Healing Trauma

Yes, it's much better to do your best to have a well-rounded character, rather than trying to load all of your stats in one area.

Or two. Or, as was the case with me, ignoring certain subprowesses because they didn't seem to matter much.

I would like to get this pinned down:

Malicia wrote:Also, if a person attempting to heal Mortal Trauma (for which there is no automatic win at 15 Marks) reaches 15 Marks - or perhaps the question applies as soon as 8 - do they get to start rolling every month (regardless of whether they've reached a new difficulty level, as you told me at the game is necessary for a roll) or is that their last chance? ie, is there a point at which you cannot possibly heal that trauma because you've failed all the rolls you get to make?

cenobyte wrote:As to your second question, I've no idea. However, for Surface and Severe Wounds, when you reach Epic Success, you automatically heal the wound. For Mortal Wounds, Epic success gives you a Low (2) Difficulty to heal the wound. I suspect you can probably make a Healing Test every month once you've reached Epic Success to heal a Mortal Trauma.

So as I understand it:
* If you fail to reach 2 marks, you still roll the first month at Epic difficulty
* Once you reach 2, you roll at Difficult
* Once you reach 5, you roll at Medium
* Once you reach 8, you roll at Low
* You cannot roll more than once per month
* Once you reach 15, you either:
o If Mortal Trauma, get to re-roll at Low, and get to roll at Low once a month forevermore or until you succeed.
o Otherwise, automatically succeed.

A person at Mortal Trauma would *not* get to roll every month until they reach 15 marks, but you're going to decide that failing at 15 Marks doesn't mean failing forever?

Not quite.
You *can* roll more than once per month if, and *only* if, both you and someone else have made a Rehabilitation Action on your behalf. So if your buddy does Rehabilitate:You and you do Rehabilitate:Self, each of you will have achieved a Difficulty level. You would roll once for the Rehabilitate:You action (which you received from your buddy) and one for the Rehabilitate:Self action (which you received from your own Actions).

You cannot heal more than one Trauma per month, though.

For Mortal Trauma, you do not get to re-roll at Low Difficulty. There is always a re-roll AGAINST you. However, once you have reached Hard (8) or Epic (15) Difficulty in your Rehabilitation Action, you can continue to roll a Healing Test once a month at Low (2) Difficulty to attempt to heal your Trauma. For all other forms of Trauma, once you achieve an Epic Difficulty (15), the Trauma you're trying to heal is automatically healed.

A person at Mortal Trauma would *not* get to
roll every month until they reach 15 marks, but you're going to decide
that failing at 15 Marks doesn't mean failing forever?

I'm not sure how you got to this conclusion.
A person who has Mortal Trauma gets one Healing Test (die roll) per month to try to heal their Trauma if someone has taken a Rehabilitation Action on their behalf. The Difficulty of the Healing Test is the inverse of the Difficulty Level that person achieved on their Rehabilitate:You action.

You never 'fail forever' on your Healing Test. I'm not sure why you'd think that. If you only ever make one Rehabilitation Action, and you reach Moderate (5) Difficulty on it, you can continue to attempt to do your Healing Test ad nauseum, once per month at Difficulty 5. Continuing to take Rehabilitation Actions only serves to continue to lower the difficulty of the Healing Test, until you achieve Epic Difficulty (15) on a Rehabilitation Action for Surface or Severe Trauma, in which case, you don't have to make the Healing Roll. For Mortal Trauma, you *always* have to roll the Healing Test, regardless of whether you've achieved Epic Difficulty (15) on your Rehabilitation Action or not.

You answered my question, even though I didn't articulate it very well.

The bit you quoted from me was my attempt at asking whether, upon failing your test at 2, 5, 8 and 15, you would
a) Never get to roll again (because you cannot then reach another difficulty level, no matter how many marks you get, and for some reason I thought that you only got to re-roll when you reach a new difficulty level)
b) Get to roll every month after hitting 15 (since you're never reaching a new difficulty level)
c) Get to roll every month after hitting 8 (since 15 is the same as 8 at Mortal)

So if you reach Medium one month and fail to reach Low the next, you still get to roll again at Medium the second month?

