Valda oil( nod to Joel Rosenberg)

[Tucker]

IMTU, I do some tinkerin', and for my CT-then-MT campaigning I borrowed a nifty medician's tool from the Metzadan Mercenary Corp-- Valda oil.

Valda oil is a very effective pain blocker, and is used in many high-end analgesics. However, pure Valda oil, when injected or inhaled, is most effective. It allows the recipient complete abatement of any pain, and blocks no other neurotransmitters. The game affect is it masks the effects of damage, the recipient suffers damage as normal but can still function as if all attributes are undamaged until the Valda oil stops it's action-- you can keep going until all stats or Life hits zero.

Dangerous to use, since you lose the safety-valve of going unconcious or inactive or whatever. Still, sometimes it is worth the risk if you "ain't got time to bleed." I charge 1000cr for each dose, injector or inhalant. The onset time is a single combat round, and the effects last for 20 minutes. You can keep piggy-backing doses if you have the supply to keep going til you reach a medic or what have you. All the damage done to you hits when you crash, so it's advisable not to come down alone.

I would track the users damage secretly, giving hints about how racked-up they were of course, as a way to make the users life more interesting.
" Ah, your left arm is gone from the elbow down, and it is hard to walk with the front half of your right foot blown off, but yeah-- you're OK for now Hoss."

"Great, I think my toes are startin' to tingle, somebody pass me the inhaler and another coupla frags."

It was a fun option for us.

 

[Straybow]

Merely feeling no pain isn't the same as being unaffected by damage. In particular, severed ligaments are crippling and no amount of drugs or psychology can help. The muscle in question is no longer connected to the bone, and the joint becomes unusable.

Broken bones can be held in position by soft tissue if minor enough, but multiple or compound fractures make the limb unusable. You might try to point your pistol, but it your shattered forearm merely flops to one side.

Traveller makes a nod to realism by having damage applied to your actual physical stat for that reason.

 

[Tucker]

True, but most folks go down or stop fighting because of the shock and pain, not because some part ain't working right.It's just plain fun to have a guy still in the fight with half his face roasted off, or missing a leg or two. I never said the PC would be perfect, just able to do what they reasonably could with what parts are working.

In MT the wounds don't take effect on atts until post battle anyhow, so why not something that will allow a little extra time to stay in the fight-- considering the risk. Just having the guy with the high Tactics skill awake and on the commnet has been enough to help the party out of some bad scrapes.

I'll also state that the "nods to realism" in Traveller are sorta outweighed by the handwavian menace.

 

[Straybow]

I thought MT applied damage in points during combat, then rolled a die for each point afterwards. Or something like that.

I also don't like the idea of something that powerful with no side effects or drawbacks. Kinda munchkinish.

 

[Tucker]

In MT damage is taken against Hits/Life whatever, then the damage is converted into points taken from attributes after the combat has ended. The hits value is split, listed as something like 5/7, the first number is how much damage taken to immobilize a target, if the target takes more damage it comes off the second until it's gone( and the target is a deader).

The oil let's you remain functional despite passing the first number, right on til the your croaked. That is the drawback, you ain't really aware how bad off you are until you're already dead.

As far as munchkinish goes, you are of course entilted to your opinion. 1000cr a dose for the ability to go down fightin' ain't bad, and most players don't like NOT knowing how much more damage can be taken before their PC gets chilled.
Slow Drug, now there's a tool of the munchkin. A more abused combat drug I cannot recall.

For CT, I never used the Valda oil, and as the CT combat works, the oil is too powerful. Maybe some more tinkerin' is in order for that ruleset.

 

[Straybow]

Slow causes a 1d6 wound when it wears off. It's a small penalty, but not insignificant.

It takes more than merely anesthetizing pain to have the effect of Valda oil, you have to be psychologically unaware of the damage to avoid shock. I don't know there's a way to do that without effecting judgment in other ways as well.

 

[Tucker]

I generally leave it up to my stable of players to work in the psychic trauma of some of the damage they're fightin' through on the drug. They're folks I've played with for 15 years, so they got the benefit of the doubt, and not a munchkin among them anymore.

I do understand that shock is a very significant factor in trauma, and accounts for the wildly differing reactions different people have to identical episodes.

The sort of PCs IMC that use this stuff are already in the hard-case class, so if they want to RP it that they're guy is not completely freaked about getting his legs gassified by a FGMP... Fine by me. Their be an equal number of poltroons that won't even consider the drug, among my players anyhow.

The neurotransmitter's bit was the caveat for physiology geeks; the pain messengers get stopped, the other ones still work fine if they're anything left to wiggle about. I occasionally have the PC make a task roll to "stay frosty" under such stress, that might make it more acceptable?

I'll grant you without a Ref keepin' a weather eye to player shennanigans Valda oil could be a pain in the ass. In any case, it works fine for my game.