life
• A character at capacity should be played like it: they are one hit past 0 Vitality from the end

Resurrection

When Characters Die:

Low Levels (1-4):

• Death is usually final
• Resurrection magic is rare
• May require quest to find resurrection

High Levels (5-10):

• Resurrection spells become available
• High-tier clerics can resurrect
• Expensive and costly

Resurrection Limits:

• Some deaths can't be reversed (disintegration, consumed by demons, etc.)
• Each resurrection takes a toll (stat loss, corruption, etc.)
• Multiple resurrections become harder

Resurrection Costs:

• Expensive material components
• Divine favor or intervention
• Personal sacrifice
• Time and recovery

Permadeath

When Resurrection Doesn't Work:

• Body completely destroyed
• Soul trapped or consumed
• Divine intervention prevented
• Player chooses final death

Making a New Character:

• Start at appropriate level for party
• Inherit some wealth/resources
• Integration into story

Combat Reference Tables

Damage Resistance & Immunity

Conditions

KING runs on six conditions. Each one either hits a stat you already use or takes your turn away, so nothing here is a subsystem of its own. Anything an ability calls by another name is fiction unless it points at one of these.

A condition that lowers a stat lowers everything that stat feeds. A blinded character is easier to hit; a frightened one has a thinner shield and may already be over the new cap, in which case the excess Vigor is gone.

States

Three more things track on your sheet without being conditions: