Does anyone put a limit on the amount of times a Medpack (and Emergency Medpack) can be used before it needs to be replaced?

Thanks

Ron

Well, I use two factor. The roll, and the type of wound and number to mesure that.

If rolls are pretty bad, it uses ti empty the "medical charges". Also, after a few "minor uses" 5-10 maybe, it uses to deplete. Big cures (criticals generally) use to have between 3 and 5 uses.

I use this as a reference, but, unless it have a really important impact on the game (like doesn't have access to more medical supplies) I don't use to care about uses.

Hope it helps

I actually figure it has as many uses as needed and is replenished in downtime between games or while in civilization. For some reason it doesn't feel right to have the player pay such an amount for it and then "take it from them" during the game. This is also why the ships don't run out of fuel and why they don't go grocery shopping in my game... Of course I could see hat in certain circumstances it might be fun to have the players worry aout such things and then it will most likely come up. I think this system is a great system to use the "whatever you need it to be" rule on.

They work the same way the toolkits work. I'm not about to track the number of cable ties and washers in a toolkit, so why should I track the number of bandages in a med kit.

After all, that's what Threat and Despair are for.

As the above, we don't track it. We assume it's refilled in the downtime. Heck, we assume that the amount of money the characters earn is AFTER the cost of life on the edge. We don't track food, fuel, bandages, ammo, ect.

However, if we're stuck in a place where the GM wants to make survival the point of the adventure then we would track it. Such as after the ship crashed on an abandoned planet. Then the GM might say that since supplies can't be stocked that he's going to track the important stuff, such as food and medical supplies. At that point the GM would assign an arbitrary number of supplies we could use. We could do survival checks to forage for more supplies or we could tough it out and try to find civilization again.

Thanks all. As I new GM I wasn't certain how much micro managing I ought to do. A lot less than I thought obviously. I'll just use it now and then as a plot line

I love the despair mechanic of this game, as it takes a huge burden off the GM for that sort of thing. Spend your destiny pretty liberally to get red dice in there and suddenly the dice do the hard work for you!

Does anyone put a limit on the amount of times a Medpack (and Emergency Medpack) can be used before it needs to be replaced?

Thanks

Ron

One thing to note is that you can only try using the Medicine skill on a character once per encounter . Not once per day, or anything like that.

If your players, like mine, just want to medic people to full health with repeated checks, or want to just chill in their ship for a week to get someone back to no wounds, they can't, unless they're embracing long term care or swimming in bacta tanks (a costly medical treatment). If the players want to try another Medicine check, they need another meaningful, interesting encounter, rather than just down time.

I was just looking for the limits on medpacs because my players abuse the doctor role to no end, and found this tidbit. Furthermore, critical injuries may have effects that wear off after an encounter, but the +10 to future critical rolls remains for a week, or more, if there's no medical help or Resilience checks go poorly.

The only limit I would put on, is that of a despair roll.

One thing to note is that you can only try using the Medicine skill on a character once per encounter . Not once per day, or anything like that.

That’s why you use stimpacks as much as you possibly can, and save the Medicine rolls for times when you really need them.

I was just looking for the limits on medpacs because my players abuse the doctor role to no end, and found this tidbit. Furthermore, critical injuries may have effects that wear off after an encounter, but the +10 to future critical rolls remains for a week, or more, if there's no medical help or Resilience checks go poorly.

Stimpacks are cheap and easy to get. There’s no reason to abuse the doctor role. Hell, there’s almost no need for any doctor at all in most groups.

Healing criticals is the real reason you might need a doctor and/or a Bacta tank.

One thing to note is that you can only try using the Medicine skill on a character once per encounter . Not once per day, or anything like that.

That’s why you use stimpacks as much as you possibly can, and save the Medicine rolls for times when you really need them.

I was just looking for the limits on medpacs because my players abuse the doctor role to no end, and found this tidbit. Furthermore, critical injuries may have effects that wear off after an encounter, but the +10 to future critical rolls remains for a week, or more, if there's no medical help or Resilience checks go poorly.

Stimpacks are cheap and easy to get. There’s no reason to abuse the doctor role. Hell, there’s almost no need for any doctor at all in most groups.

Healing criticals is the real reason you might need a doctor and/or a Bacta tank.

Yeah, well, my players are under the impression that a medpac is limitless and would rather not drop about 25 credits per dose of stim. They're cheapskates - the lot of them.

If they abused stim, then I'd probably rule you take a wound when it wears off, or strain. All those drugs can't be side effect free.

One thing to note is that you can only try using the Medicine skill on a character once per encounter . Not once per day, or anything like that.

That’s why you use stimpacks as much as you possibly can, and save the Medicine rolls for times when you really need them.

I was just looking for the limits on medpacs because my players abuse the doctor role to no end, and found this tidbit. Furthermore, critical injuries may have effects that wear off after an encounter, but the +10 to future critical rolls remains for a week, or more, if there's no medical help or Resilience checks go poorly.

Stimpacks are cheap and easy to get. There’s no reason to abuse the doctor role. Hell, there’s almost no need for any doctor at all in most groups.

