Wounds & Healing
Wounds cause a variety of effects, some temporary and some more lasting. Those effects are explained here.
For example, an agent suffers a 3 point wound to the head and rolls a 6, for a total of 9. His Constitution is 7, so he is stunned (unconscious) for two combat turns. Not surprisingly, stunned characters are also considered to be automatically knocked down.
If a character takes enough damage from a hit to immediately take a part of his body from unwounded to slightly wounded, the effects of a scratch wound are superseded by the effects of the slight wound.
Scratch Wounds: Scratch wounds mainly represent the initial shock of suddenly being hurt. The first time that a character takes damage during combat, he loses his next action. Characters never suffer more than one lost action per day (24-hour period) for scratch wounds, regardless of how many they suffer in a combat.
Slight Wounds: A slight wound immediately reduces the character's Initiative rating by 1 point. However, characters never suffer more than one Initiative reduction for slight wounds, regardless of how many they suffer. Slight wounds have no other effect on combat, although the Handler may decide to penalize actions making use of slightly injured arms or legs.
Serious Wounds: A serious wound reduces a character's effective Strength by half (rounding the final Strength rating down) and causes an additional immediate 2 point reduction of the character's Initiative rating (for a total of three, including the slight wound reduction). Characters whose Initiative ratings are reduced to 0 or less may not take any further actions during this combat.
Characters who suffer a serious injury must also make an Impossible roll versus Constitution rating to avoid losing consciousness. The roll must be repeated every combat turn in which the character attempts to conduct any activity. A serious injury to the head automatically causes loss of consciousness. Unconscious characters make an Impossible roll versus Constitution rating at the start of each combat turn to attempt to regain consciousness.
Finally, a serious wound to the leg or arm causes the character to lose the use of that limb until it is healed.
Critical Wounds: A critical head injury causes immediate death. Critical injuries to other body parts cause immediate loss of consciousness and require medical attention within 10 minutes or the character will die from loss of blood. Characters who lose consciousness due to a critical wound make a percentile roll against their Constitution at the start of every other combat turn to attempt to regain consciousness. Once such characters regain consciousness, their Strength is halved (round down) and they also receive an additional immediate 2 point reduction to their Initiative rating. Characters whose Initiative ratings are reduced to 0 or less may not take any further actions during this combat.
For example, an agents arm has a hit capacity of 28 points and has taken 32 points of damage. It is seriously wounded. When it heals to slightly wounded, the damage points are reduced to 14, which is halfway between the top end of the limb's slightly wounded status and zero.
Penalties caused by a wound level (such as Initiative reductions) remain in effect until that wound level is reduced to the next level (at which point penalties for the next level remain in effect).
First aid is a Standard: Medical (Trauma Aid) task, assuming a doctor's medical kit is on hand. If such a kit is not available, the task becomes Formidable. Conscious characters can attempt first aid on themselves.
For example, on Monday, an Agent is nearly eaten by a humongous sewer-dwelling alligator and receives a slight wound to his bead, a serious wound to his chest, and a critical wound to each leg. An ambulance team stabilizes his critical wounds, and the Agents Cell mate takes him home to recover.
Three days later, on Thursday, his head wound has healed. By Friday, his chest wound has reduced to slight. On the next Monday, both critical wounds reduce to serious, and his slight chest wound reduces to unwounded (it has been three days since Friday). Four days later, on Friday, both legs reduce to slight, and the Agent gets in a fight with his roommate, taking another slight wound to the head. By the next Monday, all three slight wounds have healed completely. Now the Agent is totally ready to go out and get himself all messed up again.
Successful medical care requires two things. First, the caregiver must spend half an hour per wound level, per body area damaged, per day, tending to the wounds. (For instance, when The Argent was first injured, he would require four and a half hours of care per day. When he reached only three slight wounds, only an hour and a half of care was required per day.) Second, once per day the caregiver must pass an Average: Medical (Trauma Aid) check. If no medical equipment is available (a doctor's kit is minimum), then the task check becomes Difficult.
Failure means that one of the two days' worth of time to be saved was lost. In other words, if the task is failed one day during the treatment period, only one day is saved from the normal healing time. If the task is failed twice, no days are saved. Failing the task a third time (or more) does not add time to the basic healing rate unless a catastrophic failure is rolled on this third check (or beyond).
Only one surgery attempt can be pardoned per critical wound. Failure means that the wound remains critical. Catastrophic failure can result in extra healing time, loss of limb, or loss of life, depending upon the hit location receiving surgery, the severity of the critical failure, and the referee's judgment of the situation as a whole.
