"Do your time like everyone else"

D,

That's really cool.

But if they had access to an Angel and those options... why wouldn't they choose the "do your time" option? How would it be meaningfully different?

'cause that's painful, and this particular game has already established that the healing process is messy and horrible. Do you want messy and horrible, or do you want a pain-free week? It's not likely to be much of a plot point, but it's still a kind of choice.

There's really no point to not doing it if the established default is that you can always walk around with 5 harm on you no problem.


But, like, it's not like chillstabs are especially mechanically or fictionally interesting, though they can be at times, or more constantly if you make the effort.

I once told Vincent that a well-armed gang (+1 harm) option is far inferior to an increase in gang size (de facto +1 harm and +1 armour) option. I was, like, why would anyone choose the well-armed gang option? How would it be meaningfully different?

The answer was that he doesn't care about mechanics balance, to which other people added that you can totally *make* the difference matter. Which is true.


So, basically, if you make the difference between a week of bedrest on painkillers and who knows what time in pain meaningful, then it's meaningful. If not, not.

I once told Vincent that a well-armed gang (+1 harm) option is far inferior to an increase in gang size (de facto +1 harm and +1 armour) option. I was, like, why would anyone choose the well-armed gang option? How would it be meaningfully different?

Tangential, but, as they say - mo' soldiers, mo' problems.

- Alex

We may want to take a page from FATE and treat some of these conditions (well-armed, blissed out on chillstabs, fighting through the pain) as Aspects that we can more or less tag for free, depending on the narrative.

I think it's less the ability to use a thing and more what the fictional baseline is.

If you have "Swamp lore", you don't really get to tag it much unless there's a swamp or swamp-related stuff in your game.

Same in AW - you don't "tag" "well armed" or "too many fighters" unless there are situations in which those things matter. Now, AW is fictionally seeded right out of the box in a way that makes "tagging" those things easy...

But it's exactly the same for 'blissed out on chillstabs' or 'doing your time' - with the added caveat that it's the group that needs to implant the fiction seed of pain and the gritty details of coping with injuries mattering.

What I did when one of the players (the savvyhead) had the choice of chillin' out or doin' their time, I made sure to highlight the resource of time in the fiction. There is no status quo and everyone needs something they don't have, right?

So it was like 'So Boo can heal your busted head up (right Boo?), but the week you spend chillin' out on narcs and blowjobs from Jessie's Girl is a week you need to work on your promise of customising the hold's transmission array in time to increase the range beyond the eel spawning pits.... If you do your time, you can still get it done but its gonna be a crap version, weak and unreliable, but I'm sure Snake Eyes and his violent bastards are counting on you to fill your end of the deal and being able to update folks on their recon of Chuckanucka and his valley of flesheaters. (right Snake Eyes?)'

So, the weird I'm trying to get at here is:

If the Savvyhead had just taken some minor 1-harm or 2-harm (getting into a fight, or taking incidental fire), and NOT gone to see the Angel, would you have told him that his work on his project would suffer (only accomplish a weak and unreliable version)?

Because if that's the case, over time people are not going to go see the Angel anymore for minor injuries, since a) they heal on their own over time (a suggested guideline of up two one segment per session), and b) when they do see the Angel, it becomes a case of "lie down for a week, or I'm going to make up some new complications related to your injuries which haven't come up just yet".

I wonder if there's a better way to handle this. (That said, of course it works just fine if your sessions each span more than a week of time, which I sometimes get the feeling Vincent does a fair bit.)

So, the weird I'm trying to get at here is:

If the Savvyhead had just taken some minor 1-harm or 2-harm (getting into a fight, or taking incidental fire), and NOT gone to see the Angel, would you have told him that his work on his project would suffer (only accomplish a weak and unreliable version)?

I'd probably not penalize the work itself, no, but probably tell'm outright (consequences and ask): "You'll be busy, non-stop and midnight oil, trying to build y'r thing, right? Well, you'll sure have no time to sit and rest and heal. And pray - pray! - the wound don't worsen.". Something like that.

Because if that's the case, over time people are not going to go see the Angel anymore for minor injuries, since a) they heal on their own over time (a suggested guideline of up two one segment per session), and b) when they do see the Angel, it becomes a case of "lie down for a week, or I'm going to make up some new complications related to your injuries which haven't come up just yet".

Thankfully, this is a moot point.

To use it to stabilize and heal someone at 9:00 or past: roll+stock
spent. On a hit, they will stabilize and heal to 6:00...

An Angel Kit can *only* heal you back to 6 o'clock (2-harm) so you only seek out an Angel if you are at 9 o'clock or worse. If you are only at 3 o'clock or 6 o'clock (1- or 2-harm), an Angel Kit *cannot* help you, so that situation wouldn't come up.