Which of course would mean that upon reaching Low (for Mortal trauma) you roll at Low forevermore.

Also, the bit about getting two rolls... that's cool.

So if you reach Medium one month and fail to reach Low the next, you still get to roll again at Medium the second month?

This question confuses me.

Why would you be trying to achieve a Low Difficulty if you've already achieved a Medium Difficulty? I'm assuming you mean on your Rehabilitation Action.

Because the Difficulty of your Healing Test is the inverse of the Difficulty you achieve in your Rehabilitation action.

If you achieve a Medium Difficulty in June and you do **nothing else** (ie - you never, ever, ever take another Rehabilitation Action for this Trauma), you will *always* roll your Healing Test (when you choose to) at a Medium Difficulty.

If you achieve a Medium Difficulty in June and fail your Healing Test and decide to try to achieve a High Difficulty in July (so that your Healing Test will be done at a Low Difficulty), all you need to do is try to get another 3 Marks (the difference between Medium Difficulty (5) and High Difficulty (8)). If you don't make the High Difficulty on your Rehabilitation Action, you can choose to roll your Healing Test at Medium Difficulty (5).

That's what is meant by 'you don't lose any Marks on your Rehabilitation action'.

"For Mortal Trauma, you do not get to re-roll at Low Difficulty. There is always a re-roll AGAINST you. "

That, again, was based on the faulty assumption that you only get to roll when you've reached a new difficulty, and I didn't mean twice in one month.

Since today was the first time I remember hearing about this re-roll, I think it worth mentioning to everyone that in a conversation we're having by e-mail right now, you have explained to me that: "...if you succeed on your [Mortal Trauma] Healing Test, I can choose to re-roll *against* you to force you to keep the Trauma."

Ugh.

You hear that, you people? This game is designed so that Mortal Trauma is VERY DIFFICULT to get rid of. THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON DRUGS. Don't do it!!!




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Right, and your assumption is correct, that's what I meant.

I knew you never lost marks, but I didn't think you got to roll again until those marks added up to reach a difficulty level for which you hadn't yet rolled.

Don't ask me why I thought that.

The moral of the story is, "heal your surface trauma, as soon as freaking possible".

While you can get more than one trauma in a month (see previous post) it is very rare and getting 3 trauma in a single month should be virtually unheard of. Most characters should have at least 1 surface and 1 severe trauma in in at least one of if not both their mental and soul. Also, unless this has changed on me, you can usually choose whether the trauma you take is mental or soulful. With that in mind, starting from no trauma, even the most traumatically fragile character should usually have to take 4 trauma before crossing off a mortal trauma.

Also keep in mind that you're going to want to heal the trauma eventually, so might as well heal it while it is easy to do so.

The other great part about healing trauma, is that it makes for great roleplaying. It is often easier for others to heal your trauma than it is to heal yourself, so rehab can open the doors to some great scenes as you and your "therapist" talk about why you're upset.

The other moral to this thread is, "there are things far worse than death."

If the majority of Trauma you take is Aligned, and you suffer a breakdown (you take your Mortal Trauma), your Morality will shift toward whichever end of the Morality spectrum you have the most Aligned Trauma in. At that point, all of the Trauma you have in that area is healed (because you've shifted Moralities).

This can be considered to be, for instance, if your Morality shifts from Hardened to Hardcore, a kind of desensitisation. You might not *care* about how your actions affect others. If your Morality shifts from Hardcore to Hardened, you will be wracked with guilt over your previous actions, but you will understand how your actions affect others, and begin to change your ways.

Roleplaying-wise, you must roleplay the breakdown.

Mechanically, the wounds are removed from your character sheet.