Knockdown
Characters who suffer more points of damage in an action phase than their current Agility are knocked down and may not conduct any other actions for the rest of the current turn. Concussion damage counts the same as gunshot and fragmentation wounds for determining knockdown, but burn damage and cumulative poison damage do not.Stun
Any damage to the head, including burn damage, has a chance of stunning a character. To avoid stun, roll 1D6 and add the damage suffered from the wound. If the result is equal to or less than the character's Constitution, the character is unaffected. If the result is greater than the Constitution rating, the character is stunned and remains unconscious for a number of combat turns equal to the amount by which the total exceeded the Constitution rating.For example, an agent suffers a 3 point wound to the head and rolls a 6, for a total of 9. His Constitution is 7, so he is stunned (unconscious) for two combat turns. Not surprisingly, stunned characters are also considered to be automatically knocked down.
Wound Severity
There are four levels of wound severity: scratch, slight, serious, and critical. If one of a character's body parts has taken damage less than or equal to half its hit capacity (round down), it is "scratched." If one of a character's body parts has taken damage more than half of its hit capacity up to equal to its hit capacity, it is slightly wounded. If it has taken more damage than its hit capacity, but less than or equal to twice its capacity, it is seriously wounded. If it has taken damage in excess of twice its hit capacity, it is critically wounded.If a character takes enough damage from a hit to immediately take a part of his body from unwounded to slightly wounded, the effects of a scratch wound are superseded by the effects of the slight wound.
Scratch Wounds: Scratch wounds mainly represent the initial shock of suddenly being hurt. The first time that a character takes damage during combat, he loses his next action. Characters never suffer more than one lost action per day (24-hour period) for scratch wounds, regardless of how many they suffer in a combat.
Slight Wounds: A slight wound immediately reduces the character's Initiative rating by 1 point. However, characters never suffer more than one Initiative reduction for slight wounds, regardless of how many they suffer. Slight wounds have no other effect on combat, although the Handler may decide to penalize actions making use of slightly injured arms or legs.
Serious Wounds: A serious wound reduces a character's effective Strength by half (rounding the final Strength rating down) and causes an additional immediate 2 point reduction of the character's Initiative rating (for a total of three, including the slight wound reduction). Characters whose Initiative ratings are reduced to 0 or less may not take any further actions during this combat.
Characters who suffer a serious injury must also make an Impossible roll versus Constitution rating to avoid losing consciousness. The roll must be repeated every combat turn in which the character attempts to conduct any activity. A serious injury to the head automatically causes loss of consciousness. Unconscious characters make an Impossible roll versus Constitution rating at the start of each combat turn to attempt to regain consciousness.
Finally, a serious wound to the leg or arm causes the character to lose the use of that limb until it is healed.
Critical Wounds: A critical head injury causes immediate death. Critical injuries to other body parts cause immediate loss of consciousness and require medical attention within 10 minutes or the character will die from loss of blood. Characters who lose consciousness due to a critical wound make a percentile roll against their Constitution at the start of every other combat turn to attempt to regain consciousness. Once such characters regain consciousness, their Strength is halved (round down) and they also receive an additional immediate 2 point reduction to their Initiative rating. Characters whose Initiative ratings are reduced to 0 or less may not take any further actions during this combat.
Healing
Each of the body's seven hit locations may be wounded to one of four levels: scratch, slight, serious, or critical (as explained above). In general, as wounded body parts heal, their wound level decreases through those levels in reverse order until they are no longer wounded--critical heals to serious, serious heals to slight, and slight heals to unwounded (healed). (Scratch wounds, though, are a special case.) When a wound level decreases from critical to serious, the damage points are reduced to the mid-point of the serious level. When a wound level decreases from serious to slight, the damage points are reduced to the mid-point between slight and zero (which is technically the high mark for the scratch wound level-but the scratch wound level is ignored once a wound reaches slight, so this status is still considered slightly wounded). When a wound level decreases from slight, it reduces to unwounded.For example, an agents arm has a hit capacity of 28 points and has taken 32 points of damage. It is seriously wounded. When it heals to slightly wounded, the damage points are reduced to 14, which is halfway between the top end of the limb's slightly wounded status and zero.
Penalties caused by a wound level (such as Initiative reductions) remain in effect until that wound level is reduced to the next level (at which point penalties for the next level remain in effect).
First Aid
It is best to treat wounds as soon as possible after they are incurred. In order for first aid to be effective, it must be applied within six turns of the time the wound was received. Effective first aid will reduce a critical wound to a serious one, or reduce the healing time of a serious wound by two days. First aid has no effect on slight or scratch wounds, except to prevent infection. To administer first aid to damage caused by poison requires an antivenin autoinjector or a doctor's medical kit (which contains them).First aid is a Standard: Medical (Trauma Aid) task, assuming a doctor's medical kit is on hand. If such a kit is not available, the task becomes Formidable. Conscious characters can attempt first aid on themselves.
