Injury

See google spreadsheet: LINK

Like inspiration, injuries affect the narrative. However, unlike inspiration, one's character takes on (rather than spends) injuries. Injuries burden your character with some negative affliction that will impose some lesser or greater risk on their life. They can also note the nature of the injury. Injuries are not always entirely negative, they can sometimes be leveraged for an advantage in a scene. For example, if one notes that they have become bloodied from a flesh wound, maybe that bloodied state allows their character to slip out of a chokehold.

Injuries: Degrees of Severity

Light injuries
Signified by 'L' or '⛛' on the character sheet.
Light injuries can be healed with first aid and rarely pose a risk to one's life. Light injuries usually represent minor irritations. If left untreated for long enough, a light injury may become a severe injury, but they often heal on their own. Examples: Insect bites, minor flesh wounds, short term diseases (common cold in modern day with good hygiene and shelter and sustenance), poison ivy, going without sleep for one night, going without food for one day, going without water for one day, fatigue from one day's hard labor, etc.

Severe injuries
Signified by 'S' or '☐' on the character sheet.
Severe injuries require experienced medical care to be healed, and can pose a risk to one's life. They significantly impact one's quality of life, and impose a significant risk of leaving a scar. If left untreated for long enough, a severe injury may become a mortal injury. Examples: Childbirth (normal), concussion, broken bone, diarrhea without good medical care, dehydration lasting more than one day, going without food for one week, chronic and constant hard labor, etc.

Mortal injuries
Signified by 'M' or 'Ω' on the character sheet.
Mortal injuries may not be healed even by the best medical care, and always pose a high risk to one's life. If a character survives a mortal injury, they are permanently changed by the experience. Note, that in some circumstances, one may petition their game master to allow their character to be knocked out, rather than suffer a mortal injury. Examples or mortal injuries: Severe mental illness such as deep depression or PTSD from war or torture, cancer, disembowelment, third-degree burns over more than 50% of one's body, a fourth-degree burn or worse over a small part of the body, acute poisoning from deliberately fatal dose (e.g.: 100mg of arsenic), injuries suffered during an attack by a large predator, etc.

Scars
Signified by a name and description of the scar on the character sheet.
Some injuries leave behind a scar. These scars may affect us deeply, or leave behind little effect other than evidence of trauma. In either case, once an injury heals, a scar may be acquired. A player can choose to take on a scar any time an injury is removed by healing. Sometimes, the GM may impose a scar on a character. When appropriate, scars can be leveraged to gain an advantage, or to gain a point of inspiration. Scars are often caused by physical trauma, but can also be caused by: Mental, emotional, spiritual, magical, social, or any other trauma.

Death
Signified by 'D' or '☖' or '💀' on the character sheet.
Death is considered a special kind of injury, one from which a character cannot recover. Death is a state in which a character no longer functions and cannot be repaired. In most stories, that character simply ceases to exist. In others, a character might persist after death as a disembodied spirit. Or, resurrection may be possible, depending on the available technology or magic in the story.

Taking injuries

See google spreadsheet: LINK

Injury guide

TRIGGER WARNING This section deals with physical and psychological injury in an explicit fashion. Citation links may lead to graphic images showing serious injuries.

Using the injury system takes some knowledge of how injuries are sustained and their effects.

Depression

Optional Rule: Linking inspiration and injury and pivotal scenes.

Depression is a special injury that affects a character's ability to spend inspiration points. Use this ruleset to explore depression and its effects on a character and their community.

The depression injury is gained if you go through a session without spending at least one inspiration point. If you already have an injury of depression and you go through an entire session without spending at least one inspiration point, your depression injury aggravates (from light to severe, or severe to mortal, or mortal to death).

Depression, Light
If you have a light injury of depression, you are only allowed to spend 1 inspiration point per session. You may still earn inspiration as normal.

Depression, Severe
If you have a severe injury of depression, you cannot spend inspiration points at all. You may still earn inspiration as normal.

Depression, Mortal
If you have a mortal injury of depression, you cannot spend inspiration at all (though you may still earn inspiration as normal), and no other player character may spend more than one inspiration per session.

DEV NOTE: This mechanic is intended to simulate the effects of depression on one's self and one's community, and to explore situations in which that community can come together to lift the depressed person up or shun them and be free from that burden. It also has the happy coincidence of forcing players to not hoard inspiration.

