Simplified Cinematic Condition Trackers

Condition Trackers
In a fight, you have two trackers: Physical Condition Tracker (PCT) and Stun Condition Tracker (SCT). Your PCT Limit is equal to BODY * 2. Your SCT Limit is equal to WILL * 2.

If you take any physical or stun damage, you will have -1 dice on all actions until the Tracker is back to 0 again. If your PCT or SCT reach half your Limit, this becomes -2 dice. PCT and SCT damage penalties do not stack! If either your physical or stun damage reaches your Limit, you fall unconscious.

If your SCT reaches your Limit, any additional stun damage will be applied to your PCT at a 50% penalty. It is up to GM discretion (Read: according to plot) how long you remain unconscious if you do not receive medical attention.

If your PCT reaches your Limit, you will begin to bleed out. Any excess damage (From the attack that initially caused you to reach your Limit) is ignored. However, if you take any damage from an attack after this, you will instantly die.

While bleeding out, you will take 1 physical damage per turn (Every 3 seconds) until stabilized with a first aid check (Threshold 3) or by receiving healing. If the PCT ever reaches BODY * 4, you die. You cannot regain consciousness without being stabilized. It is up to GM discretion (Read: according to plot) how long you remain unconscious after being stabilized.

Wounds
If you reach BODY * 3, the GM rolls a 1d6. Your character will lose the corresponding limb: organ, a significant amount of skin, etc) eye, an ear, brain capacity, etc)
 * 1) L. Arm
 * 2) R. Arm
 * 3) L. Leg
 * 4) R. Leg
 * 5) Torso (GM chooses between an
 * 1) Head (GM chooses between an

Edge Gain
For every 20 points of total karma, you gain 1 edge.

WARNING: This will make the game far less lethal. Consider in an edge check any time a character burns edge to stay alive. They roll 1 die. On a 5 or 6, they are alive, and their PCT is 1 below their Limit. On a 1, they are dead, and cannot attempt to burn any more edge. The only chance they have at survival is for another character to burn all their edge.

So, what, you're going to put your explanation at the bottom, huh? Keeping the truth away? Changing the format? This kind of chaos... WE LIVE IN A WORLD-
One of the new changes in the upcoming 6E of Shadowrun is placing armor benefits on dodging, rather than damage soak. This is something that irritated a lot of people. I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons for over 10 years, and it made sense to me as a way to reduce time spent on numbers during combat, as I was used to Armor Class. But then I thought about why it would irritate people, and I realized that the way D&D and SR handle “HP” is very different.

It goes beyond the naming conventions (Physical/Stun limit vs Health Points). It would be more accurate to refer to D&D’s system as “Heroism Points” (Mandatory Matthew Colville link). Essentially, HP in D&D is an abstraction of exhaustion, luck, etc, and takes a more cinematic view of combat. Your character is only in physical danger when reduced to 0 (Or bloodied, in 4E). This also allows the increased HP to make more sense as you level up: you aren’t becoming more resistant to physical damage, you’re becoming more experienced in combat.

In SR, the limits are measures of actual physical damage, and there’s another measurement of heroism: Your edge.

Thinking about it this way, edge gives players a better control of how they evade danger. But it is imperfect, and has a chance of failure. It’s also used for multiple things outside of combat (Which is to its benefit, I think).

However, edge does not necessarily scale with experience, and I think that should be kind of a “gimme” for players.

Here’s a retooling of the current system:

Limits: Much the same. Probably simplify the condition penalties, so there is just “Not bloodied, bloodied, unconscious”. Perhaps simplify to having it be BODY * 2 and WILL * 2 for clarity.

 ·            Wounds alternate: You can overflow up to BODY*2. Bleed-out is the same. Taking any additional damage while unconscious will kill you. If you bleed past BODY (Halfway to death), GM rolls 1d6 and you lose a limb/functionality, which will have to be replaced with cyberware or vat-grown:

 o      1: L. Arm

 o      2: R. Arm

 o      3: L. Leg

 o      4: R. Leg

 o      5: Torso (Organs, significant amount of skin, etc)

 o      6: Head (Eyes, ears)

Edge: For every 20 points of total karma, you gain 1 edge.