Stabilizing Critical Wounds
Critical wounds must be stabilized within 10 minutes or the injured character dies. (Remember, though, that death is automatic with a critical wound to the head.) Stabilizing a critical wound is a Standard: Medical (Trauma Aid), but certain types of equipment add points to the effective skill level of the character performing the treatment. Blood plasma, strong sedatives, or a medical kit of some sort each add +I to the skill level, and these things can be used in conjunction with one another for a collective bonus. In a hospital or clinic setting, whole blood may be used instead of blood plasma, for a bonus +2 instead of +1.Basic Healing Rate
A character without medical attention may heal from a slight wound level to unwounded in three days. To go from serious to slight takes four days, and from critical to serious takes one week. Note that healing of various body parts goes on simultaneously.For example, on Monday, an Agent is nearly eaten by a humongous sewer-dwelling alligator and receives a slight wound to his bead, a serious wound to his chest, and a critical wound to each leg. An ambulance team stabilizes his critical wounds, and the Agents Cell mate takes him home to recover.
Three days later, on Thursday, his head wound has healed. By Friday, his chest wound has reduced to slight. On the next Monday, both critical wounds reduce to serious, and his slight chest wound reduces to unwounded (it has been three days since Friday). Four days later, on Friday, both legs reduce to slight, and the Agent gets in a fight with his roommate, taking another slight wound to the head. By the next Monday, all three slight wounds have healed completely. Now the Agent is totally ready to go out and get himself all messed up again.
Recovery from Scratch Wounds
Scratch wounds require 24 hours to heal to an unwounded state. If a scratch wound is taken to a body part, and then further wounds to that body part during the day push that body part's wound level to slight, the rates and rules for healing from a slight wound are used. Slight wounds do not heal to a scratched state, they heal to unwounded without passing through the scratch wound level status.Medical Care
Medical care and supervision will increase an injured character's basic healing rate. If a character is under successful medical care while healing, two days are trimmed each stage of healing. In other words, critical wounds heal in five days, serious wounds in two days, and slight wounds in one day.Successful medical care requires two things. First, the caregiver must spend half an hour per wound level, per body area damaged, per day, tending to the wounds. (For instance, when The Argent was first injured, he would require four and a half hours of care per day. When he reached only three slight wounds, only an hour and a half of care was required per day.) Second, once per day the caregiver must pass an Average: Medical (Trauma Aid) check. If no medical equipment is available (a doctor's kit is minimum), then the task check becomes Difficult.
Failure means that one of the two days' worth of time to be saved was lost. In other words, if the task is failed one day during the treatment period, only one day is saved from the normal healing time. If the task is failed twice, no days are saved. Failing the task a third time (or more) does not add time to the basic healing rate unless a catastrophic failure is rolled on this third check (or beyond).
Treating Poison Wounds
Poison wounds can be treated just like regular wounds, with the exception that either a doctor's kit or an antivenin autoinjector is essential rather than optional and confers no bonus point to the task. note that a successful first aid roll has the normal effect on wounds incurred and halts any further damage from the poison.Adequate Diet and Shelter
If the Handler decides that a wounded character has inadequate food or shelter, each wound level will require an extra day to reduce to the next level. These penalties are additive, meaning that a character with both inadequate food and inadequate shelter will take two extra days to reduce each wound level. For instance, imagine that the AGent, in the example above, is hiding out in an abandoned warehouse and subsisting on nothing but water and a case of stale cheese crackers. This is certainly inadequate diet, so he will suffer an additional day to heal each wound level. If the weather is cold, the heatless warehouse will also qualify as inadequate shelter, so Pigeon will require two extra days to heal each level. Now, instead of healing his slight head wound on Thursday, it will take until Saturday, the serious chest wound will take until Sunday to become slight, and the two critical leg wounds will take until the next Wednesday to reduce to serious.Surgery
Surgery can reduce a critical wound drastically. Like any other medical care, it will usually be performed at a hospital, where all necessary equipment is available and quality post-operative care is available. But occasionally a character might have reasons for not going to a hospital for this care (such as insufficient money, or being sought by assassins). In these cases, a friend might be asked to perform the surgery. Surgery can only be performed by someone with at least Medical (Surgery) 1 or Medical (Diagnosis or Trauma Aid) 6, and it requires the use of surgical instruments. It is a Formidable task versus Medical to reduce a critical wound to serious, but if the task roll is successful, the reduction occurs immediately after surgery is completed. The use of blood plasma and local anesthetic each add +1 to the surgeon's effective Medical skill, and are cumulative. Ifwhole blood is used instead . of plasma, it adds +2 to the effective skill level. Total anesthetic adds +3 if it is used instead of local anesthetic.Only one surgery attempt can be pardoned per critical wound. Failure means that the wound remains critical. Catastrophic failure can result in extra healing time, loss of limb, or loss of life, depending upon the hit location receiving surgery, the severity of the critical failure, and the referee's judgment of the situation as a whole.
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