Wounds, Scars & Death

Vitality measures a character's ability to keep fighting.

It represents stamina, armor deflection, battlefield awareness, pain tolerance, minor wounds, luck, and sheer refusal to die.

When a character is reduced to 0 Vitality, they are Downed.

A Downed character is in immediate danger. They may be unconscious, bleeding out, pinned under debris, choking on smoke, stunned by impact, or simply too injured to act.

While Downed:

• You fall prone unless the GM says otherwise.
• You cannot take normal Actions, Bonus Actions, or Reactions.
• You can speak only briefly, if the GM allows it.
• You begin making Death Saves on your turns.
• You remain at 0 Vitality until stabilized, healed, saved by Fate, or killed.

A character at 0 Vitality is not automatically dead. They are on the edge.

At the start of your turn while Downed and unstable, make a Death Save. Roll:

d20

No attribute modifier is added unless a feature says otherwise.

10 or higher. Gain 1 success.

9 or lower. Gain 1 failure.

Natural 20. Regain 1 Vitality and immediately become conscious.

Natural 1. Gain 2 failures.

At 3 successes, you become stable.

At 3 failures, you die unless Fate, another rule, or GM-approved intervention prevents it.

A stable character remains at 0 Vitality but no longer makes Death Saves. They are unconscious or helpless until healed or given time to recover.

If you take damage while Downed, you suffer 1 Death Save failure.

If the damage is from a critical hit, execution, heavy weapon, power weapon, daemon attack, or another especially brutal source, you suffer 2 Death Save failures instead.

If a single attack deals damage while you are Downed equal to or greater than your Maximum Vitality, you die outright unless you Burn Fate or a feature prevents it.

The GM should use attacks against Downed player characters carefully. The threat should exist, but it should not become routine punishment.

A creature adjacent to a Downed character may use an Action to attempt emergency aid. Make:

Intellect + Medicae · DC 10

On a success, the Downed character becomes stable.

If the character is suffering an Active Wound such as Bleeding Out, Burning, or Internal Rupture, the DC may increase to 13 or 15, at the GM's discretion.

A medi-kit grants Advantage on this check or may allow automatic stabilization if equipment rules later support that.

When a character takes a single hit that deals damage equal to or greater than half their Maximum Vitality, they must make a Massive Damage Save. Roll:

Toughness Save · DC 10 or half the damage taken, whichever is higher

On a success, the character suffers no additional effect beyond the damage.

On a failure, the character suffers an Active Wound.

If the save fails by 5 or more, the GM may choose to make the wound especially severe or roll twice and choose the worse result.

If the damage came from a critical hit, power weapon, heavy weapon, daemon attack, explosive, vehicle impact, or environmental catastrophe, the GM may impose Disadvantage on the save.

Massive Damage is how Bolt & Blade makes big hits scary without simply killing player characters constantly.

An Active Wound is an injury that currently affects the character.

Active Wounds may come from:

• Failing a Massive Damage Save
• Taking a critical hit from a brutal weapon
• Falling from a dangerous height
• Explosions
• Fire
• Psychic backlash
• Daemon attacks
• Being reduced to 0 Vitality by a severe attack
• GM judgment during especially violent scenes

Active Wounds should matter, but they should not require constant bookkeeping.

A character may have more than one Active Wound.

If a character would gain an Active Wound and already has three Active Wounds, the GM may instead upgrade one wound into a Lasting Scar, lost limb, damaged gear, or other serious consequence.

When a character suffers an Active Wound, roll 1d10 or choose a result that fits the scene.

The GM may adjust results to match the fiction. A flamer, chainaxe, plasma gun, daemon claw, and collapsing cathedral should not all leave the same kind of wound.

A Lasting Scar is a permanent or semi-permanent consequence.

A scar may be physical, mental, spiritual, social, or mechanical. Examples:

• Burned face
• Missing eye
• Bionic hand
• Limp
• Vox-static nightmares
• Fear of enclosed spaces
• Inquisitorial suspicion
• Oath of vengeance
• Prayer brand
• Daemonic whisper that never fully stops
• Armor machine-spirit that no longer trusts you

A Lasting Scar should usually do one of three things:

• Change how the character is described.
• Create a situational penalty or complication.
• Create a situational benefit that came at a cost.

Examples:

• A horrific scar may impose Disadvantage when trying to appear harmless, but grant Advantage on Intimidation.
• A lost eye may impose penalties to long-range Awareness checks until replaced.
• A bionic arm may remove the lost-limb penalty but create Tech vulnerabilities later.
• A daemonic scar may help sense Warp activity but increase suspicion or Corruption risk.

Scars should make characters more memorable, not simply worse.

Some injuries cannot be healed cleanly.

Lost limbs, ruined organs, destroyed eyes, nerve damage, and severe trauma may require augmetic replacement.

