Natural Healing

This system describes how natural healing occurs, mechanically, including the rules for medical treatment of various kinds.

Base Mechanic

• Test: Extended Stamina test. (There is no limit to the number of rolls that can be made, regardless of pool size.)
  • Natural healing heals bashing damage first, then lethal, then aggravated (healing right to left, the opposite order of damage taken). A healing roll to heal one type of damage cannot be made if the patient has any points of the next-worse types of damage.
• Modifiers: Bed Rest Only (+1), Light Activity (+0), Regular Activity (-1), Strenuous Activity (-2), Violent Activity (-3)
• Interval:
  • Bashing: Fifteen minutes per roll, doubling with each roll, maximum of four hours per roll.
  • Lethal: One day per roll, doubling with each roll, maximum of eight days per roll.
  • Aggravated: One week per roll, doubling with each roll, maximum of sixteen weeks per roll.
• Results:
  • Exceptional Success: You make a stunning recovery, healing one point of the appropriate type of damage per success, but also gaining the Glowing Health Condition.
  • Success: Healing proceeds apace, healing one point of the appropriate type of damage per success.
  • Failure: Some kind of setback occurs that slows down healing.
  • Dramatic Failure: Not only does no healing occur, but the character is afflicted with the Health Crisis Condition.

Using Medicine

Receiving medical treatment can aid in recovering from wounds. The three main uses of Medicine are:

• First Aid, used to treat non-life threatening injuries, or to prevent death in the case of potentially lethal wounds;
• Emergency Medical Care, such as that found in Emergency and Trauma Rooms, used to alleviate the damage inflicted in serious injuries; and
• Extended Medical Care, used to help a patient recover from injury more quickly.

Suggested Equipment: First Aid Kit (+1), EMT or Military Field Kit (+2), Medical Facility (+3); Possible Penalties: Insufficient tools (-1), Self-treatment (-2), No tools (-2), bad weather (-2), distraction (noise: -1; jostling: -2, immanent danger: -4)

First Aid (Injured)

This is first aid used on someone who has been injured in some way, but is not dying. Dice Pool: Dexterity + Medicine; Action: Instant (one minute per total damage suffered)

• Exceptional Success: Two lethal damage is converted to two bashing damage. The patient also gains the Glowing Health Condition.
• Success: One lethal damage is converted a bashing damage. If there are no lethal damage, one bashing damage is healed outright.
• Failure: Basic injuries are tended to as best as possible, without mechanical benefit.
• Dramatic Failure: Something goes terribly wrong. The patient begins Dying.

First Aid (Dying)

Dice Pool: Dexterity + Medicine; Action: Extended (Difficulty of Health damage taken); Interval: One minute; Note: Dying patients will continue to change one lethal wound to an aggravated wound per minute.

• Exceptional Success: Not only do you add all your successes to the accumulated total, but you prevent the change of one lethal wound to an aggravated one for this minute.
• Success: Successes are added to the accumulated total. One lethal damage is still upgraded to an aggravated damage.
• Failure: Medic must choose to either end the test outright, ceasing her efforts, or take the Frustrated Condition to continue.
• Dramatic Failure: The patient dies.

First Aid (Poisoning)

Dice Pool: Dexterity + Medicine; Action: Extended (Difficulty of Health damage taken); Interval: One minute; Note: Poisoned patients continue to suffer from the Poisoned Tilt while treatment is undergone.

• Exceptional Success: Not only do you add all your successes to the accumulated total, but you prevent the need for a resistance roll against the Poisoned Tilt.
• Success: Successes are added to the accumulated total. Effects of the Poisoned Tilt still apply.
• Failure: Medic must choose to either end the test outright, ceasing her efforts, or take the Frustrated Condition to continue.
• Dramatic Failure: The patient dies.

Emergency Medical Care

Dice Pool: Wits + Medicine (usually a dice pool 6 in most hospitals); Action: Instant; Interval: Thirty minutes.

• Exceptional Success: In addition to using generated successes as below, choose one of the following: Reduce Interval to twenty minutes for rest of test; patient also gains the Glowing Health Condition; or regain a Willpower.
• Success: For each two successes, change on aggravated damage to a lethal damage. If there are no aggravated damage, each success changes one lethal wound to a bashing.
• Failure: An infection sets in. Take the Health Crisis Condition.
• Dramatic Failure: Surgical table accident. Patient begins Dying, requiring immediate First Aid. Emergency Medical Care cannot be administered again.

Extended Medical Care

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Medicine; Action: Teamwork; successes on this roll add to the patient's Stamina (to a maximum of doubling the patient's dice pool) for his healing rolls.; Interval: The amount of time that the patient must be cared for on a daily basis is based on their worst wounds: aggravated requires round-the-clock treatment, lethal requires a number of hours a day equal to the patient's current wound total (including bashing damage) and bashing requires only an hour of treatment a day to benefit from these bonus dice.
Notes: In a hospital environment, most of these rolls are actually made by the nursing staff (dice pool 4), with doctors checking in on progress (dice pool 5-6, with rare specialists at 7-8).

• Exceptional Success: In addition to adding dice to the Stamina check, the patient gains the Glowing Health Condition.
• Success: Add successes to recovery roll.
• Failure: No dice are added to recovery roll.
• Dramatic Failure: Medical mishap. The lowest category of damage is upgraded by one step.

Suggested Equipment: Basic medical facility (+1), Typical medical facility (+2), Expensive and cutting edge medical facility (+3); Possible Penalties: Basic Home care (-1), No medical tools or kits (-1), Third world conditions (-2), Wilderness (-3)

Merit: Quick Healer (•• or ••••)

Prerequisites: Stamina •••
Effect: Your character recovers from wounds far more quickly than others. At 2 dots, you gain the 9-Agains benefit on natural healing rolls. At 4 dots, you gain 8-Agains on natural healing rolls.