Healing Wounds

There are four ways to heal a wound: rallying, treatment, rest, and exceptional healing abilities. All these methods remove a wound so you can erase it from your character sheet, but there are advantages and disadvantages to each.

Rallying

Rallying allows you to remove a wound. You simply spend the indicated Might points. Rallying is fast and never requires a roll, but in most genres, rallying only works with minor and moderate wounds. When you rally, it's because the wound wasn't as bad as it seemed; because you're shrugging it off, toughing it out, or taking a moment to catch your breath; because you're lucky; or for some similar narrative reason.

You cannot use Might Edge to reduce the cost of rallying.

Wound SeverityMight CostTime Required
Remove one minor wound2One action
Remove one moderate wound5One action
Remove one major woundN/AExcept for the superhero genre and similarly superheroic games, you can't rally to remove a major wound; you have to use treatment, rest, or an exceptional healing ability.

Treatment

Treatment to remove a wound is an Intellect task, using the healing skill. It requires a roll and time based on the severity of the wound, but it doesn't cost any Might points. Treatment is slower than rallying but sometimes faster than resting, and it works best when a skilled person is involved.

In some genres, like epic fantasy and many real-world settings, treatment times could take longer. In more heroic settings, like space opera and superheroes, treatment times are probably less. The GM will let you know what the treatment time is for their game if it's different than the suggested time for that genre.

Wound SeverityTask DifficultyTreatment Time
Remove one minor wound0 (routine)One minute
Remove one moderate wound3Ten minutes
Remove one major wound6One hour

An ally can use treatment on you; you both spend the time, and they make the roll.

Suggested Treatment Time by Genre
  • Real world: Ten minutes for a minor wound, one hour for a moderate wound, and one week for a major wound.
  • Real world (action): Last action for a minor wound, one minute for a moderate wound, and ten minutes for a major wound.
  • Fantasy (dungeon fantasy, swords & sorcery): One minute for a minor wound, ten minutes for a moderate wound, and one hour for a major wound.
  • Fantasy (epic fantasy): Ten minutes for a minor wound, one hour for a moderate wound, and one week for a major wound.
  • Hard science fiction: Ten minutes for a minor wound, one hour for a moderate wound, and one week for a major wound.
  • Space opera: Last action for a minor wound, one minute for a moderate wound, and ten minutes for a major wound.
  • Postapocalypse: Ten minutes for a minor wound, one hour for a moderate wound, and one week for a major wound.
  • Superhero: Last action for a minor wound, one minute for a moderate wound, and ten minutes for a major wound.

Rest

When you rest (or require treatment), it's because the wound was as bad as it first seemed. Resting takes time, and it happens when you use a ten-minute or longer recovery—in addition to restoring Pool points, you remove wounds.

RecoveryWound Removal (in Addition to Restored Pool Points)
Ten-minuteRemove all minor wounds
One-hourRemove one moderate wound
Ten-hourRemove all moderate wounds and, with a successful difficulty 6 Might task, remove one major wound

Resting is slow but happens automatically as part of using your recoveries.

Exceptional Healing Abilities

Some character abilities, cyphers, magic, advanced technology, and other amazing effects can quickly remove wounds or reduce their severity (such as turning a major wound into a moderate wound). How this works is explained in the individual abilities; in most cases, it happens instantly and doesn't cost the injured person any Might points.