Our friend Seth returns to shed more light on how characters can survive and thrive in the worlds of the Star Wars RPG from Fantasy Flight Games. Part 2 of 2.
“Your eyesight will return in time.”
Recovering Wounds and Strain in the Star Wars RPG
By Seth Glenn
The Star Wars Universe is a dangerous place. From the cold reached of space to exotic alien worlds, there many dangers that can cause a character to take damage. As discussed previously, characters take damage two different ways in the Star Wars RPG: Wounds and Strain. Fantasy Flight created a fast paced system where characters jump into the action and can take damage rather quickly. Recovering from those wounds and strain however takes a little more time. There are several methods for recovering damage as Player Characters try to survive the perils they face.
Recovering Strain
Strain is the easiest form of damage to recover. Player Characters(PCs) gain strain during an encounter as they perform actions or take penalties that contribute to their mental and emotional well being. This Strain, if not recovered, can reach the Strain Threshold at which time the Character becomes incapacitated. As a means of recovering strain, at the end of each encounter players may roll a simple Discipline or Cool Check. For each Success symbol rolled the PC may recover one Strain. After a full nights rest characters can remove all strain that they have received. Some character abilities are also capable of helping a player ignore the effects of Strain or even allow party members to remove Strain. See the appropriate source book for these rules.
Healing Wounds and Critical Injuries
In order to heal the physical wounds received during an encounter, characters must take extra effort or extra time in order to fully heal. This applies to both Wounds and Critical Injury. Critical Injuries are harder to care for, and so require a separate check than those used to recover Wounds. The Critical Injury check difficulty is based off the severity of the Critical Injury found on the Critical Injury Result table. This table can be found in each of the Core Rule books and also on each Game Master Screen. The actual check rolled to heal a Critical Injury depends on what kind of method of healing is being attempted. If left unhealed, Critical Injuries persist even after the short term effect has been applied, making subsequent Critical Injury rolls more dangerous. There are four methods for healing physical injuries: Stimpacks, Medical Care, Bacta Tanks and Natural Rest.
Stimpacks
Stimpacks are one time use emergency injectors that contain a cocktail of medicine, Bacta and painkillers. They do no require any kind of roll to use and have a fixed amount of wounds that they can heal per use. If a character uses more than one stimpack in the same day, they become less effective each time. The first use of a stimpack by a player heals 5 wounds. The second use in the same day or 24 hours without rest only heals 4 wounds. The third time only heals 3 wounds. If a player attempts a sixth use, it will have no effect. The character must spend s full nights rest or wait 24 hours before stimpacks will be fully effective again. Any character can administer a stimpack but must be in Engaged range with the target character. I character may use a stimpack on himself as long as they have one appendage free. Stimpacks cannot be used to treat Critical Injuries.
Droids: Droids are mechanical beings and therefore cannot use stimpacks. However they are able to use Emergency Repair Patches which are only usable by droids. Emergency Repair Patches only heal 3 wounds, however they do not suffer diminishing returns upon multiple uses in the same day. \
Medical Care
Medical Care represents the ability of a PC to perform first aid during an encounter by rolling a Medicine Check. Each character may only receive one Medicine Check per encounter, as first aid has limited effectiveness. On a successful Medical check, a PC heals the amount of wounds equal to the amount of Success symbols, and heals the number of Strain equal to the Advantage symbols. If the player administering the Medical Check has the appropriate equipment (Synthskin, Emergency Medpac, Physician’s Kit) then the base difficulty is determined by the state of the target character’s health as seen on the Medical Check Difficulty table. Synthskin is a one time use item that cannot heal Critical Injuries while the Physician’s kits actually grants a blue Boost Die to any Medicine Check, and grants an Advantage to each successful Medicine check.
If the player administering first aid does not have the right equipment, the difficulty is increased by one. A player may attempt a Medical Check on himself but suffers an increase of difficulty of 2.
Droids: Droids cannot be healed by a Medicine check, but instead can be repaired by a Mechanics check. All of the same rules apply for difficulty without a Tool Kit and depending on the State of Health based upon the Medical Check table. Droids only suffer an increase of 1 difficulty when attempting self repair, however, as they can choose to not feel pain.
Bacta Tanks
Bacta tanks are very complicated and expensive, and therefore are most often found only in Medical Centers. A Character can heal using a Bacta tank at a rate dependant on the state of the characters health. If a player is wounded, they will recover 1 wound per 2 hours spent in the Bacta tank. If a player is incapacitated, they recover 1 wound per 6 hours spent in the Bacta tank. At the end of each 24-hour period, the character may attempt a Resilience check to remove one Critical Injury. The difficulty is equal to the severity rating found on the Critical Injury Result table. On a successful roll the Critical Injury is removed. On a failed attempt, the character will still recover 1 wound.
Droids: Droids can repair by using an Oil Bath instead of a Bacta tank. Oil Baths are specifically designed to help Droids repair at a rate of 1 wound for every hour spent in the Oil Bath. Oil Baths cannot however repair Critical Injuries to droids, as those can only be repaired by a successful Mechanics Check.
Natural Rest
Some role-play games use natural rest as the reset for healing injuries, allowing all injuries to be healed after a full nights rest. In the Star Wars RPG, a character only heals 1 wound after a full nights rest regardless of their state of health. At the end of each full week of rest, a character may attempt a Resilience Check to recover 1 Critical Injury. The difficulty is based on the rating found on the Critical Injury Result table. On a successful check the character removes that Critical injury. On a failed attempt, they still heal 1 wound. If they character rolls a Triumph symbol, they may heal one additional Critical Injury. Droids may also heal using natural rest.
This overview of healing should give players the ability to survive the perils that await them as they travel through the galaxy seeking adventure. I hope you find it useful in your journey,
…And may the Force be with you!