China Bright would not be an exciting game without the real threat of character death. When a character enters combat there is a risk of injury and demise. It is this risk that generates tension. There are ways inavoiding hurt in combat: running away and decking out in armour cladding. They may help but they are not foolproof. 

The Three Phases of Combat
Each round of Combat is broken down into three phases: Declaration of Initiative, Roll, and Resolution. When everyone has completed all three phases, the next round begins and the cycle starts over.

1) Declaration of Initiative
Describe your character’s action. The characters declare their actions with the lowest Awareness going first but highlighting possible alternative actions with every Width they have. A character needs at least one Width in his Awareness just to roll normally.

A character can flex his Awareness to increase his Width actions or raise the Height to go faster. It isn’t necessary to do so and I recommend it being used if the character needs to make a fast movement or prepare to dodge blows.

If the player chooses to use multiple actions, he can but it isn’t necessary.

Fang Dangando has an Awareness of 3x1
King Vuitton has an Awareness of 2x2

King’s player declares he is flexing Awareness to 3x1,
although he knows there is a risk he will not roll
well enough for multiple actions, he is hoping his two
Master Dice will help. Fang’s will keep his fixed at
3x1.

Regardless of what you choose, make short and specific, do not hum and ah about your actions. When in doubt just use your Awareness as is. A sensible player can make tactical flexes of his Awareness before hand and choose one of them at the right time.

At this time you want assign your Target Dice that you have in the skills you are using.

2) Throw and Land
Each player rolls his chosen dice pool and then assigns Master Dice. After Master Dice any additional Wrangle Dice are re-rolled. The different lands are set aside and remaining dice are removed.

3) Resolution
The character with the Highest Roll goes first, from ten down to one. If two character’s tie the highest Width goes first. If it is still a tie, the character with the Highest Awareness goes first.

If you attacked before your Height, you must move to assign damage. Basically you must flex your attacker’s roll according to your Defence ability. If you are not Down or Dying continue with the actions until everyone
is finished.

Assign damage or Drama Trauma at the end of the round.


TAKING DAMAGE

Unlike the other incarnations of ORE, China Bright’s MECHANORE uses an alternative damage system. Shock and Killing damage are integrated together as Wounds.

When a player gets hit with damage from an opponent, he can flex the opponent’s roll, to assign how he takes the damage and what damage he takes, up to his Defence attribute. No roll can be flexed more than his Defence Ability’s Height.

If the player declares to use a slower action (one with a lower Height) and his Defence Ability acts as a Dice Catch. If the roll, flexed or not, is equal or less than the Dice Catch, with Height and Width, the attack is dodged.

But if the character is hit, the player decides what sort of damage his character takes. Hopefully he can decide what damage he can take.

WOUNDS HEIGHT
10 CRITICAL
9 SEVERE
8 SEVERE
7 SERIOUS
6 SERIOUS
5 SERIOUS
4 SOFT
3 SOFT
2 SOFT
1 SOFT

When a player flexes the roll to take damage he marks the Wound he takes and he writes the Width next to it. A character can only take damage in one Wound box. He cannot select the same Wound more than once.

When the Width of one Wound exceeds the Width of the character’s Defence Ability, he must take dice pool penalties from the damage. The Defence Width does not reduce penalties just delay them for a while.

Damage, Dice Pools, and Penalties
The width of the Damage is used as a penalty to all future dice pools. Only the widest Width is used. Do not accumulate all the penalties, only use the widest.

If the character takes additional damage in another Wound and the Width is shorter than what has been taken before, no additional penalty is incurred. If the additional damage’s Width, added together, is wider than the previous penalty, use the newer, wider penalty.

Remember: bigger penalties only affect dice pools after the damage was taken.

Some damage is worse than others. When a character crosses off all the boxes of a specific quality of damage Wound boxes (Soft, Serious, Severe or the one Critical box) he starts is down or starts dying.

