Medpacs - how do you use them?

[Feyladil]

I'm gamemastering Star Wars for almost 16 years now, but I never figured out how Medpacs work.

The problem that I have is that I can heal someone with a medpac extremely fast. On the other hand, the healing process in a bacta tank lasts much longer.

But medpacs are only first aid tools that include stuff like pain killers, diagnostic scanners and some basic medical equipment. Bacta tanks however are the most advanced medical technology. So now, why are they so bad compared with medpacs?

At the moment I tend to say, that medpacs are able to negate the effects of injury for a specific amount of time (lets say 1d hours). One should use that time to get into a hospital or another location where professional aid is available. Maybe they could also add a +2 modifier on "natural healing" checks - I don't know.

What do you think?

Cheers
Sven

[Ray]

MedPacks are good for a "Get Up And Go". It's chock full of Bacta Bandages, Stimulants, Painkillers, "Don't Worries", ect.

But it's not full term healing. After the fight's over, and all is said and done, injured folks are going to have to rest and heal up... Maybe even get dunked in the tank if they're hurt bad enough.

'Nother nice thing about Bacta... No scars

[obidancer]

That the way we use them:
A wound can benefit from a medpac only once. That is if a character gets neutralised, a medpac will put them to the wounded twice state. Then only natural healing or bacta treatment can heal the rest. Plus the difficulty increase with each use of a medpac within a single hour (on different wounds of course).

[Maximilian Bernas]

That's about how we do it Obidancer.

Fastflesh Medpacs even better, and even riskier. Even so, works when your get up and go got up and went.
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"Let your anger be like a monkey in a pinata"
- Master Tang

[Esoomian]

We tend to use medpacks like this: Only one successful use per injury (IE failing to heal doesn't stop you trying again unless you really mess it up).

They aren't as good as bacta either a character won't bring you back from near death the best you'll get when a character is this badly hurt is that your condition may be stabilised (no actual healing but you won't get worse).

The treatment is perminant but you can only ever heal or two levels (two is much harder)

Bacta is much better especially when you've got hyperspace journeys that you wouldn't be doing anything for any way... That's partially why my group got a bacta tank put into our freighter but that's another story

[Maximilian Bernas]

Bernas has a full compliment of medical facilities in his ship. They are especially useful now as he is unable to use The Force to assist in his own healing process.

Most of the "free space" in his transport ship has been allocated to the medic unit and accompanying medical droid. He has a bacta-tank, two bacta-vats (used for immersion of extremities [and more space and bacta saving than another tank]), a sickbay with 6 beds, and the full array of medical diagnostics, a surgical center, and the droid of course.

Expensive sure, but the cost of death is far higher!
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"Let your anger be like a monkey in a pinata"
- Master Tang

[Volar the Healer]

In my game, I figure medpacks do not heal wounds. They mask the wounds. Medpacks are first aid.

Think of them as mostly a synthaskin spray and pain killer injection. The character is still hurt, but he doesn't feel it. He functions without penalty, but if he's wounded again, he in incapacitated. He remains is this anethetized state until he heals normally or is treated with bacta ( or accellerates healing for the Jedi types). On Earth's battlefields, we do the same thing with bandages and morphine. Bacta treatment actually heals the wounds.
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Know Jesus, Know Peace.
No Jesus, No Peace

[Esoomian]

[Maximilian Bernas]

I agree. The little scrapes, bruises, minor punctures, abrasions, and minor lacerations should be able to be treated by such advanced medicine.

That being said, it shouldn't mean that the GM will have to get 2nd year Med School knowledge just to know which injury is treatable and which may only be stabilized...
_________________
"Let your anger be like a monkey in a pinata"
- Master Tang

[Volar the Healer]

[Esoomian]

[Maximilian Bernas]

In order to fully understand the treatment of injury from blaster fire, we must first ask ourselves:

"What exactly happens when a blaster bolt strikes flesh?"

Is it 'merely' a burn? Is it akin to electrocution?

It is a projectile, but what exactly is projected? How does it do damage anyway?

<sorry, getting a little philosophical here I suppose>
_________________
"Let your anger be like a monkey in a pinata"
- Master Tang

[Esoomian]

My understanding was that the blaster bolt was superheated gasses contained within a magnetic field

Is that what everybody else thinks they are?

[Ray]

That's what they are.

The gasses would cause the body to "Flash-Boil" the liquids that make up the standard biological body (In Silicon based life forms, they'd liquify the metal/stone makeup, which is just as bad).

This extream heat and flash-boiling would cause extream trauma to the part of the body that it hit, but then the extremities of the area would be cauterized, preventing blood loss (Unless the body is moved roughly. Then the charred flesh would break, and the blood would start to flow.).

Shock is a particular problem, and the thing that would kill folks immediately, or shortly thereafter. After that, the worst problems are infection and complications of transportation.

[Esoomian]

That's what I thought. Basically it's a 3rd degree burn instantly (with the added bonus of possible explosive um... impact zone as the superheated liquids and fats that make up your body expand and force their way out of the area of impact)

On the plus side third degree burns often cause so much nerve damage that they are close to painless (except in the outlying areas where the burn is not so bad and so the nerves are not as damaged)

Of course if you're wearing protection or the shot only clips you or the shot is at extream range or any number of things then the injury could be much less severe... In which case (getting back to the topic) a medpack may be able to heal the injury rather than mask it