Topic: Thoughts on critical effects and the real world

[alloowishus]

Based on my experiences with injuries, it seems like you don't actually experience the effects of wounds (like penalties) until later. I have cracked my tailbone while riding my bike and was able to ride home. Later that night though, I could barely stand. I believe this is the result of adreniline in the body. Has anyone thought of introducing delaying some of the effects of criticals?

[Hurin]

It just varies tremendously. When I broke my back, I was immediately incapacitated. But I've also been incapacitated by the very minor and temporary effect of being winded, while, when I broke my neck, I was walking around in shock and probably could have walked home.

My point is that it just can vary a lot, so I personally don't see the need to delay. Even minor injuries can really mess you up, while major ones might not necessarily really affect you immediately, depending on a whole host of factors. I would not assume that all injuries are delayed due to adrenaline, though; some will really mess you up physically and/or mentally immediately.

[alloowishus]

True of severe injuries, but most light injuries I have experienced, for instance light sprains, muscle pulls etc I have not experienced until I actually rested for a bit.

[MisterK]

True of severe injuries, but most light injuries I have experienced, for instance light sprains, muscle pulls etc I have not experienced until I actually rested for a bit.

We must have different experiences - I sprained my ankles several times during my youth while playing in various sport competitions or training and it was certainly immediately impairing.

But more to the point of rules, I think it is easier to have wound effects apply immediately instead of having to track them and apply effects after certain conditions are met (with conditions varying with wound types to make matters worse).

[netbat]

True of severe injuries, but most light injuries I have experienced, for instance light sprains, muscle pulls etc I have not experienced until I actually rested for a bit.

How much of that is a function of you just powering through when it is necessary and choosing to not do things to aggravate it subconsciously later when relaxed though? In game mechanics you may have a -10 penalty, in roleplaying you ignore it during the combat/challenge and it makes you slightly less capable, when you are relaxed after the danger, you get treatment and rest/minimize activity because you have that injury. I can relate to "not noticing" an injury during activity until later, but from what I have seen and on looking back there was a difference in my performance due to the injury. The body naturally tries to minimize pain causing actions with slight changes in motion/position that might make you less effective even if you don't notice.
What doesn't get enough thought is the likelyhood that continued action after an injury will worsen the injury. Maybe you could house rule that you can ignore part of the penalty for a round in exchange for doubling the injury effects?

[Cory Magel]

My answer is purely from a game mechanics point of view in that the injuries as a result of combats are intended to create balancing factors for that fight.
However, that said, we are not a role play heavy group and focus more on the combat aspect of the game.

My personal point of view on it probably isn't reliable as I have a pretty high pain tolerance, to the point that my doctor tells me I need to pay more attention to pain.
But that also brings up the point of, if you decided to change things, how much impact would something like the individual characters stats have?  Wisdom and Constitution maybe?

[MisterK]

Wisdom and Constitution maybe?

Wisdom ? Your true colours are showing

[jdale]

The game for simplicity assumes people operate in a fairly consistent and metered way, there's not much about freezing up in combat (aside from all-out panic), or anything to model how melees often are broken up by pauses. I think from a game mechanics standpoint it's reasonable to just use your edition's skills for withstanding pain (e.g. Fortitude, Stunned Maneuvering) and not worry about it beyond that. Narratively, if the wounded combatant gets a hit after their injury, you can certainly describe it as fighting on past the pain, whereas if they miss you can describe that as them being overwhelmed by it, just like you could describe two combatants each missing each other as the two of them circling warily.

Beyond that, delaying the onset of critical effects -- when not already included in the critical descriptions -- will just slow down combat.

[Cory Magel]

Wisdom and Constitution maybe?

Wisdom ? Your true colours are showing

Oops.  I would have said Intuition!
Constitution do deal with the injury physically and Intuition to actually pay more attention (mentally) to it? heh

[pastaav]

Another point to consider is that your skill in the real world would probably not translate into many ranks in RM. The penalty of -10 is a big deal for low level characters but barely worth to mention for very skilled characters. In the modern world with professional tools to assist us the skill matters little a few of us have reasons to train like characters do in the game world.

[Cory Magel]

Another point to consider is that your skill in the real world would probably not translate into many ranks in RM. The penalty of -10 is a big deal for low level characters but barely worth to mention for very skilled characters. In the modern world with professional tools to assist us the skill matters little a few of us have reasons to train like characters do in the game world.

That's a fair point too.  I often tell players that their characters aren't representative of the normal population and their stats/skills should reflect that.