Down
Characters that have filled their Soft and Serious Wound boxes cannot roll a dice pool of a height that matches any of their filled Wound boxes. The land simply is read as 0x0 and fails and the character is out of action, stumbling around, swaying with the blurred vision, holding it where it hurts, or falling over.

Dying
If a character has filled his two Severe Wound boxes or the one Critical Wound box, starts dying. Quite simply the character crosses off his remaining empty Wound Boxes, one every round, from one to ten, until he crosses off his last and Highest Wound box.

The character must mark off the boxes at the Declaration of Initiative phase before rolling. A dying character may also suffer Bad Lands from being Down as well as Dying. Dying does not, in itself, confer any extra penalties even though his Soft and Serious Wound boxes are crossed off by approaching death.

When all the boxes are filled, the character is dead.


ARMOUR: HIDING BEHIND COVER AND PROTECTION

All armour is rated with two values, a Cover and Protection WXH value and ablation rating. These are short-handed to WXH=?

The Width, or Protection, cancels the damage’s Width by a like amount or less, otherwise the full amount of damage is taken. If your amour protects you for 3W, it will reduce all damage of 3W or less to zero. However, if you are hit for 4W damage, you take the full 4W damage.

The Height, or Cover, only works if the Damage land can be flexed down to that Height.

The ablation value is the armour’s true means of deflecting harm. It soaks up Drama Trauma. If the player elects for his armour to deflect a Drama Trauma, its ablation value and the Protection and Cover WXH values decrease by one each.

The armour’s protection is destroyed when its ablation reaches zero.

Unlike other dice lands, armour is static. It is never rolled.

Cobbon Weave Jacket [2X3=1]
Cobbon is the marketed term for synthesised spider silk. It is extremely pliable and soft but is amazing at regulating body temperature and resisting damage. It is expensive and stylish couture. Most Cobbon shrinks to a comfortable, breathable second skin with general wear so it makes perfect clothing for skulking.

The Cobbon-Weave Jacket provides a Cover of 3H and a Protection of 2W. It only has an Ablation rating of 1. So the player that uses the armour to soak up a Drama Trauma can do so, and it does, but then it is ruined. Its WXH protection is reduced to a tattered 0X0=0.

If looked at correctly, the armour is only going to protect a character if the damage taken is within a certain WXH value proportionate to what the protection actually is. A thick jacket is only going to protect you from Soft Damage.

Certain combat carapaces offer values like 5X10=10 while sturdy riot foam-plate cladding offers a nice 3X5=3.

Normal multilayered clothing offers a protection of 1X1=0. It can only deflect the unluckiest of blows and it isn’t going to take your Drama Trauma.

DESTROYING ARMOUR
Attacking armour is acceptable. The attacker must make a Called Shot and roll his attack. The attack must exceed the armour’s Protection or Cover and it loses one Ablation. Continue until the armour is non-functional. Considering how carapaces and chasses can be bulked up, sometimes it is the only means armour can be destroyed.

DRAMA TRAUMA
Of course the all-over dice pool penalty from damage is not fair, is it? How does getting hurt in one place affect the body as a whole. If my character is hurt in the leg he shouldn’t suffer any penalties for shooting a gun, should he?

No, he shouldn’t. The whole penalty is a bit overwhelming. If the player wishes, he can take a Drama Trauma. A Drama Trauma is a specific injury to a certain part of the body, a broken bone or a nasty gash across his arm.

All these penalties complicate the character is different ways, penalizing his ability to function effectively. It represents the actual stress, discomfort, and hampering of a character’s body.

But, what is it good for?

In short, it stops your character dying. That’s the easiest sell technique.

If your character has one more Wound to tick before he starts dying, he can free up that slot and allow it to be ticked again.

It cannot stop a character from dying, only medical assistance can do that, but if the dying is halted, the player can free up the slot with a Drama Trauma.

Nice, hey?


