Do stabilized injuries count towards the serious injury limit in Kult: Divinity Lost?

Question

When a PC suffers one or more serious injury, they have a -1 to all rolls. When they suffer a critical wound they have another cumulative -1 to all rolls. However, all wounds (serious and critical) can be treated fairly easily turning them into stabilized serious wounds.

As I understand it, these stabilized wounds still have narrative effects, and heal as in real life (a sprained ankle could last for 2-4 weeks, other injuries may be permanent).

PCs can have a maximum of four serious injuries. Do stabilized injuries count toward the maximum? I.e. If a PC has an unstabilized serious injury and three old stabilized ones, can they get another serious injury?

Answer 1

Stable wounds aren't healed wounds.

All your stabilized wounds remain on your sheet, taking up their relevant wound slots, and only come off when they've actually been healed. One active serious wound and three prior stabilized but unhealed wounds means you have no more room for serious wounds until some of your previous wounds actually have time to heal.

There are two reasons stabilized serious wounds stick around.

Not all wounds are equal. Some adversaries are explicitly called out as dealing more grievous or infected wounds; while not greater in number or applying worse penalties, the intent is to make them more complicated to fully heal.

Stable isn't forever. One of the tools in the GM's toolbox is to clear that "stabilized" checkbox as circumstances warrant. Not, like, all the time casually in combat, but more when strong exertion or ominous foreshadowing might leave someone with an unstable wound in a tense situation (since you can always stabilize wounds with time and safety).