Trauma Team 2031 (Xyberpunk)

This is an overhaul of the Trauma Team rules by TPG.

The tables referred to in these rules can be found here.

This is a work in progress.

Getting hurt and what it does to you

While these rules add more detail and bookkeeping to Xyberpunk injuries, the upshot of the extra effort it brings is gains in drama and suspense. On the one hand, you may be able to keep fighting after absorbing a lot more punishment than before, but on the other hand, any wound may end up killing you if you don't get medical treatment in a timely fashion. Wound Levels are tracked by Hit Location, Condition and Time Limit. Location tells you to what degree different parts of your body still function. Condition tells you how much of a threat to life and health the Wound is, and the Time Limit tells you how soon the Wound will start getting you into even deeper trouble.

How Wounds are treated is also a somewhat more detailed procedure. There are two basic forms of medical actions, 1st Aid and Surgery. The former aims to keep you alive until you can receive the latter, which in turn aims to make the Wound stop threatening your life, so you can start getting back to your healthy, bad self.

More detailed attention is now also given to how the environment and xyberwarez affect your situation while wounded. Xyber will help you most of the time, but your surroundings won't. The world is a dirty place with lots of germs. It can be a hot or cold place, it can do a lot of things to make you uncomfortable, when comfort is what you need the most.

Wound levels

There are 7 wound levels, representing different degrees of effect on your character's performance. Each Hit Location has its own Wound Level.

• Flesh Wound: May involve breaking of the skin and/or contusions, but with only superficial penetration into the body, and perhaps dramatic-looking, but non-critical bleeding. May be largely ignored during combat, but will need addressing sooner or later.

• Serious Wound: Not incapacitating, but significantly affects performance. No significant damage to vital organ or function. Will not take you out of the fight, but cannot be ignored for very long. May involve fractures and/or significant muscle damage.

• Critical Wound: Location is incapacitated, there is significant tissue damage and bleeding, with some possible damage to vitals. Typically involves deep cuts and/or major fractures. It is time to stop trying to hurt other people and focus on getting help.

• Mortal Wound: Location is incapacitated, with significant organ and tissue damage. Blood loss is rapid, and death imminent if not remedied quickly.

• M2 and M3: As Mortal, but with increased severity. Exsanguination will occur sooner, and the wound will require more complicated treatment.

• DD: Character is instantly defunct, a state brought on by massive damage to vitals, tissue and/or anything else that can get shredded or exploded into a pink mist, damaging it beyond his or her body's capacity to sustain life, and medical science's ability to put it back together again. It is time to say farewell, and let go.

Cumulative Wounds

If a Wound is already present in a Location which is then Wounded again, the new Wound may Aggravate the Location's WL, depending on the severity. Compare the previous Wound to the new Wound.

• If they are of the same WL, the Location is aggravated one WL. For example, an existing SW receiving another SW aggravates to CW.

• If they are 3 or more WLs apart, for example FW and CW, use the higher WL and ignore the lower.

• If the difference is 1 or 2 Wound levels, roll d6:

If difference is 1, and roll is 1-4, Aggravate to one WL above higher. On 5-6, use higher WL.

If difference is 2, and roll is 1-2, Aggravate to one WL above higher. On 3-6, use higher WL.

Example: Bob's left leg has a SW. It receives a new MW, which is 2 WL above SW. He rolls 3 on his d6, and "luckily" the leg is now at "only" MW, rather than the potential M2.

Example 2: Susie's Head is at SW, when it is the target of a FW. The difference is just one WL, so if she rolls 4 or less on her d6, what at first looked only like another FW, could now put her head into a critical state.

Stun Save

Whenever the WL of a Hit Location is raised through damage, the character must make a Stun Save. Refer to the Stun Save Table, noting any modifiers that apply to the roll. Note that the Pain Editor modifier is not cumulative with Resist Torture & Drugs. Note that Body Type does not modify this roll, since it has already factored into the determination of Wound Level, which in turn modifies the roll.

The roll has three possible outcomes:

• Incapacitated: The shock and trauma has temporarily deprived the character of his or her will and/or capacity to continue fighting. If a head hit caused the Stun Save, this means automatic unconsciousness. If a torso hit, roll d6. 1-3: Unconscious. 4-6: Still conscious, probably crying out to a figure associated with safety and comfort, real or imagined.

• Stunned: The character loses his or her next turn.

• No Effect: The character shrugs off the hit without skipping a beat.

Wound Effects on Hit Locations

Wounds affect different parts of the body differently, and the severity of Wounds also affect the degree of how they are affected. In the Medical Intervention Table is a column called "Penalty", which indicates a penalty that applies to any and all activities associated with the Location.

Wound penalties for different arms and legs are cumulative.

• Head: INT, EDU, COOL and ATTR based skill rolls.

• Torso: BODY based skills, and REF based skills that involve the use of the entire body, such as Athletics, Dodge, Defense Rolls.

• Arm: REF and TECH based skills.

