Editing A Place Called Home (section)

===The system, if it can be called one.=== 

Often I'll just make up a reaction, an effect or whatever based on what seems to be a likely outcome, so a lot of things won't even see dice rolls. If I do have to make a roll, usually when combat is taking place, but at other times when a random element is needed too, I'll roll a die, and add some bonuses or penalties based on what I know about your character - her Attributes, what Skills she has, what Gear she's using, her Motivation and Flaw as well as environmental factors (having 4 red samurai bearing down on you while you try to get the computer lock on the door to open is going to be slightly terrifying), and her Archetype - even though a Rigger and a Decker might both have the Decking skill, the Decker is going to be better, because decking is what she is, chummer. Then I'll write up what happens based on what I end up rolling. Again, you can see what this looks like for PCs by picking a page at random from my other game (The Words that Maketh Murder) which is linked in my sig below. 

In terms of HP etc, it's more abstract. There are 5 levels of being, from Perfectly Fine to A Few Scratches And Bruises, to Starting To Hurt, to Uh-Oh and finally to Medic! I guess there's really 6 stages, the 6th being Alas Poor Yorick, from which there's no coming back. I might not always use those exact phrases, but you'll have a good idea of what wound level you're at when it comes to it (You Can See his Fucking Brain! is equivalent to Medic!, That Ankle is Definitely Sprained is equivalent to Starting To Hurt, and You'll Feel That In The Morning is on a par with A Few Scratches And Bruises, to give some examples. Some characters will take more time passing from one stage to the next, based on stuff like the Brawn Attribute, race (Trolls can take some damage) and Archetype (Street Samurai are tougher than Deckers), but in general, if you're shot or whacked with a combat axe, it's going to hurt you. A professional doing the hurting is going to hurt even more, especially if he's wired and using top of the line gear. Sometimes you have to realize why they call it running the shadows.