General idea - the whole business of the party resting up and practicing while an injured player works really well for one-on-one games, and for games where the party is adventuring in spurts. But when, as GM, I’ve been heaping on situation urgency, and someone takes a Severe wound, the pressure to stow that character in a tavern is intense, and seems to undermine the character focus.
So - my idea is this - replace the current recovery process with one that has a recovery test for each lost die. Success heals one die, failure converts the die into permanent penalties (stat loss, stat cap reductions, and bad traits for the imaginative).
Bleeding and treatment obstacles are the same, as per BWG. Failed treatment behaves like failed alternate recovery - a die is immediately converted into a permanent penalty. A physician can only attempt to treat any given wound once, and a wound can only be successfully treated once.
The other boon is that there are now no longer any buried penalties - permanent stat penalties waiting to be exposed in six weeks time when the wound penalty recedes enough to expose them. Permanent penalties now accrue immediately when a test is failed, simplifying bookkeeping.
Health test to recover 1D
Supie: +1 Ob, base Ob 1, 24 hours
Light: 1D lost, base Ob 2, 1 week
Midi: 1D lost, base Ob 3, 4 weeks
Severe: 3D lost, base Ob 4, 2 months
Traumatic: 4D lost, base Ob 5, 3 months
Mortal: incapacitated*, base Ob 6, 5 months
* Recovering/treating one die reduces the penalty to 4D.
No successful treatment yet: +1 Ob
Making a recovery roll takes the time listed, which must be uninterrupted rest - no tests, practice or getting a job. Recovery can be done Carefully by doubling the time. If you skimp on the test time:
<100% of the required time, +1 Ob
<75% of the required time, +2 Ob
<50% of the required time, +3 Ob
<25% of the required time, +4 Ob
Regardless, minimum test time is an hour for each week it normally takes.
So, recovery of a 1D penalty from a treated severe wound, having had only 3.5 weeks rest (<50%) is Ob 7. Taking 2 weeks to recover a die from a treated Midi wound. Trying to shake off an untreated Midi wound in the field takes 4 hours and is Ob 8 (Base Ob 3, +1 Ob untreated, +4 Ob <25% time).
Failed Recovery/Treatment
The blanket die penalty is restored, but the injury never fully heals - apply a permanent penalty.
Determine the margin of failure: these are the number of permanent stat points lost. The GM determines three stats affected by the wound, stats A, B and C. A head wound, for example, might affect Per, Agl and Will. Apply the penalties to the three stats in rotation (A, B, C, A, B, C, etc.). Each time a stat is affected, reduce it by one point and reduce the stat cap by one.
Tests logged for advancement are not affected. A reduced stat that now has enough tests to advance does not advance immediately, instead it stays at its reduced exponent until the next time it is tested. (Rationale - stat reductions are common in this system; I don’t want to obliterate advancement.)
Example:
Siggar is fighting the armies of Bedarkon, and takes a Midi wound from a stray arrow to the thigh. With no doctor present, and unwilling to wait for treatment, he toughs it out. He yanks out the arrow and rests for 4 hours (the minimum - 1 hour for each of the 4 weeks it normally takes to heal a die from the midi wound).
The Health test is Ob 8. He rolls his B5 Health and fails by 4. The wound is infected, and never heals properly. The GM determines that his leg injury will affect Speed (A), Forte (B) and Power ©. Siggar loses two points of Speed, and one point of Forte and Power, but the Midi wound is reduced to -1D.
Caveat: the numbers are probably all wrong.
Caveat: this is totally untested.