Injuries

[LVI]

Very valid point. Until a few years ago I was still playing football and as a offensive linemen. I remember one game I got the wind kicked outta me. Fuck me for about 2mins I thought I was gonna die. I just couldn't regain my breath. And that's minor to a gunshot wound. Probably closer to a concussion blast. And I was out for a few series afterwards until the trainer cleared me.

A few years ago my wife was in a serious car accident. She was blind sided in an intersection as the passenger of a left turning car. Well she had a broken collar bone, collapsed lung, broken ribs, a 6" gash on the back of her head, internal injuries plus more minor injuries all being 17 Weeks pregnant. Thank god she and my daughter made it. And just watching her immediate and long term recovery makes u realize the significance a injury to ur PC can have in his day to day actions.

[Adm.Lee]

Yep. That's the biggest single reason I suggest players have multiple characters. Once one gets hit, it may be a while before they'll want to walk point again.

[pmulcahy11b]

Here's something about injuries that I've never seen ANY game account for: those aws**t injuries that happen every so often. Like the time I fell off the top of a moving M577 when we got ambushed at NTC and I dislocated my shoulder and cracked three of my ribs. Immediately quite debilitating, but once the PA popped my shoulder back into socket and put me into a rib binder, I went back to my platoon and kept going (and now, much later, I am having lots of problems with that shoulder). Or you're running across a field at night to get into position, step in a hole and bammo, you have combination broken/sprained ankle that takes 6 months to fully heal, but you grit it out and keep going with much trouble. Or you're just breaking track, your hand slips, and you end up with a deep laceration on your hand (no that wasn't me, but in T2K that could lead to a fatal infection).

No one has ever seemed to come up with any way to account for that sort of thing.

[simonmark6]

Twilight does account for that, it's part of the Catastrophic failure rule, you rolled a 20 that day...

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by simonmark6

Twilight does account for that, it's part of the Catastrophic failure rule, you rolled a 20 that day...

Doing what? What was the activity or skill you were using? Simple movement? At NTC, did I roll Catastrophic Failure while shooting at the OPFOR on my Small Arms (Rifle) skill?

I guess this is where GM's judgement comes in, but there are no real rules for it.

[simonmark6]

God as GM decided that you needed a straight roll against Agility for riding on top of a moving vehicle without any specific restraints to prevent you falling off. When you rolled, despite the positive modifiers that God gave you for a straight forward task, you came up a 20 when you rolled.

[pmulcahy11b]

Yeah, but I'm an atheist...

[Targan]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

Here's something about injuries that I've never seen ANY game account for: those aws**t injuries that happen every so often. Like the time I fell off the top of a moving M577 when we got ambushed at NTC and I dislocated my shoulder and cracked three of my ribs. Immediately quite debilitating, but once the PA popped my shoulder back into socket and put me into a rib binder, I went back to my platoon and kept going (and now, much later, I am having lots of problems with that shoulder). Or you're running across a field at night to get into position, step in a hole and bammo, you have combination broken/sprained ankle that takes 6 months to fully heal, but you grit it out and keep going with much trouble. Or you're just breaking track, your hand slips, and you end up with a deep laceration on your hand (no that wasn't me, but in T2K that could lead to a fatal infection).

No one has ever seemed to come up with any way to account for that sort of thing.

In my last campaign those sorts of injuries certainly occurred. And the game system handled them quite elegantly, often sparked by a critical failure on some skill or attribute check. For example the fall from the M577 could be the result of a critical failure on an initiative check at the start of the ambush and then a subsequent marginal or critical failure on a Climbing, Strength or Agility check. The broken/sprained ankle could be the result of a CF on a Running or Survival (Survival skill is used, among other things, for pathfinding in Gunmaster/Harnmaster) followed by a failure on a subsequent Agility check. Luck rolls and their levels of success or failure could also come into it.

And death from infection following serious injuries certainly occurred in my last campaign too. A replacement PC called "Tex" Walker (a member of B Troop in Dobrodzien who was recruited by Major Po) died from a streptococcus infection some weeks after being shot with several MG rounds, falling from the vehicle upon which he was manning the ring mounted weapon and having a leg run over by the vehicle following behind. There came a point where Major (and Doctor) Po told Tex that the available antibiotics were not working and he would soon die. As I recall, Tex's final request was that another PC cut out his heart after death and bury it in Texas.

Oh, and Nate - those are some gnarly scars. Congratulations for being too tough to die despite such brutal damage.

[natehale1971]

thanks Targan... ijust don'tknow if it's toughness or stupidity that's keepi me aroud.... especially since i can't find any female who'd be willing to look past all that and take a chane on being with me. it's been really... lonely.

[Adm.Lee]

Originally Posted by Targan

Oh, and Nate - those are some gnarly scars. Congratulations for being too tough to die despite such brutal damage.

What he said.

One of my favorite TV shows has been "Firefly." While injuries didn't carry over from episode to episode, you can see people who are hurt, acting like they are HURT (primarily Captain Mal)-- moving gingerly, taking it easy.

In the easy-squeezey system of Savage Worlds (I've been talking about it a lot, I know), PCs can take 3 Wounds before passing out, but each one applies a -1 modifier to all die rolls. Levels of Fatigue also apply the same modifiers, and a referee is advised that minor injuries (like falling down a slope, but not really breaking anything) should be counted as Fatigue.

[natehale1971]

sometimes i think it wasn't being to tough to die... but being to stupid to just give in and die.

the fatgiue value modifiers would be something good to use.. in our campaign one of our characters was injuried during the break out... and while they switched out their main character to one who wasn't lmited... they did keep them as a secondary character who provided support for the campaign (their non-combat skills were used alot, and they ended up getting good as a sniper and support weapons gunner)... and their injury was pretty tame. a bullet that went through the meat on his thigh. the classic flesh wound form movies... but he really played it right.