[DF][GM Advice] Heart Attacks

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Bramble Thorn

I am thinking he is saying from the aftereffects Lee had a Heart Attack, That stabilized on it's own without medical attention. Which can also happen on real live; someone goes to the doctor after the fact, and the doctor diagnoses him as having had a heart attack.

But there is no way in GURPS for your body to stabilize an in-process Heart Attack, (which is NOT the same as not having a Heart Attack in the first place due to aftereffects)

And implying you should be allowed a stamina roll DURING a Heart Attack to self stabilize (either critical success or success by 10 or whatever.)

I don't think there is any game mechanical difference between making the roll initially or after some minutes. I also don't see any reason for there to be more than one roll. I also don't think that accuracy relative to medical statistics is appropriate for DF anyway.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I don't think there is any game mechanical difference between making the roll initially or after some minutes. I also don't see any reason for there to be more than one roll. I also don't think that accuracy relative to medical statistics is appropriate for DF anyway.

Not only that, but Heart Attack in GURPS is an essentially fatal condition. Like a lot of other conditions, the initial roll to avoid them is the one that determines if you were able to get through it without full consequences.

So if you are suffering a Heart Attack in GURPS, it's because your small-h heart attack was severe enough to kill you if you don't get outside intervention. It's like failing a death check - fail it, and what happened was enough to kill you. Make it, and it wasn't.

In this case, Lee suffered some ill effects in game terms, but made his roll against getting the Heart Attack condition, which would have killed him had he missed it.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Peter V. Dell'Orto

Not only that, but Heart Attack in GURPS is an essentially fatal condition. Like a lot of other conditions, the initial roll to avoid them is the one that determines if you were able to get through it without full consequences.

So if you are suffering a Heart Attack in GURPS, it's because your small-h heart attack was severe enough to kill you if you don't get outside intervention. It's like failing a death check - fail it, and what happened was enough to kill you. Make it, and it wasn't.

In this case, Lee suffered some ill effects in game terms, but made his roll against getting the Heart Attack condition, which would have killed him had he missed it.

Yes that's what I am saying. There already is a roll to see if the heart attack kills you or not.

[Kromm]

The GURPS heart attack affliction is "Your heart stops and you die unless resuscitated." That's the definition. I'm not up on my medical terminology, but I believe it would be a "type 3 myocardial infarction." Heart attacks less severe than that aren't the heart attack mortal condition . . . they're more like the "mild heart attack or stroke" you get from result 32 on the Fright Check table (p. B361), or the FP loss resulting from Cardiac Stress (Bio-Tech, p. 215).