• Leg: Movement. REF based skills that involve the legs, such as Stealth, Dodge, Athletics, Dance.

Taking damage

This new method for determining Wound Levels is similar to that of the 2013 rules, in that characters don't have a hit point track. The difference is that it uses a simple mathematical formula to generate results, rather than a table. When a character receives damage, the Wound generates one WL for each multiple of half the character's Body Type, rounded up. So anything less than ½ Body causes a FW, from ½ Body a SW, from 1 x Body a CW, from 1½ x Body a MW, and so on. This means that to give for example a character with Body Type 7 a Mortal Wound, an attack must cause 11 or more points of damage.

The Wound Level Table illustrates the formula. The number in each position is the number of damage points needed to cause a particular WL on someone with a particular Body Type. FW is not included in the table. It is simply the default result if an attack does not do at least the number needed to cause a SW.

An attack roll that comes up box cars results in double damage. Attacks hitting the Head also doubles damage. As with all multiplying and dividing in Xyberpunk, doubling twice means adding another multiplier, so a box cars hit in the Head will do triple damage, and not quadruple.

Conditions

There are 4 Wound Conditions, which apply individually to each Location. A single Wound may have one or more of these concurrently.

• Untreated: This is the initial Condition of any Wound. All effects of the wound apply normally.

• Stabilized: A Stabilized Wound has received attention, but still not begun to heal. It represents first-responder attention, typically 1st Aid, but also the efforts of ambulance personnel to keep a character alive until he or she can receive proper treatment. With the exception of Flesh Wounds, a Wound must first be Stabilized before it can be Treated.

• Complication: This Condition can occur together with Untreated and Stabilized, but not Treated. It represents a hindrance to, or increase in the complexity of, treatment of one form or another. This does not Aggravate the Wound to a higher WL, but affects the Time Limit, and makes further medical attention more difficult. An already Complicated Wound that meets with yet another Complication result on the CR Table is Aggravated to the next WL, but in turn, loses its Complicated status. In the case of a Complicated Wound receiving an Aggravation result, the wound is both Aggravated and also retains its Complication.

• Treated: Once at this Condition, the Wound is cleared of all other Conditions, and a Recovery Time is rolled. This roll is always 3d6, multiplied by different base times for different WL's. Several modifiers may apply to this roll, as indicated in the Xyber Effects Table. During the RT, any penalties incurred by the Wound is halved, and all effects are removed at the end of it.

The Condition Roll

If the Time Limit of a Wound runs out, without it having been seen to, the character must make a Condition Roll for it, and consult the CR Table. This roll represents the unpredictable development of an untreated Wound, and will tend to make matters progressively worse. Xyber can help you from getting worse, and may even improve your condition on rare occasions, while environmental and other circumstances will typically work against you. Since every Hit Location has its own Wound Level, TL and Condition, please keep in mind that each Location makes its own separate Condition Rolls according to its own separate Time Limit.

Refer to the Warez Effects Table to find any and all modifications that apply. Then do the same for the Circumstance Table. Then, add them together with a 2d6 roll, and look up the result on the CR Table. Note that while not giving you any bonuses to your CR, some warez can negate Circumstance penalties.

The CR will generate one of 4 results:

• Aggravation: The situation has for some reason deteriorated. The Wound is Aggravated, meaning it moves to the next higher Wound Level.

• Complication: The Wound has not worsened, as far as its effect on the character, but its treatment has become more difficult and urgent. If the Wound was already Complicated, it is no longer Complicated, but instead, it is Aggravated. Any Time Limit rolls for a Complicated Wound is halved. This can be cancelled out, but not remedied, by Stabilizing the Wound.

• No Change: You are in luck. The Wound hasn't improved but, it also hasn't gotten any worse.

• Improvement: You not only have plenty of survivalwarez installed, you also have a guardian angel. Or you blew a lot of Luck Points to get here. If the Wound was Complicated, it now loses its Complication Condition. If it was not, its level now shifts to the next lower Wound Level.

After making the CR, make a new TL roll, taking into account the current WL and Condition, and then merrily stagger along your way.

Medical intervention

Once inflicted, a Wound can succesively deteriorate over time to the point of killing a character. To reflect this, each Hit Location is associated with its individual Wound Level, Time Limit and Condition. At the end of the TL the character must make a roll on the Condition Roll Table. This roll is affected by xyber and various circumstances, and determines how the Condition is affected. Having to make Condition Rolls is what can turn a Wound for the worse, and so are to be avoided. This is done by having someone with the 1st Aid and/or Surgery skills intervene, before the end of the TL. This way, the TL can either be extended through Stabilizing the Wound, or, even better, the Wound can be Treated, and no longer have a TL, and therefore instead begin to heal. In order to Treat a Wound, a character will need surgery, except for Flesh Wounds, which are regarded as superficial enough to be Treated with 1St Aid.

