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LibrariaNPC
LibrariaNPC's picture
Healing Discussion
Healing, house rules, Dramatic Wounds

Another random discussion with a player and fellow GM lead to this hairbrained idea: Healing/Surgery.

In the first edition, a PC could perform Surgery on party members, and it was almost expected at least SOMEONE would hold that skill to keep everyone patched together.

With the second edition, we only have the Miracle Worker advantage or paying an NPC, and I'd like to change that.

==Medicine and Surgery==

During combat, a character may heal his (or another's) wounds by spending Raises to assist them somehow. Each Raise spent will heal one wound, but will not heal Dramatic Wounds; these will require surgery.

A character may only undergo surgery once per session. The surgeon in this case rolls Wits+Scholarship; every 5 Raises earned on the roll removes a single Dramatic Wound. This process takes anywhere from a single hour to an afternoon, and often leaves the victim/patient incapacitated for some time.

This does not influence special abilities such as Quick Healing or Miracle Worker, but rather is an alternative way to recover Dramatic Wounds.

 

 

Any input on the idea?

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Donovan Morningfire
Donovan Morningfire's picture

As a house-rule, I'd say that looks pretty good.

Given that Wounds tend to vanish after a combat anyway, being able to do what amounts to first aid isn't unbalancing since it can pretty effectively take a PC out of the action for the Round (depending on how much healing they're doing).

As for the Dramatic Wound recovery, 5 Raises is a bit steep, especially if nobody's really focused on Scholarship.  Maybe set the bar at requiring 1 Raise, but that the surgery (and recovery time) takes a full day, and that each Raise above that reduces the overall time by a small margin; probably don't want to make it a time reduction of more than 2 to 3 hours, while also insisting that the Heroes (both the surgeon and patient) cannot do anything else during that recovery time, otherwise the DW isn't healed.

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LibrariaNPC
LibrariaNPC's picture

I'm glad to know that it's off to a good start!

Given that Wounds tend to vanish after a combat anyway, being able to do what amounts to first aid isn't unbalancing since it can pretty effectively take a PC out of the action for the Round (depending on how much healing they're doing).

I was looking at this for prolonged fights/pitched battles, as well as scenes in which it is not dramatically appropriate to "heal" for some reason.

As for the Dramatic Wound recovery, 5 Raises is a bit steep, especially if nobody's really focused on Scholarship.  Maybe set the bar at requiring 1 Raise, but that the surgery (and recovery time) takes a full day, and that each Raise above that reduces the overall time by a small margin; probably don't want to make it a time reduction of more than 2 to 3 hours, while also insisting that the Heroes (both the surgeon and patient) cannot do anything else during that recovery time, otherwise the DW isn't healed.

Actually, the 5 raises is so not everyone can perform surgery, as it is a bit of a demanding task. I also wanted to have a set interval of Raises for each Dramatic, so that a well-trained and focused doctor (Wits 5, Scholarship 5, Legendary Trait, etc) could actually heal more than one wound on a good roll.

I'm also wary of a full day being taken out for this, as the first dramatic wound is often something small, like an easily stitched wound, and shouldn't take a full day to stitch a scratch for a dramatic scenario.

 

To continue the conversation, perhaps a compromise can be considered? 3 Raises to heal a dramatic wound, whole process (and "recovering" enough to function) takes an afternoon (say 5 hours?). Raises may be spent to heal more wounds (3 Raises each) or to lessen the time (one hour each, minimum an hour). What do you think?

"Smilies exist because no one's bothered to create a sarcasm font." --Lost_Heretic

Antti Kautiainen
Antti Kautiainen's picture

This looks really nice. I would allow additional uses of this kind of healing with Hero Points. 5 Raises is a lot, thus I suggest following modification for this making it harder to hasten healing of badly wounded:

  • Dramatic wound is converted to 4 flesh wounds for duration of healing with Surgery action. The character stats every scene during healing with healing wounds.
    • Every additional Raise spent would reduce these healing wounds by 1 to minimum of 0.
  • Severity of wounds, and duration of healing matters:
    • As many raises is needed as the recipient has Dramatic Wounds for healing lasting scene.
      • Every additional scene reduces this penalty by 1.  
Harliquinn Whit...
Harliquinn Whiteshadow's picture

I like where this is going...

A few things I'd like to see (or would make as a house rule)

1) You can only be 'first aided' (Healing Wounds) once per scene. Otherwise, Wounds become no issue if people can just keep healing. There's a limit to what can be done within a given amount of time during an action sequence

2) The number of Raises needed to heal a Dramatic Wound is always equal to the number of Dramatic Wounds the character currently has (regardless of when they were obtained). Each Wound must be treated separately, so additional Raises can be spent on a Surgery roll to reduce further Dramatic Wounds. Example: A character with 3 Dramatic Wounds would need 3 Raises to heal 1 DW. If the Surgery Roll had 5 Raises, 3 are spent to reduce the first DW so the character has 2, requiring 2 Raises. The roll had 2 more Raises and they could be spent to reduce that DW, but the hero would be left with 1 DW that heals naturally.

3) You may only benefit from one Surgery attempt for a set of Dramatic Wounds. If new DW are received, another attempt may be made but no more than once per day.

TheFrenchDude C...
TheFrenchDude Cheese and wine's picture

Long time no see !

I like your idea. I had to deal with healing and surgery the last time i played (A combat in the first 10 minutes of the game and finished with someone with 3 DW for all game long ^^).

5 raises is a bit much. 3 and possibilities for Consequences and Opportunities depending where and with wich tools you get to practice your medecine give me more chills !

For the wounds you can heal with one raise during action sequences ... why not ?

 

You really have great ideas ! I'm always happy to pass by and see new things to add at my Masteringkit


 

“A vaincre sans péril, on triomphe sans gloire”

Catalina Arciniega
Catalina Arciniega's picture

I would also add an option in which First aid will remove the Helpless state from a character with all his/her dramatic wounds, allowing him/her to move around but not to fight.

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