This may have been asked before but I am running into a dilemma when players in my groups suffer harm. Here is the scenario…
A player was choked unconscious by an enemy in combat. That player was assigned level 3 harm and is considered based on the rules ” incapacitated and can’t do anything unless you have help from someone else or push yourself to perform the action”.
This player chose to do nothing as they were choked out and it wouldn’t have made sense. It feels like I am stuck with a character who is now invincible as they are never going to take an action and therefore never open to a consequence. It reads as though the player can’t do anything unless they have help or push themselves, meaning, if they chose to do neither, they can forfeit taking an action.
The way I understand the game to be played is that the GM doesn’t take actions for the NPC’s and consequences are only assigned to the player taking that action and any players assisting. Therefore, a player who never takes an action is effectively unkillable.
I can see in a situation where a player simply chose not to fight maybe they stand in the corner while the gang is attacking their friends and do nothing. Maybe in that spot I make the guard attack them and they roll finesse or something appropriate to avoid the attack or suffer the consequence. However, doing this to a character that is incapacitated seems severely unfair considering they have no way of defending themselves.
I am sure there is a way around this but I continuously get stuck here when GMing sessions and am not sure how to threaten death on anyone for making mistakes as when they receive level 3 harm they can simply not act.
Is the solution to have an NPC attack them? Again, if so, I feel like that goes against the spirit of the game in having the player’s rolls determine the outcome.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. We all love playing the game and are just looking to fully grasp the mechanics.
The way I understand it, Harm is not a benefit. So, I would use the incapacitated character’s predicament as a consequence for others… do the assailants want to take the choked out character as hostage? Well, as a consequence to the other player’s not assisting their incapacitated teammate or the incapacitated character not pushing themselves to act, I would have that be on the table. Or something similar, depending on everyone’s goals.
A couple things to point out: the system does allow for forced resistance roles. So if you REALLY want to do more to the incapacitated character (though first explore why you want that) you can narratively describe people taking the individual away for incarceration or worse. I also like the above suggestion of treating it as a problem for the other players.
Also: the character can still participate in scenes and actions where their particular harm doesn’t hinder them. You might think, “they’re knocked out, that applies to everything,” before realizing that flashbacks are a part of the game, as one example.
But I wouldn’t force a character to take action unless they are in grave and immediate danger. If they don’t the burden will be placed on their team, after all, and that’s interesting, too.
Level 3 harm and being short a member on a mission is plenty of punishment already, I wouldn’t worry about being lenient, the recovery from that alone is a nightmare.
That having been said I think you can still direct attacks towards the character as appropriate in which case they either push themselves, or must take further harm and consequences without the defensive roll they’re choosing to neglect, or an ally might intercede and roll against the enemy. You can’t just neutralize a threat by ignoring it, and not all consequences and harm need to be tied to a roll so long as players are made aware of the risks and choose to ignore them. Try to punch a skilled spearman and the GM would be will within rights to inflict resistable harm before the combat roll after warning “Hey, getting in close with this opponent might be hard unless measures are taken.”
I’d also expect the fallen teammate to be a real burden on extraction. On most jobs I’d expect a group prowl to be necessary at a minimum to get out afterwards before the bluecoats/crows/etc show up, and this player would need to be assisted in order to even stand a chance on such a roll. And if the group doesn’t want to or cannot assist in getting the player out then either the player pushes to make a prowl to escape or they give up on that too and are left to probably take a trauma or end up making an imprisonment roll depending on whose hands they end up in.
One suggestion I would make here is that being knocked unconscious doesn’t sound like a level 3 harm. Rather level 3 harm should leave a character capable of taking actions at great effort but also hindered until they receive a very substantial amount of medical care through Recovery rolls. Maybe it would make more sense to handle a knockout as a different sort of consequence: “You take level 1 harm bruised trachea and awaken split from the party under interrogation. Expect some challenging rolls to find a way to turn the tables or endure interrogation with either Heat being generated or a “Crew Base Located” clock filling up on fails and partials until you escape or are rescued.”
Yeah, I’ve definitely had this problem too — this weird sense that if the characters don’t do something, the system doesn’t provide any way to bring threats and dangers to fruition.
Ultimately, if there’s nothing stopping something bad from happening, the bad thing should happen. You can give the characters a last shot to do something about it (and handle the action roll as usual), or just have them roll resistance (or not; also an option). Just don’t leave the game stuck.
NPCs can take action and do things to PCs. The game specifically says this. If the PC is choked out and helpless, and refuses to push themselves to act or get help, then the NPC can do whatever they want to the helpless PC. They don’t have to stand and wait patiently for the player to make a roll. There’s no instruction in the game that says a PC who isn’t rolling is invincible. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Follow the fiction. What does the NPC do next? NPC actions take effect unless opposed by a PC action (which triggers a roll). “She slits your throat. Oh, did you want to avoid that? What do you do?”
Your PC who “waits in the corner” during a fight isn’t automatically safe. An NPC can simply walk over and stab them. Don’t want to get stabbed? Okay, what do you do about it?
There is some great advice here. If you have a question of what can you do though remember to follow the fiction. You’re in no way beholden to wait for a player to make a roll before you take action.
Even in a standard scenario, you might say “She’s running at you with a sword drawn. What do you do?”
And if the player fights they might take the hunt or skirmish action. If they flee they might take the prowl action. But if the player says “okay, I stand there and see what happens” then what happens is they get stabbed or have a sword to their throat, or whatever the person intended for them.
In your example if someone is choked out and an NPC would kill them, then I think you handle it the same way. “Seeing you barely alive they decide to be sure and fire gunshot aimed at your head. What do you do?” The answer may be “I’m unconscious, I do nothing” and then perhaps someone else uses the protect action, or perhaps they are interested in playing a ghost character.
But the action could also be “Oh crap, My eyes snap open wide with fear, I push myself and kick their legs out from under them so they can’t get a good shot!”