Stabilizing wounds

Stabilizing a Wound can typically be done with the 1st Aid skill. Doing so does not constitute treatment, but it does extend the Time Limit of a Wound, giving the patient more time to receive comprehensive treatment. For especially severe Wounds, however, 1st Aid is inadequate, and requires Surgery competence. In order to perform the Stabilization of a Wound, refer to the Medical Intervention Table. Find the required skill and difficulty and make a skill roll accordingly.

A Stabilization attempt can always be made using Surgery instead of 1st Aid, at a difficulty number 10 steps lower, provided the care giver has access to any surgical equipment needed to make use of the skill. If the attempt succeeds, make a new TL roll, using the next lower Wound Level. A new Stabilization attempt can be made at any time that a Wound is already Stable, in order to re-roll TL again. This way, a patient can theoretically be kept Stable indefinitely, as long as proper medical equipment and consumables are available.

Stabilization attempt results

• A Perfect attempt (box cars) is rewarded with the maximum possible TL, ie, a free "18" on the TL roll.

• A successful attempt replaces current TL with new TL roll, using next lower WL.

• A failed attempt does not affect the wound at all, but will consume any supplies used for the attempt.

• A Botched attempt (snake eyes) will immediately Aggravate the Wound.

Note that a Wound can concurrently have both the Complicated and Stabilized Conditions. You still use the next lower WL for randomizing the new TL, but also still cut it in half because of the Complication. Stabilization cannot remove Complications, only Treating the Wound can. Also note that there is no TL carry-over.

Treating wounds

Before a Wound has received proper care, it will continue to pose a threat to the character, by continuously generating Condition Rolls. By Treating a Wound, it stops being a threat, and instead begins to heal. This will in most cases involve surgery in one for or another. Refer to the Medical Intervention Table to find out which skill is required, and the roll needed to Treat each Wound.

Surgery will in the majority of cases require some consumables, such as IV bags, blood bags, different shapes and sizes of clamps, sterilization for hands and equipment, scalpels, lights, magnifying eyepieces, etc. As a matter och practicality, these things can be expected to be available in any reasonably well-stocked ambulance or Trauma AV. A medic's kit can contain some or most of these items, allowing it to perform one attempt at field or emergency Surgery, such as for Stabilizing a particularly severe injury. The more of the necessities and auxiliaries of operation you remove from the Surgeon, the less he will be able to do. A skilled surgeon can only work at his fullest abilities when he has all the tools of his trade at hand.

Treatment Attempt Results

• A Perfect attempt (boxcars) Treats the Wound, and also moves it down one WL. Roll Recovery using new WL.

• A successful attempt Treats the Wound. Roll for Recovery time.

• A failed attempt will cause the Wound to become Complicated. All supplies used are forfeit. The patient needs 2d6 hours to recover before another attempt to operate is made. If Treatment is attempted before this time has passed, Surgery is at a penalty equal to the number of hours left, rounded up.

• A Botched (snake eyes) attempt will, first of all, cause the Wound to Aggravate. Depending on the equipment, supplies and circumstances of the situation, the GM may interpret this Botch as being fatal. In a Trauma Center environment with lots of automated systems and assistants, a Surgeon is lucky enough to only Aggravate the Wound. But the further away from the ideal operation circumstances, the more things can go wrong. Maybe he runs out of blood bags, or nano compounds needed for the patient's biowarez, perhaps he accidentally gave the patient an allergic shock with a certain injection, and he doesn't have the necessary substances to correct for his mistake. The GM may decide that a Wound Aggravates two WL, or that the patient just suddenly flatlines and becomes unresponsive to resuscitation.

Recovery

Upon successful Treatment, consult the Warez table and take note of any Recovery modifiers. Now roll 3d6. First apply any additions and subtractions to the roll, then any divisions. Next, refer to the Medical Intervention Table and multiply your result by the time factor for the Wound Level. This is the Recovery Time for the Wound.

During this period, the Wound will still affect the character's performance, but only at half the normal penalty. At the end of the period, the Wound is gone, along with any and all effects. Each Hit Location has its own WL and Recovery Time, so after an especially intense fight, it may be that Bob keeps a bit of a limp for a month, but his shooting hand is back to business after just a few days. Or that Susie, while back to her Olympic 100m dash form, still has her arm in a sling, etc.

During Recovery time, the Wound penalty is halved, but as an optional rule, the penalty may be halved again at the half-way point of RT. Remember that when you halve a number several times in Xyberpunk, what you really do is to add to the denominator. So halving the penalty twice really means bringing it down to 1/3, and not 1/4. The penalty for each Wound during Recovery can not be reduced below 1.

Dying

For a character to be technically regarded as dead under these rules, a Wound must have Aggravated to the DD level. In many cases, any Mortal, M2 or M3 wound may have much the same practical effect as DD, when the Time Limit is very short, and help too far away. Any such Wound may be regarded as killing outright any NPC, as the GM sees fit.

Replacement parts

Rules pending.

See also

• Trauma Team 2013