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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 5628147" data-attributes="member: 92305">Agreed.    The DM tells you that the character has a sword wound that enters left of his navel and exits left of his spine. What are you doing to stop imminent death?      I realize that the Heal check has to be made as soon as someone arrives at the victim to help him.  I said that above.   The only think I'm not doing is allowing a care giver to stay just one round with the patient.  The rules remain the same, and I haven't changed them.  The dice rolls, that is.  I'm just not allowing the care giver to stick out his finger, touch the patient, and say, "Prang!  You're stable!  See ya!  Gotta get back in the fight now!"    Here's how I will play it out. Taurl goes down.  He's at -4 HP.   I figure I'll gauge wounds in three stages.  HP -1 to -3 is a killing wound, but not as bad as a HP -4 to -6 wound.  And, HP -7 to -9 wounds are the worst.  My description of the wound will get worse, depending on which "category" the character's wound falls. I may get creative with wound effects, too, after a character is healed.  Have an eye swollen shut for a while.  Give the character a limp for a bit, halving his Speed.  Put his arm in a sling.  Stuff like that.     Taurl, who went down at -4 HP, has a serious wound that I describe as a sword stroke entirely through his gut.  He's probably got internal bleeding, but there's not much these cats can do about that. What they see is a slice in his gut and an exit wound in his back.  They can put a bandage on this, and then put pressure on the bandage to keep it from bleeding so much. If they've got a healing kit (or if a player has gotten creative with herbalism), maybe there's some concoction made of Wnaa-Wnaa leaves that can be sprinkled on the wound.     Mechanics-wise, I'll roll the Heal check as soon as a care giver arrives to help (and I'll do Taurl's self-stabilization per the rules, too).  But, I won't allow the players to know the result, and I may even throw in some fake rolls to keep them guessing. Then, we'll roleplay the saving of the character's life. I think that will add a lot to the game and be much more interesting than....Hey, I rolled an 18 on my Heal check!  Let's move on!      Agreed.  The Law of Unintended Consequences. But, note, I'm not changing the rules at all.  I'm just not allowing the players to know the result of the Heal checks immediately. And, I'm making them roleplay the care taking of a downed comrade instead of skipping over it with a simple dice throw.        Simply rolling a die check isn't "fun" in my book.  It's not even rollplaying.  It's more akin to rollplaying. Like when the PCs enconter a trap.  I don't say, "I rolled a Spot check for you, and you found a trap.  Go ahead and roll your Disable Device skill." No...that's awful gaming, in my book. I want my players to be THERE.  I want them to live, breathe, smell, touch the world. In my game, if I roll a Spot check that indicates one of the PCs spots a trap, I'll say, "Taurl, there's a small, then, straight line shadow you see running across the floor." This will be the "line" that activates the trap, and I'll sit back and see what the player will do about it. If he says, "I'll pull out my dagger and carefully cut the line," at that point, I'll roll, or I'll have him roll, his Disable Device skill, to see how well that cut disables the trap.  The roll will tell me if he sets it off or not. But, we'll roleplay most of the enounter, with the results of die throws guiding me on how I describe things to the players.      Re-read what I wrote.  It's not a change, really.  Just a different implementation of the rule. I'm rolling the dice as RAW directs. I'm roleplaying the rest. Oh...and there's no magic in my game.  Not yet.  I play the Conan RPG.  It's a d20 3.5 clone.  In this universe, magic is extremely rare and evil.  Cleric and Sorcerer aren't even character classes.</blockquote>

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