Healing Wounds
As characters heal, they recover both the Strength points they’ve lost and from the effects of the wounds. The rate at which the character heals depends on whether a doctor has tended his wounds (someone with Medicine skill has made a successful skill check).
A character who has received medical care heals at the rate of one Strength point per week per serious wound and two points per week per light wound. All light wounds are considered healed after one week, all serious wounds are considered healed when the character has recovered all his Strength points.
Thus, a character with two light wounds and one serious wound heals five points the first week (two for each of the light wounds, one for the serious wound). At the end of that week his light wounds are completely healed. He now heals one point per week for the next three weeks. At the end of that time, his serious wound is completely healed.
If the character has not received medical attention, he heals only one point per week per light wound and no points for serious wounds. A light wound is considered healed after two weeks. The character discussed above would heal only two points per week. After two weeks his light wounds would be healed, but his serious wound would not be healed at all.
If a serious wound goes untended for three weeks, the character must make a Luck check. If this check succeeds, the character begins healing normally. If the check fails, the wound has gone septic and the character dies.
Special penalties (to accuracy, speed, and movement) due to light wounds are no longer in effect after one week of healing. Special penalties from serious wounds are no longer in effect after two weeks of healing.
Brawling damage is restored at the rate of one point per hour of rest. The point at which a character recovers consciousness should be decided by the Judge on an individual basis.
If a character is not fully recovered from a brawl, it will affect his accuracy, movement, speed, and strength. If the character has lost four or less points to brawling damage, he is affected as if he had a light wound. If his brawling damage is five or more points, the effect is the same as a serious wound. This does not come into play until after the brawl is over.
Medicine Skill
While great strides were made in medicine in the years leading up to the second half of the 19th Century, a combination of inadequate knowledge and poor facilities made both disease and injury very lethal on the frontier. A good doctor was both very rare and very highly regarded. Even some of the basic principles of first aid, which we now take for granted, were largely unknown to the general public.
Wounds are dealt with in detail in Chapter 2, and recovery from wounds is covered in Chapter 7: The Western Campaign. Regarding wounds, medical skill has these capabilities and restrictions: No amount of medical skill or tending will save a character who has been mortally wounded. Serious wounds will begin healing after a doctor makes a successful Medicine skill check.
Light wounds heal on their own, or twice as fast if tended by a doctor. A doctor can also use his Medical skill to treat animal bites, poisoning, fevers, and other diseases.
prerequisite: Literacy
Wound Points
Whenever a character is wounded, in addition to suffering a light, serious, or mortal wound, he also picks up one to five wound points. If a character’s wound points total up to more than his Strength score, the character passes out (from shock and loss of blood).
The number of points inflicted by a wound is the modified wound severity die roll. In the example above, where Montana Joe suffered a light arm wound, he also suffered two wound points.
When a mortal wound is reduced by a Luck check to a light wound, it inflicts only
one wound point.
Doctor services ($3 per visit min.) |
---|
bullet removed | 25c |
bullet hole patched | 50c |
broken bone set | 50c |
broken bone splinted | 75c |
buckshot removed | $2 |
concussion treated | 50c |
lacerations stitched | 50c |
powder burns treated | $1 |
other burns treated | $2 |
leeching | 25c |
amputation | $5 |
diseases* treated | $2 |
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:17, Sun 04 Feb.