Ballistic Puncture
The critical table for ordinary single bullets — ball ammunition without a specialty nose. A round that goes through and takes its time about the consequences: the danger here is bleeding rather than gross damage. Sized against the RMU core Puncture table (Core Law p. 233) — a gunshot sits a little above an arrow, not far — in that table's own location-band layout, with Weapon Law: Firearms 6.4 (book p. 122) as the historical starting point. Roll d100 (not open-ended) and cross-index with the critical's severity.
| Roll | A | B | C | D | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head1 | AThe round takes a few hairs with it. Foe feels the heat of its passing more than the passing itself.+1H | BThe round clips the rim of foe’s ear. It stings out of all proportion to the harm.+3H | CThe round furrows the scalp above the hairline. Foe will find the groove later, with his fingers, and go quiet.+4H | DThe round glances off the bone above foe’s eye. His head snaps around and he spends a moment finding where he was.+2H1[-25] | EA shallow furrow opens along foe’s jaw. Face wounds bleed the way face wounds do — extravagantly, and for nothing.+3H, 1 |
| Chest2 - 3 | AThe round plucks at foe’s clothing and moves on. He needs a moment to be certain he is not hit.+2H | BThe round skips off a rib beneath the skin and rides around it. The bruise will outlast the fight by a week.+4H | CA shallow channel opens across foe’s chest, deep enough to weep steadily.+2H, 1 | DThe round passes through the meat of the chest and out again. A small hole in, a small hole out, and a slow red line down his front.+4H, 1 | EThe round nicks the skin over the breastbone. It is nothing at all, and it will not stop leaking.+1H, 1 |
| Abdomen4 - 5 | AThe round buries itself in the thickness of foe’s belt. He will want to look at that when there is time.+3H | BA shallow gouge across the flank. It looks worse than it is, and it keeps on looking worse.+1H, 1 | CThe round opens a channel through the soft tissue above the hip and exits cleanly.+3H, 1 | DThe round hammers into foe’s midsection and stops against the bone of the pelvis. All of the force and none of the penetration.+11H | EThe round grazes the belly, laying open a hand’s width of skin. Foe can see more of himself than he cares to.+2H, 1 |
| Leg6 - 10 | AThe round strikes foe’s thigh flat and spends itself against the muscle. The leg buckles once before it holds.+2H1[-25] | BA furrow along the calf. It bleeds freely into foe’s boot.+3H, 1 | CThe round passes through the meat of the thigh, missing the bone and the artery both. Foe has been extremely lucky and does not know it yet.+9H, 1 | DThe round goes through the back of the thigh and takes a piece of hamstring with it. Foe’s stride shortens to a limp.+10H, 2 | EThe round opens the thigh along its length. The channel is wide, and it fills as fast as it drains.+8H, 3 |
| Arm11 - 15 | AThe round slaps the outside of foe’s arm and spins away. A bruise the shape of a coin.+6H | BThe round clips the point of the elbow and opens it to the bone. The joint still works, but not sweetly and not without comment.+3H, 1-5 | CThe round passes through the bicep. Foe’s grip loosens for a moment before he wrestles it back.+13H, 1 | DThe round goes through the forearm between the bones. Whatever foe was holding is suddenly much harder to hold.+8H, 2 | EThe round tears through the inside of the upper arm, opening the vessels that run there.+12H, 3 |
| Head16 - 20 | AA shallow cut opens across foe’s forehead. Blood sheets down into one eye and stays there.+3H, 1 | BThe round tears the top of foe’s ear away. The noise inside his skull is enormous and he loses a step to it.+4H, 1 | CThe round rakes along the jaw, splitting the cheek open as far as the teeth.+15H, 1 | DThe round strikes the skull at a flat angle and skates off it. Foe’s vision goes white and takes its time coming back.+10H1[-50] | EThe round passes through the meat of the cheek and out the far side, taking teeth with it. Foe cannot speak clearly and cannot stop swallowing blood.+15H, 21[-25] |
| Chest21 - 25 | AThe round cracks a rib without breaking the skin over it. Every breath from here is a decision.+3H-5 | BThe round breaks a rib and turns along it. Foe braces an arm against his own side without meaning to.+9H-5 | CThe round passes through the muscle of the chest wall, in below the collarbone and out beneath the arm.+17H, 2 | DThe round punches into the chest cavity and clips a lung on its way through. Foe’s breathing takes on a wet edge.+15H, 4 | EThe round breaks two ribs going in and drives the fragments ahead of it. A small hole with a great deal behind it.+10H, 3-5 |
| Abdomen26 - 35 | AThe round opens the belly wall without breaching what lies behind it. Foe holds himself together with one hand.+7H, 2 | BThe round passes through the flank, missing everything that matters by the width of a finger.+16H, 2 | CThe round tears through the gut. What leaks is not all blood, and the smell tells foe exactly how bad it is.+16H, 3 | DThe round crosses the abdomen and opens the bowel on the way. Foe has hours at the outside, and only with a surgeon.+15H, 4 | EThe round takes the edge of the liver. Dark blood, a great deal of it, and a pain that folds foe forward over the wound.+15H, 4-5 |
