Regaining Hitpoints – Surgery

Characters with the Trauma skill can operate on wounded characters in order to help them to recover from wounds. In the post-apocalyptic world of Avoss, surgery can be just as dangerous as violence, but it is a necessary danger for those who wish to stay alive.  Surgery is performed as follows;

For every point of damage a character has suffered and wishes to have healed the surgery duration is extended by 5 minutes.

After every fifteen minutes of surgery the surgeon is required to roll a twelve sided dice and resolve the roll based on the ‘surgical complications’ table. This may extend the surgery time or cause additional damage.

For every hitpoint healed, a member of the surgical team has to spend a point of cool. This occurs during the surgery (every five minutes) but hitpoints are only regained at the end of surgery.

If the operation is taking place in an unclean area or with unclean tools, risks are more frequent.  If either circumstance is present, roll for complications every 10 minutes. If both are present, roll every 5 minutes.

It is important to note that if a character is bleeding out during surgery they must be have their bleedout stalled through the entire surgery.

Surgery requires at least 1 person with the Specialist Trauma skill or 2 with the General Trauma skill to attempt.

Surgical Complications Table

Number Rolled Result
1 A masterful piece of surgery. Remove five minutes from the overall required time and gain 2 cool.
2 You’re doing fine. Gain 1 cool.
3 A decent stitch, remove 5 minutes from the overall required time.
4 The surgery progresses, no effect.
5 The surgery progresses, no effect.
6 The surgery progresses, no effect.
7 The wound is worse than you expected, lose 1 cool.
8 The wound is far worse than you expected and you may have made it worse, lose 2 cool.
9 The wound is jagged and may contain some shrapnel, you slice your finger. Either extend the surgery by five minutes or take 1 damage.
10 The wound erupts in blood. The character takes no additional damage but is assumed to be bleeding out for the rest of the surgery.
11 Consult the Major Surgical Complications Table
12 Consult the Major Surgical Complications Table


Major Surgical Complications Table

Number Rolled Result
1 False alarm, carry on.
2 The character suffers from temporary paralysis from the waist down for d12 hours.
3 The character is blinded for d12 hours.
4 The character is shellshocked and suffers from amnesia, forgetting d12 hours.
5 The surgery requires the loss of a finger or toe.
6 Patient wakes during surgery and suffers from
7 Massive internal infections wrack their body. Total max hitpoints reduced by 1 permanently.
8 The character is horrifically disfigured, they character suffers numerous physical scars on their face or forearms.
9 The surgery discovers extensive optical nerve damage, the character loses an eye.
10 Shrapnel and scarring is far more extensive than previously estimated. A single limb becomes entirely unusable, either withered beyond all repair or amputated.
11 Through a series of cascading failures, they expire. Inform the player their character is about to die. You lose all cool once they have done so.
12 Complete and sudden brain death. Inform a storyteller.