“Oh I am going to hurt you, Tel scum, I simply have so many ways in which to do so. Just sit tight for a minute while I decide…”

Redemption Reform Facility has often been described as a violent and dangerous place. This is an understatement. Fights in this place very rarely result in mere bruises and scrapes. Injuries incurred here will not only range from superficial wounds to summary execution¹⁾, but also include debilitating and permanent injuries which will have serious repercussions on your capabilities.

Wounds incurred are classified as physical wounds, cognitive strain or cybernetic malfunctions depending on what is affected. Physical wounds affect bodily function. They will lead to a decrease in effectiveness of your physical abilities. Cognitive strain has a corresponding affect on your ability to use mental skills. Whereas cybernetic malfunctions will affect the use of your cybernetic implant.

Wounds are also stratified by how severe they are. Wounds may be superficial, debilitating or permanent. In general the more severe a wound is, the greater effort is needed to cause it and the greater effect it has on your abilities. Superficial wounds are not necessarily painless or inconsequential but they won't impede you when undertaking important tasks. You may wish to physrep or roleplay these wounds in session but it is not mandatory. Debilitating and permanent wounds are impossible to ignore. They will actively interfere with your use of relevant skills. A broken ankle makes it difficult to be stealthy, sleep deprivation makes it hard to focus on your investigation and a cyber-blade on the fritz won't even be able to be unsheathed. You may be able to find a way round your injury, but beware you do not accidentally make it worse.

Minor (relatively speaking) wounds will be able to heal themselves given time. Superficial and debilitating wounds will gradually dissipate as part of an automatic recovery process. This takes approximately 2 months (1 turnsheet). These temporary wounds come into effect just before session and end just before the subsequent session. Permanent wounds represent a more lasting injury and will persist indefinitely if nothing is done about them.

Those with relevant skills are able to get rid of all wounds in a certain category as part of a major action as long as they agree to help you. You must specify in your turnsheet that you are having a wound removed as a minor, or part of a major, action. By default this type of healing will occur as a minor action before your major actions. Characters will have the option to refuse to help you though, so make sure to give them good reason to assist you.

Though luckily for you, Redemption Reform Facility does have an accredited doctor amongst the guard staff. Doctor Greco is able to remedy all physical wounds and this can be done via a minor action. The good doctor will always agree to help…

“Hey, Grift, where ya going?”

“Huh? To see the doc. Amina broke my fucking wrist last night.”

“You crazy Grift?”

“What? Doc said he'd fix it good as new.”

“Better than new, Grift. Better. That's the fucking problem.”

A person with the relevant skill (Medicine, Psychology) may heal up to 2 people in one major action. You may only heal one type of wound (physical wound, cognitive strain, or malfunction) within a single action, but you may heal all wounds of that type. The people being healed must put in a minor action (but may put in a major action if they wish to achieve other things at the same time - e.g. if you wish to stab your doctor once they are done treating you, or steal their stash of senvaine during the treatment, that is a major action).

By default, healing will occur at the start of a turnsheet, so it is not usually necessary to combine it with other, unrelated actions (e.g. “Get healed and then go and fight someone else”).

A person with Cybernetic Engineering, Engineering or Hacking may attempt to fix malfunctions, using the same rules as above. Malfunctions relating to the interface between human and cybernetic components are best fixed using Cybernetic Engineering. Malfunctions relating to the mechanical or electrical components of the cybernetics are best fixed using Engineering (but any Cybernetic Engineer will have enough knowledge to make a good try at fixing standard cybernetics). Malfunctions relating to software are best fixed using Hacking (but any Cybernetic Engineer can do the equivalent of a system reset).

Wound healing is not guaranteed to be safe. There is always the possibility of something going wrong. Having the correct tools and a suitable environment will make it more likely to go well.

Any wound may be healed by Doctor Greco, and the patient only needs to put in a minor action to go to the prison clinic. This is the option that is suggested by the guards.

You can go along on a group action with the intention of providing first aid to any injuries that occur there. This will generally make any wounds sustained on that action less severe, but may put you at risk.