Supplement Four said:
I, personally, don't think a character is acutally deeply cut, has a bone crushed, or suffers any type of serious wound until he reaches 0 HP.
Reason? The healing rules. You can't heal a broken rib or deep sword slash as fast as hit points regenerate, especially if bed bound, which you probably would be if suffering from a critical wound.
This thinking flys in the face of some of the Feats and Combat Maneuvers. For example, the To The Hilt combat maneuver--there's no way that you can take a sword, stick it all the way into someone so that you can't yank it out (it's stuck on bone or something), and then have the victim heal up in a few days.
If so, it's got to be a pretty superficial cut.
Those types of wounds have to take the character to zero hit points. Either this, or the GM has to change the healing rules so that healing is slower to accommodate these more serious--even critical--wounds.
So...the question becomes:
If a character is seriously or critically wounded, how should he heal?
Well, he should definitely heal slower than the normal rules.
I was thinking one of two ways should be adopted.
1 - If a character is seriously wounded during a fight and not brought to zero hit points (as with using the To The Hilt combat maneuver or the Permanent Damage rules in the Warrior's Guide), then treat the character as if he were at negative hit points, stable, and recovering without help (detailed on page 190-191 of the 2E Core Rulebook).
That is: He has a 10% chance each day of recovering points naturally. If he misses that throw, he loses a hit point. If makes it, he uses the normal healing rules.
This will put some extra time onto serious wounds.
But....is this still enough time?
Probably not, if you're talking about broken bones. I grabbed this off the net--
Average Time For Broken Bones To Heal
Collar bone (clavicle) 3-8 weeks
Shoulder blade (scapula) 6 weeks
Ribs 4 weeks
Upper arm (humerus) 4-10 weeks
Lower arm (radius,ulna) 6 weeks
Wrist 4-12 weeks
Fingers 4-6 weeks
Pelvis 4 - 6 weeks
Upper leg (femur) 12 weeks
Knee (patella) 4-6 weeks
Lower leg (tibia,fibula) 10-24 weeks
Ankle 6 weeks
Foot 3 - 12 weeks
Toes 3 weeks
Also note that these are the fastest expected times for healing, with the bone in a cast. If you smoke, dring alcohol heavy, or required surgical correction, these times may be longer. And, I bet, in a Hyborian Age situation, longer is probably more the rule.
And, if we start talking about stab/knife/puncture/sword wounds, recovery time is all over the place depending on what was cut internally.
But...But....These are Heroes! They can be done with a broken foot for 12 or more weeks!
That's what Fate Points are for. Use them lessen the severity of the wound so that the character heals using the rules from the book.
2 - My other thought is to, along with hit point damage, apply damage from serious and critical wounds to the victim's physical ability scores. That way, if you are stabbed or have your arm broken, your DEX, STR, and CON go down, taking benefits with them, possibly imposing negatives while you are hurt.
You'd have to make a slower ability recovery system,though, other than what's in the book. That's for poison and magic, and healing times are pretty quick.
The whole point of this post is to say: If a character sustains a serious wound, such as being stabbed, or having a bone crushed, or whatever, during the game, then his healing time should be adjusted to account for it.
And, Fate Points should be used to avoid these long delays in healing, allowing the character to use the standard hit point recovery rules.