I just read the “passive regen” thread and that got me thinking. There are several flaws and omissions in the current injury system. One such IMO is bleeding. You can on a rare occasion sustain a severe bleeding wound but I’m looking for a more consistent and gradual system that requires more frequent wound dressing. Perhaps limbs in less than full condition should be treated, or they’ll develop an infection in less than a day?
First of all, a character should have a set blood volume. Lose too much, and you’ll die. That would be in contrast to torso damage, which is the current model of blood loss / severe bleeding wound. Blood loss could be a recoverable status effect. Blood loss could at least result in speed loss. We could spread blood bags or IV bags into the game, and set blood types for all humans (player + NPCs). Choosing your blood type could be part of the character creation. Not all blood types are equally rare, and choosing a rare blood type or rare donor options could provide more points. Meanwhile hospitals and clinics could have blood banks. A full recovery from the edge of consciousness (due to blood loss) back to full health could take a season or 14 days, whichever is shorter. That would be without any IVs and relying on diet and rest only. Iron-rich diet could modestly speed up blood recovery.
Scars could/should be a fun collectable, and listed such as:
Torso: 10cm scar (zombie skeleton), 9cm2 burn scar (acid)
Left arm: 10cm2 burn scar (fire), 7cm scar (feral predator)
Left leg: 4cm scar (zombie child)
Scar system could also help locate inconsistencies or imbalances in combat. Advanced medical treatments could also exist for scar removal, in case a character is fond of his/her good looks. A scar size should depend on the received damage, with size maximums. Also, if we have set wound sizes, we could also have set bleeding rates.
You can probably tell that I know precious little about treating blood loss. Which is why I’d like other people’s input.
I like this idea; it reminds me of the DF system of injuries a bit and I think that is a good thing. One thing I want to bring up though is about the blood types for mutated characters. Do you think a mutated character should be able to take advantage of blood transfusions even if they have some rather extreme mutations like slime (essentially no blood) or chimera? (acidic blood like xenomorphs)
I mean as long as there are SOME caps to the scarring surface area and the number of scars per body location.
Otherwise a scar list might get bit spammy…
NPCs should sustain scars as well. At least the companions. And they should brag/complain about them every once in a while. Scars on companion NPCs should be viewable, such as in the character sheet, or simply by examining them. On other NPCs, scars would be mostly hidden, unless their clothing permits their visibility.
Good question. I think it should still mostly depend on the original blood type. But for those extreme mutations, there could be something else to replace “blood” volume. Or let’s say a post-threshold Slime or Medical could be a universal recipient of all blood types. Their biology has advanced to the point where transfusion restrictions have been lifted. They might not use blood, but they use something, and human blood is just the base, and their metabolism/anatomy/biology takes care of rest, transforming the blood into something more usable substances. Something like a Universal Recipient could be a post-threshold trait in certain categories.
Before scarring comes out, we’re going to need some kind of system that allows us to inspect our characters beyond the barebones “encumbrance” table. From this we can inspect and see all kinds of things - potential infected bites, lesser wounds seperate from greater wounds, actual breaks, scarring, burns, blisters, fungal infections, poison…projectiles? I’ve wanted a way to observe and treat projectiles stuck in your body for a while but don’t know enough about JSONs to start considering how to input such a system. Not just arrows, but bullets, stingers, debris, shrapnel…anything and everything. The sky is the limit.
It’d be a huge undertaking but it would really open a lot of doors for player management and combat.