| Leg36 - 45 | AThe round scores a red line across the front of the thigh. Foe fights on with one leg complaining.+15H, 1 | BThe round strikes the thigh squarely and stops there. His weight shifts onto the other leg and stays.+25H1[-25] | CThe round passes through the thigh and opens the vein running alongside the bone. The flow is dark, steady, and does not slow.+20H, 5 | DThe round shatters the shin and opens the leg from knee to ankle. Foe’s weight drops onto the ruin of it and he stays upright by will alone.+10H, 52[-25], -5 | EThe round takes foe through the back of the knee. The joint stops answering, and the blood comes in pulses.+18H, 41[-50], -5 |
| Arm46 - 55 | AThe round passes through the forearm and clips the bone. Foe’s fingers still work — not all of them, and not well.+7H, 2-5 | BThe round opens the inside of the arm from elbow to wrist. Everything that runs there is now partly outside.+10H, 4-5 | CThe round breaks the upper arm cleanly through. The limb hangs wrong and foe stops pretending otherwise.+16H, 1-10 | DThe round destroys the elbow. Bone chips drive outward through the skin and the arm folds in a direction arms do not.+8H, 41[-50], -5 | EThe round tears through the wrist and shatters it. Foe keeps the hand; it will never close properly again.+15H, 11[-50], -15 |
| Arm56 - 65 | AThe round strikes the shoulder and lodges against the blade of it. The arm still lifts, slowly, and at a price.+20H-5 | BThe round passes through the shoulder meat and out the back. Foe’s reach on that side is finished for the night.+15H, 3-5 | CThe round breaks the upper arm and tumbles as it exits, tearing a hole twice the size of the one it made going in.+20H, 4-10 | DThe round opens the shoulder and destroys the joint inside it. The arm becomes dead weight hanging from a socket that no longer holds it.+15H, 42[-50], -10 | EThe round takes foe at the armpit and opens the great vessels there. He clamps his own arm down over the wound, and it is not enough.+20H, 6-20 |
| Abdomen66 | AThe round passes low through the hip. The leg bears weight, but the joint grinds against something that was not in there before.+20H, 21[-50], -15 | BThe round takes foe squarely in the groin and opens the vessels crowded in there. Whatever he was about to do, he is no longer about to do it.+15H, 81[-75], -10 | CThe round shatters the pelvis, and the broken ends bleed into the space behind them. Foe stays upright by holding onto something, and only for as long as that something holds.+20H, 61[-75], -25 | DThe round takes a kidney and keeps going. Almost all of the bleeding is on the inside, and there is a great deal of it — foe has minutes, and only if someone is already driving. Foe is dying. +20H, 84[-75], -40, 20 | EThe round crosses the abdomen and opens the great vessel lying against the spine. Foe folds around it. The bleeding is entirely internal and entirely out of reach. Foe is dying. +20H, 55[-50], -50, 10 |
| Leg67 - 75 | AThe round passes through the calf and takes a wedge of muscle out the back of it. Foe’s push-off on that leg is gone.+10H, 3-5 | BThe round breaks the smaller bone of the lower leg and tears out through the calf. Foe can stand on it, and every step tells him not to.+10H, 3-10 | CThe round punches through the knee from the side. The joint gives sideways, briefly, in a way knees do not.+15H, 31[-50], -10 | DThe round passes through the thigh and breaks the bone inside it. The leg shortens as the ends override each other, and foe is screaming before he knows he has started.+15H, 31[-50], -15 | EThe round takes the leg out from under foe entirely, opening the artery deep in the thigh. He is down, and the pool beneath him spreads while he decides what to do about it.+20H, 61[-50], -15 |
| Chest76 - 80 | AThe round breaks a rib and passes on through the muscle beneath. Foe’s next full breath is the last comfortable one he takes.+15H, 2-10 | BThe round enters below the collarbone and stops against the shoulder blade. Everything between the two is now damaged.+15H, 2-20 | CThe round passes through a lung. Foe’s breathing turns shallow and bubbling and will not deepen again.+20H, 3-20 | DThe round crosses the chest and takes both lungs on the way. Foe drowns slowly, on his feet, in the open air.+20H, 12-10 | EThe round clips the great vessels above the heart. The chest fills from the inside, and there is no wound anyone can press.+15H, 92[-50], -15 |
