Scabbing Factors, Blood Mages and Platelet Factories Options

[Ancient History]

Okay...if you have a blood magician, with a platelet factory...could they just cast low-level spell, cut themselves for a Light, and then the bloody thing scabs over and they're fine?

[Zeel De Mort]

Tisk tisk AH, Platelet Factories only work (as far as game mechanics are concerned) on moderate wounds and above.

But yeah all the same I think they would be handy for any aspiring Blood Mage.

[Herald of Verjig...]

Nope, platelet factories only work on wounds of moderate or higher.

Or, if they already have 2 boxes filled in, GM interpretation of the phrase: "any Moderate or higher Physical wound."

[Ancient History]

Brain must have died. Doing this page is getting on me...

[Zazen]

Trauma damper still works, though, and is even weirder.

[CardboardArmor]

Personally, I might allow the Platelet Factory bit. If you decided to take it, I'd enforce the drug-requirement and probably hate you a little since you got away with it but on the other hand it'd be pretty clever.

As for the trauma dampener, I love how the SR guys basically encourage us to interpret the rules as we see. And while your trauma has been dampened, you're still bleeding. You just won't feel the cut, but you should probably get it fixed, ya? Which is what the Trauma Dampener is there for, sort of like a credit card on pain and suffering in which case you should take care of the principal before it catches up to you and kills you.

Just like a credit card.

[Herald of Verjig...]

No, trauma dampener is an instant partial resolution of damage. Pain editor is the one that has no actual protective benefit.

[CardboardArmor]

I know the mechanics, Herald. I'm working with the fluff here. All Trauma D. does is it triggers endorphins and such into your system. Gives you a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling (anyone who's ever been shot with morphine knows what this feels like) that makes the pain feel far away. The bullet wound is still there, you just don't feel it.

[Jason Farlander]

[CardboardArmor]

True that, Jason. Manipulating your biological processes to keep yourself trucking instead of just ignoring the pain does that.

But, yes. Just because you ignore the pain (Pain Editor, Trauma Damper, pick your poison) doesn't mean what caused it isn't there.

You play a blood mage, you have a Trauma Damper, you cut your wrists to get the magic going and you don't feel it but you're still bleeding out the arm. As opposed to the Platelet Factories, in which case the blood flow coagulates soon and you get a scab on your arm for your trouble. Though, this makes me wonder. If the blood congeals relatively quickly, would you still be able to use blood magic? Blood is blood and all but it isn't flowing anymore. Nor do I think it could be considered fresh.

Eh, semantics, I guess.

[tisoz]

Then they need to add some more fluff text to the Trauma Damper description, or the GM needs to interpret that in addition to endorphins (for the stun damage), platelets (for the physical damage) are also released. If I take a light physical wound the Damper erases the box of physical damage (the cut is healed) but I take a box of stun going Frag that cut smarted.

[CardboardArmor]

Frag that. M&M says that Trauma D. shoots you up with your body's own natural opiates and nothing more. The overall 'effect' of the damage is lessened (example provided is that when you take Severe, you take 5 boxes Physical and one box Stun) because you're flying higher than a kite on endorphins. Granted, this won't make you an unfeeling superman (that's what our good friend the Pain Editor is for) but when someone breaks your shins with a baseball bat it'll hurt...but not quite as badly.

Also in M&M, "These substances (the opiates) do not aid in repairing the trauma, but they may keep the user alive and conscious long enough to recieve medical help."

[tisoz]

So where did my 1 box of physical go?

[CardboardArmor]

It gets shunted off as Stun to represent your ability to 'stay conscious'.

Course, all the endorphins in the world won't save you if you're ventilated nice and good with a gun or something, but it helps if you're shambling off the battlefield with more leaky holes than your body should probably have.

[tisoz]

I'm talking a light wound, 1 box. Not 6 or 9 or 10.

Physical damage heals differently than Stun damage in the game.

You are saying the [light physical wound] cut still bleeds. In game terms, this wound may heal on its own, or it may cause the characters death if left untreated [ failed roll.] And the character gets a light stun wound for free.

I'm saying with the Trauma Damper, the light physical wound disappears somehow [GM interpretation] and the resulting light stun wound will heal by itself, and the outcome of the healing roll only determines how quickly.

The mechanics for the Trauma Damper say to shift one box of damage from physical to stun... So a player would record one box of stun on his sheet. The player shouldn't need to worry about his character healing the physical wound on his own over time; it is gone like it wasn't there to begin.

You are saying the character takes a physical wound, it turns into a stun wound and leaves a virtual physical wound that could wind up harming the character. I don't see a warning for that in the mechanics, it complicates bookkeeping, and it undermines the value of the Trauma Damper. Btw, I'm assuming under your interpretation on anything over a light wound, the virtual damage left after shifting the box will heal in the same way as the remaining physical damage?

[CardboardArmor]

Who says you have to book-keep the virtual physical? It's just for the roleplay potential. I'd rather people balanced the stats with playing it out than just ignoring Physical turned to Stun.

You take one box Physical, it gets shunted to Stun. Since the 'Physical' doesn't exist, you can probably just RP getting the cut bandaged up and I wouldn't argue.

Were you to take more, then we'd start playing with the rules for healing Physical damage.

[Zazen]

[CardboardArmor]

That would mean...what...nine turns worth of Shadowrun combat where you did nothing but cast spells and dodge (if even that)?

If it takes you nine or more turns to kill something, either you and your chummers are doing something wrong or you picked a fight with Lofwyr and he's playing with you.

And I know this may be counter-productive in the end, but don't they have slap patches to stave off Stun until you can at least get yourself to somewhere safe to collapse at? Granted, you may end up messing your Magic in the end, but at least you're still breathing.

[Zazen]

[CardboardArmor]

True, I suppose.

But I was postulating as to the effects as stated by the rules. In the case you described, I suppose it truely must be doing something else.

[shadd4d]

How many of you see mages with Trauma dampers? My mage had one just for the drain window, which was pretty useful in a couple of situations. It's one of those useful things for metagaming magicians.

Don