Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 02:09:04 -0500 From: (removed upon request of the sender) To: Multiple recipients of listSubject: Re: [MISC] Blood and Bleeding (READ ME FIRST)
On the subject of external blood loss, and devising a system that tracks lost blood via the temp Co stat:
Aside from the fact that most of these proposals seem to be needless complication on the current system, I have a few reality grips to pose.
1) Currently, I assume that concussion hits include damage due to internal bruising and bleeding. Therefore, under the "new" blood loss system, external blood loss is being considered separately from internal blood loss. (By "loss", I mean blood leaving the circulatory system.) This strikes me as fairly illogical. On the other hand, people might be proposing that blood loss from a critical can be either internal or external, but is somehow different from bruising and such caused by blunt force trauma. If it is assumed that no "normal" concussion hits cause any appreciable internal bleeding, and that only bleeding crits do, this might be acceptable. I don't think that's the way the current system is intended, but, of course, you don't like the current system if you are thinking about factoring bleeding out of hits.
Personally, I think it is utterly ridiculous to assume that blunt force injuries aren't going to cause lots of internal bleeding on a routine basis. I have, unfortunately, actually administered first aid to a victim of an auto accident. This person suffered severe and wide-spread trauma to the head and thorax, and also received a compound tibia fracture. (A compound fracture breaks the skin, in this case by breaking the calf muscle as well.) The leg wound did not bleed _at_all_, as a result of severe hypotensive shock. This was my first indication of internal bleeding. My second indication was the person's death about 20 minutes later. (In rural Indiana, even airlift EMS takes 30 mins. or so.) This person never bled externally, despite the existence of several minor abrasions and one severe laceration. Of course, what this person went through was comparable to about 25 + 5xEK + 2xES of damage, so his bleeding damage would have been due to crits.
2) The proposed system, by factoring blood loss out of normal damage and into a particular stat, has the responsibility of accurately reflecting the effects of blood loss. It does not, however, succeed. While the proposed effects of continuous bleeding are essentially linear, the real-life effects of uncontrolled bleeding are approximately as follows:
Up to 500 mL ( 1 pt ) - Few effects, if any. Volume replaced by end of day, red blood cells replaced by end of week. Through 1L ( ~4pt/1 qt ) - Dizziness, weakness. Heart rate will increase as per beat output decreases. Through 2.5L ( ~10pt/2.5qt ) - Shock due to blood loss. The victim's blood will be almost exclusively found in the abdomen, thorax, and head. As a result, the extremities will become cold and numb. The victim may pass out. The victim will gasp for air, and will experience mental confusion. 2.5L and after - Death. 5L - Volume of blood assumed for this example, the average amount for a 70kg (174 lbs.) male. Blood volume is approx. 70mL/kg in humans.
If we calibrate the character's Co with half that person's blood volume, we have the silly effect that first damage taken will have the greatest effect (since it will be at the "top" of the range that the bonuses come from), most of the rest of the damage won't matter, and the last little bit will have an effect comparable to the first loss. This is just plain unrealistic.
The provided system is also linear, but combines all types of damage in one number, and is not essentially a realistic meter of any condition.
3) The proposed system is not fatal enough. This might be the motive for it, however. People seem to want a less realistic combat engine. I say, "Get real, get Rolemaster (tm)".
4) I assume that bleeding due to crits in RMSS can sometimes be internal bleeding. Such bleeding does damage beyond that caused by "mere" loss of blood. Bleeding into joints can cause crippling injuries, bleeding into bursa can cause long-lasting weakness, bleeding into the lungs can immediately cause what amounts to drowning, and, when drained, sometimes leads to collapsed lungs and infection, bleeding into the brain or spinal column can cause paralysis or death, etc., Particularly when a crit does 4 bleeding points per round (that's death in 1 minute for the average shmo), I have to assume that there can be a lot more going on than just loss of blood volume. The system people are proposing assumes the opposite - that hits lost due to bleeding are strictly lost because of hypotensive shock.
5) The healing rate proposed is outright crazy. Your spleen holds between .5 and 1 pints of "spare" blood that it will provide to your system within a few hours of a severe bleed. That means that the first bleeding damage will be healed almost instantly. Your body, meanwhile, replaces lost plasma at the rate of approx. 1 pint per day, barring dehydration. Once all the plasma is replaced, the only bad effect will be shallow, rapid breathing, and easy exhaustion. Red blood cells are replaced at the rate of one pint blood per week (again, approx) and once they are replaced, exhaustion will no longer be a factor. This recovery is mostly unaffected by rest, but nutrition is important.
So, you have a stat wherein 4 days rest heals almost every effect, and one month will return a character's energy, too. This is recovery from "death's door." I have read someone on this list proposing healing 1 Co point per day! If a PC has 70 Co, and loses 69 in a bout with bleeding, he would take 2.5 months to return to normal.
This brings me to an idea, however: Perhaps GMs should count bleeding off the PC's max Exhaustion Points (turn XP into a current, temp max and normal max score), so that losing too much blood leads to medically correct results. Each point of hits lost bleeding would also come off the XPs. How they heal is left as an exercise to the GM.
In barely related news, I was reading RMSS just last night (weren't we all?) and ran across the rule on hemophilia. Now there is a silly rule. The upshot is that PC's with hemophilia bleed at twice the rate (take double bleeding damage) as normal PC's. Hemophiliacs do not bleed faster than non-hemophiliacs. They do, however, bleed _longer_. The right way to handle hemophiliacs is to make it very difficult for them to stop bleeding. Furthermore, every time any blow or cut lands on a hemophiliac, there should be a large chance of them receiving an extra critical due to bleeding. (As it is, each critical adds 50% chance +1drop) In real life, hemophiliacs who bump their knees against chairs in the night may end up losing that leg. (This is pre-treatment, btw.) If you got thunked in the chest with a mace in 1200CE, you were one dead hemophiliac.
[...snip...]
Later
In the next installment - why armor unfairly penalizes the wearer.