SOFT WOUNDS DRAMA TRAUMA
This is soft tissue damage: slight concussions, broken teeth, shallows cuts, bruises, and sprains. There is a little bleeding but it is harmless. Soft wounds are superficial but may cause considerable pain. Soft Wounds can be recovered with First Aid.

SERIOUS WOUNDS DRAMA TRAUMA
This is actual damage to muscle and bone tissue, broken bones, dislocated joints, continued bleeding into the lungs, broken ribs, neck injury, difficult breathing. While not immediately threatening, this damage often hampers mobility and incites panic. If there is bleeding, it is chronic as the wounds open easily to bleed often. The most dangerous part of serious wounds is the risk of infection and opportunistic diseases when the shock of injury depletes the body’s reserves and immune system. Serious Wounds can be treated with First Aid.

SEVERE WOUNDS DRAMA TRAUMA
The damage is severe. This is the most dangerous level of tissue trauma a character can actually suffer and still live. If left untreated, these wounds will be fatal. A combination of shock, injury, and the body’s inability to process it will give the character a slow lingering death in a few hours. Serious Wounds can only be treated and recovered with monitored clinical care.

CRITICAL WOUNDS DRAMA TRAUMA
The body just starts shutting down as the person’s very life force seemingly drains, deflates, or squirts away.

Punctured arteries or internal haemorrhaging,punctured skull or bleeding into the brain, massive organ shock, too high or too low blood pressure, heart failure, lung failure, severe shock, neural overload from too much tissue damage, or too much toxicity.

Unless the character receives immediate and dedicated clinical treatment, first aid will not help, he will die.

CRITICAL AREAS
The head, neck, and heart are all considered critical areas. Any sufficient injury to any of these areas will kill a person. Even blunt force can do it.

SEVERE AREAS
The lungs, the skull, the abdomen, or any deep enough cut to the arms and legs constitutes severe damage. Burns that cover more than 50% of the body are severe.

SERIOUS AREAS
Most fractures off the skeleton are designated as serious damage. Torn muscles, tendons, ligaments, and spinal injuries are not immediately deadly but can lead to complications. The most problematic part of serious damage is mobility and extreme discomfort. Burns that cover less than 50% but more than 10% of the body are serious.

SOFT AREAS
The skin and soft fatty tissue are considered soft areas, as are the digits of the hands and feet, and genitalia. Sprains and dislocations of bones and joints, and although eyes can be poked out, the tongue ripped out, fingers severed, and the nose sliced off, these are the most serious of the non-life threatening damage.

EFFECTS OF DRAMA TRAUMA
As mentioned above, the player must choose a penalty related to his Drama Trauma. It must be consistent with his damage. When the character is assigned Drama Trauma, his abstract dice pool penalty is largely ignored; he still suffers a -1 to all dice pools because the injury is still distracting.

Primarily it is a Stat with a narrow focus of skills all linked around a sensible injury. This is not difficult to think out. A character with a broken leg is going to have trouble moving on his leg and thus his penalties all contribute any sort of physical movement that involves his leg.

Unlike abstract damage, which is all encompassing but unspecific, all penalties chosen by the player work against the player simultaneously according to the widest damage the character labours under.

HIT LOCATIONS AND DRAMA TRAUMA
If a character wishes to use a Called Shot for a body part, he must choose the type of damage he wishes, like severe or serious, to do to what location on the body; like head, arm, neck, leg, foot, or the Finger.

The character assigns a free ed and a Dice Catch to the Wound he is aiming to get. A character who is aiming for an 8, Severe Wound injury has a Dice Catch of 7.

Not only that, he gets a dice pool penalty depending on how hard it is to hit that shot.

Declare a targeted area of the body and remove that many dice from the pool.

Area Minimum Width
Head 4
Neck 4
Chest 2
Arm 3
Hand 3
Gut 2
Leg 3
Foot 4


SPECIAL DAMAGE

BURNING
Burning automatically does damage. There is no damage flexing. However all burns start small and work their way up. Burns are caused by continued exposure to energy – fires, extreme heat, extreme cold, gamma or microwave radiation, etc.