That said, an Angel with Healing Touch *can* take away additional harm and leave the patient at 3 o'clock or even 0 o'clock, but there aren't recuperation penalties associated with that. Just potential mindfuckery from the Maelstrom.

I'd still like more info on how they must "do their time", but the question of going to the Angel when you are only suffering 1- or 2-harm is not an issue in this case.

devonapple,

I don't follow what you wrote at all. Here's the move I'm referring to:

"To use it to speed the recovery of someone at 3:00 or 6:00: don’t roll. They
choose: spend 4 days (3:00) or 1 week (6:00) blissed out on chillstabs,
immobile but happy, or do their time like everyone else."

3:00 or 6:00 is 1-harm or 2-harm.

However, now that I reread the rules, the placement of the text suggests that maybe this rule only comes into play for someone who been stabilized. Well, that still doesn't entirely solve the problem.

Antisinecurist,

That's really how you would handle it? Even though the rulebook is pretty clear where it says: "Before 6:00, harm will go away by itself with time", and "harm at 9:00 won't get better or worse on its own"?

However, now that I reread the rules, the placement of the text suggests that maybe this rule only comes into play for someone who been stabilized. Well, that still doesn't entirely solve the problem.

That's right... you got what I was saying. :)

Antisinecurist,

That's really how you would handle it? Even though the rulebook is pretty clear where it says: "Before 6:00, harm will go away by itself with time", and "harm at 9:00 won't get better or worse on its own"?

I think everything is relative, but I take "go away by itself with time" to require some level of rest and taking-care-of-yourself. No?

- Alex

That sounds very different from "And pray - pray! - the wound don't worsen" to me!

I don't get that interpretation at all Devonapple. Its a separate paragraph, its about speeding the recovery (taking less time than normal). No need to roll. It doesn't say that this is only possible after being healed from 12:00 - 9:00. (by the angel)

Healing times (without the Angel's Help)

*Fractures: A fractured bone generally takes at least 6 weeks to heal. The time any fracture takes to heal depends upon the type of fracture and where it's located.

*Sprains and Strains: Minor ankles sprains will heal in five days, while a more severe sprain can take from three to six weeks to heal.
A minor (grade 1) strain may heal in two weeks, while a severe (grade 3) strain may require up to three months or more to heal completely.

*Cuts, Abrasions and Lacerations: Cuts and abrasions take anywhere from a week to a month to heal, depending upon the depth and location of the injury and how it's treated.

*Guns shot wound: to shoulder with shattered humerus and clavicle...
Skin wound - 3-6 months depending on the skill of the surgeon when repairing bone trauma from bullet
bone healing - 3-6 months
Sling - 3 months....

Oh and with the savvyhead? She had taken a wound fighting for her life against a monstrous eel and spent the whole time trying to fix the array wounded (2 harm) instead of seeing the Angel and blissing out. She managed to make the array (though unreliable), and despite being instrumental in Snake Eyes [chopper] and his crew getting some valuable intel on the flesheaters, but she was still wounded 2 harm after a week or two, still being in the same session.

She had to do quite a few things under fire in the interim, the fire being the pain and septic, debilitating nature of her wounds. I played up to her ever increasing fear of the river (and the eels it contained) too, making as hard a move as I liked A LOT; re-incorporating her ulcerating wound, putting her in quite a few difficult spots on her all-to-frequent misses and soft hits.

The cliff hanger we ended on was the Flesheaters coming to assault their little holding  a la Mad Max 2, and she would still be wounded, though I did agree to 1 harm healing for her (doing her time) between sessions.

I recognise your problem, Paul. And the way I see it, the hard truth is this: the recovery times set for how long it takes to get better blissed out on chillstabs suppose that the recovery time on your own, "like everybody else", is way longer. It's like, the rules say "3:00 or 6:00 harm goes away by itself" and we immedately jump to the conslusion that it goes away by itself with no side effects and in a time that allows for PCs to keep "adventuring" at their leisure.

If you want to use the stated time intervals in the Angel playbook, you have to make ordinary healing very un-heroic and (sorry) taking characters out of the action action for looong stretches of in-game time. I have a friend wo damaged her arm somehow when lifting over her capacity. I can't imagine any MC would have set that to more than 1-harm. But she couldn't use her hand properly for a year, and was thus out of work. That's reality, and make it seem real, right?

I know the feeling, sitting with the Angel playbook, telling the player "great, you spend the stock and they're on their way. What does it say, more exactly?" They read aloud, and everyone goes "huh" because your ordinary "hey, why don't you all erase one harm from last session, it's been a couple of days" has been way more lenient.

I know that if I want to keep the rate of background healing I've been doing so far in AW, I'd have to buff up the Angel.