How to Play

Healing

Healing in STONES, SCROLLS, SWORDS & SORCERY is intentionally abundant. Characters may go from battered and broken to back on their feet within the same Session through recovery, Rest, Sorcery, and special Abilities.

Healing is tracked through a Recovery Track. Whenever a character receives meaningful medical care, rest, or magical healing, they may clear Recovery. The Recovery Track has 6 sections.

Recovering Through Throws

Recovery functions like any other Track. When a character attempts to treat an injury using a Skill such as {Mend}, make a Throw and use the Filling Tracks guidelines to determine how much Recovery is cleared.

A strong Outcome may clear several Recovery at once, however a failed Outcome does not remove existing progress. A failed healing Throw does not necessarily cause additional Harm; it may simply mean the treatment was ineffective, an injury was aggravated, or time and resources were wasted.

Abilities which state that they clear a specific amount of Recovery do so without requiring a Throw unless stated otherwise.

Clearing the Recovery Track

Whenever 6 Recovery has been cleared, the Recovery Track resets and all current Harm is reduced by one Level:

Recovery is not lost when the Track resets. Any Recovery beyond the 6 required carries over onto the newly cleared Track.

For example, if a character already has 4 Recovery and an effect clears 5 Recovery, 2 complete the current Track and reduce their Harm by one Level. The remaining 3 are then carried onto the new Recovery Track.

If a single effect clears enough Recovery to complete the Track more than once, resolve each completed Track in turn.

Healing with Words of Power

When a Sorcery is used to heal, resolve the Throw using the normal rules for Filling Tracks. If the Throw would clear Recovery, multiply the amount cleared by the appropriate value on the Magical Healing table, then round down — this is the new amount cleared.

Use the highest-Level Word of Power meaningfully contributing to the healing, and the number of Words meaningfully contributing to that effect.

Example: A healing Sorcery achieves a +6 Great Success, which would normally clear 3 Recovery. It uses one Level 1 healing Word, giving it a ×1.5 multiplier. It therefore clears 4 Recovery.

Recovery gained this way may exceed 6. Whenever 6 Recovery is cleared, reduce all current Harm by one Level, clear the Recovery Track, and carry any excess Recovery onto the new Track. A sufficiently powerful Sorcery may therefore clear the Recovery Track multiple times.

Magic Healing Table:

Failing a Healing Sorcery

Obtaining a Negative Outcome when casting a Sorcery does not cause the Recovery Track to progress backwards. Instead it is more likely that the recipients of the Sorcery will suffer some form of Harm.