Stimpacks and instant healing

[snapshotbygdw]

I am coming under constant low level pressure from one of my players to allow some form of instant healing of wounds during combat via a pen and paper version of the stimpak. Before putting it to a group vote I wonder if any other refs out there have developed house rules to cover this? I can see the logic from a players point of view but have concerns regarding play balance: want to keep combat fairly deadly to avoid running adventures as protracted snapshot games

 

[far-trader]

Combat drug not good enough? And taking it as TL9 and Cr750 should inform any upgrade/alternate med tech.

It should be something like that. A temporary gain for a later pain. Or very expensive. Or both.

So, off the cuff, for CT:

HealFast(tm) - A spray or bandage combining anesthetic and antiseptic properties with (magic) quick healing factors. TL11. Cr1000 per single use (treats minor wounds only, ineffective for serious wounds). Immediately restore consciousness and restore wounded characteristics to halfway between original and wounded level. That is, the HealFast treatment is equal to waiting 40 combat turns per the rules for natural recovery. Full healing is dependent on Medical attention or three days full rest per the rules. More than one treatment in three days will result in synergy reaction per the rules for drugs (unlike most drugs it will even react with MedSlow).

MiracleHeal(tm) - A disposable pen injector with powerful stimulants, smart anesthetics and antiseptics with (more magical) quick healing factors. TL13. Cr1500 per single use (treats serious wounds). Immediately restore consciousness and restore zeroed characteristics to 1 or halfway between original and wounded if not zeroed. That is, the MiracleHeal treatment is equal to waiting 3 hours per the rules for natural recovery. Full healing is dependent on Medical attention per the rules. More than one treatment in three days will result in synergy reaction per the rules for drugs with MiracleHeal counting as two drugs (unlike most drugs it will even react with MedSlow).

Resurrection(tm) - A disposable pen injector with (very magical) restorative and healing factors. TL15. Cr3000 per single use (treats death). If administered within moments of death, life can be restored. The character is saved but treated as seriously wounded. Any subsequent use of drugs (for the remaining life of the character, including MedSlow) will cause a synergy reaction per the rules with Resurrection counting as three drugs.

 

[Sturn]

I personally would avoid such a thing. Unless you say stimpacks are extremely rare and costly, the players will be carrying several back-ups each around. Imagine combat where each player can fully restore himself simply by ducking into cover someplace and using a stimpack. Players would think it was great at first, BUT it would eventually make combat very boring.

Imagine a party of level 5 D&D players with a level 20 Cleric NPC always tagging along for healing support. If your players have mmo experience, discuss with them the same scenario. Imagine always having a very high level Healer player around for your group. Sure, great fun at first for having players tackle high level dungeons, but they would quickly get burnt out due to it always being a cake walk. Excitement removal.

If you must allow them, I would personally justify their existance through nanotechnology. Traveller has never detailed nanotechnology in their tech charts. I have always inferred that nanotech is behind some of the more advanced Traveller technologies, especially medical ones.

 

[ssgbryan]

Munchkin wants

Just say no. It will unbalance the game.

Remind the player that they are playing Traveller, not D&D. There is a reason that Traveller combat is deadly. It is called physics. You can ignore it in a fantasy setting, not so much in a SF setting.

Giving the player that kind of power is a problem in 2 ways - 1. Once the players realize that the GM can be pushed around, the game becomes Monty Haul. 2. This is a very powerful plus for the player & there needs to be just as powerful pushback. After all, if the player has this, why doesn't every government in Charted Space already have it.

If the player won't take no for an answer - let him have that "instant healing" - Then roll to see if it gives him an instant cancer mutation (explosive growth of cells - which of course will be attacked by his immune system until that breaks down. Have him die a slow, painful death.

Or for the traditionalist - have him become a zombie - with all of the problems that it entails. (Soc drops to 2, massive characteristics drop, flesh eating is frowned apon in civilized society, body starts to rot away, "We don't serve his kind here." etc.)

 

[JustinInOz]

I am coming under constant low level pressure from one of my players to allow some form of instant healing

Does the same player want all of their opponents to be using them as well?

In particular any well funded coporate mercs?

