Contest Of Skills: Paramedic and "The Golden Hour"

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[Been quiet around here again, so went file-diving; found this.]

In the medical-trauma community, there is the term "Golden Hour": From the time a person has a Major Trauma inflicted, medics have 60 minutes to get the victim to a trauma center to have any hope of saving him.

How does this apply to _Car Wars_? For the most part, it doesn't -- most events elide or ignore what happens to a character after he is reduced to 0 HP. For those running continuing campaigns, knowing whether or not a character survives a close encounter of the burst-effect kind is data one needs.

THE RULES:

1) Count the number of "overkill" damage points the victim has taken.
2) +1 for every full 5 minutes after the victim has been reduced to 0 DP. This continues to add up so long as the victim is below 0 DP.
3) The Paramedic character rolls Contest of Skills against the sum of #1 and #2.
4) For every point over the sum of #1 and #2, -1 to the sum of #1 and #2 above.
5) The Paramedic may try this roll once per minute (in-game).

Example: A call comes in to my Truck Stop's Medical Bay about a driver being injured. The on-call Medic (skill +2) jumps on his Ambu-Cycle (with Medikit -- +2), and rolls out; it takes him 10 minutes (+2 to victim's Overkill) to arrive. He finds the driver ate most of a RR round, suffering 5 points of "overkill"; the medic is rolling 2d6, +2 [Paramedic], +2 [Medikit], against [5 + 2 =] 7. The Medic rolls a 5, +2, +2, for a total of 9; this exceeds "overkill" by 2, so the victim's "overkill" is now at [7 - 2 =] 5. Not good, but it will cover the time needed to get him back to the Truck Stop's Medical Bay.

After the 10-minute ride back to the Truck Stop, the victim is placed in the Medical Bay; more than one game-minute has elapsed, so the Medic can roll again. The ride took 10 minutes, so the victim's "overkill" is back up to 7. However, the much-more-extensive facilities of the Truck Stop's Medical Bay provide a +4 bonus for the Medic. The medic rolls a 7, +4 = 11, which subtracts 4 from the victim's "overkill": [7 - 4 =] 3. Since the next roll is guaranteed to reduce "overkill" to 0 or less, it is taken as-read that the victim survives the next roll. The Medic chooses to leave the victim at 1 DP (medical coma) to recover.