Injury Examples

Bleeding: On average, an adult human (male or female) will carry about 5 liters of blood (10.5 pints). Losing one-third of one's blood is life-threatening (Mortal injury), and two-thirds is usually enough to kill (Death). When draining blood from a living adult human, under conditions ideal to this process, brain death due to blood loss takes as little as ten seconds (if an adult sheep is comparable), though this process can be drastically slowed by a number of factors: Internal vs external bleeding, area where blood loss is occurring (major artery vs extremity), whether medical care is being applied. Unconsciousness will certainly occur in cases of heavy blood loss - in about half the time it takes to kill (if the untreated blood loss would result in death in two minutes, unconsciousness will occur in one minute). All that said, superficial cuts and flesh wounds are usually easily recovered from, except where the hygiene of such wounds isn't maintained.
Broken bones: Not all broken bones are debilitating or life-threatening - fractures to the fingers and toes are painful, but often heal with little to no medical intervention. However, bones can break in a wide variety of ways - more complex fractures can permanently disable a person even if they survive. Additionally, secondary, life threatening effects can be associated with broken bones: Traumatic brain injury, blood loss, fat embolism syndrome caused by marrow leaking into the bloodstream, pressure or breakage of the spinal column..
Burning
Acid:
Heat, Fire, or Electrical:
Dehydration
Drowning
Emotional trauma
Hunger
Hypothermia
Infection
Bacteriological/Prionic/Viral
Parasitic
Mental injuries: Psychological injuries can accompany physical injuries, as well as occur independently on their own.
ADD
Dementia
Depression
Intellectual disabilities
PTSD
Sociopathy
Poisoning & toxicity
Radiation (overlaps with burning and poisoning, but deserves its own category)
Burns:
Poisoning
TBI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traumatic_brain_injury#Classification

Armor: Armor is worn to protect the body from physical injury. Concept 1: No matter what armor you are using, any armor adds one injury slot. (most abstract, least forgiving) Concept 2: Armor adds 1 injury slot. Light armor can take a light injury, medium armor can take a light or severe injury, heavy armor can take a light, severe, or mortal injury. Concept 3: Light armor adds one injury slot, medium armor adds two injury slots, heavy armor adds three injury slots. Concept 3a: Wearing only one of the following: armor, shield, or weapon adds one injury slot. Wearing two of the following: armor, shield, or weapon adds two injury slots. Wearing three of the following: armor, shield, and weapon adds three injury slots. Concept 4: Maybe armor grants traits in the same as a backstory does, just contextual to the armor worn. This concept can be used with any of the above concepts, or on its own.

Suggestions for Injuries This is a short list of injuries for inspiration and guidance. By no means is this list exhaustive. The categories are meant to help a GM easily find an injury and are not meant to impose a set of explicit types of injury. These can also serve as suggestions for scars.

Physical
Psychological
Emotional
Social
Situational
Blood loss, Exsanguination
Blunt force trauma, Bruising, Broken bones, Crush syndrome
Burning or burned by (acid, frostbite, heat, atomic radiation)
Congenital disorder (birth defect)
Cutting, Slicing, Piercing
Dehydration
Exhaustion, Fatigue
Genetic disease
Hunger
Infection (viral, bacteriological, parasitic)
Overexertion
Poisoning, Toxicity
Sleep
Unconsciousness
Withdrawal symptoms
Addiction
Absent-minded
Amnesia
Co-dependence
Confusion
Delirium
Depression
Hallucination
Narcissism
Neurosis
Obsession
Phobia
Psychopathy
PTSD

Anger, Rage, Hatred
Boredom, Indifference, Apathy
Charmed, Enthralled, Ecstasy, Infatuated, In love
Fear, Panic, Terror, Horror
Hungry
Sadness, Grief, Regret, Sorrow, Despair, Mourning
Alienation, Ostracism, Exiled, Outcast
Bad credit
Enslaved
Hated, Despised
Indebted
Loss of reputation, Loss of face, Loss of honor
Oppressed minority, Lower caste, Untouchable
Romantic Breakup, Divorce
Situational injuries are so transient that it is usually only worthwhile to note them on the character sheet as a reminder for next session.

Annoyed
Dizzy
Falling
Flashblind
Grappled
Imprisoned
Nauseous
Prone
Temporarily deafened

Example scars

Scar
Type
Bad reputation (even if it's an undeserved one)
Social
Chip on your shoulder
Emotional and social
Debt that cannot be repaid
Social
Disabled limb
Physical
Disfigured visage
Physical and maybe social
Limp
Physical
Loss of organ (eye, ear, appendix, etc.)
Physical
Need for vengeance
Emotional and social
Neurosis (bad habit, suspicion, Napoleon complex)
Mental or emotional
Painful movement
Physical
Phobia
Emotional
PTSD
Emotional or mental
Regret
Emotional

Other injury classification systems:

REALISTIC:
- Physical,
- Psychological,
- Emotional,
- Social,
- Situational,
- Magic
SIMPLE:
- Body,
- Mind,
- Magic,
- Social
ABSTRACT:
- Fortitude,
- Reflex,
- Will
DAMAGE SOURCE (BROAD):
- Violence,
- Social,
- Environmental,
- Sustenance,
- Disease,
- Exertion,
- Magic