Firan Survival Guide: Health Introduction
From FiranMUX
Firan Survival Guide: Introduction to Health
A person's health is, for the most part, point-based. Unlike some gaming systems, characters do not have a set number of health points. Instead, they take damage points, with damage ratings going from 0 (fully healed) to 100 (very likely dead) or even higher. The higher the number of damage points, the more seriously hurt a person is. Damage is inflicted on a specific body part (right knee, stomach, left eyebrow, etc.) and is of a particular type (bruise, gash, break, etc.). If you're wearing armor, some physical forms of damage may be absorbed by your armor. To see how much damage you've currently taken, you can use the @sheet/damage command. Damage can heal naturally over time, with medicinal teas, or by healing commands.
There are a few ways to determine how injured another person is. One way is by simply looking at them. You'll see a description of the areas they're injured in (if not covered by armor), a listing of any bandaged body parts, and a general description of how hurt they look. As a person is actually taking damage, such as during a fight, each injury will cause a description of how hurt the person is to be displayed. Finally, those with the healing skill can use the diagnose command to determine how injured a person is.
Animals, incidentally, have the same health system that Firan characters have. Where Firans are healed with the healing skill, animals are healed in a near identical fashion with the farrier skill.
Pregnancy
Giving birth is a potentially dangerous affair that can lead to permanent injury, or even death of the mother or child. After the child is born via the code, a wizard makes two sets of rolls: one for the mother, and one for the baby. The check for the mother is a Health + Endurance roll made at a variable difficulty dependent on age, stress, current health, etc. As a basis of comparison, a young and healthy woman would probably have a difficulty of 7. Failing this roll results in a permanent injury, while fumbling it results in death. The check for the baby is Health + Luck, with the difficulty again based on variable factors. Failing this roll means the baby will be sickly for at least the first year, while fumbling it leads to the death of the baby. Having a midwife present can reduce (or, in some cases, raise) the difficulties of these rolls; see help midwifery for more details.
It is possible to lose a baby before the end of its term through miscarriage. Every IC month (currently on the 28th at 9 am) a check for miscarriage is made on all pregnant women. Miscarrying during a monthly check is fairly rare, however. Any time a pregnant woman takes damage a check is made for miscarriage. This check is based on Health + Child Rearing, at a base diff of 5 plus one for every 10 points of damage caused by the last injury (as contrasted with the total damage). Fumbling this roll will result in a miscarriage.
Growing old
As characters grow older there is the possibility that they may die of old age. Any character aged 50 or older will make a "death check" on a RL monthly basis (currently scheduled for the first of the month at 5:00 am). The check is based off Health + Luck. The difficulty of the roll is determined by their age:
| Age | Difficult of "Death Check" |
| 50-54 years old | Difficulty 4 |
| 55-59 years old | Difficulty 5 |
| 60-64 years old | Difficulty 6 |
| 65-69 years old | Difficulty 7 |
| 70+ years old | Difficulty 8 |
| TABLE 1: "Death Check" Difficulties |
If a character fails a death check, their health score is decreased by one. If the health score ever reaches 0, then the character has died of old age. Otherwise, if their health score drops they should roleplay some sort of illness that weakens them further.
For female characters, growing old means the possibility of going into a menopausal-like state where they are unable to have children. Monthly checks for this begin at age 35, with the base check being Health + Luck at difficulty 5 and increasing with age. Botching a roll leads to the menopausal-like state.
