The Medical System
This encompasses both Injury and Illness. While they occur in different places, they have identical mechanics.
Here, below, is an involved reference diagram that won’t mean much to anyone until they have read the short and pithy saga below.
Injury and Illness represent the risks inherent in any war zone. There are the obvious risks such as being shot through the head which can certainly happen if you put your CIC in harms way. There are also travel risks inherent in moving from one HQ to another. Finally there are political risks that can occur when your CIC suffers a momentary loss of self control while at your SHQ / Capital.
Illness is an all purpose term to cover both infections that your CIC can contract and assorted insidious health problems lurking inside him. Illness can only occur if he is located at your SHQ.
Injuries represent all manner of interesting things that only occur when your CIC is visiting a Field HQ. You can see from the diagram below that the risk of Illness is lower than the risk of Injury. Having your CIC loaf around your SHQ is always going to be a lower risk proposition than sending him off into the field. Note that his injury risk, once at a Field HQ, depends on the Field Policy you have in place. ‘HQ Inspection’ has a base 5% risk. ‘Inspire the Troops’ doubles this to 10%. As a comparison, the chances of developing an illness back at SHQ is only 3%.
Note that these are the base chances. Both Injury and Illness base risks are modified by your CIC’s Age trait. Let’s have a quick look at the extreme cases. A CIC staggering around on his Zimmerframe (Age -2) is going to have an adjusted risk of developing an illness of 3% + 2% (the trait signs are reversed, programming reasons), or a net 5% per turn. Send him out into the field, order him to ‘Inspire the Troops’ and his injury risk jumps to 12% per turn.
Alternatively take a CIC in the prime of his life (Age +2). His illness risk back at SHQ is only 1% per turn (3% - 2%). Negligible. Send him out and about on a troop inspection and he has only an 8% risk (10% - 2%) of injury. All risks are tested by rolling a percentile dice (1 to 100) each turn and it’s bingo if the roll is less than or equal to the risk.
Once again you don’t need to remember any of the details as the mod will keep you informed but you need to have a rough idea of how it works.
The Saga of Patton’s Bedpan
To illustrate how it all works we’ll follow a CIC through an illness. Say hello to George Patton Junior, newly arrived at our SHQ in Boston, our Capital.
There’s not a lot we can say about George at this point as he has just stepped through the door of our SHQ. Except that he didn’t step, he kind of shuffled. In slippers.
George, as we can see under ‘Traits’, is no spring chicken. As has already been explained, the Age and Health traits have a significant effect on all things medical. George, unbeknownst to himself, is destined to fall ill.
How do I know this? Well being old doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to get crook. What’s probably more relevant is that I’ve deliberately tweaked the chance of an illness sky high to facilitate this little epistle into the medical system. Sorry George.
A short while later, week 3, George, defying the rigged medical deck I’ve dealt him, is still, annoyingly, in robust good health. I’ve had a number of discussions with George and as a result certain aspects about him have become apparent (traits are revealed over time) which you can see next to the arrow above. George, I find, is a God fearing man of stout morals who is flabby (Health -1) and old (Age -1). Peering at George on the map I see that he also smokes.
I’ve phoned up the Boston General hospital and reserved a bed in advance for him. He can say as many prayers as he wants but he won’t be able to avoid the looming medical crisis. Fat, old, chain smoking, George is doomed to be carted off to hospital. It is his destiny.
(Having read a bit about Patton I know that in reality he wasn’t as portrayed above. Unfortunately for die hard Patton fans the mod hasn’t read the same book and instead randomly determined George’s traits. The next time Mr Patton reported for duty he would be different again due to the same random methodology. Old Chinese proverb - ‘May you never see the same George twice’.)
Sure enough, one week later, George goes down with Cholera. I was expecting a Heart Attack or worse but, no, George has to slurp up dirty water from puddles in the latrine. Note that just because George has some depressing personal habits and was exposed to the Cholera bug it doesn’t mean he will develop the condition. There is a health check and George, flabby old man that he is, flubbed it. Hello Cholera.
