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The Anatomy of a Damage Call, Part 1

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Howdy Vados!

It’s still our Winter Break, but Rules Rambles don’t stop for silly things like time off! It’s Jonathan here, probably doing more than I should to bring you another installation of my discussion on the rules of Dystopia Rising. This week, we are gonna break down exactly what goes into a DAMAGE CALL, grade-school style!

The Basics

The rules for the contact-safe combat in DR start on p. 155 in the DR Corebook. It’s pretty easy to skip past this section cause it’s pretty short in length. I’m including a bit from page 157 in the book here, as a reference for this ramble.

Normally, if a monster swings a claw, hits you with a rusty nailbat, or shoots you with a rifle, the damage is assumed to be “base damage”. Melee weapons normally do 2 damage, ranged weapons deal 5 damage. When you use a Skill or a special ability that does something other than base damage, you call out the effect of that ability as a DAMAGE CALL.

Monsters (and characters!) will use a damage call to let you know what just happened to you in combat. Much like a Skill Call, the format of these calls is standardized, even though this part is mostly implied in the text and not spelled out directly. So today, we are going to examine the parts of a Damage Call and what it means, bit by bit.

The Damage Call

The structure of a damage call includes a few core elements. Most damage calls will be a short phrase or instruction, generally less than 10-15 words. The longer a call is, the harder it is to remember, so most Damage Calls are short and sweet.

The reason that this standardization of structure is important is similar to the Adjective Rule that we use in normal grammar. TL;DR, there is a normal way to use adjectives in a sentence, otherwise it sounds weird when you say it (the difference between saying “a new guitar folding” versus “a new folding guitar”). There is a natural way that the Skill Call flows to make it easy to understand, in a similar fashion. When we use the same format for all of our Skill Calls, it ensures that we can clearly communicate the rules of what is about to happen to our target.

Let’s look at an EXTREME example:

A sample Damage Call. Reminds me of those old grammar classes in elementary school…

There are SIX major mechanical parts of a Damage Call:

  • Delivery Modifier

  • Skill Name or Keyword

  • Delivery Method

  • Damage Amount

  • Damage Modifier (or Augment)

  • Damage Affix (or Effect!)

You can have a Damage Call that is simply just the Damage Amount, you can have a call only have Damage and a Modifier, or you can have a complicated call like we see here. (I’m sure you will have fun when you meet the monster that can do this.)

Important Note: Not all Damage Calls will include every part you see above.

The most common Damage Call is simply known as a SPIKE DAMAGE CALL. In these cases, the main effect is simply a larger amount of damage. This will sound something like the NPC saying “30 Damage!” when the monster contacts you with a boffer or packet.

The functional parts of a Damage Call are actually exactly the same as the parts of a Skill Call, but for this article we are going to focus on abilities used in combat.

Parts of a Damage Call

So let’s talk a bit about what each of these elements means for your character.

Delivery Modifier

The very first part of a Damage Call can be considered a Delivery Modifier. This lets you know that the effect is resisted with a different skill than normal. Normally, if an attack is delivered with a boffer or ranged attack, you can use the Avoid skill to resist the effect unless a Delivery Modifier is called. The only real Delivery Modifier at the moment is “PSIONIC”, but there could other abilities or items in the future that use this position in the call. This call lets you know that regardless of how the attack was delivered, it is a Psionic Attack (p. 105) and it can be resisted with Mental Endurance INSTEAD of the normal means of defense. This could be also considered a form of Delivery Method, but every time this is used it is as the FIRST part of the call and can be combined with other Delivery Methods so it really deserves a classification of its own.

Skill Name or keyword

The Skill Name is probably the rarest part of a Damage Call. It’s sometimes optional, depending on how complicated the Call is to say out loud. This part is used simply to identify the effect that is targeting you in a narrative fashion. This will generally sound something like “Impale!”, “Cannibalism!” or “Anomaly Response!”. The main function of this is to help you understand that the call that follows is part of that thematic effect so you can role play accordingly.

Delivery Method

The Delivery Method helps you know how you can resist the effect. The primary delivery method is a successful melee or ranged attack called a Strike (p. 107) or Ranged Attack (p. 106), which can both be countered by Avoid or Defend. If this is delivered with a weapon, a packet, or a NERF dart, you don’t actually have to say anything as part of your attack. It is assumed that the Delivery Method is either a Strike or Ranged Attack based on the physical attack you use. The main examples of a Delivery Method that matters in a Damage Call are OTHER forms of delivering an attack or Skill, like “Area of Effect” (p. 102), “Sound of my Voice” (p. 106), “Line of Sight” (p. 104), or even other weird ranges like “3 Steps” (p. 138, Master Pyrokinetics why are you so weird..). We will go into further detail about some weird interactions with delivery methods in the next blog post.

Damage Amount

The Damage Amount is probably the simplest and easiest part of the Damage Call. This is simply how much damage you take from the attack. Remember, unless a Damage Modifier is called you apply damage to your Armor first, then to your Body. Spike Damage strikes normally occur in 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, and 50 damage (yikes!) increments. A common strategy to buying Body points for your character is to have 1 more Body than these common attacks. You’ll see a lot of characters with 21 Body or 31 Body so they can survive one surprise attack without immediately dropping into Bleed Out. The beefiest of characters in the game with over 51 Body can survive an Apocalyptic Strike (50 Damage in a single blow!).

Damage Modifier (or Augment)

The Damage Modifier is sometimes also known as a Damage Augment. This is probably the second-most common part of a Damage Call, as this changes HOW the damage is applied to you. The most common Modifier is “Body” damage. Several Crafted Items allow you to change your damage type to Body, as well as the skill Piercing Strike. Other modifiers include:

  • Body - skips Armor and deals damage directly to your Body.

  • Bane - deals DOUBLE damage if you qualify for the type of Bane Damage

  • Mind (Poison) - deals damage to your Mind instead.

  • Rad (Radiation) - deals damage to both Body AND Mind in the same attack.

  • Rend - deals damage to both Armor AND Body in the same attack.

Damage Affix (or Effect)

The last part of the Damage Call is the Damage Affix or an Effect. This effect is applied last, after damage is dealt and lets you know what else the attack does to your character. This is probably the most varied thing that can be included into a Damage Call as this can be virtually anything! Most commonly, this is a Skill or keyword effect like Blinding, Stun, Knockback, or Break. Other times, this could be a short instruction like “Reduce Bleed Out Time to 1 Minute!”, “Lose 6 Resolve!” (ouch!), “No Escape!” or “No Defend!”. In our example above, if the attack’s Damage Amount would drop you into Bleed Out, the MURDER effect happens immediately — killing your character D-E-A-D!

That’s it for this week! Let me know what you thought about this article in the comments below or on our social media posts! Next week, I’ll break down some examples of each of the types of Damage Calls in more detail and explain how the order of operations works for a Damage Call.

As an extra special bonus teaser, you might notice a few updates to the Events page for the last half of Season 3…