Hello,

I know this has been done to death, but I cannot find the answer to all my questions regarding Life or Death conflicts.

Question 1) Who rolls the healer's Acuity plus the patient's Body, and whose Traits apply during the conflict in the following scenarios? I believe applicable Traits from both the healer and the patient apply, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

1a) The healer is a PC, the patient an NPC

1b) The healer is PC #1, the patient is PC #2 (not as obvious if it's #1 or #2 in my mind)

1c) The healer is an NPC, the patient a PC (this can't possibly be a GM vs GM conflict?)

1d) The healer is an NPC, the patient an NPC (do these conflicts even exist?)

Question 2) Since the patient's Body and healer's Acuity have been rolled, does that mean that the healer can escalate to Non-physical or Physical to roll his Heart, to Fighting or Gunfighting (how?) to roll his Will, but what about his Body in those two cases?

Perhaps the whole thing is rather easy if I just pretend that the patient's Body is the healer's, and everything else remains the same? However, it seems that when the healer is an NPC, and the patient a PC, that it makes more sense to let the player play the NPC and how he tries to save his PC, with the GM opposing the player as usual. I look forward to see how the rest of you see this play out.

TTFN,

Yoki

Question 1:

When I GM, I have the healer roll acuity and the patient roll body and then shove their dice together. The healer's player is responsible for the raising and seeing, with active participation from the patient's.

I think NPC patients are often bogus. While you can use the medical aid rules for NPCs, you aren't obligated to the way you are for PCs. Only use the medical attention rules for NPCs when your players clearly demand it; otherwise, kill and save NPCs by stakes or fallout, or as raises, or by whim. They don't have the right to a last chance, except when your players demand that they do - and even then, unlike the PCs', the conditions of their last chance are up for negotiation.

I think NPC healers are a cop out. However, I think that an NPC doctor as an improvised belonging would be obviously excellent. If he's big, he's big and excellent! Either way, no, as GM you should never ever roll dice against yourself. Find some other way to play it out.

Question 2:

Yes, exactly, pretend that the patient's body is the healer's.

HOW the healer is going to escalate, given that her opponent is the injury, I don't know. Not that it's impossible, just that it's massively case-by-case.

My observation in return:

These are trying-to-figure-it-out-in-advance questions, right? They don't have the air of "this came up in play and I didn't know what to do."

If so, my main answer is, don't worry about it too much. By the time someone needs medical care, you'll have a working relationship with your players and you'll have concrete in-fiction constraints. I really doubt that you'll have any trouble knowing what to do.

-Vincent

Hello Vincent,

Actually, the questions did come up during play, or rather during the reflection Between Towns. The first time we had a life or death conflict in the game, another Dog asked for a conflict to find him a doctor in time, after which this doctor got real busy the rest of the session. I much prefer your suggestion of using an NPC doctor as an improvised Belonging, and agree with your views on NPC healers and patients.

I think it's that "brain damage" thing, nobody had a single Trait saying that they could patch up an injured person, and the supernatural meter was way low in this game. So out of habit they cried "doctor" at the first sight of blood, and I - unfortunately - played along.

When we play next I will simply remind everyone that they are healers.

I enjoy thinking out loud, and find that in a lot of my posts I already come to my own conclusion prior to hitting the submit button, but it is a process I am quite happy with, and I appreciate the reassurance.

TTFN,

Yoki