Looking at the report above I note that Cholera is bad news. In the pantheon of possible illnesses and diseases that could have inflicted George, he scored one of the more serious outcomes. That’s what happens if you attempt to get your liquid refreshment from the floor of the latrines.
There is a -10% chance that George will recover. Any recovery is liable to be a slow painful process. Worse, there is a +7% expiry chance. This means that there is a reasonable chance that George will die before his body can fight off the disease.
So the Ambulance arrives at SHQ and carts George off to the Boston General. Which we can see on next turns Weekly Status report.
The mod removes George’s SFT from the map. Bye George. Indisposed as he is at hospital he is unable to influence events. There are no benefits or bonuses that accrue while George is away. Likewise there are no penalties. A neutral state.
Being the Supreme Authority of the land I receive, each turn, a private report from the hospital on George’s progress.
It’s not good. George has a base recovery chance of 20%. Hospitals normally work on a 30% standard recovery rate (per turn) but the Cholera, being nasty, drops this -10% to a base of 20%. If George had arrived in Hospital with a case of something milder, let’s say Malaria, he would have thrashed around in bed with a scary high fever for a week or so but likely recovered soon after as Malaria has a +10% modifier to the base recovery chance (making it 40% per turn).
Personal factors also play a part. George’s overall poor level of health (’that’s padding’, insists George, ‘not fat’) drops his recovery rate by another percent (it is +/- Health) bringing it down to 19%. One chance in five. George isn’t coming home anytime soon.
If at all. Looking at Expiry chances we see that the hospital’s standard fatality rate of 10% has been pumped up to 17% by the effects of the Cholera (+7% Expiry). Lots of people die from Cholera. In fact Cholera is one of the more unpleasant ways to go. You basically sh*t yourself to death. Unless they can rehydrate and pump some electrolytes into your system quickly then you’re in a lot of trouble.
Back to George. Whose lack of exercise and weakness for donuts has increased his expiry rate even higher to 18% (+/- Health).
Luckily the Recovery roll is made first. Only if it fails (which it did) does the mod make the Expiry roll. Which also missed (rolled a 73 on a 1d100 and needed 18 or less for George to croak).
Finally I can see that George has rallied. Marginally. His condition has improved +1% bringing his recovery rate up by a similar amount. The Condition improvement roll is, as mentioned, a ten sided dice roll less five. Provided it is still positive then that’s the amount that George’s condition improves this turn. So we probably rolled a six on the dice, less five, giving a +1% improvement.
Ahhh, but the roll has a couple of modifiers. Age and Health being two. George doesn’t score well here. He would lose -1 for his Health and another -1 for his Age. It’s going to take a while…
There is one further modifier and that is for the medical facility treating George. He isn’t back at SHQ having the sweat mopped off his brow by his worried batman. No, George is in a Hospital. That should count for something. It does. The Boston General (or any Capital city Hospital that your CIC attends) gives a +1 modifier.
It helps but it’s not a lot. Don’t get sick in Boston.
Now I, as the man in charge, have a difficult decision to make. My CIC is filling up bed pans as fast as he can in hospital and in the meantime there is nobody to help me fight the war. I have three options. The first is to do nothing and let nature take it’s course. On current trends there is a roughly equal chance that George will recover or die. Any recovery is likely to be slow. Given that it’s early days in the war perhaps I should just sit it out and wait.
Good plan except for the fact that if George dies from Cholera then I’ll get hit with a -30% penalty to all production due to the level of Chaos that ensues. Youch!
What I could do is bite the bullet and Replace him. This is a more orderly process and I’d suffer only a -10% penalty as the Chaos would be minimised. I’d also have a higher likelihood of getting a better quality CIC as a replacement than if George keeled over on me.
As a small bonus the political cost of Replacing George is half that of Firing him. People understand that George can’t do his job if he has pants full of poo. Note that, like all other variable cost action cards, the cost and the breakdown of such are dynamically updated on the fly whenever something affects them. Which, in George’s case, won’t be much as he is currently indisposed.
So we can hang in there or give George the polite flick. There is a third option. The Swiss.
ATG is set in WW2. Lots of countries going at each other’s throats. The Swiss maintained their neutrality throughout.