All Burn has a Width. It has no Height. One the first round the burning starts at the lowest Wound box (1H). It doesn’t matter if the character has marked it off or not, the burning doesn’t care. Just dump the Width there on top of any existing damage. On the Next Round it moves up to the next Wound Box, adding one Width. Fire progressively eats its way up until it consumes the Critical Wound box and the character is dead.

Certain types of energy like low-level beamed radiation, extreme heat and cold cause the same damage just slower.

IMPACT DAMAGE
A character fall three meters or ten feet and suffer no damage. For every extra three meters or ten feet, the GM assembles Sudden Deacceleration Trauma Syndrome Number. Ten or thirty meters/100 feet is considered SDS terminal velocity.

It is measured as a WXH, the Width is the solidity of the object you are hitting and the Height is the height or speed of the falling body.

Height is the dice pool from one to ten dice. Width is equal to the amount of Impact Dice.

When your hit SDTS, roll the H dice pool. The Width is how many of those dice are re-arranged next to the highest dice.

If your GM rolls 5X7 and gets 1674299, the 99 is kept aside, while the 1, 4, 6, and 7 magically become 9999. Your damage is 6X9. Bummer.

The SDTS dicepool is always ten dice. Five of the dice are rolled. The remaining five dice are Master Dice. The Master Dice are assigned to the Highest Number rolled.

Any other lands, lower than the SDTS master land, are taken as damage as well.

Fortunately, the lands can be flexed. Start with the lowest lands and move up to the higher and wider ones. Unfortunately, SDTA damage can only be flexed upwards, higher up the Wounds. If it stops at ten, the Critical Wound Box, the character starts dying.

SHOCKING
Electricity is based on Watts (W) – the frequency or volume of energy – and Amps X100 (H) – the volume of the excitable bite of the power. These come in little packets of Volts, alternating positive and negative packets


HEALING

Technology is fantastic. There is not a clinic cannot save and heal when you are at your worst – well almost. As long as the brain is kept functioning, the whole body can be regenerated and stapled together with implants.

Stabilising
A character that is dying, dropping off his wounds, can get saved, his functions stabilising before death automatically. Robots crowd around the character and putting thousands and thousands of varied tubes, wires, pads, and medical machinery into him and literally steers the body into continued living despite the injuries, while anaesthesia, microscopic monitors, drugs, little scalpel-fingered hands, blood scrubbers, and tissue beds extract poisons, clean dead tissue, pump life-sustaining fluids, and cloned stem cells by the billions into the quivering lump of meat, pushing it in reverse up onto the plank and back on the boat of life.

Dying
If a character is dying dedicated medical treatment will save his life.

Down
A character who is down will survive with a medical technician roll.

Dropping Damage
The character can heal on his own but slower than medical assistance. Characters heal their hurts simultaneously.

The bodies healing process is quite capable of healing itself with superfast medical procedure and machinery – it is expensive. Since most people cannot afford the costs, the worst damage is stabilised and patched up. The character can be put in a bed and heal on his own.

Every so often the worst damage drops down in height. It is slow going for critical and severe wounds, serious are annoying slow, and soft wounds go quickly.

Once the wounds Width drop down to Soft it diminishes rapidly but not immediately. The lowest Height must be emptied before height in damage can diminish to a lower Height.

Player can choose automatic healing if they are getting the proper bed rest or roll for it if they are still engaged in strenuous physical activity.

Automatic Healing
Characters automatically heal their Health ability every day, week, or month. Players may flex their Health ability to heal higher damage.

Rolled Healing
Roll Beef + Psyche and hold thumbs. If a character rolls a bad land with no matches, the Highest damage drops down into the lower height’s damage, adding to that damage Width.

Assisted Healing
Injured characters hooked up to supervised machines get another roll to assist them: monitored medical assistance.

By using Target and Master Dice the medical professionals can pin-point where they’d like to heal and do so on a match – the Highest damage is obviously first. 

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