A World of Hurt: Medicine File

By Jason W. Tice (jait@one.net)

Description

In order to recover from damage, characters must take some sort of medical skill check. Otherwise, the victim... er, patient continues to take damage from infection and system shock. If a patient is at, say, a Mauled health level, he must make a daily death save as well as taking the extra damage, say a single level per day. Without medical aid, you're going to run out of luck pretty soon.

White Wolf does not make use of death or stun save. Instead, in the area of the health, they simply say that so-and-so has taken so much damage, and can only crawl, or stumble, etc. It says nothing about the time necessary to heal, or how that healing takes place.

Health Levels

White Wolf describes the health levels as:

Bruised	--	Character is only bruised and has no action penalties.
Hurt	-1	Character is only mildly hurt; movement isn't hindered.
Injured	-1	Minor Injuries; little hindrance to movement.
Wounded	-2	Character cannot run, but can still walk.
Mauled	-2	Character is badly injured and can only hobble about.
Crippled	-5	Character is severely injured and can only crawl.
Incapacitated	--	Character is completely incapable of movement.

I feel that this doesn't do enough to describe what the character has to go through. Some players have played heavily injured characters as if the wounds were only nuisances only, and they'd be able to go out and kick ass the next day.

Not quite.

New Health Levels

I use this table as a means of describing how characters deal with injuries. It introduces the save difficulties for both Stun and Death saves, two new concepts to the Storyteller system.

	Health Levels Lost	Death Save	Stun Save	Action Penalties	Minimum Days Before Recovery	Total Days to Recovery
Bruised	1	-	5	-	1d10/4	1-3
Hurt	2	-	6	-1	1d10/3	2-7
Injured	3	-	7	-1	1d10/2	3-12
Wounded	4	6*	8	-2	1d10	4-22
Mauled	5	7	9	-3	2d10	6-42
Crippled	6	8	10	-4	2d10+8	16-70
Incapacitated	7	9	--	-5	1d10+8	25-88
Critical	8	10	--	--	1d10+10	36-108

Bruised

At this level, the character is essentially unhurt. This type of injury includes scrapes, cuts, bruises, first degree burns, insect bites, etc.

This type of injury requires no special attention, and can be taken care of nearly anywhere.

Levels lost: 1
Stun Save: 5
Death Save: -
Action Penalties: -
Days to Recovery to Next Level: 1

Hurt

At this level, the character has been hurt, and begins to take some penalty from his wounds. His breathing is usually heavier, and he may be slower, or favor a specific limb. He is still able to go about his business with a minor amount of pain. This type of injury includes sprains, scrapes, deep cuts, first and second degree burns, etc.

This type of injury requires special attention, but need not necessarily be taken to a professional.

Levels lost: 2
Stun Save: 6
Death Save: -
Action Penalties: -1
Days to Recovery to Next Level: 3

Injured

At this level, the character is definitely hurt. He still only takes minor penalties for action, but the nature of the injuries is such that professional treatment is necessary. First Aid treatment will work to stabilize (if possible) the wound, but further medical attention will be necessary. This type of injury includes cuts, impalement, broken bones, snapped tendons, bloodway severance, second degree burns, etc.

This type of injury requires professional medical care.

Levels lost: 3
Stun Save: 7
Death Save: -
Action Penalties: -1
Days to Recovery to Next Level: 5

Wounded

At this level, the characters wounds are serious, and must be treated as soon as possible. This type of injury includes excessive blood loss, Support or germinal layer burns, complex bone breakage, etc.

Levels lost: 4
Stun Save: 8
Death Save: 6^* (used only if recovering)
Action Penalties: -2
Days to Recovery to Next Level: 8

Mauled

At this level, the character is badly hurt. Mobility is severely impaired. This type of injury requires special attention. The patient must spend at least half a day in bed in order to regain any lost points of damage. Other activities must be limited to simple tasks. All actions carry a -3 penalty.

This type of injury requires professional medical care. Dressings must be changed twice daily, and nursing care must be available.

Levels lost: 5
Stun Save: 9
Death Save: 7
Action Penalties: -3
Days to Recovery to Next Level: 15

Crippled

At this level, the patient is going to be bed-ridden. He is probably comatose much of the time (over 30%), and is wired to all sorts of machinery. Depending on the wound types, he may or may not be on life-support. This type of injury includes Major Chest Trauma, Blunt Trauma, Mutilation, limb crushing, etc.

This type of injury requires extensive attention. 24-hour observation is necessary, and usually life-support machines will be made available. Although constant care is necessary, he will not be required to make a Death Save (if he's been stabilized).

Levels lost: 6
Stun Save: 10
Death Save: 8
Action Penalties: -4
Days to Recovery to Next Level: 15

Incapacitated

At this level, the character is in big trouble. The patient is going to be bed-ridden. He is probably comatose most of the time (over 75%), and is wired to all sorts of machinery. He will probably be on life-support.

