Medical Tools & Pharmaceuticals

Medical professionals are often only as good as the tools and pharmaceutical substances they have access to.

Injury and Healing

Characters who have been hurt but not mortally wounded (i.e. reduced to zero hit points) regain their level in lost hit points after every night’s peaceful rest. There are many medical tools and pharmaceuticals that can increase the rate of recovery.

Reduced to Zero

A target reduced to zero hit points by a lethal attack is mortally wounded. One dropped by non-lethal assaults is unconscious. Dying victims can take no actions and will die soon without help. Allies can attempt an Int/Heal or Dex/Heal skill check as a Main Action to stabilize the victim. With no medical tools, the difficulty is 10 plus the rounds since they went down. With a medkit, it’s difficulty 8 plus the time, and using a Lazarus patch makes it difficulty 6 plus the time. Failed checks can be attempted again, but a victim will die after the sixth round.
Stabilized characters regain 1 hit point after ten minutes and can act normally, but any further damage kills them instantly. This fragility ends after they regain more hit points, either through rest, stims, or biopsionic healing. Stabilized PCs take at least a week to start recovering hit points normally, even if medical means are used to give them additional hit points.

* - Some encumbrance entries are marked with an asterisk. Such items have no significant encumbrance and dozens can be carried without hindrance.
# - Some entries are marked with a hashmark. These objects can be conveniently packed together in a smaller, more portable package. Three such objects can be packed together as a single encumbrance item. For ammunition, one loaded magazine counts as one item. Breaking open such a package to get at the contents takes a Main Action, however, before they can be Readied with another Main Action.
d - Entries marked with a letter 'd' may be easily disassembled and reassembled to spread their normally-high encumbrance values across multiple characters/vehicles.
T - This column in the sheet indicates whether relevant training is required to properly use an object, as is often the case with advanced medical, engineering or scientific equipment. If it does, it will be marked with a 'Y' and will indicate the relevant Skill level also required (e.g. "Y-1" would indicate that the user must have relevant Training and at least level 1 in a relevant Skill). If the user doesn't meet these requirements, they may find it difficult or impossible to get the most out of that item.

Medical Tools

The various tools available to medical professionals is vast, the following though lists the ones most commonly used and available to PCs. An appropriate tool is almost always required to provide any effective medical care at all.

Pharmaceuticals

While a wide variety of common over-the-counter pharmaceuticals are available, the ones listed below are some particularly likely to be useful to adventurers. Drugs are listed with both their common and technical names - common names are rarely used in respected medical circles.
Many medical stims require a minimum level in the Heal skill to successfully apply them, while others add System Strain to the target as described on page 32. If a subject’s System Strain is too high already, the stim has no positive effect. Some of the combat stims below are usually illegal for civilian possession, but street sources are available at the prices given.
Additionally, the prices given are for a "stimcap" version of the drug. This is a small capsule which is pressed against the target's skin for application. Other ways of applying the drug - such as injection, pill or inhalant - will affect the price and application method/speed accordingly. Modern vacc suits and powered armour have medical ports that allow for applying stims and other medical treatment without removing the suit.

Types of Stim

• Medicine: Any beneficial drug could be classed as 'medicine', but this type refers specifically to any stim which helps the user recover from HP damage or physical injury.
• Curatives: Curative stims are used to cure diseases, neutralise poisons, and eliminate infection. They are designed to act against long-term degenerative conditions.
• Preventatives: Preventative drugs are taken in advance to increase the body's ability to protect itself against harmful biological effects.
• Stimulants: All drugs can be classified as 'stims' thanks to the common stimcap method of application, but stimulant-class drugs in particular are designed to enhance the body's normal capabilities.
• Tranquilisers: Tranquiliser stims are intended to subdue a target's functioning. This may be as simple as knocking them out, or it might target and suppress certain abilities or inhabitions.

Readied Stims

Pharmaceuticals have no encumbrance value. However, they may not be equipped as 'readied' unless the user has also readied a medkit or pharmaceutical kit of some kind - as finding such small, loose items in ones pocket or belt cannot be done quickly.