Hey guys,

new to GMing and trying to wrap my head around the concept of time (hours, days, etc) in gameplay sessions. Specfically, having one of my PCs spending time in a bacta tank.

You can heal a PC's wounds and crits by having him spend hours and weeks in a bacta tank. How do you go about playing a session where one of the PCs is healing in a tank? Meaning, how do you make time pass by and keep the session interesting for everyone?

Do you make the other PCs go off on an adventure and let the poor injured PC do nothing while he heals and then approximate how much time has passed by after the session is over? This doesn't make sense to me, seeing as one guy will be on the sidelines the whole time.

So yeah... looking for more experienced GM to help me out here. And while I'm at it, how do you deal with time in general, regarding the other time-dependent mechanics in the game?

Can the party and plot afford a week of narratively-elapsed downtime? It may typically be OK unless the party/plot has a hard deadline that's approaching?

If there's no such deadline, it's probably better to hand wave the time so as not to exclude someone. OTOH, doing that every time will negate the impact of spending days in a tank, so I might mix up how crucial a role timing plays when someone is injured.

I usually try and pace the game to put the major throwdown combats in the second half of the sessions. That way if PCs get heavily injured they can start to recover during the denouement or between sessions.

If it happens early in the session, I'd work out with the player approximately how long the player intends to bacta tank it up and then ask the other players what narrative scale action they want to do with their characters in that time frame. They all get one or two checks to resolve their actions then meat puppet returns from the bacta spa.

If your group is under a time deadline... then I'd say force them to make the choice as the group. Either they slap a couple stim packs into the injured members and force them to tough it out till the deadline is up or met... or else go miss the deadline so they can lick their wounds. A big part of the drama behind a deadline situation is supposed to be the protagonists carry on despite the obstacles. If some of your players want to run and hide to heal, then the group should face the equally dramatic consequence of missing the deadline. Don't reward them for chickening out on the story.

Edit to add: There are plenty of case examples of this in fiction to support the protagonist who doesn't wait for their injuries to fully heal because they must accomplish X task in time. (i.e. rescue the hostage, save the planet, etc.)

Also keep in mind traveling in hyperspace takes days. So even if its in the middle of an adventure and you have to travel a decent distance they probably have time to sit in a bacta tank for a few days.

Bronski, do you mean that the injured character can sit in a bacta tank on the starship while it's traveling? Do starships carry bacta tanks, in general? Or would my PCs have to buy a bacta tank and install it on their ship?

Bronski, do you mean that the injured character can sit in a bacta tank on the starship while it's traveling? Do starships carry bacta tanks, in general? Or would my PCs have to buy a bacta tank and install it on their ship?

Smaller starships, like freighters, do not have bacta tanks (at least not as standard equipment - a previously owned ship might have one). This is typically only for capital ships and/or military vessels. However, purchasing a bacta tank and installing it is a simple matter and might turn out to be a very wise investment for your players down the line.

Arguably a bacta immersion device on a freighter would be less of the full-body float-tank from ESB and more of a bathtub hookup or something.

In my game you'd definitely have to buy a bacta tank specifically for the PCs' ship if it's a freighter or other type of ship that wouldn't have one.

Then I'd certainly allow a PC to spend time in a bacta tank while they're travelling in hyperspace.

Or, like others said, depending on the plot, you could simply have the characters sum up what they're spending their time doing for a week or two while someone heals up.