Conditions and environment¶
Written 2026-10-27 from the project's own design docs.
Harm that doesn't come straight from a weapon: bleeding, poison and disease, and hazards like fire, heat and cold. Decided as law on 2026-10-26 (rules H1–H9). The numbers are first tuning, to be judged in play.
Where this came from¶
With the Earth weapon baseline in place (Combat and items), the founder wanted environmental damage (fire, extreme heat and cold) and status damage (bleeding, poison, disease) accounted for next. The founder's idea was that once those are settled, the team can "essentially play Mad Libs" with new race, class, weapon and ability names, while the real focus stays on a mechanically diverse set of balanced play styles.
The assistant recommended an approach in six points. The founder replied: "You've nailed it - accept all your recommendations as law." Those six points:
- Order: settle the physics first (the Earth baseline, then non-weapon harm). Names come after, placed on combinations of mechanics. Variety comes from play styles that are mechanically different.
- Balance in two layers: by maths within a mechanic, and by simulated scenarios plus the founder's own play across play styles. The founder makes the final call.
- One building block for status harm: a condition on a body.
- One building block for environmental harm: exposure in an area.
- Attributes resist.
- Smoke, drowning, electricity, radiation, falling and the like should fit the two building blocks without new rules.
Decided (law)¶
- H1. A condition is the only form of status harm. It has damage per second (or none); a movement multiplier and an aim multiplier; an end (a timer, until a named cure, or while exposed); a stacking rule (adds up, like bleeding and poison, or refreshes, like burning); and an optional onset delay (like disease). Penalties from several conditions multiply.
- H2. Bleeding, leg wounds and arm wounds are conditions, created by weapon hits.
- H3. Exposure: a hazardous area fills its own exposure meter while you're in it, at the area's intensity. The meter drains when you leave, faster with treatment. Thresholds apply conditions:
- Fire: contact sets you burning at once, and adds heavily to heat exposure.
- Heat: at a full meter, heatstroke.
- Cold: at a full meter, hypothermia; at double, severe hypothermia.
- The exposure conditions end when the meter drains below half, or when cured by cooling or warming.
- H4. Resilience: every body has a resilience (1.0 for an average human), derived from Constitution. Exposure fills more slowly, timed conditions end sooner, and bleeding runs slower for a resilient body.
- H5. Balance layer 1 (maths): a condition's strength is the harm it does untreated over a 60-second reference window. Conditions of equal strength must cost the same. Tests enforce this for bleeding against poison.
- H6. Balance layer 2 (scenarios plus the founder): simulated scenarios report survival times and outcomes, starting with how long an average human survives each hazard untreated. The founder judges the results.
- H7. Disease: the founder's rule is that untreated diseases can be fatal but don't have to be. Each disease decides for itself. Untreated, it kills only if its total harm exceeds the victim's health, so the same disease can kill a frail character and spare a hardy one.
- H8. Fire is never resisted. The founder: "Constitution shouldn't help against fire." Burning lasts its full time and fire's heat builds at the full rate for everyone. Ordinary heat away from fire still respects resilience. (Reading: a hardy character still survives fire longer, only because Constitution gives them more health. If the founder wants fire to ignore that too, fire damage could scale with maximum health.)
- H9. Any pool. Conditions are defined to drain health in practice, but the founder noted they aren't prevented from draining stamina, mana or any pool defined later. So every condition names the pool it drains. Every condition defined so far drains health.
First tuning (the assistant's numbers)¶
| Condition | Damage | Movement | Aim (spread) | Ends | Stacks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bleeding | 1% of the wound per second | — | — | bandage | adds |
| Leg wound | — | ×0.75 | — | bandage | refreshes |
| Arm wound | — | — | ×1.30 | bandage | refreshes |
| Burning | 6/s | ×0.9 | ×1.15 | 6 s, or extinguish | refreshes |
| Heatstroke | 0.5/s | ×0.85 | ×1.25 | heat meter below half, or cooling | — |
| Hypothermia | 0.5/s | ×0.8 | ×1.2 | cold meter below half, or warming | — |
| Severe hypothermia | 2/s | ×0.6 | ×1.4 | cold meter below half, or warming | — |
| Poisoned | its strength over 20 s | ×0.95 | ×1.1 | 20 s, or antidote | adds |
| Diseased | 0.15/s after a 60 s onset | ×0.9 | ×1.1 | 15 min, or medicine | refreshes |
Balance layer 2: first results¶
A simulated scenario: untreated for up to 15 minutes, no armour. Health is 70, 100 and 130 at Constitution 4, 10 and 16. These are for the founder to judge.
| Scenario | CON 4 | CON 10 | CON 16 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standing in fire | dies at 12 s | dies at 17 s | dies at 22 s |
| Extreme heat | dies at 182 s | dies at 260 s | dies at 338 s |
| Extreme cold | dies at 141 s | dies at 202 s | dies at 263 s |
| A deep wound bleeding (60 damage) | dies at 82 s | dies at 167 s | dies at 282 s |
| Poison, strength 40 | lives, 13 HP | lives, 60 HP | lives, 99 HP |
| A mild disease | lives, 28 HP | lives, 58 HP | lives, 95 HP |
| A deadly disease | dies at 527 s | dies at 727 s | lives, 26 HP |
| Burning, left to burn out | lives, 33 HP | lives, 63 HP | lives, 93 HP |
Fire takes the same 37 HP from everyone when a burn runs its course; only the size of the health pool differs (H8).
Not yet¶
- No condition drains stamina yet, though the rules allow it.
- Contagion (disease spreading between characters) needs positions and the server.
- Gear that resists hazards, like a coat against cold, will come in through resilience or exposure rates once equipment slots exist.
The two-layer balance approach is written up as a general principle on Theory before math.