Doctors and WP/VP

[takyris]

So, the short version: I'm playing d20 Modern, but I'm using a system not unlike VP/WP. When you run out of hit points (which are recovered at level per hour), you start taking Con damage (and making saves to avoid immediate unconsciousness from pain).

We just started this campaign, and one of my players, who hadn't been clear on the rules, made a doctor. Dedicated levels, Field Medic levels, the whole shebang.

Obviously, he's become somewhat frustrated after one session, and I'd like to figure out how to make things right. So I'd appreciate it if people could share how other home-systems or VP/WP systems handle things like:

Speeding up VP recovery: This seems easy to me -- I just let his first-aid stuff work as normal.

Speeding up WP recovery: This one is tough. When one character was down to 0 Con (not dead, but in a save-to-stabilize-and-not-die place), he said, "Okay, I do First Aid... and I heal him for 9." He thought he could heal 9 points of ability damage (wound point damage) right there and then. That seems hugely unbalancing to me. The whole reason I did WP/VP-ish was so that most injuries were minor, and actually taking Con damage meant you SHOULD take awhile to heal. So what's the compromise? Do I let him heal ability damage at a faster rate? What should Surgery (ordinary d6hp/level of target) do? Since Con doesn't scale with level, I'm inclined to have Surgery heal something like 1d6 Con and 1d3 of Str and Dex -- this would mean that it could successfully treat a small bullet wound, but wouldn't make somebody who'd been beaten nearly to death totally fine again.

Making people conscious or removing stunning: Should these work like normal?

Thanks!

 

[RangerWickett]

If it's not too late, I suggest you revise the HP/WP rules a bit. Really, it is better to track WP separately from Constitution. It allows you to do more with the rules, and separates Constitution damage (like poison, which makes you sick) with Wound Point damage (like having your belly cut open).

Allow surgery to heal wound points, but first aid should only heal hit points. Actually, the guideline I use is that for every 5 hit points healed, you also heal one wound point.

 

[ledded]

I have to agree with RangerWickett.

Tracking WP seperately allows you to inflict different kinds of misery onto your players .

Seriously, what we do is allow first aid to restore VP, but not WP. WP return at one per day. Having surgery performed on you allows you to gain *up to* 3 WP back in addition, and can only be done once per day. Extended care/rest (i.e. being plugged up at a hospital) restores and extra WP per day.

So, at best, you can be in a hospital all day, and have surgery, to get back a maximum of 5 WP. Tough heros talents for increased healing are very nice at this point, though they don't apply to the surgery.
We do keep VP and WP completely seperate though, and also even if you are returned to "full" WP by surgery you are still fatigued for the following day at a minimum.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[takyris]

Actually, HP/Con worked fairly well for the kind of campaign I want -- or at least, has worked so far. It's swashbuckleresque, or at least Musketeer-ish, and I'm using slightly different poison rules that I concocted awhile back (more checks, lower amounts of damage, so most people will definitely be affected to some degree by a poison, but few people will just keel right over immediately).

I mentioned this in d20 Modern House Rules, but when people run out of hit points or get critted, the damage goes to Con, Strength, and Dex -- one half to Con, one quarter to Strength, and one quarter to Dex (rounded so that 7 points of damage would split with 4 to Con, 2 to Str, and 1 to Dex). Then, each time they're hit, they make a save of their choice (Fort, Ref, or Will), DC15. If they make it, they have no other problems. If they get 10-14, they're stunned for a brief time. And if they miss 10, they're unconscious (but in no serious danger of dying). This makes unconsciousness a lot easier, and would NOT work well in a grim campaign where people executed the wounded enemies. This is swashbuckling. People wake up tied to chairs.

My players actually liked the idea of starting out making Fort saves, and then, once Con had dropped too much, making Reflex saves, and finally, when Con and Dex were both getting low, making Will saves. The "It all comes down to Willpower in the end" aspect (or "The Bruce Willis in Die Hard Effect", as I like to call it) made for a fun time.

We'll see how it goes, but right now, getting critted provides people with enough of an ouch that they really don't like the idea of it -- while still letting them usually take out the opposition sans problem. In the Con-separate-from-WP system:

-People with lots of WP damage still make Fort saves just fine
-People with WP damage don't suffer any loss of VP for having fewer WP
-People with lots of WP damage can still make Concentration checks despite the pain of their injuries with no particular trouble

Those factors were pretty much why I lumped it in. Well, that and experiencing the irritation of how Unearthed Arcana's WP/VP system failed to work in my "let's test out these variant rules" game.

I don't see how lumping Con damage in there messes things up. I WANT a bloody and battered person to be easier to stun, knock out, or take out with poison, or debilitate with a disease. I mean, I don't plan on doing that every session, but it's nice to know. And, well, I'll see how the house rule of 0 Con being a "save to stabilize" state rather than a dying state, but it bodes well so far.