01 / Where it began
The setting changed the scale.
One of the first problems I encountered while adapting Daggerheart to science fiction was the scale of damage. Its familiar damage bands gave me a clear way to resolve personal danger. VeilFarers also needed to account for technology that could destroy far more than a person.
A missile, a cluster bomb, a nuclear detonation: these belong to a very different range of destructive force. I wanted a mechanical language for that range, between an ordinary wound and a ruling that simply says, “you die.”
The image that made the problem obvious to me was an attack powerful enough to bring down a building, yet translated into the same three marked HP as another Severe hit. For the science-fiction experience I wanted, that ceiling broke the connection between what the fiction described and what the numbers meant.
02 / The design decision
Let the thresholds keep going.
The solution I chose was an open-ended sequence of thresholds. Severe would remain the familiar reference point, and damage beyond it would keep crossing new steps. A character could now be subjected to an enormous amount of damage, with a coherent consequence—even when that consequence would probably be death.
“Infinite thresholds” does not mean infinite durability. It means the scale does not stop explaining the hit. Increasing destructive force can continue to increase the harm it causes.
I settled on simple increments of five or ten. Five produces the harsher, more lethal feel I associate with that kind of destructive technology. Ten gives the players more room and the result a more heroic tone. Both are easy to count at the table.
+5 · Deadly
A shorter distance to the next consequence. Intended for a grittier game where very large hits become dangerous quickly.
+10 · Standard
More space between increases in harm. The default leaves a wider margin for the crew’s heroic survival.
These intervals express the intended tone of play; they are not a physical model of blast damage.
03 / The rule
One more step. Then another.
Severe damage marks 3 HP. Every full 10 points above the Severe threshold adds 1 HP. The optional Deadly variant uses a five-point interval.
With a Severe threshold of 22, a total of 31 still marks 3 HP. At 32 it marks 4; at 42 it marks 5. Crossing Severe is not enough to trigger Overkill: the entire extra interval must be reached.
| Damage total | Standard | Deadly |
|---|---|---|
| 22–26 | 3 HP | 3 HP |
| 27–31 | 3 HP | 4 HP |
| 32–36 | 4 HP | 5 HP |
| 42 | 5 HP | 7 HP |
The Corebook describes the purpose of these bands as making weapons feel weighty while keeping combat arithmetic manageable. Overkill carries that principle beyond Severe.
04 / Combat workbench
Fire the shot. Count the cost.
Choose a hostile and armor, select Armor Slots for the next hit, then trigger the attack with the button or by tapping the scene. Each attack hits a six-HP soldier. An energy pulse then restores that same soldier’s hearts and armor. On defeat, a recovery drone removes the body before a different soldier arrives.
OVERKILL // LIVE TEST
PLAYER // RIGHT
Six hearts ready. Major 12 · Severe 22 · Standard Overkill at 32+.
Choose Light Frontier Vest, Medium Tactical Armor, or Heavy Power Armor from Corebook 12.06, pp. 124–126. The displayed thresholds include the soldier’s level 2 bonus. This connected-hit demo compares rolled damage to those thresholds; Evasion, Agility, and weapon penetration are outside this scene. Each selected Armor Slot prevents 1 HP under the author’s Overkill clarification. Energy regeneration restores hearts and slots after each surviving hit.
Pixel-art characters, robots, boss and environment by BarelyApes.
05 / What the steps change
More impact, without counting every point.
A buffer between jumps
Several different totals still lead to the same harm. That keeps the result legible and leaves room between increases in HP loss.
A shorter interval
Deadly reaches each extra HP sooner. The same roll can carry much more danger, so choosing the interval also chooses the tone of a fight.
Those steps create breakpoints. One extra point at 31 matters more than one extra point at 28 in this example. That is a consequence of using categories, and something worth noticing when evaluating damage bonuses.
Armor adds a resource decision. Each spent slot removes exactly 1 HP from the resulting harm. A 7 HP hit becomes 6 HP with one slot, 4 HP with three, or 2 HP with five. Very large hits still carry a consequence after protection, and spending more armor now leaves less available for later.
06 / Bring it to the table
What does your group notice?
Does the possibility of Overkill change how the crew approaches a dangerous weapon? When does a player save an Armor Slot, and when do they spend it? Does Deadly create the tension your campaign wants?
The goal was to make the consequences fit the scale of the fiction. The useful test is whether the table can feel that connection while still resolving the hit quickly.
CONTINUE THE MISSION // 01READ THE CORE RULEOpen the full damage and armor rules in Corebook 12.06.OPEN COREBOOK ↗
CONTINUE THE MISSION // 02REPORT YOUR FINDINGSTell us how Overkill feels at your table.SEND FEEDBACK ↗Damage thresholds: VeilFarers Corebook 12.06, Chapter 10, pages 94–95. Armor spending follows the author’s clarification: 1 HP prevented per slot spent. This demonstration concerns personal combat; naval damage uses its own procedure.