Healing Wounds
Application of the healing arts can help restore a patient's lost Health points. Treatment can occur in the field through first aid or in a doctor's clinic or ER. While medical treatment can stabilize a patient or alleviate his pain, it isn't usually capable of miraculous cures or recoveries. That requires time and rest on the patient's part, and prolonged care.
Dexterity + Medicine may be rolled in the field or ER, while Intelligence + Medicine may be rolled in a lab or operating room, where science and technology does much of the work of healing injuries. Typically, Dexterity + Medicine is rolled when a patient is dying while being cared for. Intelligence + Medicine is rolled once a patient has been stabilized and can undergo long-term care.
Achieving sufficient successes (equal to the total, overall Health points lost by the patient) restores one Health point lost to bashing damage, in addition to any healing that the character already does under his own power. A patient may regain no more than one "extra" Health point by this means per day. Alternatively, a patient who's bleeding to death or in a coma is stabilized if one success is achieved on the roll. (The loss of Health points to aggravated damage each minute is stopped; see "Incapacitation," p. 173.)
Round-the-clock, intensive care diminishes a patient's injuries, downgrading the nature of wounds by one degree. Thus, a lethal wound can be downgraded to bashing, and an aggravated wound can be downgraded to lethal. Such treatment can occur only in a hospital or other intensive-care facility. An extended Intelligence + Medicine roll is made. The number of successes required is five for a lethal wound and 10 for an aggravated one. Each roll requires an hour.
This kind of treatment always focuses on the worst of the patient's injuries first. Thus, an aggravated wound is downgraded to lethal before a lethal wound is downgraded to bashing. No more than one wound can be downgraded per day of treatment.
Note that this treatment does not eliminate wounds. It simply minimizes them. A patient must heal downgraded injuries completely by himself or receive other treatment to eliminate them.
Example: Someone has beaten the crap out of Emir. He has lost all of his 7 Health points to lethal damage and is now bleeding to death (acquiring an aggravated wound per minute). Landers discovers Emir and performs first aid. LandersÕ Dexterity is 2 and Medicine is 2. He must accumulate seven successes to stop the flow of blood and save Emir's life. Three rolls (and minutes) pass before Landers accumulates the required successes, at which point Emir stops incurring aggravated injuries. That leaves him with three aggravated and four lethal wounds. (Until Landers accumulates the number of successes required to stop the bleeding, Emir continues to gain one aggravated wound per minute as he keeps bleeding - see "Incapacitation," p. 173. If Landers' rolls were repeatedly unsuccessful, Emir could have died while being treated.)
Later, in the hospital, the attending physician puts Emir in intensive care to alleviate the worst of his injuries. The doctor has 4 Intelligence and 4 Medicine, and gains four bonus dice for tools and facilities. In three hours, 10 successes are rolled for him and he reduces one of Emir's aggravated wounds to lethal damage. At least two more days of such successful treatment must pass before Emir's remaining two aggravated wounds are reduced to lethal, one per day. After that, Emir is allowed to recover on his own with rest. It takes two days before he heals one of his lethal injuries and his right-most Health box is emptied (see "Healing," p. 175). Before any more time is lost, however, a staggering Emir escapes from the hospital to avoid explanations, to hole up and to plot his revenge.
Failure: Your character makes no progress in alleviating the patient's injuries. If the subject is bleeding to death, a wound turns from lethal to aggravated over the course of the wasted minute.
Success: Your character makes progress in alleviating the patient's injuries. Until you acquire the total number of successes required to stop a patient from bleeding to death, one more of his wounds turns from lethal to aggravated per minute.
Exceptional Success: Your character makes significant progress toward alleviating the patient's injuries.
Suggested Equipment: Set of surgeon's tools (scalpels, retractors, clamps) (+1), field surgical kit (+1), military surgical kit (+2), access to surgical facilities (+3)
Possible Penalties: Lack of tools (-1 to -4), bad weather (-2), distraction from noise (-1) to imminent danger (-4)
Dexterity + Medicine may be rolled in the field or ER, while Intelligence + Medicine may be rolled in a lab or operating room, where science and technology does much of the work of healing injuries. Typically, Dexterity + Medicine is rolled when a patient is dying while being cared for. Intelligence + Medicine is rolled once a patient has been stabilized and can undergo long-term care.
