Medical Treatment (Medicae & Chirugeons)

Providing Medical Treatment

All characters in DuD are treated as being capable enough to aid someone who is obviously bleeding this is represented by the First Aid trait which is free for all characters to take which allows them to;

• Providing they are Fine' and haven’t got a limb disabled ' they can give First Aid to Grievously Wounded characters, pausing their bleed count while they do so (see beneath for more details) - this occupies both their hands so they may do nothing else while doing it and they cannot do this while a casualty is being moved.

Providing they are Fine' and haven’t got a limb disabled ' they can aid a Casualty to move, however they cannot stop the

However trained medics such as the Medicae who tend to battlefield casualties and Chirugeons who studied at the Imperium’s Medical Academies to hone their arts have a more significant role to play in treating Casualties. The individual abilities of each type of medic is covered in detail below.

Medicae can perform effective medical treatment in the field and under fire;

• They can perform First Aid with one hand enabling them to do it providing they have a functioning limb, or use a pistol to defend themselves while performing it, or use it to move the casualty while continuing First Aid.

• With patients with Grisly Injuries they can Mend their injury(s) with thirty seconds of medical roleplay due to their familiarity with battlefield injuries.

• They can perform Triage Checks on characters who are Shaken or Grievously Wounded - making draws from the Complications Deck if they discover a complication while doing the check.

If they discover a Complication with a Medicae Intervention option they can perform Surgery to return any casualty to Fine. They cannot operate on other complications.

Chirurgeons the pinnacle of medical expertise, and with access to a proper operating theatre they can achieve almost anything.

• With patients with Grisly Injuries they can Mend their injury(s) with 60s of medical roleplay taking a while to carefully and cautiously mend the wound based on their training rather than a familiarity with battlefield wounds.

• They can perform Triage Checks on characters who are Shaken or Grievously Wounded - making draws from the Complications Deck if they discover a complication while doing the check.

• Provided they have access to a Medbay, they may perform Surgery to return a casualty to Fine and resolve all Complications.

They can perform experimental surgery' or, if they are a Tech Priest or under the Instruction ' of one, install bionics. This requires Game Team permission and may or may not be approved depending on your intended results.

Triage

A casualty is a character who is currently Shaken or Grievously Wounded. While in these conditions, a character is vulnerable to further mutilation, capture or worse. Characters who are Shaken can recover on their own but it takes time unless they have certain traits, more often than not it is faster to get them back in the fight by doing a Triage Check on them to assess the nature of their injuries. A character cannot perform a Triage Check on themselves, or if they are Shaken or Grievously Wounded. This system is a way of providing an ic ‘skin’ for characters using triage cards (see beneath for an example) to create a more immersive medical ruleset.

When dealing with characters who are Shaken the attendant Medicae or Chirugeon performs a Triage Check to see if there is a complication;

• If no Complication is found the character is a Category III' casualty ' with 20 seconds of medical roleplay by a Medicae or Chirugeon they return to Fine with half their endurance.

If a Complication is found however the character is a Category II casualty, they are not bleeding out any time soon but they will not be able to recover from Shaken until the complication is treated by Surgery. Draw a card from the Complications Deck you are carrying at random and read its effects informing the Casualty of anything they should roleplay reacting to as necessary.

Where a card tells you to discard it if certain conditions are not met do not draw another card the patient has a lucky escape they are instead a Category III' casualty. '

Certain Complications will state that the casualty is a Category I casualty, at which point you should inform the character to move to Grievously Wounded and begin their bleed count.

The base chance of finding a Complication is 25%. A standard method of making the check would be to use a bag of beads, 9 white and 3 red; on blind-drawing a bead from the bag, a Complication occurs if a red bead is drawn. Digital randomisers, dice or other methods are also appropriate, at the player’s preference.

Characters who are Grievously Wounded ' however, do not require the Triage Check to be made, as they are immediately revealed to be a Category I' casualty in immediate need of attention, as their bleed count is ticking down slowly. The medical character makes a draw a card from the Complications Deck you are carrying at random and read its effects informing the Casualty of anything they should roleplay reacting to as necessary they will continue to bleed unless their count is paused (by First Aid or Surgery) or stopped (by some other means such as Coag).