| Head81 - 85 | AThe round breaks foe’s jaw and lodges in the hinge of it. He cannot bite down, cannot speak, and cannot think past it.+15H1[-50], -10 | BThe round tears through foe’s throat beside the windpipe. Every breath whistles, and every breath tastes of iron.+20H, 21[-50], -15 | CThe round creases the skull without breaching it and skates off into the dark. Scalp wounds bleed like nothing else — foe is abruptly wearing a red mask and cannot think straight through it.+15H, 4-20 | DThe round enters below the ear, finds the curve of the skull, and rides it around under the scalp to exit at the back — a full circuit of foe’s head without once going inside it. He will be a long time believing that.+25H, 51[-50], -20 | EThe round opens the side of foe’s neck. What comes out comes out in time with his heart, and he has only as long as it takes him to work out why.+5H, 12-10 |
| Arm86 - 90 | AThe round tears the tendons out of foe’s forearm. The hand curls closed and will not open.+20H, 2-15 | BThe round passes through foe’s hand and breaks it apart from the inside. He drops what he was holding and cannot pick it up again.+15H, 71[-25], -20 | CThe round opens the forearm from wrist to elbow, taking muscle, tendon and vessel together.+25H, 91[-75], -10 | DThe round opens the elbow and destroys the joint inside it. The arm below is attached, and nothing more than attached.+20H, 42[-50], -25 | EThe round shatters the collarbone and opens the artery running beneath it. The arm is finished, and so is foe unless someone gets a fist into the hollow above the collarbone within a round or two. Foe is dying. +15H, 73[-75], -25, 10 |
| Leg91 - 95 | AThe round tears through foe’s ankle and breaks it into pieces. The foot points a way feet do not, and will not be argued with.+15H, 2-25 | BThe round shatters the knee and opens it front and back. Foe stays up for exactly one more step, on momentum alone.+25H, 51[-50], -20 | CThe round breaks the thigh bone and drives splinters of it out through the front. Foe goes down and stays down.+25H, 71[-50], -30 | DThe round opens the artery deep in foe’s thigh. He goes down into a spreading pool and is unconscious before he has finished falling. Foe is dying. +20H, 82[-75], -45, 10 | EThe round takes the leg at the hip, destroying the joint and everything that runs past it. Foe bleeds out from a wound no tourniquet can reach. Foe is dying. +15H, 83[-75], -45, 10 |
| Abdomen96 - 97 | AThe round passes through the gut and out the back, tearing bowel along the whole of its path.+25H, 5-25 | BThe round shatters the hip and opens the vessels packed around it. Foe’s leg turns outward under him and he catches himself against a wall that is not there.+30H, 6-30 | CThe round takes the liver through its thickest part. Foe’s belly fills quietly, and he goes cold from the inside outward. Foe is dying. +20H, 82[-75], -30, 10 | DThe round crosses the abdomen and opens the great artery lying against the spine. Foe has under a minute, and none of it will be useful to him. Foe is dying. +20H, 94[-50], -45, 10 | EThe round enters low and tumbles, destroying everything between hip and ribs. Foe folds around the wound and does not come back out of it. Foe is dying. +25H, 83[-75], -45, 10 |
| Chest98 - 99 | AThe round breaks three ribs going in and drags them through the lung behind. Foe is still standing, and has no business being.+35H, 5-30 | BThe round enters the chest and tumbles, crossing heart, lung and liver in a single pass. Foe stands there a moment in genuine surprise, and then does not. Foe is dying. +25H, 82[-75], -30, 10 | CThe round destroys a lung and takes the great vessels beside it. Foe drowns inside himself with his eyes open. Foe is dying. +20H, 93[-50], -50, 10 | DThe round passes through the heart and out through the spine behind it. Foe is dead before the sound of the shot reaches him. Foe is dead. +45H, 4-75 | EThe round opens the aorta where it leaves the heart. Foe empties into his own chest in three beats and is gone. Foe is dead. +10H, 12-110 |
| Head100 | AThe round enters below the jaw and stops inside the skull. Foe is alive, technically, and will not be for long. Foe is dying. +10H, 43[-50], -40, 10 | BThe round takes foe through the temple and lodges against the far side of the skull. He drops where he stands and goes on breathing for a while yet. Foe is dying. +20H, 43[-75], -50, 10 | CThe round crosses the brain and leaves through the occiput. Whatever foe was, it ends between one heartbeat and the next. Foe is dead. +15H, 4-110 | DThe round strikes the base of the skull and takes the top of the spine with it. Foe drops like a cut string. Foe is dead. +40H, 5-110 | EThe round goes in above the bridge of the nose and takes the back of the skull out with it. Foe is standing, and then foe is not, and there is very little in between. Your next action this round takes +25. Foe is dead. +20H, 4-135 |
+XH: additional hits · ♦X: bleeding, X hits per round until healed · X✹[-Y]: stunned X rounds at penalty -Y · N×✳: staggered, loses N AP (1 if unnumbered) · -X: injury penalty until healed · ◷X: X fatigue — the energy the round left behind on its way through; it RESTS BACK, unlike an injury · ⇘: knocked prone · ☠: dying or dead — stated in the cell. Attacker bonuses are given in the text.