| From: | Lady Jestyr jestyr@*******.com.au |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Non-lethal Injuries (Re: Melee Weapons (was Re: Weapon foci)) |
| Date: | Wed, 10 Feb 1999 00:08:00 +1000 |
>> damage because they have much less potential to be lethal on their
>> own. Whereas, ballistic and edged weapon wounds cause the body to
>> readily bleed and have a greater chance of being lethal.
>
> Yeah, but broken bones don't heal in minutes or hours, trust me.
>When bones break, you tend to suffer debilitating effects (i.e. wound
>modifiers) that last for quite a while. Some bones are worse than others,
>and you're more likely to want to crawl in a hole and die if you're broken
>your neck than if you're broekn your pinky. But as someone who has broken
>an arm, a collarbone, fingers, and toes, as well as cracked ribs, I can
>tell you that it's no fun.
Amen to that. As those of you who've known me for a while will remember, in
June 98 I was hit by a car (I was a pedestrian) and damaged numerous things
(aorta, nerves, bones, lungs, spleen, blah blah blah you've all heard the
story before). Most serious (apart from my enforced 2-month absence from
the internet during my hospital stay!) were:
- Radius (wrist)
I still get serious pains down the inside of my right forearm and thumb -
typing can be utter hell, but like I'd stop... :-)
- Sacrum (tailbone)
I have to be very careful about what I sit on - basically, I can only sit
on well-padded stuff, and ergonomic office chairs are best.
- Pelvis
Laid up in a hospital bed unable to move for a month, and a further month
of only walking for 10 or 15 minutes a day. 40 metres was about my limit.
For months afterward I couldn't lie on my side. (No sex for four months,
too. :-( )
- Tibia & fibula (lower left leg)
This was exacerbated by the pelvis damage (ie. by the time my pelvis had
healed enough that I could get up and walk, my leg muscles had atrophied to
the point where I _couldn't_ walk). I still suffer great amounts of pain
from it every day - I have not gone a second without physical pain since
last June - and I can't walk far, fast, or for long. I can't stand up for
more than about 10 minutes; I can't run, hop, or jump.
These are the effects I suffer _NOW_, more than seven months after the
accident. I had the best of medical care and excellent physiotherapists,
and these problems are still rampant. Imagine the difficulties suffered by
a shadowrunner, with inadequate medical care, no physiotherapy, and a
tendancy to 'push' their recovery - they'd cripple themselves in no time flat.
This is something people don't tend to think about - in my case, the leg
break (for example) would have been the equivalent of a Serious wound.
Admittedly Shadowrun's healing times are unrealistic (let's face it, it's
no fun playing a bunch of hapless cripples on a regular basis), which
extends the problem - people tend to shrug off the long-term effects of
character injury where they perhaps shouldn't.
Hmm. That turned into a rant, and I'm not quite sure what I was ranting
_about_. So, let me close by saying...
Umm...
I can't think of a good last line.
Oh, wait. Here's one:
"Being hit by a car is no fun."
<g>
Lady Jestyr
"A true beanie should have a propellor on the top." -- Terry Pratchett
- jestyr@*******.com.au URL: http://www.geocities.com/~jestyr -
