Stress & Harm

Life can be difficult, especially in a city like Rio. Work, social pressure and general hassle and stuff that happens can leave you exhausted, upset, embarrassed or even physically bruised. In Malandros, you measure that with stress.

There are 4 kinds of stress:

Stunned, Angry, Embarrassed, and Beaten Up.

Whenever your character is under the effects of one or more type of stress, you take -1 to all rolls. This penalty does not increase if you tick more than one stress type – it just makes it harder to get rid of the penalty.

The existence of stress as a thing you can measure doesn’t mean that, for example, you suffer a penalty whenever your character is angry. Rather it means that, when the Angry stress box is ticked on your character sheet, your PC gets so angry that it’s putting them off doing anything.

You don’t have to play every scene as if you’re furious, either, just because you have the Angry box ticked – outwardly, your character may still express any of the gamut of human emotions. But that Angry thing is inside, preying on his mind when he should perhaps be concentrating on other things.

You can remove one stress mark by calling a dramatic scene in which your PC reduces their stress, being reassured or calmed down by someone, or having their bruises tended to. You can also remove a stress mark by calling a procedural scene in which you use the “Carouse” action.

Where stress measures relatively minor physical and mental strain, harm is serious physical punishment.

There are 4 degrees on the harm track:

Beaten Up, Hurt, Injured, and Out.

(Note that Beaten Up is a kind of both stress and harm.)

When your character is Beaten Up, all action rolls are made with a -1 penalty. The penalty when Hurt is -2, and when Injured, -3.

When a character is Out, they are unconscious, incapacitated, or even dead.

Whenever you suffer harm, tick off boxes on the harm track according to the amount you took. E.g. if you are already Hurt and suffer 1 harm, you are now Injured.

Shifting Harm

Whenever you suffer harm, instead of ticking a box on the harm track, you may instead tick an appropriate stress type. You can only do this for 1 level of the harm you suffer – any remaining harm must be counted on the harm track. The stress type must be appropriate to the situation. For example, if you take 1 harm from falling out of a tree when there’s no one around to see you, you can’t tick Embarrassed.

This is what the stress and harm tracks look like:

O           O           O                O

Dazed Angry Embarrassed Beaten Up  -1

     O

     Hurt           -2

     O

     Injured      -3

     O

     Out

There are two actions that relate specifically to harm. And here they are now:

Suffer Harm

When you suffer harm, mark it on the harm track and roll Enduring. On a 6+, you’re as OK as you could hope for, in the circumstances.

If you took 1 or more harm, the GM can choose something from the 3-5 list below, but you take -1 harm. On a 3–5, the GM can choose 1:

• You lose your footing.

• You lose your grip on whatever you’re holding.

• You lose track of someone or something you’re attending to.

• You miss noticing something important.

On a 2-, choose 1:

• You’re out of action: unconscious, trapped or in a panic.

• It’s worse than it seemed. Take an additional 1 harm.

• Lose a body part (e.g. hand, finger, half an ear).

At Death’s Door

When you hit ‘Out’ on the harm track from a potentially lethal blow, roll Enduring. On a 3+ you survive until medical help comes – choose one from the list if you get 6+, choose two if you get 3-5.

• You owe someone for the treatment – a lot.

• Side effects: lose 2 points from one of your abilities.

• Lose the use of a major body part (e.g. arm, leg, eye).

If you get 2-, you die.

Weapons

When one character strikes another, they inflict harm based on the weapon they are using. Different weapons also have different ranges at which they can be used.

Fists & feet: 1 harm, hand

Navalha (straight razor), club: 2 harm, hand, easy to hide

Big knife: 3 harm, hand

Bengala (cane): 2 harm, hand/close

Sword: 3 harm, hand/close

Pistol: 3 harm, close/far, loud

Winchester rifle: 4 harm, far, loud

Ranges

Hand: touching distance

Close: slightly beyond arm’s length

Far: further away than that

If you want to move towards or away from an enemy who can attack you at the range you either start or finish in, you have to Act Under Pressure.