[DL] Rules Tinkerin': Natural Healing

[Alan De Smet <chaos@highprogrammer.com>]

The comments on the fate chip rules have been helpful.  Thanks.
I'm not certain yet what I'm going to do, but I definitely got
some food for thought.  I look forward to any more messages on
the subject.

I warned in that message that I was contemplating more than one
tweak to the Deadlands rules.  Well, here are my thoughts on the
second subject: Natural Healing.

Natural healing is slow.  Wounds are checked for natural healing
once every five days.  This is probably reasonable, but
reasonable and my goal of "pulp high-adventure" aren't
necessarily playing nice together.  In addition, wounds become a
bit of irritation to track.  If the posse is forced to keep going
while wounded, suddenly the players become very interested in
when five days passes.

In the worst case, say the posse barely escapes with their lives
from a fight.  If they're heavily wounded and without access to
supernatural healing, they'll need to wait a week or two to
recover enough to try again.  Do the bad guys wait until the
posse recovers?  Often not realistic.  Do the bad guys
preemptively attack?  Maybe realistic, but likely leave you with
a dead posse.  Either way, holing up for a week doesn't seem in
the spirit of pulp heroes.   

Practically I find my posse operating on one of two time scales.
Hour to hour while actively "on the job", or day to day while
traveling waiting for something to happen (like their wounds to
heal).  Generally wounds don't really get a chance to heal
mid-tale.  When we move to maintenance time characters have as
much time as they need to recuperate.

So my first possible change is to move healing checks from every
five days to every day.  Completely unrealistic, but may serve
the needs of my planned campaign better.  No one needs to worry
what day they got shot.  Even if the posse gets badly battered,
they'll generally be back on the trail in a week.  No more month
recovery times.   Posse members will usually only get one or two
chances to heal mid-tale.  If the posse needs to recuperate after
losing a fight, they'll only be holing up for a few days, not a
couple of weeks.  This strikes me as being more in keeping with
pulp heroics.

If I go this route, what does "every day" mean?  I see four
options off the top of my head.  1) Every day at a set time
(probably dawn).  As a result, the posse will probably get a
chance to heal a few times in a longer tale.  2) Once per day
after some solid sleep.  Cuts down on healing if the posse is
tangling with foes that keep coming back (and those unfortunates
with Nightmares.).  3) Once per day after 24 hours of no
strenuous activity.  Basically no healing if the posse has been
involved in combat.  This will cut down on healing mid-tale.  4)
Once per day after 24 hours of bed rest.  No healing mid-tale
unless the posse is willing to hole up.

Has anyone else tinkered with with the natural healing rules?
Any thoughts on my proposed changes?  Am I completely out of my
mind?

-- 
Alan De Smet chaos@highprogrammer.com http://highprogrammer.com/alan