The mod will allow you, no matter how heinous you are and no matter what the reputation of your country, to ask the Swiss for a favour, from time to time.
Yes, send George off to an exclusive Swiss Clinic! Surely they know how to fix him.
Off you go George.
It’s worth remembering that the Swiss were happy to help but that it cost me 10 PP for the favour. Next time I request the same favour it will cost 15 PP, an increase of +5 PP per time. While I can afford this at present I need to keep in mind that the Swiss will ratchet up the cost throughout the game. It’s not specific to your CIC. They don’t care who it is I’m sending them as long as they get quid pro quo in return. They are a race of watchmakers and bankers after all.
If George had a condition that was fairly mild, with a low chance of expiring then I’d be hesitant to burn up a favour unnecessarily with the Swiss. I may need them later.
What is an exclusive Swiss Clinic going to do for George?
Well remember how George’s condition improved by a lowly +1%? It was a ten sided dice roll, less five, modified by Georges Health and Age traits. It also had a positive modifier for the level of medical treatment that he was receiving. Boston General gave him a +1 modifier. The fancy Swiss Clinic will give him +10.
In short, the Swiss will ensure that George has the best possible opportunity to improve his condition and pass his recovery roll. They can’t do anything for his expiry chance. If George has gotta go then he’s gotta go. They did promise to bury him for free, though.
Luckily the Recovery roll is made before the Expiry roll.
So what can we expect from George in the clinic? The best roll we could get on a ten sided dice is, unsurprisingly, a ‘10’. Take away the obligatory -5 and we are left with five. Adjust for George’s poor health (-1) and old age (-1) and we are down to +3. But then we factor in all that high quality Swiss care, only available at Clinic’s shrouded in snow, and add +10 to gives us a final improvement to his condition of +13%. Not too shabby. That would make his next turns recovery roll 33% (21% base - 1% health + 13% Clinic).
George, all of a sudden, is looking like he might be back on the job sooner than we expect. Hope they don’t feed him too many chocolates and turn flab into flop.
How did he go?
Well he didn’t die. Nor did he improve. Much. +2%. Pathetic. What the heck has he been doing? Aren’t those kinds of places full of pretty Swiss nurses dedicated to your recovery?
George, it seems, is still busy overflowing bed pans with mucus and faeces.
Our Weekly Status report duly notes the whereabouts of our ailing CIC.
We’ll give it another week. Fingers crossed. Come on George!
Whatever magic the Swiss have it isn’t working on George. He is stubbornly refusing to heal. Or die. I’m seriously contemplating contacting the Clinic and telling them to pass on a message to George, when he has a free moment, informing him that he has been replaced. Don’t call us, we’ll call you.
I’ve invested a precious 10 PP to get George to the Clinic. Gritting my teeth I reluctantly decide to give it one more turn.
Lo and behold George makes a miraculous recovery! I bet his nurses have had enough of inspecting his bedpans.
Go George. Time to get back to work.
Here’s the following turns Status report above. Note that George is back at SHQ. Where we can now see him, on the map. Smoking.
Lucky for us George didn’t pick up any special traits. Like weakened health due to past illnesses. There is a standard Universal test made at the time George recovered. As you’d expect it is modified by George’s existing poor health and the severity of the disease (Cholera is considered serious and comes with a +1 modifier). George failed that test so he doesn’t gain a special trait. It’s feasible that if he keeps going in and out of hospital his health will deteriorate.
If we looked at George’s Personnel Dossier (I forgot to take a screen shot) there would be appropriate entries detailing his illness, his transfer to the Swiss clinic and his eventual recovery. Although I suspect that George won’t be telling his kids about the time he almost died from Cholera. Some things are best forgotten.
Modding Medical Matters
CIC_factor_disease_chance (gamevar #153)
Base chance for illness / disease while at SHQ. Set at 3%
CIC_factor_injury_chance (gamevar #154)
Base chance for injury while at a Field HQ. Set at 5%
CIC_factor_recovery_chance (gamevar #155)
Base chance for recovery while at hospital. Set at 30%
CIC_factor_expiry_chance (gamevar #156)
Base chance for expiry while at hospital. Set at 10%