Augmetics are not fully defined in this chapter. For now, use these principles:

• Augmetics can remove or reduce the penalty from a severe wound.
• Augmetics usually require time, access, resources, a patron, or debt.
• Mechanicus treatment may fix the body while creating new obligations.
• Cheap augmetics may come with drawbacks.
• Sacred or military-grade augmetics may become rewards.
• A Forge-Bound character may interact with augmetics differently later.

The Imperium wastes nothing. Not even the parts of you that still work.

Recovery depends on the severity of the injury.

During a short rest, a character may attempt to treat one Active Wound. The treating character makes:

Intellect + Medicae · DC 13

On a success, one Active Wound is suppressed until the next long rest or downgraded if the GM agrees.

On a success by 5 or more, the wound is removed if it is not severe.

On a failure, the wound remains.

On a failure by 5 or more, the wound worsens, creates a complication, consumes supplies, or inflicts 1 level of exhaustion if exhaustion rules are being used.

A character may treat their own wound, but does so with Disadvantage unless the GM says the wound is easy to reach and treat.

After a safe long rest:

• Restore Vitality according to the final rest rules.
• Remove one minor Active Wound if it received treatment.
• Convert appropriate wounds into Lasting Scars.
• Resolve ongoing bleeding, shock, or temporary wound effects.
• Severe wounds remain until proper care or story action resolves them.

A safe long rest means the character has time and security to sleep, bind wounds, reload, pray, conduct rites, and stop actively dying.

In the underhive, aboard a drifting hulk, or inside a corrupted shrine, the GM may decide that no rest is truly safe.

Fate interacts with wounds directly.

A character may spend Fate to:

• Stabilize at 0 Vitality.
• Reduce incoming damage.
• Avoid or soften a wound, if the GM allows.

A character may Burn Fate to:

• Survive something that should have killed them.
• Avoid instant death.
• Turn death into a lasting wound, scar, capture, lost limb, damaged gear, or other serious consequence.

Burning Fate should save the character, not erase the event. Something still happened. The sheet should remember it.

A player character dies when:

• They fail 3 Death Saves.
• They suffer instant death from overwhelming damage.
• They are executed while helpless.
• They choose a death worth telling.
• A rule, feature, or narrative event kills them and no Fate, intervention, or escape remains.

Death should matter.

The GM should not treat player death as routine attrition. If a player character dies, it should be because the situation was severe, the dice were merciless, the Fate pool ran dry, or the player chose sacrifice over survival.

The Imperium has endless bodies. The campaign does not.

A helpless, unconscious, restrained, or fully immobilized character can be executed by an adjacent enemy if the enemy has the time, intent, and opportunity.

This should not be used casually. Use execution when:

• The enemy is cruel, disciplined, or specifically ordered to finish the party.
• The scene has established that mercy is gone.
• The character's allies have a chance to intervene.
• The moment matters.

Do not use execution as routine punishment for being knocked down.

Most NPCs do not use player character death rules.

Ordinary allies, hirelings, soldiers, civilians, cultists, gangers, guardsmen, and background characters usually die at 0 Vitality.

Important named NPCs may use simplified Wounds or Death Saves if the GM wants them to survive.

Default rule. NPCs die fast. Player characters get consequences.

This keeps the grimdark setting brutal while preserving player character stories.

When a player character dies, the player creates a replacement character at the same level unless the table chooses otherwise.

The replacement should enter at the next plausible moment. Examples:

• Reinforcement from the regiment
• Survivor found in the wreckage
• Freed prisoner
• Inquisitorial backup
• Astartes battle-brother arriving under oath
• Local guide pressed into service
• Forge-Bound specialist dispatched to recover sacred data

The story should make room for the new character quickly.

Players should mourn in character if they want.

Then the war continues.

When a player character dies, the replacement character may inherit one legacy from the fallen character. Choose one:

The Imperium wastes nothing. Not even grief.

A player may choose to make a death meaningful.

When a player character would die, and no Fate or escape remains, the player may ask for a Last Stand.

If the GM agrees, the character gets one final moment before death. Examples:

• Fire one last shot.
• Seal a blast door.
• Detonate explosives.
• Speak a final truth.
• Hold back the horde.
• Burn a relic.
• Save one ally.
• Deny the daemon its prize.

A Last Stand should not undo the death.

It should make the death worth remembering.

Wounds, Scars & Death are built around five principles:

• Vitality runs out before the character does.
• Player characters should suffer consequences more often than they die.
• Scars should make characters more memorable, not simply weaker.
• Fate can save a character, but should not erase the cost.
• NPC death keeps the world brutal; PC wounds keep the campaign personal.

This is grimdark adventure play, not random character deletion.

The dice can kill you.

The story should remember why.

The systems wounds lean on: