State of Health
Natural Healing
When an individual is injured, their health deteriorates. The stronger a hero is, the healthier they are, and the more injury they may sustain. This is all described in greater detail in the Fight Scenes chapter. This chapter deals with healing from the injuries an individual has sustained.
Medical Skills
Hospitalization
Degenerative Conditions
Starvation and Dehydration
Asphyxiation
Sleep Deprivation
Natural Healing Times | |
---|---|
Environmental | Example |
Sterile (x1) | hospital, etc... |
Comfortable (x1.5) | a clean home, etc... |
Uncomfortable (x2) | bus station or wilderness |
Hazardous (x3) | storm gutter or swamp |
Situational | Example |
Resting (x1) | nothing more strenuous than standing or walking for a few minutes per day |
Light Activity (x1.5) | standing and walking for several hours per day |
Moderate Activity (x2) | running a cash register, serving food, etc... |
Heavy Activity (x3) | sacking groceries, hiking, climbing, digging, fighting or other hard labor |
If an individual engages in even mild physical exertion over an extended period of time, or is in an environment which is not conducive to recovery, the Narrator should increase the amount of time necessary to heal appropriately. The natural healing times table shows typical modifiers to healing times. These modifiers, both environmental and situational are compound, thus, an individual performing moderate activity in an uncomfortable environment must wait four times as long as normal to heal from one level of injury or fatigue. If the number of months necessary to heal from injuries exceeds the passive resistance value of the individual's stamina skill, the individual's condition will become worse, sustaining one additional level of injury in a number of days equal to the individual's stamina skill. A hero with medicine skill may treat an injured or ill comrade by staying with them a minimum of one nonconsecutive hour per day. While doing so, the medic may add their medicine skill to the passive resistance value of the individual's stamina skill to then divide the time required to heal from injuries.
While this may not very accurately resemble real-life situations, this system is designed to vaguely resemble real life and emulate popular fiction in a fashion which is enjoyable for the players. After all, which would you rather play out, your time spent licking your wounds after a fight, or moving on to some other adventure? In many cases, the rules for healing from injury may not be used at all, cutting time spent between stories when all the heroes are given enough time to heal completely before the next story.
Medical Skills
Some heroes may have medical skills such as first aid, paramedic, surgery or medicine. First aid is used only to stop bleeding and other rapidly degenerative injuries and illnesses. Paramedic skill will restart circulation and respiration within minutes of an individual's clinical death, bringing them back to the world of the living. Surgery has no bearing on general injury and illness, and is used only to cure crippling injuries (broken bones, torn tendons and ligaments, etc) and other debilitating wounds or conditions.
A hero with medicine skill may treat an injured or ill comrade by staying with them a minimum of one nonconsecutive hour per day. While doing so, the medic may add their medicine skill to the passive resistance value of the individual's build skill to then divide the time required to heal from injuries.
Crippling injuries which cause only fatigue, such as dislocated joints, may be repaired through the use of a first aid skill roll, the difficulty of which is left to the Narrator's discretion. Other crippling injuries, such as broken limbs, torn ligaments, punctured lungs, etc. require surgery to repair. The difficulty for these skill rolls is also determined by the Narrator, although, many may not be healed with medicine in historical, modern or even post-modern worlds. This is not to say that the injury levels will not heal, merely that the crippling effect will remain after the injury has healed. Both magic and psychic abilities often provide methods of correcting such handicaps.
Hospitalization
An individual who is hospitalized is much more likely to recover from injuries than someone who is not. A hospitalized hero still recovers from fatigue and injury as normal. Since they're in a sterile environment, and they are not exerting themselves, this often reduces the amount of time necessary to recover, in addition to the medicine skill of their attendant physician. The Narrator must determine any monetary costs for hospital stays, surgeries and emergency care. The society, technology, and location of the hospital may all affect the cost of hospitalization.
Degenerative Conditions
The following sections describe several conditions not directly related to fight scenes, which may cause a hero’s health to decline during the course of a story.
Starvation and Dehydration
All living creatures must eat. Each day that a hero goes without, or has too little food and or water, they suffer from the effects of starvation, and or dehydration. An individual will sustain one level of injury after being without food or water a number of days equal to their stamina skill level, or a number of days equal to its passive resistance value without both. An individual will not be able to recover from injuries sustained by starvation and dehydration until they are given food and water. Some heroes may be resistant to starvation, and or dehydration, each requiring its own resistance skill. This represents creatures such as camels, and other desert animals whose bodies are designed to conserve and store food and water for times that they are without. The resistance skill level should be added to the hero's stamina skill when determining the amount of time before the hero is injured.
Asphyxiation
All complex living creatures (larger than single-celled organisms) must respire, drawing in one chemical (in liquid or gaseous form) converting it to another and in the process drawing off energy necessary for them to perform normal functions and eliminating various absorbed toxins which would poison the creature in large quantities. Though not all creatures respire in the same fashion, being deprived of the ability to respire affects all living creatures the same.
Most creatures are capable of holding their breath for short periods of time. An individual will sustain one level of fatigue after holding their breath for a number of rounds equal to their stamina skill level. After sustaining a number of levels of fatigue equal to the passive resistance value of the individual's stamina skill, they will fall unconscious, their muscles will relax, and their lungs will fill with the substance they were trying to avoid (water, poison gas, etc). If this is a toxin, they will sustain injury from the toxin. If this was simply water, or another harmless liquid, the liquid must first be removed before they may breathe again, or they will die. A conscious hero will reflexively cough the water from their lungs in one round. A drowned hero's circulation will stop (clinical death) a number of rounds after they fall unconscious equal to their stamina skill. A paramedic skill roll requiring one minute of time will be necessary to resuscitate them. Both first aid and paramedic suffer a +1 difficulty penalty for each scale by which the subject differs from the hero, either larger or smaller.
Size does not affect the amount of injury an individual sustains from asphyxiation. While it is true that larger creatures require more oxygen, they also have larger lungs to hold more reserve. While it is very uncommon, some creatures may have armor against asphyxiation. This represents creatures which simply don’t require as much oxygen for one reason or another.
Sleep Deprivation
All living creatures require sleep to restore strength used during their waking cycle. Every creature must spend approximately one third of its time asleep to function normally. For most heroes, this means approximately eight hours each day, although a creature's sleep schedule is likely to depend heavily upon their environment. When an individual postpones sleep, they accumulate one level of fatigue in a number of hours equal to the passive resistance value of their stamina skill. The sleep deprived individual will continue to recover from fatigue as normal during this time. A similar effect occurs when the hero wakes before the full length of time has been spent asleep.