Unknown Armies:Wounds and Healing

You begin the game with a number of wound points equal to your Body stat. When you get hurt, you lose wound points.

The GM is in charge of tracking your wound points. You are not allowed to know how many wound points you have at any point in time. When you get hurt, the GM tells you what happens: what it feels like, whether you have to move slowly, and so forth.

The GM makes a note of how much you lost from each separate injury. That's because healing is on an injury-by-injury basis.

Wound Penalties

When you've lost somewhere between a quarter and a third of your wound points, the GM tells you that you now have a -10% shift to all your stats for stat check purposes. Exactly when this penalty kicks in is up to the GM.

If you get hurt so badly that your wound points are down to somewhere between a third and a quarter of your total, the GM tells you that you're now at -20% to your stats.

The first penalty is a warning that you need to get off the streets. The second penalty is a warning that you're about to die. But if you're getting so trashed that your stats are at -20%, you're probably dead meat anyway.

These penalties only apply when you're rolling against your stats. They don't affect your skills.

Healing a Minor Injury

Basic first aid is sufficient for an injury up to about 10% of your Body stat. To perform first aid, you need the right supplies—bandages, makeshift splints, whatever the GM deems sufficient—and you must make the attempt within an hour after the injury occurred. Make an appropriate significant skill check, or a major check if you're under fire.

A successful first-aid attempt heals a number of wound points equal to the dice rolled, added together. A roll of 56 would heal 5 + 6 = 11 wound points. A roll of 10 heals 1 + 10 = 11 wound points. If the result is higher than the number of wound points inflicted by that particular injury, the extra points are ignored.

You may attempt first aid only once for each minor injury. If you fail any of those checks, the victim may get another set of attempts from a professional medical facility, or from convalescence.

No matter how well you roll to patch it up, one wound point of damage always remains to be healed by convalescence. No mortal science can heal an injury perfectly and instantly.

Healing a Major Injury

A major injury is one that inflicts more than 10% of your Body stat in wound points. This is beyond the scope of first aid. You need professional help, and you need it fast.

Listen up: EMTs and doctors agree that people have a much better chance of surviving major injuries if they get treated within one hour. It’s what ambulance response time and ER procedures are designed to accomplish.

If you get to a medical facility within one hour of receiving the injury, the GM rolls the doctor’s medical skill. Healing a major injury is always a major skill check. A successful check heals that number of wound points immediately, the same way firearms damage is computed. Each injury requires a separate check. Healed points in excess of the particular injury are ignored. Even rolls that heal more than enough damage still leave one wound point, as with minor injuries, to be healed in convalescence.

If you don’t get there within an hour, you’re in bad shape. The skill use only heals back the sum of the dice, the same way hand-to-hand damage is computed.

Most doctors range in skill from 35% for a newbie to 70% for a veteran. Most can flip-flop their rolls, since it’s probably their obsession skill. If the doctor makes a matched miss or a fumble, the GM may rule that additional wound points were lost. If so, those additional points count as a new injury.

All this assumes modern medical facilities and a skilled staff of assistants, of course. If your doctor—or a helpful boy scout with a First Aid merit badge—is trying to put you back together on your kitchen table with that bathroom first-aid kit, you can only get the sum of the dice, no matter how fast you’re treated—a gauze pad won’t do much to help a broken arm.

Convalescence

To heal damage missed by first aid or emergency medical care, you must either stay in a hospital or at home with regular attention from a doctor or nurse. You heal 2 wound points per day that you rest. If you go out and run around, the GM can rule that you heal nothing for that day.

Once you’re at 60% of your normal wound point total, you are well enough to get out and about again. You may not be fully healed, but you can get back to work. If you leave convalescence at that point, you can still heal 1 point per day. Remaining in bed continues healing you at 2 points per day. If you push yourself too hard, the GM may give you nothing back for that day.

You can also spend experience points to heal. Each point you spend restores a point of damage. You cannot spend more than three experience points on this per day. As usual, you won’t know precisely how many wound points you have. The GM will describe how you feel, such as “achy,” tired,” or “like you’re going to puke.” “Unable to focus your eyes” and “seeping” are signs that you should slow down a bit.

Permanent Damage

If you take 50 wound points or more in damage from a single attack and survive, you’re a stud and should feel good about yourself. However, you also survived damage that would kill many people, and you never fully recover. A hit that bad marks you for life, and there’s no way to avoid it.

The nature of the loss is up to your GM, though your group may make suggestions). It could be a straight, permanent loss of wound points—between 5 and 10 is a good number. You could lose points in a relevant skill, or even a stat—Body and Speed are obvious choices, but Mind is also appropriate for cranial traumas.