Healing criticals is the real reason you might need a doctor and/or a Bacta tank.

Medpacks also give you a free stimpack every encounter. That's what my party always relied upon. We'd use stims to get over (under?) half and then use medicine to top off. The Doctor's extra healing on medicine rolls was awesome.

One man's doctor abuse is another man's day stretching. A GM will tailor encounters to what the party has. If a doctor is present (Medic for extra stimpac healing) then the GM can throw another encounter or two at the party. If one isn't present, then the GM knows to not make things so dangerous because the party can only heal 15 wounds in a day through stims.

That's the beauty of pen and paper RPGs, you don't need anything. No doctor? Fights don't get overly dangerous. No pilot? You won't see much space combat. No slicer? Cyber crimes won't be a thing you face. No heavy? Stormtrooper squads stay at minimal sizes and you don't fight AT-STs on foot.

EDIT: Totally broke the attempt at a quote.

That's the beauty of pen and paper RPGs, you don't need anything. No doctor? Fights don't get overly dangerous. No pilot? You won't see much space combat. No slicer? Cyber crimes won't be a thing you face. No heavy? Stormtrooper squads stay at minimal sizes and you don't fight AT-STs on foot.

Totally Off-Topic Note.

--Please read this as being purely from my perspective, and presented politely.

As a GM, I object to this idea that, "The GM would never throw anything at us that we can't immediately deal with." If they have it in their heads that they're going to raid an Imp base and I've clearly stated how well defended it is, then the consequences are on the heads of the players, doctor or no doctor.

I won't deliberately set up the plot such that shooting their way through the Imp base is the only option, but neither will I pull punches because the players aren't built for this but are going for it anyways, against my warnings. If the low-level players see an AT-ST, I, as GM, assume they'll run away, not charge and believe I nerfed it so they could handle it.... Likewise, I won't throw cyber-crime at them, but if they decide they want to be cyber criminals without a slicer, then security systems around the galaxy don't just drop in difficulty to accommodate them.

So don't assume this with all GMs...

End Off-Topic Note

Yeah, well, my players are under the impression that a medpac is limitless and would rather not drop about 25 credits per dose of stim. They're cheapskates - the lot of them.

Medpacs are limitless, right up to the point where they aren’t.

Spend those Threat and Despair!

If they abused stim, then I'd probably rule you take a wound when it wears off, or strain. All those drugs can't be side effect free.

How about this — you know how you get reduced benefit with each successive stimpack, right? How about that only goes down by one per day? So, if you use five stimpacks in one day and then try to use another one the following day, you treat it as if they had already used four stimpacks earlier that day?

Now suddenly they can’t pop five stimpacks one day and another five stimpacks the next.

Yeah, well, my players are under the impression that a medpac is limitless and would rather not drop about 25 credits per dose of stim. They're cheapskates - the lot of them.

Medpacs are limitless, right up to the point where they aren’t.

Spend those Threat and Despair!

If they abused stim, then I'd probably rule you take a wound when it wears off, or strain. All those drugs can't be side effect free.

How about this — you know how you get reduced benefit with each successive stimpack, right? How about that only goes down by one per day? So, if you use five stimpacks in one day and then try to use another one the following day, you treat it as if they had already used four stimpacks earlier that day?

Now suddenly they can’t pop five stimpacks one day and another five stimpacks the next.

I like this stimpack ruling, good sir, though making it each day with a meaningful encounter would suit my preferences better. Maybe I run games too much like Firefly (player driven odd-jobs with lots of time in hyperspace), but the PCs often feel like they can just take a weekend off from the galaxy to recover, and having it based on encounters more than raw time would reinforce their need to stay active.

Yeah, well, my players are under the impression that a medpac is limitless and would rather not drop about 25 credits per dose of stim. They're cheapskates - the lot of them.

Medpacs are limitless, right up to the point where they aren’t.

Spend those Threat and Despair!

If they abused stim, then I'd probably rule you take a wound when it wears off, or strain. All those drugs can't be side effect free.

How about this — you know how you get reduced benefit with each successive stimpack, right? How about that only goes down by one per day? So, if you use five stimpacks in one day and then try to use another one the following day, you treat it as if they had already used four stimpacks earlier that day?

Now suddenly they can’t pop five stimpacks one day and another five stimpacks the next.

I like this stimpack ruling, good sir, though making it each day with a meaningful encounter would suit my preferences better. Maybe I run games too much like Firefly (player driven odd-jobs with lots of time in hyperspace), but the PCs often feel like they can just take a weekend off from the galaxy to recover, and having it based on encounters more than raw time would reinforce their need to stay active.

give them the Addiction Obligation, suddenly if they are not taking regular doses they start getting setback to their rolls... lots and lots of setback. EDIT: and thats when being stranded in a jungle and a despair is rolled = medkit is empty...

also if they are getting hit that often are you writing them, cries can slow someone down very quickly.

on the flip side, giving them less personal combat, more social (use social skills to cause strain on opponents) or vehicle combat that can't be gimped as easily