Low-tech healing without magic/psi

[Taneli]

Just define some uses for Esoteric Medicine that make people heal at the rate you deem good enough for your setting. It isn't that hard.

Like,

Esoteric wound treatment
This treatment takes an hour and costs 10% of the average starting wealth of the campaign in resources deemed fit by the GM.

The healer rolls against their Esoteric Medicine, and on a success the subject of the treatment heals naturally 10 times faster for one day per point of success (minimun one day). On a critical success the healing rate is good until healed, or (Esoteric Medicine) days, whichever comes up first. On a failure, the subject gains no benefit and the resources are wasted, and on a critical failure in addition to the effects of a failure, they take 1d6 damage, and cannot be treated again until fully healed by other means.

It's basically the same idea as with the Enthrallment skills from the Basic Set.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by MrFix

If the choice is between "PCs who thrive and survive in Low-Tech combat are built like Gregor Clegane" and "The Lord From Above Bestows Rapid Healing", former is preferable imho. Limiting it to 20 HP seems fine to me.

I can see that. Personally, I favor rapid healing over having a mountain of HP, so long as it fits in the setting. With characters descending from genetically-modified colonists, a dormant healing factor that can be induced to activate for a brief period makes a good deal of sense. Acupressure certainly doesn't seem like the worst option for activating it - it's not likely to be activated by accident, yet can be trained to activate in the field without any special materials/equipment (so you can render aid so long as you can provide the requisite food, water, and possibly cooling). Best of all, it fits quite well with the "chi that is actually the consequence of gengineering/unseen technology*" theme.

Of course, considering this, I did think of a good reason why one would want to work up what the Regeneration costs (outside of OCD and the possibility of world-jumping). It's possible you could have some of the old colonists who were some flavor of genetic purists and refused at least some of the genemods. Such may have maintained "genetically pure" enclaves in hidden areas. While such groups may be more appropriate as adversaries (particularly if they've been able to retain some of the Old World's technology), a PC could be a rogue/runaway or be descended from such, in the latter case lacking some of the genemods. Provided that's a legitimate possibility for a PC, you need to know what the genemods cost to have so you can create the appropriate Disadvantage(s) for lacking them.

*Honestly, the setting concept reminds me a bit of Xenogears (and to a lesser extent its spiritual successors, Xenosaga and Xenoblade Chronicles), wherein characters had access to "ether" abilities that resembled either chi or magic (depending on user) but were actually the result of rampant nanotech spread across the world by a former civilization. I think acrosome is going for something markedly less extreme here, however.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Icelander

My experience is that it tends to be implausible and out of character for everyone else to abandon the goals that most matter to them and/or risk people they care about being killed by taking a vacation just because one of the team is too injured to participate.

They'd just leave the wounded character with allies or at least semi-trusted medical professionals and continue with their mission/schemes/quest/other activities. And months and years of real time are likely to pass before the wounded character could rejoin them.

Yeah, if all you're doing is delving dungeons for fun and profit (with the profit being a minor concern), you might take time off when one of your buddies gets injured so he/she can heal. If you're trying to rescue a kidnapping victim, defeat the bandits threatening the helpless locals, or other deeds of derring-do (or if you've got a pressing reason for delving dungeons - maybe you really need the money to get a loanshark off your back, or are looking for an artifact that will cure your betrothed's wasting disease, or whatever), if your buddy can't keep up, you'll ultimately need to leave him/her behind until healed. And if you're a wandering hero, well, it might be a bit difficult to catch up with you, meaning even if they heal within a couple weeks, it could take a month or more for you to meet back up. A method of allowing an injured ally to recover more rapidly can avoid this.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I can see that. Personally, I favor rapid healing over having a mountain of HP, so long as it fits in the setting. With characters descending from genetically-modified colonists, a dormant healing factor that can be induced to activate for a brief period makes a good deal of sense. Acupressure certainly doesn't seem like the worst option for activating it - it's not likely to be activated by accident, yet can be trained to activate in the field without any special materials/equipment (so you can render aid so long as you can provide the requisite food, water, and possibly cooling). Best of all, it fits quite well with the "chi that is actually the consequence of gengineering/unseen technology*" theme.

An alternative would be not to use the Chi modifier, but to use the Biological modifier, including its requirement that you spend FP to use a power. Note that FP can be customized to require restoration by food, water, sleep, or other things.

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Some percentage of humans have Rapid Healing and those who manage long careers
in professions where serious injuries are common should almost certainly be among them.

There is nothing implausible about PCs belonging to the highest percentile in luck in avoiding career-ending-injury and recovering more quickly than most others, because if they weren't, they'd be the minor characters who retired after they crippled their knee and we wouldn't be following their story any more.

I'd have no problem with forcing the PCs to take Very Rapid Healing in settings/campaigns that don't have good healing options (I also use a house rule for VRH that instead of double the HP gain from daily HT rolls, you just double HP gain).

[bocephus]

Originally Posted by whswhs

An alternative would be not to use the Chi modifier, but to use the Biological modifier, including its requirement that you spend FP to use a power. Note that FP can be customized to require restoration by food, water, sleep, or other things.

You can also combine the "triggers" as in Acupressure while under some specific form of hypnotic state, or under the influence of the blankity-blank herbal concoction.

It mostly depends on the amount of controls the GM wants to place on the healing. Is it available in every village, town and Inn or is it only sporadically (cinematically) available. Do the PCs have to carry some form of catalyst to enable the healing, but allow one player to 'help another'.

I feel like the problem that the Original posing GM is having has more to do with 'hitting the right balance of healing while maintaining the world theme', than actually discussing the different possibilities for healing in GURPS.

He invoked "Dune's Parana Bindu" as an example of what he's looking for, unfortunately other than a sort of handwavy mystical "they can heal themselves" I dont recall a great deal of healing, in the Dune series, happening other than in a deep trance state over "a long period of time". With this as the basis for "I want healing to be available, but not as magic, psi or tech" its really hard to see what controls the GM is looking for.

I read the thread as "Im looking for an internal healing ability, with external controls". I think regen triggered by a trance state (either esoteric medicine or herbal) seems to tick the boxes. The GM just needs to fit the catalyst into the world in a way that makes it just powerful enough, without over balancing the ability relative to his vision.

To the Original poster I summarize this is what you're looking for??:
It needs to have a cost that will be low enough for players to see its value and want it, but high enough that it has a sacrifice and is in some way selective. It also needs to be internal (so healing potions and the like are right out) but have an external requirement that allows the GM to wave off the 10+ years of training and background this would require to be fully under the control of the PC and a very (possibly counter intuitively) expensive set of skills and advantages.

Im not clear if you want this to be:
Active, as in "the PCs continue adventuring but at a sedate lets take our time and nurse our wounds for a few days now that our medic has triggered the accelerated healing to do its job"
Median "The PCs take three days in camp rotating guard, sleep, and cooking duties between active stretches of healing meditation (8 hours a day)"
Guarded "The PCs return to the outpost where they can be put under care and enter a deep meditative state for 3 days where they can not be moved or communicated with"

It really is sort of important that you define these parameters, as of yet Im not completely clear on how you want it to work. Or what your end goal is as you tweak all these options.

[Donny Brook]

In case no-one has mentioned it yet, you could use Chi as a basis to access some of the optional rules for making combat less lethal (e.g. 'flesh wounds').

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

In case no-one has mentioned it yet, you could use Chi as a basis to access some of the optional rules for making combat less lethal (e.g. 'flesh wounds').

I really like the idea of a variant flesh wounds that lets you use it during First Aid. It'll likely heal more but you can't use it during the action/battle.