From Edge of Darkness Wiki
Bashing
Any kind of damage that does not pierce the body but that batters against it is considered bashing damage. This includes most harm from brawling combat, punches, kicks, beatings with a blunt instrument and even falling or being thrown into a brick wall. Certain targeted bashing attacks may cause lethal damage, at the Storyteller's discretion[1]. Bashing damage is "upgraded" to lethal once a mortal being's rightmost Health box is occupied by Bashing damage.
- Once all your character's Health boxes are full and the rightmost is occupied with a slash, begin making Stamina rolls to see if he remains conscious. (Remember that your character's -3 wound penalty does not apply to these rolls.)
- Once your character loses all Health from lethal damage, he's comatose.
- Once all is lost to aggravated damage, he's dead.
Vampire Considerations
Vampires don’t bruise when they take bashing damage, and besides the occasional minor cut or abrasion, they don’t show any evidence of the injury at all. This is why the mythical toughness of Kindred has been blown out of proportion by those few mortals who have encountered vampires and lived to tell the tale — you can wind up and pound one with a baseball bat and his head will snap back with the blow, but there won’t be a mark on him. In most cases, bashing wounds just seem to make vampires angrier.
- The same is frighteningly true of gunshot wounds. Since the body of a vampire is almost entirely redundant, in terms of sustaining unlife, most bullets just seem to plug into them without doing much harm at all.
- There is one exception. Kindred who counterfeit life, expending Vitae to warm their flesh and blush with lively color, will bruise when they are struck (actually, they bruise easier, and more lividly than the living), and gunshot wounds will be surrounded by fierce discolorations. A tiny bit of blood may seep from the point of impact, but not much.[2]
