First aid & recovering from unconsciousness

[Tinman]

The book has rules on an injured person recovering from unconsciousness due to injury on p.423. However, I have not found any for using first aid to help/make someone recover. Are there any official rules for that?
Thanks.

The reason I'm asking is I'm GM & the players got ambushed by mercs hired to kill them. The took down the merc squad & wanted to interrogate the lone survivor. The last merc fell unconsciousness after being injured to HT-3.

My solution was to say use of first aid to revive someone from KO:
at 1HP or above: no penalty
At 0 & below: -1 penalty per HT level.
so, At HT-1: -2 penalty
so, At HT-2: -3 penalty
ect...
So to revive the merc at HT-3 I hat them roll first aid -4.

Thanks for any feedback.

[jacobmuller]

I can't see anything either but
B423 "it is up to the GM to decide whether you are truly unconscious or just totally incapacitated by pain"
So it sounds like a fair enough decision.
Movie style - slap the guy until he's awake enough to answer?
But does the merc have info they can use? Do you want them to have it...

[Refplace]

I havent installed a decent PDF reader yet so no search function. But try Smelling salts.
If available I would think that would work well enough.

[bocephus]

Originally Posted by Tinman

My solution was to say use of first aid to revive someone from KO:
at 1HP or above: no penalty
At 0 & below: -1 penalty per HT level.
so, At HT-1: -2 penalty
so, At HT-2: -3 penalty
ect...
So to revive the merc at HT-3 I hat them roll first aid -4.

Thanks for any feedback.

I think you did fine. You were presented with a problem and came up with a simple enough solution.

I don't know that I have ever really worried about it as a GM, a successful first aid roll makes it feasible that the PCs could wake the NPC. It might just as easily stabilize them but your still going to have to babysit/transport them for a bit before they come around.

I think you did fine. Rule Zero done right, roll the dice and the story moves on.

[jacobmuller]

Originally Posted by Refplace

I havent installed a decent PDF reader yet so no search function. But try Smelling salts.
If available I would think that would work well enough.

Biotech pg152, TL5, HT check, no mention of state of patient other than unconscious.
Applying a penalty to the HT check for being -3xHP is rather nice.
On the short, sharp, shock method: a French scientist used it on a guillotine victim's head to see how long until it stopped working.
So, "Hey, Wake up. What you got that's worth living for?" sounds good enough to not need a miracle.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Tinman

My solution was to say use of first aid to revive someone from KO:

First Aid does not revive someone who is unconscious, it restores hit points and prevents bleeding. You generally have to wait the normal recovery time to regain consciousness.

But was that mercenary really unconscious? "It is up to the GM to decide whether you are truly unconscious or just totally incapacitated by pain and injury – but either way, you can’t do anything."

You could have just ruled that that particular mercenary was just groggy and unable to stand, but able to answer questions, and you would have been within the rules as given in the text.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

But was that mercenary really unconscious? "It is up to the GM to decide whether you are truly unconscious or just totally incapacitated by pain and injury – but either way, you can’t do anything."

You could have just ruled that that particular mercenary was just groggy and unable to stand, but able to answer questions, and you would have been within the rules as given in the text.

That's a pretty extreme difference when it comes to perception checks and free actions. B423's strange statement about this seems inconsistent with descriptions elsewhere which just blatently state unconsciousness.

Like what, if I have Affliction: Unconscious to knock out guards so they can't hear me hatch an escape plan, the GM can rule they were only incapacitated but were still conscious and listening?

That's basically the difference between Unconscious +200% and Paralysis +150% on B56 ... smells bad to just conflate the two on a GM handwaive.

If there's some way to downgrade unconsciousness to merely paralysis where you can still make Perception checks, maybe there could be a roll for that?

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Plane

That's a pretty extreme difference when it comes to perception checks and free actions. B423's strange statement about this seems inconsistent with descriptions elsewhere which just blatently state unconsciousness.

Free actions are a combat-related thing to do. In combat, you've just "fallen unconscious." Whether that means you're actually unconscious or you've just fallen and can't do anything but moan from your pain, the effect is the same: you don't get to do anything. But once combat is over, the GM is free to use the leeway given to allow a prisoner to answer questions.

It's just a game. It's at least as much art as science, perhaps even more so. You don't need to scour the "canon" for some obscure bit of text that might be interpreted as altering the Basic Set's rule about recovery time. The given recovery times are simplified from reality for game play, and permission is given explicitly to the GM to interpret them as most convenient.

[jacobmuller]

Originally Posted by Plane

if I have Affliction: Unconscious to knock out guards so they can't hear me hatch an escape plan, the GM can rule they were only incapacitated but were still conscious and listening?

That's basically the difference between Unconscious +200% and Paralysis +150% on B56 ... smells bad to just conflate the two on a GM handwaive.

I guess it depends on the GM.
My initial thought was, that's different but, it actually isn't. It really is GM fiat.
For that matter, Coma +250%, "profoundly unconscious"? Well, Locked In Syndrome, or folk in a coma hearing everything that happens but unable to do anything?
But it plays both ways - bad guys KO you and you overhear Their plans. Unless drugged into unconsciousness, except that there are cases of folk hearing what goes on during surgery...

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

I guess it depends on the GM.
My initial thought was, that's different but, it actually isn't. It really is GM fiat.
For that matter, Coma +250%, "profoundly unconscious"? Well, Locked In Syndrome, or folk in a coma hearing everything that happens but unable to do anything?
But it plays both ways - bad guys KO you and you overhear Their plans. Unless drugged into unconsciousness, except that there are cases of folk hearing what goes on during surgery...

And in those cases, it isn't necessarily that some folk hear what goes on during surgery, it's very probable that everyone hears what goes on during surgery. The difference is that only some people can access what they heard, thereby "remembering" what was heard. The same presumably applies to coma patients.