 

[far-trader]

I think any abuses could be handled easily enough. I've already limited my suggestion above and would have included more details if I took the time. Things like...

• expiration dates (and short shelf life with bad consequences for expired units)
• bad batches (oh, didn't you get the recall notice?)
• sourcing (sorry, Mil Tech only, for serving forces and legit merc outfits)...
• ...forcing Black Market purchase (sure it's the real stuff, and cheap at twice the price)
• stigma (dirty Zombie - aka any who've used Resurrection)

...and so on. Just pull the pin on your imagination grenade. And of course the other guys will have the same access to it.

Or you could even just throw a survival roll into the mix for using it. Fail the roll and take more damage.

I also had a mind towards making Resurrection a method of using the Soft Survival rule. Fail your survival in career gen and you died (just like it used to be) but... the service used Resurrection on you. So instead you short term out after your recuperative hospital stay. Policy prohibits Resurrectees from serving due to drug synergy, and well there's that whole Zombie stigma thing... unofficially. And be very careful out there as you have that nasty synergy reaction to worry about with all those fancy drugs

BAM! I just put the game back in char gen that was stolen by dropping the Hard Survival rule Players may think twice about pushing their luck if they know it could limit their use of drugs in their post career adventuring.

...well, I think it could work

 

[Ishmael]

make it expensive and very addictive with bad withdrawal symptoms ( all the debilitating pain of the wounds taken? )

You have to actually heal, sometime.

 

[DaveChase]

Well, if you are going to let them have it (the stimpacks/instant heal of health points), just also add the tramatic hit tables.


GM: Lets see, you get hit for 9 points in your left arm.
Player: I grab a stim pack, run around the corner and inject my self.
GM: as you run a round the corner you slip as you naturally grab for the corner with your left hand. While laying on the ground, looking up, you notice that your left arm has 2 compound fractures.

Do you still want to inject the stimpack?

Player: H*$#^, yes.
GM: You feel much better after an instant. But as you attempt to stand up, your left arm gives way. The stimpack stopped the bleeding and healed the bullet hole(s ) and cuts but the compound fractures are still present.
As side note, it will take longer to heal them, since the tissue and bones will need to be recut to place them correctly for a splint.



As far-trader stated, anything instant should have some major side effects. But the side effects don't have to be delayed.

Dave Chase

 

[snapshotbygdw]

Worst game ever

In the spirit of experimentation just after posting last night ran through a fairly basic find and fetch adventure similar to one I ran a couple of weeks ago (see my YouTube channel: snapshotbygdw traveller roleplaying playing an adventure) but this time allowed a basic instant healing drug, didn't go well. First warning signs, after allowing each player 1D6 doses in the spirit of playtesting, was that every player loaded up on excessive amounts of ammo. We were testing the playability of the drug so I expected players to be trigger-happy but gameplay certainly shifted towards the violent: whereas last time admin, bribery, computer, streetwise and survival rolls being made this time we rammed gates, shot up security posts and ended up on the run from the local Feds. We never got to see if the players could shoot their way off planet as three out of five died during the final set piece confrontation. Funnily enough in the previous game against a similar foe no player died but we did have an entertaining show down: trying to shield an unarmored truck from 8 acr's using an apc (some great atv rolls), players jumping into rivers, wheels getting shot off etc. This time we just got a firefight which showed a) getting hit by 3 acr shoots at once means never having to take your medicine and b) that heroically trying to revive a fallen pal is less useful than firing your own gun. Whilst a useful exercise I felt more like I'd played a couple of games of snapshot than role-played!

 

[rancke]

I allow Fast Drug to preserve the brain of a dying character for hours instead of minutes. If a character goes down, he stays down, but if a friend manages to give him a shot of Fast and the party wins the fight, they have a number of hours at least to get him to a hospital or an auto-doc or a low berth. This is science fiction; the miracles of TL15 medicine ought to be good for something.


Hans

 

[aramis]

I allow Fast Drug to preserve the brain of a dying character for hours instead of minutes. If a character goes down, he stays down, but if a friend manages to give him a shot of Fast and the party wins the fight, they have a number of hours at least to get him to a hospital or an auto-doc or a low berth. This is science fiction; the miracles of TL15 medicine ought to be good for something.


