PowerFrame: Attack Results

The latest illustration for PowerFrame is a bit late because I had a sudden and unexpected (but welcome!) run of freelance design work all come in at once! Now that's behind me, I'm hoping I can double-time the next picture and get back on track. After this piece, I'm down to the final five!

This illustration will grace the Conflict chapter, in the section on Stun damage.

Attack Effects

There are four general types of Attack you can make in PowerFrame, depending on whether you aim to Wound, Subdue, Grapple, or Push.

Wounding causes Health loss, Grapples penalise the target's actions or perhaps even immobilise them, and Pushing causes forced movement. Attacks aiming to subdue inflict points of Stun.

Stun

While Health loss inflicts no particular penalties and results in long-term unconsciousness or death, Stunned targets suffer a penalty to most actions (apart from inflicting or receiving damage) – but it also wears off automatically at the rate of 1 point per turn. If a character accumulates 6 or more Stun they fall unconscious temporarily. Characters can't be killed from Stun alone, but every 5 Stun inflicted in a single blow also reduces Health by 1.

Normally you need a weapon that inflicts Stun damage in order to make an Attack to Subdue (boxing gloves, concussion grenade), but it's possible to inflict Stun with any weapon at reduced effectiveness (using the flat of the blade, pulling the blow to avoid permanent damage, or aiming for a weak-spot such as the stomach).

Stun can also be inflicted from means other than an Attack to Subdue, such as poison or a mystical effect.

Stealth Attacks

On the subject of ninja, PowerFrame has built-in ambush rules accessible to anybody – but characters with high Stealth who use the environment to their advantage are more likely to pull off stealth attacks with greater success.

If a character is unaware of your presence, and your Stealth roll is 5 or more points higher than their Wits roll, they don't get to make an Avoid roll. You simply have to beat their base Avoid value with your attack, which also increases the chance of a Critical Hit (an Attack with a Margin of 5 or more).

If you beat their Wits roll by 10 or more, they don't get a Toughness roll either. You roll Damage against their base Toughness plus Armour value with no die roll added. This greatly increases the chance of taking someone out in a single hit or, if you managed to score a Critical Hit, of at least maiming or debilitating them.


I'm unsure what picture will be next; I'll just see where my artistic whims take me. The pieces I have left to do are: Tech (Cyberware), Critical Hits (Push), Professional Equipment, Creating Arcana, and a Battle Scene (genre uncertain).