This type of injury requires extensive attention. 24-hour observation and life-support machines are necessary. Although constant care is necessary, he will not be required to make a Death Save (if he's been stabilized).

Levels lost: 7
Stun Save: Impossible
Death Save: 9
Action Penalties: -5
Days to Recovery to Next Level: 10

Critical

At this level, the character is at death's door. He is bed-ridden, and probably unconscious. He will be attached to life-support machinery, and will require 24-hour monitoring. He will spend most of his time in intensive care, and may need to make Death Saves until he is reasonably stabilized.

Levels lost: 8
Stun Save: Impossible
Death Save: 10
Action Penalties: Unconscious
Days to Recovery to Next Level: 10

A Sample Medical History

Christopher takes a gunshot wound (7 points of damage) to the chest, reducing him to incapacitated. His lover, Sondra, uses First Aid, and is able to stabilize him (barely) enough for the paamedics to attend to him.

The paramedic in charge performs a Medicine roll, and succeeds enough to get Christopher to the hospital.

As a patient admitted in Incapacitated condition, Christopher rolls 4, meaning it will take him 14 days to reach Crippled. during this time, he'll be unconscious a lot, and wired to life-support machines. Most the time, he'll be out of it on drugs. (when he reaches Crippled, the doctors can take him off drugs and life-support).

At Mauled, Christopher can hobble around on crutches for a couple of hours at a time, while the nurses and physical therapists watch over him. At Wounded or Injured, Christopher will be released from the hospital, and will be treated as an outpatient. It will still take some time before he will be fully functioning.

From Bruised, it will only be up to three days before he is fully healed. This entire history does not take into account anything going wrong with the medical procedures, and assumes that the patient might reach full functionality, after such a wound.

Stun Saves and Death Saves

Stun Saves and Death Saves are used to see how a character deals with potentially threatening injuries.

When a character takes damage that exceeds his Stamina rating (unmodified), the character will need to roll a Stun Save roll. When he takes damage that places him at Mauled or below, the character must roll a Stun Save, then a Death Save.

The Stun Save and the Death Save act in two different ways.

Stun Saves: If a character takes more damage at once from a single attack than she has Stamina dots (in regular form--not in other Garou forms, or under the influence of Life magic), she may make need to make a roll to prevent going into systemic shock.

If she fails the Stun Save, she will be unable to act during the next turn. The turn following the skipped turn, she will have to make another Stun Save. If she fails three stun saves in a row, she will go unconscious.

The Stun Save difficulty is equal to 4 + health levels lost.

For Example: Julia jumped for the Man in black, and was hit by three rounds of hollow point bullets. She uses her Life magick hurriedly, and soaks two levels of damage, but takes four total, putting her health level at Wounded. As her Stamina is only three, the storyteller tells her to roll against shock. Julia rolls her Willpower (6 dice) against her Stun difficulty (4 + 4 health levels = 8), and rolls: 2, 5, 9, 8, 4, 1. She gets one success, staying conscious. However, as per regular white wolf rules, all her actions are at -2 dice.

Death Saves: In order to save against death, the character must roll Willpower against her current Death difficulty. The character's Death Save target is always 2 + health levels lost. If she fails the Death Save, she will lose a level of health for every three turns that she does not receive first aid or medicine attention to stabilize her condition. If she is Mauled, and fails her Death Save, she will cycle through Crippled, Incapacitated, the finally Critical, before dying.

The Death Save should be used any time the character's health level drops to Mauled (-5 health points) or less.

If the character has been shot, and taken five health levels of damage (she was at Mauled), her target to save against death will only be 7. However, if she had taken another three health levels of damage (from Injured to Crippled), her Death Save will rise to 10. This effectively makes Incapacitated a Death Save difficulty of 9, and adds another health level, that of Critical, which makes the Death Save a difficulty of 10.

For Example: Renee was hit by a bolt of lightning, while trying to protect Michael. As she's a Sleeper, she has no chance to roll Life magick. She takes 9 points of damage, and is able to soak 3 points of damage through her Stamina alone. She takes 7 levels of damage, putting her at Crippled. The Storyteller has her perform both a Stun and a Death Save. Renee rolls her Willpower (7 dice) against her Stun difficulty (4+6 levels of damage = 10). She rolls: 2, 9, 2, 1, 8, 4, 6. Renee fails her Stun Save. She immediately lapses into unconsciousness.

Next, she rolls her Willpower against her Death difficulty (2+7 levels of damage = 9). She rolls: 2, 5, 6, 6, 3, 9, 1, 5, 3. She fails her Death Save, and, unless she is stabilized within the next six turns (3 * remaining health levels), she will die.