Strain, Wounds & Conditions

Strain is the universal resource in Metanoia. It represents physical and mental stress, exertion, and injury simultaneously. It accumulates as you fight, push yourself, and take damage. Gaining Strain is bad. Relieving Strain is good.

Strain Maximum

Your Strain maximum is the threshold you must not reach. When your pool fills, you are incapacitated or dead.

Formula: 4 + (2 × (Realm + XP invested in Strain))

Realm	Strain Max (no XP invested)
0	4
1	6
2	8
3	10
4	12
5	14

The absolute maximum Strain is 24, reached by investing heavily in Strain and being at maximum Realm.

Gaining Strain

The following cause you to gain Strain:

Activating abilities: Active abilities have a Strain cost paid at activation. The cost depends on the ability’s Realm relative to yours.

Adding extra dice: Each die added beyond your free pool limit (your Realm number) costs 1 Strain.

Bleeding out: A character with 3 wounds gains 3 Strain per round until they are dead. See Reaching Your Limit.

Taking Hits

Getting hit does not directly affect your Strain pool. Instead, hits create wounds and conditions, which are tracked separately with their own Strain ratings. A wound or condition’s Strain rating represents how much Strain you must relieve to clear it during rest.

From attacks: If the hit is not fully absorbed by armor, a wound is created. The wound’s Strain rating equals the Strain that got through. If armor covers the hit location, it absorbs Strain on a 1:1 basis before any wound is created.

From non-damaging effects (Seize, applied conditions, etc.): If the effect is not prevented, a condition is applied with a Strain rating equal to the effect’s strength. For some conditions, the Strain rating also determines the severity of the effect itself, not just the clearing cost. See Named Conditions.

Relieving Strain

The following cause you to relieve Strain:

Resting: The primary way to relieve Strain from your pool. See Rest & Recovery below.

Voluntary wounds: You can accept a wound to immediately relieve Strain equal to the wound’s Strain value. You decide the Strain rating of that wound, which determines how much Strain you relieve. See Voluntary Wounds.

Reaching Your Limit

Your current wound count determines what happens when your Strain pool fills:

Situation	Outcome
Maximum Strain, fewer than Maximum wounds (3 usually)	Incapacitation. The character is exhausted and unable to act but not dying.
Maximum Strain, Maximum wounds (3 usually)	Death.
Maximum wounds (3 usually), not at maximum Strain	Bleeding out. The character gains 3 Strain per round. Maximum Strain approaches fast.

Wounds

Every character by default has 3 wound slots. A wound is a condition that occupies one of those slots and has its own Strain rating.

There is a passive that allows you to gain one more wound slot, bringing your wound slot total to 4.

Acquiring Wounds

You gain a wound when an attack gets through your armor (fully or partially). The wound’s Strain rating equals the Strain that was not absorbed. Each wound is named and described narratively and carries a mechanical penalty at the GM’s discretion, reflecting the nature of the injury.

The wound’s Strain rating is the clearing cost: the amount of Strain you must relieve during rest to heal it.

Voluntary Wounds

You can choose to wound yourself to relieve Strain. When you do:

You choose the wound’s Strain value (1 to 5).
You immediately relieve that much Strain from your pool.
You choose a condition to suffer.
The wound occupies one of your 3 wound slots.

This is a desperation play. You are trading long-term durability for immediate relief from your Strain pool.

Clearing Wounds

Wounds are cleared through rest. When you rest and relieve Strain, you can choose to allocate some or all of that toward reducing a wound’s Strain rating instead of reducing your own pool. When a wound’s Strain rating reaches 0, it is removed.

Conditions

A condition represents a physical or psychological state affecting your character: broken ribs, a deep slash, disorientation from a mental assault, exhaustion from overextending your Ren. Each condition has a Strain rating with two functions: it is the clearing cost (how much Strain you must relieve during rest to eliminate the condition), and for some conditions it also determines the severity of the effect itself.

Conditions apply ongoing mechanical penalties at the GM’s discretion, reflecting how the state affects what you can do.

Not all conditions are wounds. A condition can exist without occupying a wound slot: environmental effects, poisons, curses, or non-damaging abilities can all impose conditions independently.

Named Conditions

The following conditions can be applied by abilities using the Condition [X] intent during ability creation. The X is replaced with the condition name when building the ability. All last for the duration of the ability that applied them.

