Injuries, Firearms, Shock and Major Wounds
 

Say a character makes a single attack with a pistol, shoots 3 times and hits two shots in an NPC that has 10 HP. The penetrating damage is 4 for the first shot and 3 for the second one, both in the torso. The NPC is now at 3 HP. Questions:

1. Is this a single injury and thus a Major Wound? It's two shots, but just one attack - one source.

2. What's the shock penalty for the NPC? -3 or -4? Do I consider the highest of them or should I sum the results (and in this case apply the max penalty of -4)?
2.1 If penetrating damage were 2 and 1, the shock penalty would be -3, -2 or -1?

Re: Injuries, Firearms, Shock and Major Wounds
 

No, it's two injuries. You went through the injury-resolution process twice.
I think you composed your question wrong, since the only way the answer to 2 could be "-3" is if the second smaller injury overwrote the shock from the first injury. Which is obviously incorrect.

To 2.1, see this: "Shock: -HP of injury received last turn" (Campaigns 547).

You could reasonably look at that from a slightly different angle as the shock from multiple injuries adding together (but the cap applies to the total, not to each individual contribution).

Re: Injuries, Firearms, Shock and Major Wounds
 

The character has taken a single Attack Action but has scored 2 hits resulting in 2 separate injuries. The Shock Penalty will be -4 because that was the larger injury. If te largest injury had been 2 pts then the shock Penalty would be -2. There is no Major Wound.

You never add 2 injuries together to get Shock penalties or to get a Major wound.

Note that if the npc had only 10 HP (which seems to be the case) he is now below 1/3rd of his starting HP and is reeling from his wounds so he is at half Move and Dodge.

Re: Injuries, Firearms, Shock and Major Wounds
 

Yeah, that's my main question here: what constitutes an injury in this case? Each individual resolution? The sum of resolutions from the same attack? Or is it the highest of them?

My guess would be -3, the sum of both. As it is loss the character suffered before his turn.
If he had suffered yet more damage from another source before his turn, this character would suffer a shock penalty of -4. Right?

Re: Injuries, Firearms, Shock and Major Wounds
 

That's what I think. Fred disagrees though, and I failed a quick text search to find anything definitive one way or the other.

Re: Injuries, Firearms, Shock and Major Wounds
 

What's the difference between being shot twice by one person or once each by 2 people. My interpretation is that injuries add for shock calculation.


From campaigns page 419...

• Whenever you suffer injury, reduce your DX and IQ by the number of HP you lost – to a maximum penalty of -4, regardless of your injuries – on your next turn only.

In your second scenario, the first shot imposes a -2 penalty and the second shot increases the penalty to -3. Note that it says, "...regardless of your injuries...".

You're the GM though so whatever way you want to do it is the right way.

Re: Injuries, Firearms, Shock and Major Wounds
 

Within the clause that specifies the -4 limit on shock, so it has no relevance elsewhere...

Re: Injuries, Firearms, Shock and Major Wounds
 

"Whenever you suffer injury..." (emphasis added)

There were 2 injuries.

"...regardless of your injuries..."

So, multiple injuries are included in the -4.

Re: Injuries, Firearms, Shock and Major Wounds
 

I can't infer the argument here.

The cap applies regardless of your injuries, yes, but nobody is questioning that. The question is, does -2 and -2 make -4, or not? And I do think it does, but that fragment doesn't answer that.

Re: Injuries, Firearms, Shock and Major Wounds
 

I searched the Basic Set for "Injury", "Single Injury" and "Major Wounds", also searched something related to this case on google and could not find any definitive answer in here, reddit or the fandom.

IMHO shock penalty max is -4 in any case, though.
But I'm really not sure about the major wound... I guess it's really open for interpretation of maybe the phrasing regarding this is a little different than we are thinking or it is in another book.