Where a card tells you to discard it if certain conditions are not met do not draw another card the patient has a lucky escape they are instead their bleed count stops with some minor attention and they become Shaken.

Giving First Aid to a Grievously Wounded Casualty

All player characters have some degree of medical knowledge for dealing with situations where blood is oozing out of a wound. When they encounter a Grievously Wounded casualty they are able to tell they are bleeding and through a few moments roleplay, can determine the rough appearance and location of an injury (a quick OC check with the casualty for a description).

By using both hands (there is no need to make physical contact if you or the casualty to not wish it) a character who is Fine may pause a character’s bleed count by applying pressure to the wound, holding the injured limb braced or fussing with a medkit and so on. Should at any point you stop doing this, the bleed count resumes from where it left off, so make sure the casualty knows to keep in mind where they last were. This cannot be done on a Casualty who is being moved.

If a character has lost use of a limb due to a Grisly Injury they cannot perform First Aid.

Characters with Medicae only need one hand to do this, and may therefore use a Pistol to defend themselves while giving First Aid (melee requires too much movement) or do it even if they have a limb disabled by a Grisly Injury. More importantly they can use their free limb to move the casualty (as beneath) while continuing to pause their bleed count (make sure to inform the casualty)

Moving Casualties

Shaken characters or characters with Grisly Injuries to the legs, cannot move faster than a slow stagger unaided, and Grievously Wounded characters cannot move at all.

A character who is Fine and has no limbs disabled can aid a Casualty in moving allowing a Shaken character to move normally and a Grievously Wounded character to move at a slow stagger (while moving a character in this way the aiding character can also only move at a similar pace).

However a Grievously Wounded character cannot have their bleed count paused via First Aid they will continue to bleed while being aided in moving. Unless they are being moved by a Medicae.

Mending a Grisly Injury

Grisly Injuries are a status condition applied by calls of Rend or Burn as well as other effects. Though not life-threatening and debilitating, they are dangerous to leave open and make the patient in danger of serious injury or struck again.

After roughly 30s of roleplay for a Medicae, 60s of roleplay for a Chirugeon, they may declare that they have finished their work and the Grisly Injury condition is removed if the character has multiple Grisly Injuries then they are all removed at once by this roleplay.

Performing Surgery

When a Complication is drawn from the Complication deck there will one or more options from the three possible forms of surgery written on it, these are;

• Medicae Intervention: These treatments represent the few instances where a Medicae can perform Surgery, they can be done in the field without a Medbay. They are battlefield treatments to get a casualty on their feet but often don’t deal with the problem entirely. They take no more than a minute of roleplay to perform.

Quick Fixes: Performed by a Chirugeon these can be done in the field without a Medbay and can be done by a Medicae if there is a Chirugeon present to instruct them. These are quick and brutal solutions to get a casualty back on their feet but often cause more issues going forwards. They take no more than thirty seconds of roleplay to perform.

Proper Procedures: Performed by a Chirugeon in a Medbay these are the correct surgical methods for dealing with injuries but often the resources needed to do them are not available. They should take upwards of a few minutes of roleplay to perform.

To perform any form of surgery, a Medicae or Chirurgeon must make use of tools to perform a period of roleplay treating a character’s wounds. Casualties must be given a dose of the Chem Opia in order to hold still for surgery without restraint otherwise they should be instructed to roleplay extreme pain and make a lot of noise while you work.

A character's Bleed Count pauses once Surgery begins, but will resume if the surgery is stopped or interrupted for whatever reason and First Aid or Coag are not being given.

When surgery is completed, the treated character is restored to Fine with Half Endurance (round up) unless a complication specifically states otherwise. Some treatments may have additional conditions attached, be sure to inform the casualty of them.

Medbays

A Medbay is defined as a well equipped medical facility such as a small surgery or a field hospital. Medbays are set up as part of the game environment and in some cases may be deliberately absent to present a challenge to players. A medbay is usable as such if an Officio Medicae Banner is set up in the environment by the Game Team or if the Game Team tells you otherwise.

It is possible for players to bring their own Field Hospital setups with Game Team approval you must have your own Officio Medicae Banner to set up - you may ONLY set up the banner after getting approval from a member of the Game Team that your medbay is ready to take casualties.