First Aid

First Aid
Use: Macro
skill. May be used in round play to prevent death from injuries
Sample specializations: Fatigue,
unconsciousness, wounds. This skill measures a character’s ability to quickly
diagnose and treat traumatic wounds, keeping characters alive and functioning until
they can heal. It is normally a macro use skill but it can be used in round
play under certain conditions. The difficulty of a first aid skill
check depends on the severity of the wounded character’s injuries. Gamemasters
should also consider applying situational modifiers based on the Difficulty Number
Scale when treatment is attempted in adverse conditions, such as on a
battlefield or without anything resembling a first aid kit. Wound levels are
explained in Chapter Four.
FIRST AID CHART
Wound level Difficulty
Shock
damage only 8
K,
O, KO condition 10
Wound
12
Heavy
wound 13
Mortal
wound 15*
Dead
(four wounds) 18*
Dead
(five or more wounds) First aid not
possible
*These
two conditions can be treated in round play.
Successful
use of first aid during
round play will stop the bleeding caused by a mortal
wound and prevent the wounded character from dying,
but will not help the wounded character in any other way. A character at four
wounds can sometimes be saved by immediate emergency treatment (such as CPR and
similarly drastic methods). Successful first
aid treatment within one round of the
character’s “death” will improve her condition to mortal wound. The
injured character will still be bleeding so first
aid will need to be applied a second time
to treat that problem. When used as a macro skill, first aid will
remove all shock and
KO conditions and
reduces any action penalties caused by wound damage by one level (characters
with a mortal wound only
suffer heavy wound penalties,
characters with a heavy wound only
suffer wound penalties.)
It does not reduce the wound level, only the penalty. The penalty reduction is
temporary and will go away the next time the character that takes any damage. Each
character attempting first aid on
wounded characters is only allowed one attempt per victim per day. If this
attempt fails, he must wait until the next day (though someone else could try
to aid the victim today). Characters that have only taken shock and KO conditions can be
treated as often as necessary.