Healing in downtime move - please help

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Healing in downtime move - please help
« on: September 08, 2010, 03:01:33 PM »
Played our 1st Session. It went so-so, I think mostly because we had only two players (2 players = 2 relationships / story stuff to latch onto due to Hx. 3 players = 6 relationships. 4 players = 12 relationships. Makes a big difference).

The characters were Clover, a smooth Operator with a big handsome smile, who does scavenging, raiding, and the occasional murder for jingle, and Mother Superior, a (male) Hardholder of the San Francisco mission in the Arizona desert, with a small but elite gang of soldiers protecting the weak and innocent. Since both have start-of-session rolls (which resulted in quite drastic outcomes) a lot of the "day-in-the-life-of" stuff of the 1st Session was negated in favour of assassinations, ambushes, and a bit of extortion carried out by the local protection racket warlord, Putrid.

This resulted in a fair bit of Harm dealt to the PCs. The holding being a mission, it was reasonable that medical services were available, despite the lack of a PC Angel. This proved a bit problematic for me as the MC, because the book basically states "if there's no PC Angel available, then the characters can get medical attention anyway, maybe at the cost of some barter".

I don't want Harm to be reduced to the role of hit points in a dungeon crawl, where the PCs can say "oh, I took some harm - well, wake me up in 8 hours / two weeks and I'll be good to go". What I'd really like to see are custom moves for when you spend downtime licking your wounds and when you spend downtime in medical care, with some interesting consequences chosen by the player and/or the MC. I'd write it myself, but wanted to turn to the more experienced MCs on this forum first; I think there's a potential for a lot of interesting effects and it's clearly very reusable across Apocalypse Worlds.

Re: Healing in downtime move - please help
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2010, 03:04:59 PM »
Oh, and the book as written handles this perfectly fine, for someone's definition of fine, by the way. Clearly the trick is to make medical care available by an NPC, who may be a Threat on a front or the home front, who makes PC-NPC-PC triangles, etc.

I just don't feel like doing that right now, and as such a custom move seems like a good alternative compared to the "this NPC doesn't matter, spend 1-barter per tick" choice.

Re: Healing in downtime move - please help
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2010, 04:49:56 PM »
You could just use the barter moves, with them buying medical services from an NPC. Anything they can't afford they could pay for in favours or concessions. Then they're not too worried about healing, instead they're worried about if they can afford to pay out, or if Mr. Crazy Doctor gets more control over their holding.

Re: Healing in downtime move - please help
« Reply #3 on: September 10, 2010, 11:46:05 AM »
It's a bit complicated by the fact that medical services are, by and large, readily available as established in the fiction (it is probably one of the most prominent services of the holding) and the PCs hold leadership roles there. I'm not interested in challenging this established fact at this point, just make it more interesting. The Barter moves seem to be more about acquiring something that's rare.

I'm thinking more along the lines of the savvyhead's "making something in your workshop" move, or the Harm move - either:

When you spend downtime in medical care, specify the number of Harm segments you want healed, no problem. For each segment the MC will choose one from the list below:
the segment costs 1-barter worth of supplies
there's a complication - you have to Act Under Fire to heal the segment
you have strange, drug-induced dreams and must Open Your Brain
a wound you took has left a scar or disfigurement
you overlook an important event in your surroundings
<insert more options here>

or:

When you spend downtime licking your wounds, roll +hard. On a 10+, you pick three and the MC picks one. On a 7-9, you pick one and the MC picks two. On a 6-, the MC picks two and your wounds become infected - take one more section of Harm.
you heal one section of Harm
you're weakened and take -1forward
an Affliction threat affects you during the downtime
the ordeal has strengthened you - take +1hard on your next +hard roll
the ordeal has increased your resolve - take +1cool on your next +cool roll
you have strange, drug-induced dreams and must Open Your Brain
a wound you took has left a scar or disfigurement
<insert more options here>

Something like that.