Hi yall, just started by first game of Burning Wheel and I am loving it! In the last session, a player tried to extort a bureaucrat and got roughed up by some thugs and suffered a superficial wound. I am feeling a little uncertain regarding the recovery. Immediately afterwards, he went back inside the nearby inn and spoke with people / made some more rolls. The book says (page 492) that “to recover, a character must rest – he can travel, study, or converse, but not fight or adventure”. It then states that if they succeed on the Ob 1 health test, the pain fades immediately, and lasts 10 minus forte hours otherwise.
My question is regarding the timing of the health check. When would you have them roll it? We did it immediately after the fight, i.e. when the “rest via conversing” started. They succeeded, which just made it feel a little weird in that the wound had no impact on the game. Would it instead make sense to wait for a couple scenes to pass?
I’m gonna talk real here. Superficial wounds only matter during the conflict.
If the player wants it gone during the conflict, they’ll have to take the action to Shake It Off and roll that Health test.
Otherwise, it’s assumed to have gone away immediately after the conflict or scene is done. No roll needed. Unless the player needs a Ob 1 Health test for advancement, I guess?
In the situation you describe above, the player got the Superficial and this was important as they affected the rolls that came immediately after. So yes, they’d be at +1 Ob unless they shook it off.
However, if the player took the beating and the Superficial, but then days passed until the next test, there’d be no reason to roll the Health test. It just wouldn’t matter.