What pilot hits in TW translate to in real terms

[ultrasmurf]

Is there any sort of guideline out there on what sort of injuries pilot hits suffered in TW represent? Six hits are fatal but what, in real terms, might one or two hits mean?

[Weirdo]

It would depends on what the source of the pilot hits are. In the cases of weapons impacts or falling damage, I'd go for heavy bruises, nonlethal cuts, and some fracturing or breaking of small bones. Basically, the pilot is getting the tar beat out of him due to stuff smashing into the cockpit, resulting in the cockpit smashing into him.

For hits due to high heat levels, I'd go for dehydration and heat exhaustion.

For neural feedback hits, it's hard to say. My guess would be severe nausea, and perhaps some electrocution damage.

[ultrasmurf]

Hmm. Good call on using the context of the hits. Thanks.

[guardiandashi]

Is there any sort of guideline out there on what sort of injuries pilot hits suffered in TW represent? Six hits are fatal but what, in real terms, might one or two hits mean?

the other thing to remember is that 6 pilot its aren't necessarily fatal when tracking damage for MechWarrior chars.  Its an abstraction for the board game level.

with that said I always looked at it as breaking down like this:
falls cause physical/impact type damage,
head hits typically cause primarily physical impact, and or thermal impact damage depending on the nature of the weapon

ammo explosions cause both physical damage (from the actual explosion) and some electrical feedback damage due to other systems failing.
neural feedback from enhanced imaging DNI or similar also causes neural electrical feedback damage

the neural electrical feedback is kind of odd, but a recent movie (pacific rim) kind of demonstrated the concept when the guy was piloting gypsy and got the arm shredded (before his brother was killed) there was neural feedback that effectively damaged his arm, even though there was no actual damage to his physical arm.

[Mohammed As`Zaman Bey]

  A hit to a 'Mech's head that injures the pilot could be caused by shrapnel and small bits of interior or molten material flying about the cockpit at high velocities.

  Heat injuries include burns from heated air and surfaces as well as the physical fatigue caused by heat and dehydration.

  Feedback damage could range from the equivalent of electrical shock to concussion, both physically and mentally fatiguing. For those of us who have experienced concussions, it can be very debilitating, even fatal.

  6 damage isn't necessarily fatal but the pilot is no longer combat effective. As a GM, I have had the player roll each injury location and severity to determine possible permanent effects on the character.

[Death_Mechanic]

It's also going to depend on what transpires inside the cockpit, does a console get knocked loose? If so, that can result in crushing injuries, possible open fractures to legs and arms. Do small monitors come loose? What's already loose in the cockpit? Trust me getting hit in the face is very possible while wearing a helmet ( I took a mock ammo can to the face in the rollover simulator, as well as getting my lips busted by my rifle). You could see zygomatic fractures, as well as temporal fractures. Busted teeth and broken jaws could also happen, as well as broken ribs, cracked sternums, and broken collarbones and dislocated shoulders. Broken ribs pose their own set of problems, and can result in punctured lungs, tension hemothorax, and if the chest cavity is opened you could see tension pneumothorax. There are any number of serious injuries that could happen, not all of them fatal on their own, but coupled with concussions and loss of consciousness could prove to be so. I'd imagine that if I were a mechwarrior, I'd have a CLS bag handy in my cockpit, and my sidearm would be in a hardshell level 3 retention holster, so that SOB isn't going anywhere. Take stuff like that into account, soft holsters will let a sidearm go with a good jarring impact, so that might become the instrument of the pilot's doom. I hope this helps.