A character who is Stunned immediately loses any delayed or readied Action. Any Powers that are not Persistent turn off at the end of the Phase. They use up their next Action to Recover from being Stunned when their place in the initiative order next comes up in a Phase. A character who has used their current Phase to Recover from being Stunned may then Abort to a defensive Action using their Action for the following Phase.
A character may choose to Take a Recovery as a full-phase Action in any Phase. While Taking a Recovery, the character has a -3 DCV penalty. The Recovery is not completed until the character's next Action begins, and taking STUN from an attack before then interrupts the Recovery. If the Recovery is not interrupted, the character gets back STUN equal to their REC value.
A character who is Knocked Out (that is, on 0 STUN or below) immediately loses any delayed or readied Action, and their DCV and ECV are reduced to 0. They must use all their Actions to Take a Recovery until they are conscious. A character who was both Stunned and Knocked Out automatically Recovers from Being Stunned when they successfully Take a Recovery: they do no have to Recover from being Stunned in one Phase before they Take a Recovery in the second Phase.
Whenever a character loses BODY they have taken an injury that will bleed or otherwise worsen until properly treated. An injured character makes a CON check for each injury to determine how quickly the injury will worsen. The Target Number to take 1d6 Normal Damage per Phase is 2 + BODY lost. For each point by which the check succeeds, the time period required for the injury to worsen moves one step down the Time Chart: for example, if the character succeeds by 5 points, they take 1d6 Normal Damage per hour. If the character succeeds by enough points to move the time period to or past the period of time it takes for them to regain 1 BODY (usually 1 week, TN 10 + BODY lost), the injury never worsens.
A character with the Paramedic skill can attempt to treat one injury as a full-round action. The Target Number is the same as that required for the CON check, and the Paramedic check result is used to determine the time required for the injury to worsen if it is better than the injured character's CON check result.
Characters die at 0 Body.
Using Powers (including Strength and movement) requires some energy. Every Power has a frequency at which it can be used without unduly tiring the character. This frequency is determined by comparing the Power's active points cost to the character's Recovery value as follows.
| Use Once Per | Maximum Active Points |
| Phase | Recovery x 10 |
| Turn | Recovery x 20 |
| Minute | Recovery x 50 |
| Scene | unlimited |
Powers that can be used once per phase don't need to be tracked at all except in unusual situations (see below). Note whenever your character uses any Power with a lower frequency of safe use. If you don't use another Power with the same or lower frequency of safe use during the specified time period, your character's Endurance resets at the end of that time period. However, if you do use another Power with the same or a lower frequency of safe use during the specified time period, the frequency of safe use for all Powers worsens one step (1/phase to 1/turn, 1/turn to 1/minute, 1/minute to 1/scene) and you lose Stun based on the outcome for the Power you activated that triggered the shift. The table below lists the proportion of your maximum Stun you lose, possibly stunning you or making you unconscious. These shifts are cumulative.
| Outcome |
Stun Lost
|
| 1/Phase to 1/Turn |
0%
|
| 1/Turn to 1/Minute |
25%
|
| 1/Minute to 1/Scene |
50%
|
| already at 1/Scene |
100%
|
Example. Mastermind can safely use his mental probe once a turn without unduly tiring himself out. Forced to try and learn the code to unlock a door from the mind of an unconscious thug before the basement floods with water, Mastermind uses his mental probe twice in one turn. The effort tires him out, reducing the frequency of safe use for his mental probe to once a minute, costing him 25% of his maximum Stun, and worsening the frequency of safe use for all his other Powers that cost Endurance. Desperate to unlock the door before they drown, Mastermind overexerts and uses his mental probe again before the minute is up. His mental probe can now be safely used once a scene, and he loses another 50% of his maximum Stun. Hopefully he has now learned the code: if not, using his mental probe again will cost Mastermind 100% of his maximum Stun, almost certainly making him pass out from the strain.
If a charcter is reduced to 0 Stun or less and then regains consciousness, the frequency of safe use for all Powers worsens by one step (1/phase to 1/turn, 1/turn to 1/minute, 1/minute to 1/scene). This effect ends when the character has Taken a Recovery and regained Stun equivalent to the proportion of their maximum Stun listed below.
| Effect of Unconsciousness |
Stun Required
|
| 1/Phase to 1/Turn |
0%
|
| 1/Turn to 1/Minute |
25%
|
| 1/Minute to 1/Scene |
50%
|
| already at 1/Scene |
100%
|
Powers that are fuelled by Endurance Reserves don't cause Stun.
Characters cannot Push a Power.
Only EGO resists Presence Attacks; PRE cannot be used to resist Presence Attacks.