Achieving sufficient successes (equal to the total, overall Health points lost by the patient) restores one Health point lost to bashing damage, in addition to any healing that the character already does under his own power. A patient may regain no more than one "extra" Health point by this means per day. Alternatively, a patient who's bleeding to death or in a coma is stabilized if one success is achieved on the roll. (The loss of Health points to aggravated damage each minute is stopped; see "Incapacitation," p. 173.)
Round-the-clock, intensive care diminishes a patient's injuries, downgrading the nature of wounds by one degree. Thus, a lethal wound can be downgraded to bashing, and an aggravated wound can be downgraded to lethal. Such treatment can occur only in a hospital or other intensive-care facility. An extended Intelligence + Medicine roll is made. The number of successes required is five for a lethal wound and 10 for an aggravated one. Each roll requires an hour.
This kind of treatment always focuses on the worst of the patient's injuries first. Thus, an aggravated wound is downgraded to lethal before a lethal wound is downgraded to bashing. No more than one wound can be downgraded per day of treatment.
Note that this treatment does not eliminate wounds. It simply minimizes them. A patient must heal downgraded injuries completely by himself or receive other treatment to eliminate them.
Example: Someone has beaten the crap out of Emir. He has lost all of his 7 Health points to lethal damage and is now bleeding to death (acquiring an aggravated wound per minute). Landers discovers Emir and performs first aid. LandersÕ Dexterity is 2 and Medicine is 2. He must accumulate seven successes to stop the flow of blood and save Emir's life. Three rolls (and minutes) pass before Landers accumulates the required successes, at which point Emir stops incurring aggravated injuries. That leaves him with three aggravated and four lethal wounds. (Until Landers accumulates the number of successes required to stop the bleeding, Emir continues to gain one aggravated wound per minute as he keeps bleeding - see "Incapacitation," p. 173. If Landers' rolls were repeatedly unsuccessful, Emir could have died while being treated.)
Later, in the hospital, the attending physician puts Emir in intensive care to alleviate the worst of his injuries. The doctor has 4 Intelligence and 4 Medicine, and gains four bonus dice for tools and facilities. In three hours, 10 successes are rolled for him and he reduces one of Emir's aggravated wounds to lethal damage. At least two more days of such successful treatment must pass before Emir's remaining two aggravated wounds are reduced to lethal, one per day. After that, Emir is allowed to recover on his own with rest. It takes two days before he heals one of his lethal injuries and his right-most Health box is emptied (see "Healing," p. 175). Before any more time is lost, however, a staggering Emir escapes from the hospital to avoid explanations, to hole up and to plot his revenge.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Your character's efforts make the patient's condition worse instead of better. The subject is moved prematurely or incorrectly, or the wrong medication is administered. The patient loses one Health point to bashing damage and all your character's accumulated successes are lost. He must start from scratch if he's to help the patient. If the subject is bleeding to death, an extra wound turns from lethal to aggravated, in addition to that lost for the minute that's wasted.Failure: Your character makes no progress in alleviating the patient's injuries. If the subject is bleeding to death, a wound turns from lethal to aggravated over the course of the wasted minute.
Success: Your character makes progress in alleviating the patient's injuries. Until you acquire the total number of successes required to stop a patient from bleeding to death, one more of his wounds turns from lethal to aggravated per minute.
Exceptional Success: Your character makes significant progress toward alleviating the patient's injuries.
Suggested Equipment: Set of surgeon's tools (scalpels, retractors, clamps) (+1), field surgical kit (+1), military surgical kit (+2), access to surgical facilities (+3)
Possible Penalties: Lack of tools (-1 to -4), bad weather (-2), distraction from noise (-1) to imminent danger (-4)
Dice Pool: Dexterity or Intelligence + Medicine + equipment
Action: Extended (one success is required per Health point of damage suffered; each roll represents one minute of work (first aid) or one hour of work (long-term hospital treatment))
Action: Extended (one success is required per Health point of damage suffered; each roll represents one minute of work (first aid) or one hour of work (long-term hospital treatment))