Condition	Applied to a creature	Applied to a character	Strain determines
Weakened	The attacker gains a bonus die against this creature. Size follows the creature die ladder.	The creature’s die steps up by the condition’s Strain value on the enemy die ladder.	Die size (creature) or number of steps (character). See ladders below.
Maimed	One ability of your choice (active or passive) becomes unusable for the duration.	One of your abilities (attacker’s choice, active or passive) becomes unusable for the duration.	Number of abilities disabled: 1 Strain = 1 ability.
Escalating	Gains Strain equal to the condition value at the start of each round. Name the variant when building: Burning, Bleeding, Poisoned, etc.	Gains Strain equal to the condition value at the start of each round.	Per-round Strain gain rate.
Sensory Deprivation	One or more senses are blocked (sight, hearing, smell, etc.). Rolls dependent on a blocked sense lose one die.	One or more senses are blocked. Rolls dependent on a blocked sense lose one die.	Number of senses blocked.
Slowed	Stride is reduced by the condition value. At 0 stride, the creature cannot move.	Stride is reduced by the condition value. At 0 stride, the character cannot move.	Degree of stride reduction.
Destabilized	The next condition applied to this target has its Strain rating increased by 1. Lasts until the end of the next round.	The next condition applied to this target has its Strain rating increased by 1. Lasts until the end of the next round.	How difficult the condition is to remove.
Sapped	Cannot relieve Strain by any means for the duration.	Cannot relieve Strain by any means for the duration.	How difficult the condition is to remove.
Festering	Cannot clear a wound for the duration.	Cannot clear a wound for the duration.	How difficult the condition is to remove.

Weakened: Die Ladders

When applied to a creature, the attacker adds a bonus die to their pool:

Strain	Bonus die
1	d12
2	d10
3	d8
4	d6
5	d4
6+	d4 and the attacker gains a boon.

When applied to a character, the creature’s die steps up by the condition’s Strain value on the enemy die ladder. Each step moves one position up:

Step	Enemy die
Baseline	d3-1
+1	d3
+2	d4
+3	d5
+4	d6
+5	d7
Beyond d7	d7, and the character receives a complication.

A creature whose die is already on the ladder steps up from wherever it currently sits, not from the baseline.

Removing Conditions

Conditions are removed through rest. When you rest and relieve Strain, you can choose to allocate some or all of that toward reducing a condition’s Strain rating instead of reducing your own pool.

When a condition’s Strain rating reaches 0, the condition is removed.

Damage Types, Resistance, Vulnerability

Resistance and Vulnerability

Players and enemies can have a resistance or vulnerability to specific types of damage. Written as: Heat R1, or Cold V1, They adjust the number of successes required when an entity is attempting to apply a wound.

For player characters, having resistance reduces the number of successes needed to defend by the level of the resistance (1 from Heat R1), and having a vulnerability means that that number increases by the level of the vulnerability (1 from Cold V1)

On creatures, having resistance increases the number of successes needed to wound them by the level of the resistance (1 from Heat R1), and having a vulnerability means that that number decreases by the level of the vulnerability (1 from Cold V1)

Types

Damage Type	Description
Heat	Fire, heat, lasers, light, all sources of damage that come from things being hot.
Cold	Ice, freezing, all sources that would chill a character.
Electric	Electricity, anything that would shock you.
Decay	Poisons and diseases, withering, cancer.
Mental	Emotional distress, mind tricks, psychic attacks.
Sharp	Piercing and slashing, telekinesis.
Blunt	Damage from impacts, falls, clubs, telekinesis.
Physical	Sharp and/or Blunt.
Ren	Heat, Cold, Electric, Decay, or Mental.
Divine	”Holy” damage. Existential, but can appear as another type.
Void	Inexistence, null, entropic.
Profane	”Unholy” damage. Existential, but can appear as another type.

Rest & Recovery

Characters relieve Strain through rest. There are four rest types, each usable once per day.

Rest Type	Duration	Strain Relieved
Quick	1 hour	2
Light	4 hours	Realm + 2
Good	12 hours	Realm + 4
Deep	24 hours	Realm + 6

Taking a longer rest does not prevent taking a shorter rest later, as long as you have not already used that type of rest.

Allocating Recovery

When you rest, each point of Strain you relieve can be directed one of two ways:

Reduce your pool: Your accumulated Strain drops by 1.
Reduce a wound or condition: The target’s Strain rating drops by 1. At 0, it is removed.

You choose how to split each point. You can put all of it toward one direction or mix freely.

Practice Sessions

Downtime rest also serves as learning time. Creating a new active ability requires 3 practice sessions, each of which takes place during a “Good” rest period.

See Active Abilities for ability construction rules.

License