CT Only: Healing serious wounds without a hospital

[mike wightman]

The last bit of the jigsaw before my next CT outing.

A PC is seriously injured on a low TL world - poor Bod 777 got bashed up a bit and ended up as 001.

Three hours later he awakes at 111 and begins looking for help having been left for dead.

By rules as written he is 111 for the rest of his life - or at least until he fails an gaing throw and dies. Yet in the real world people do recover from serious wounds, but often with consequences.

Then the solution hit me - aging throws. I prefer to use rules already in the book where possible even if I have to re-task them.

What if you use an aging throw as a save to begin recovering a characteristic?

After a period of time make the age save and your stat goes to halfway between wounded and full, fail and it stays at 1.
On the second throw for each stat if you made the first and you make the second your charcteristic will recover fully.
If you make the first and fail the second the stat is stuck at the reduced level until high TL medicine intervenes - mechanical or biological replacement of damaged bits.
If you fail the first and then make the second you raise the characteristic to halfway. You get a third roll to see if you continue to heal to full or you are stuck at the half characteristic
If you fail the first and you fail the second then an aging crisis occurs - roll 8+ or die.
Succeed and you get a third roll etc.

Each period can be randomised to 5x1D days, medical skill, low TL native medicine stuff like that could provide DMs to aid healing; exertion, lack of even basic medical treatment etc could provide DMs to hinder healing.

Thoughts, feedback, other ideas all welcome.

 

[Supplement Four]

Don't like the alternate Medical rules in the JTAS?

(I think the medical rules in MT were based off of those.)

 

[Supplement Four]

By rules as written he is 111 for the rest of his life - or at least until he fails an gaing throw and dies. Yet in the real world people do recover from serious wounds, but often with consequences.

The thing is, the dude has a SERIOUS WOUND!

If you were shot in the leg, or stabbed in the belly, or suffered from a splintered elbow where someone had taken a pipe and swung it as hard as they could against your arm....wouldn't you seek Medical Healing?

If a character doesn't, or can't get proper medical care, then this falls into the purview of the Ref.

After the character wakes up from being knocked unconscious from this horrible wound, he's not all hunky dory. He's probably in a lot of pain and "not all there".

If crash landed on a world where the single Scout pilot suffered a Serious Wound--let's go with the crushed elbow--and no medical care was available, then the Ref might allow him to heal a little through natural healing, but the Ref should also probably impose a stiff penalty. Not being able to use that arm--it just dangles there--is a good choice.

 

[Supplement Four]

The alternate medical rules are on page 22 of JTAS 11.

Those rules state that a character with a Serious Wound who doesn't receive medical care in 1D minutes will die.

If the character does receive first aid to stabilize him, but no other care to treat his wound within the next hour, then 1D damage is applied to the character due to deterioration from the wound. This continues at 1D damage per hour for (I would think for blood loss, sepsis, and other problems due to the wound) until either the character dies or medical treatment is provided.

 

[mike wightman]

Now you are beginning to get the scenario where this is necessary

A character seriously injured and left to their own devices, no hospital or medic 3. There is the possibility of native help, but that can not be relied upon.

 

[mike wightman]

The alternate medical rules are on page 22 of JTAS 11.

Those rules state that a character with a Serious Wound who doesn't receive medical care in 1D minutes will die.

And that is why I don't use them...

I don't think they fit CT at all well.

 

[Supplement Four]

And that is why I don't use them...

I don't think they fit CT at all well.

They are a little on the, ahem, shall we say, gritty side.:coffeesip:

But, I think they could be tinkered with a bit and developed into some fine House Rules.

 

[kilemall]

I've got those QND Medical Drama rules. I had read the JTAS medical rules way back when but forgot them, I ended up with something similar though although not as harsh in some ways, and I think those stabilization/braindeath rules are a subconscious cribe of the Cyberpunk FNFF rules.


I had hit on aging throws as a mechanism,but more as a permanent loss in case of less then successful procedures.


http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=36341&highlight=medical+drama



Hmm, rereading it, assumes you have been moved to a hospital. But you can roll against the lower TL and/or facility adjustment rule.


A home first aid bay at TL12 could be better results then a hospital at TL7, thanks to automation, greater understanding of medical care and more powerful drugs. So make sure your medpak is as hightech as possible.



Still want at least a Medic-0 on the case in my opinion.

 

[Brandon C]

Don't like the alternate Medical rules in the JTAS?

I don't.

A character takes one point of damage, which counts as a minor wound. Without someone with Medic-1 handy to clean the wound and slap on a bandage, he has to roll every hour or have the wound deteriorate and a 12 means instant death.

There is no chance the one point of damage can heal naturally.


So no, I don't like the HTAS healing rules.

 

[Bob Weaver]

I don't.

A character takes one point of damage, which counts as a minor wound. Without someone with Medic-1 handy to clean the wound and slap on a bandage, he has to roll every hour or have the wound deteriorate and a 12 means instant death.

There is no chance the one point of damage can heal naturally.

So no, I don't like the JTAS healing rules.

Brandon,
For 'light' or 'moderate' wounds, and your example is a light wound, there's a 58% (7+) chance that the would will fester & get worse by 1D. But RAW, that happens once only. 1 wound point is closer, say, to smashing your hand with a hammer than to getting a splinter.

According to Bk1, recovery to full health from such a wound takes Medical-1 (as described in JTAS) or 3 days of rest. So the situation isn't as bad as it seemed.

Best regards,
Bob W

 

[Brandon C]

According to Bk1, recovery to full health from such a wound takes Medical-1 (as described in JTAS) or 3 days of rest. So the situation isn't as bad as it seemed.

The second paragraph of the article specifically says it is an alternate Book 1 rules, not a supplement to those rules. So, the natural healing rules of Book 1 would no longer apply. In the Healing section of the article, no reference to natural healing in Book 1.