Hans

I, also do this. so long as the dose is in the round following 000XXX...

 

[E.D.Quibell]

With auto injection for Solider/Marine/Merc types in battledress, combat armour, combat enviroment and vacc suits.

Regards,

Ewan

 

[HG_B]

If they REALLY want the miracle drugs you can always institute realistic combat wounds. The 6 points you just took blew off your left arm in a puff of pink mist... You're "healed", you are just missing an arm. :devil:

 

[Gray Lensman]

If they REALLY want the miracle drugs you can always institute realistic combat wounds. The 6 points you just took blew off your left arm if a puff of pink mist... You're "healed", you are just missing an arm. :devil:

:rofl:Good one. How about, "Sure you can carry a bacta tank around with you if you want, just make sure you account for it in your encumbrance".

Drugs don't really work instantly. It takes time for them to breakdown and get into your system. Now, a Cleric's Heal Spell works quite differently.

Granted, at Higher TLs, drugs may be near instantaneous, but "Instant Heal" would probably still be beyond expectations. Especially with regards to Strength and Dexterity. I suppose Endurance could be a different matter.

 

[HG_B]

:rofl:Good one. How about, "Sure you can carry a bacta tank around with you if you want, just make sure you account for it in your encumbrance".

AND, hope the enemy doesn't think it is a high tech "flame thrower" as that tends to attack enemy fire the same way a wizard with a wand does on an FRPG
battlefield...

 

[leo knight]

Echoing most of the advice above. Make "healing" rare and slow and costly. I ran into this twice.

One time was the West End "Star Wars" RPG. They had medpacks that healed wounds. Everyone, especially the bounty hunter gunbunny, loaded up on the damn things. Every time someone got hit: "I slap on a medpack". Once that cat was out of the bag, there was no putting it back in. I retconned it to something less instant. I think I had some kind of duration or delay. However, much whining ensued. I was cheating them.

The first time went better. It was right after High Guard had come out, and one player had an ex-Navy medic, with an outrageous skill level of, I don't know, 9? I had no idea how to rule that. On one occasion, a party member had been engulfed by a Blob-like creature. The party killed it, but were wary of approaching it to get their buddy out. I told the medico that time was of the essence. Every second would count. I gave a minus for every round they hesitated. They ran out the clock poking the already dead creature until it was impossible for the victim to be brought back.

Even Dr. McCoy had to say, "He's dead, Jim".

 

[Traveller]

Sounds like the player pushing for this has played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for the PC. Three levels of healing packs in the game (good, better, best) not to mention Jedi healing ability. On top of that, three levels of stimulants for each of the physical stats.

In KotOR, people are encouraged to hack and slash their way through the game because medpacks are readily available from the corpses of your fallen foes. As you've seen, easy healing means people taking foolish risks and not thinking their way through things. And to me at least, that's the exact opposite of what Traveller should be.

 

[rancke]

One time was the West End "Star Wars" RPG. They had medpacks that healed wounds. Everyone, especially the bounty hunter gunbunny, loaded up on the damn things. Every time someone got hit: "I slap on a medpack". Once that cat was out of the bag, there was no putting it back in. I retconned it to something less instant. I think I had some kind of duration or delay. However, much whining ensued. I was cheating them.

My players are usually OK with me telling them that some aspect of the rules turns out to be detrimental to my plots and how about a retcon, but if they had complained like that, I would simply have provided the NPCs with medpacks galore too. And made sure the enemy used cheap, loaded-with-longterm-side-effects medpacks so that any the PCs captured would be useless and practically worthless to them. Once the players had spent a whole evening and umpteen cerdits worth of medpacks on a single fight, they might become more receptive to the idea.


Hans

 

[aramis]

Leo: the SW D6 rules increase the difficulty by one step (+5) per prior medpack used in a day. It makes them less miraculous. It's also one of the most frequently missed rules in the game, IME.

 

[snapshotbygdw]

Thanks for all the feedback, I'm writing up house rules to allow med/stimpaks but with effectiveness diminishing with each use and long purge time required this way I hope the players can enjoy deciding when to use and I can hopefully keep things realistic