Editing Flamepunk: Character Generation: The Forge (section)

==GM Notes: Character durability and game style==

It's worth noting that as the default system stands, people (even impressive people like the player characters) die pretty easily. A sword strike might just do 2 points of damage, but on a perfect roll a starting player character could conceivably deal 52 points of damage! Doing 12 damage in a single hit isn't that uncommon, and "one hit kills" will happen sooner or later if the player characters go into the game with an idea that they can take on a swordfight naked.

This is an intentional design feature - in the world of Flamepunk, you get tooled up, or you get smart tactics, or you die.

GMs looking for a more forgiving setting, where armour isn't de rigeur for battle, and where traits that give combat survivability aren't essential, might want to change the default amount of Will Points and Wound Points to ''Pyros multiplied by Focus'', though they should bear in mind that this cuts both ways - player characters will no longer be able to drop their enemies in one hit either.

It's probably better to let players know the approach that this game takes to combat up front, and to clue them into the various tricks they can use to make themselves more survivable. The smart runner knows that killing is number two on the list of priorities - the number one priority is not being killed.

For players and GMs, a quick crib-sheet on making a survivable character is here: [[Flamepunk: Staying Alive|Staying Alive]]
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