[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Lifebane and Unhealing

[Phil Masters]

Echoing Anthony somewhat — I think that a problem with Unhealing is that it’s so often attached to character bodies which are capable of being mechanically repaired, at which point it stops looking like any sort of disadvantage. Which would you rather have, really: the ability to recover from injuries over days or weeks, often while laid up in bed, or the ability to recover from injuries by wheeling into a workshop and letting somebody spend an hour with a toolkit and some spare parts? Which character feels disadvantaged?

Which is why Discworld ended up with Repairable, an advantage that actually includes Unhealing as part of its hidden construction.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Echoing Anthony somewhat — I think that a problem with Unhealing is that it’s so often attached to character bodies which are capable of being mechanically repaired, at which point it stops looking like any sort of disadvantage. Which would you rather have, really: the ability to recover from injuries over days or weeks, often while laid up in bed, or the ability to recover from injuries by wheeling into a workshop and letting somebody spend an hour with a toolkit and some spare parts? Which character feels disadvantaged?

Which is why Discworld ended up with Repairable, an advantage that actually includes Unhealing as part of its hidden construction.

Seems like a solid solution to the issue. Unhealing would still make sense as a disadvantage if the type of care required to regain HP needs at least two of:

• Expensive/exotic materials
• Special conditions such as "Under the light of the full moon"
• A lot of time per HP missing
• Rare and difficult skill(s)

Consider a TL9 setting and a popular model of robot with many repair shops spread across the world, Repairable would make sense here. But take that same robot and dump it on another planet with few/no repair shops or in a TL8 (or earlier) setting and Unhealing seems much more applicable.

[newton]

Unhealing along with electrical and reprogrammable does help offset the cost of playing as a robot with all the advantages that money can usually buy in ultra tech. however the -30 points seems rather low if the character cannot heal at all rather than having a method by which they can be healed.

[RogerBW]

I'd argue that "Repairable" (in a generic rather than a specifically Discworld sense) and "Unhealing" really ought to be disjoint traits: an explorer drone which can slowly repair itself from local resources, but which can also be brought into the workshop and have its broken parts swapped out, would be Repairable but would have normal healing too.

(Then one needs to think about whether and how medicine might work on such a machine.)

Repairable would take modifiers based on how difficult the repairs were (needing uncommon materials or equipment, etc.).

[Not another shrubbery]

I recall diluted versions of Lifebane being proposed as Controllable Disadvantages. Straight-up, it was mostly suitable for things like Negative Energy Plane inhabitants.

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Echoing Anthony somewhat — I think that a problem with Unhealing is that it’s so often attached to character bodies which are capable of being mechanically repaired, at which point it stops looking like any sort of disadvantage. Which would you rather have, really: the ability to recover from injuries over days or weeks, often while laid up in bed, or the ability to recover from injuries by wheeling into a workshop and letting somebody spend an hour with a toolkit and some spare parts? Which character feels disadvantaged?

Which is why Discworld ended up with Repairable, an advantage that actually includes Unhealing as part of its hidden construction.

I think the expectation that a toolkit, a couple of cheap spare parts and an hour of labor are going to fix real injuries is the root of the problem. An hour of Mechanic labor generally does something like change the oil, change the brakes, replace a window, repair minor cosmetic damage. Fixing something that was significantly damaged, like say replacing a control arm that was bent by an impact with a small sedan, that may take eight or more hours. And the spare parts aren't necessarily cheap, depending on how expansive the damage is. And they're likely to require more significant facilities than a small workshop and tool kit.

And some damage can't be fixed, except by essentially rebuilding the object.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

And some damage can't be fixed, except by essentially rebuilding the object.

Bear in mind that the same thing goes for living beings; GURPS healing (like most RPG healing) is cinematic. There's a lot of damage to machines that can't be fixed short of a near complete rebuild, but that's generally equivalent to effects that would kill or cripple a human...

I would probably handle this all as:

Unhealing [-5]
You cannot make rolls for Natural Recovery (B424). Other types of medical care apply normally. You may not have Regeneration.
Alternate Medical Care (var)
You do not use the normal medical skills (diagnosis, first aid, physician, surgery); instead, use another skill. This costs [5] if the skill is IQ/A, such as Mechanic; +1 if Easy, -1 if Hard, -2 if Very Hard, +1 per extra skill needed.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

Fixing something that was significantly damaged, like say replacing a control arm that was bent by an impact with a small sedan, that may take eight or more hours. And the spare parts aren't necessarily cheap, depending on how expansive the damage is. And they're likely to require more significant facilities than a small workshop and tool kit.

But it is still likely to be both cheaper and faster to fix than similar levels of damage done to an organic being with our current technology.

A broken arm or leg can take months to fully heal and the actual cost of the entire healing process can easily dwarf that of a bill from a repair shop (though some nations take care of that for you via taxes).

You need either healing magic, cinematic conventions or notably more advanced tech for not-Unhealing characters to be able to recover faster and cheaper than something that can be repaired (and is the same TL as the campaign).

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

A broken arm or leg can take months to fully heal and the actual cost of the entire healing process can easily dwarf that of a bill from a repair shop (though some nations take care of that for you via taxes).

On the other hand, it's also entirely possible for the healing to have no cost other than missed work. I broke my wrist a few months ago, and all I did to fix it was let it heal on it's own.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

On the other hand, it's also entirely possible for the healing to have no cost other than missed work. I broke my wrist a few months ago, and all I did to fix it was let it heal on it's own.

Depending on your job and cost of living, "missing work" can still be rather expensive. And breaking your wrist seems to me to be more comparable to having a flat tire than having a vital part of the transmission break down. Heck, on a usability scale a flat tire seems more severe (for a car) than a broken wrist (for a human).

The cost of replacing a flat tire would be less than $300 for most cars in most nations and take somewhere around 5-15 minutes.

From a quick google seach it takes a broken wrist 8 weeks or more to fully heal (based on severity). If the job in question can be done with a partially healed wrist, we can cut this down to somewhere around 4 weeks (but the wrist might not heal properly then). This is still going to be far more than $300 in lost wages for just about any job in any nation where changing a flat tire can cost $300.