Recovery Gifts¶
Recovery Gifts represent specialized training, resilience techniques, or healing practices that accelerate recovery from physical wounds, mental trauma, or Burn. They make Downtime recovery more effective or allow characters to help others heal.
Personal Recovery Gifts¶
These gifts improve your own ability to recover during Downtime.
Scarred But Standing¶
(1cc/5xp)
Your body has learned to heal efficiently from repeated damage. When recovering from Physical Track wounds during Downtime, reduce the time required by one step (Moderate heals as Light, Light heals as Bruise).
This does not prevent scars or complications—just speeds the basic healing.
Tested Resilience¶
(1cc/5xp)
You have endured enough to recognize the difference between harm that will pass and harm that lingers. Once per Downtime, you may choose one Light Wound or Minor Trauma you are recovering from and ensure it heals cleanly without developing complications or scars.
Steady Breath¶
(1cc/5xp)
Through controlled breathing and meditation techniques, you can accelerate Mental Track recovery. When recovering from Trauma during Downtime, you gain advantage on any checks to avoid worsening or to clear it cleanly.
Burn the Night Oil¶
(1cc/5xp)
You know how to work through exhaustion without breaking. Once per Downtime, you may take one additional Downtime action beyond your normal limit—but you cannot use this extra action for Recovery. You are trading rest for productivity.
Mechanically: You may delay recovery of one Physical or Mental Track issue to gain an extra Downtime action for Crafting, Training, or Social activities.
Deep Sleeper¶
(1cc/5xp)
When you have access to true safety and comfort, you recover extraordinarily well. When recovering at Light Load in a safe, comfortable location, all Bruises and Minor Trauma clear automatically, and you gain advantage on recovery checks for Light Wounds or Light Trauma.
Pain Memory¶
(1cc/5xp)
Your body remembers old injuries and adapts. When you suffer a wound similar to one you've previously recovered from (same location, same type), recovery time is reduced by one step.
Example: If you've healed a broken rib before, future broken ribs heal faster.
Assisted Recovery Gifts¶
These gifts allow you to help others recover more effectively.
Healer's Presence¶
(1cc/5xp)
Your presence accelerates natural healing. When you spend a Downtime action tending to another character's Physical recovery, they gain advantage on all recovery checks and reduce recovery time by one step.
This represents skilled nursing, encouragement, proper care, and creating an environment conducive to healing—not magic.
Counsel¶
(1cc/5xp)
You know how to guide someone through trauma without forcing them. When you spend a Downtime action supporting another character's Mental Track recovery, they may clear one level of Trauma or reduce Burn by 1 automatically, provided they are willing to talk and reflect.
This requires real conversation and emotional labor—it cannot be rushed.
Battlefield Triage Training¶
(1cc/5xp)
You have trained specifically to stabilize people quickly so they survive long enough to receive proper care. When using the Chirurgeon skill to stabilize or treat wounds during active scenes, you work twice as fast.
Additionally, wounds you treat are less likely to develop complications during Downtime recovery.
Herbalist's Touch¶
(1cc/5xp)
You know how to prepare poultices, tinctures, and remedies that support natural healing. When you spend a Downtime action and access to appropriate plants/supplies, you may create enough preparations to assist up to three characters' Physical recovery, granting them advantage on recovery checks.
Note: This is not Alchemy—it's folk medicine and practical herbalism.
Encouraging Recovery¶
(1cc/5xp)
Your optimism and steady support help others endure. When you spend significant time (at least one Downtime action) with another character who is recovering from either Physical or Mental Track harm, they may reroll one failed recovery check.
Your presence makes them believe they'll get through this.
Shared Burden¶
(1cc/5xp)
You can absorb some of another's suffering to speed their recovery. Once per Downtime, you may spend 1 Effort to grant another character advantage on all recovery checks for one Physical or Mental Track issue.
This represents taking on some of their care work, sitting with them through pain, or shouldering responsibilities so they can rest.
Specialized Recovery Gifts¶
These address specific types of harm or situations.
Cold Comfort¶
(1cc/5xp)
Prerequisite: Verdanni or raised in a cold climate
You know how to treat cold-related injuries and exposure. When treating or recovering from cold damage, frostbite, or hypothermia, recovery time is halved and complications are less severe.
Heat Hardened¶
(1cc/5xp)
Prerequisite: Qnassi, Sektarri, or raised in desert regions
You understand heat injuries intimately. When treating or recovering from heat exhaustion, burns, or dehydration, recovery time is halved and complications are less severe.
Stone-Mender's Patience¶
(1cc/5xp)
Prerequisite: Dazhdvog or trained in Dazhdvog healing techniques
You have learned the Dazhdvog approach: slow, thorough recovery that leaves no weakness behind. When you recover from broken bones or crush injuries during Downtime, they heal stronger than before—you gain +1 to resist similar injuries in that location in the future.
This is cumulative but capped at +3 for any single location.
Water's Memory¶
(1cc/5xp)
Prerequisite: Fluvarri or trained in Fluvarri healing techniques
You know how to use water, rest, and patience to ease trauma. When assisting another character's Mental Track recovery, you may spend extended time (full Downtime action + access to clean water) to help them process one memory or fear cleanly, preventing it from developing into a scar or recurring trigger.
Burn Recovery Ritual¶
(1cc/5xp)
You have developed or learned a personal ritual for processing Burn. Once per Downtime, when you have privacy and time, you may clear 1 Burn automatically through deliberate reflection, physical exertion, artistic expression, or spiritual practice—whatever your character does to let go.
This gift makes Burn recovery reliable instead of uncertain.
Veteran's Wisdom¶
(1cc/5xp)
You have survived enough to recognize what truly matters. When recovering from Moderate or worse Physical Wounds during Downtime, you may choose to accept a permanent scar in exchange for reducing recovery time by half.
The scar is narrative and may have mechanical weight at GM discretion, but you heal faster by embracing the mark rather than fighting it.
Community Recovery Gifts¶
These require investment but help groups recover together.
Healer's Hall (Community Gift)¶
(2cc/10xp)
You have established or gained access to a dedicated healing space—an infirmary, clinic, or sanctuary. Characters recovering there gain advantage on all recovery checks and may clear Bruises and Minor Trauma automatically.
This facility requires maintenance (Minor Complication every 2-3 Downtimes: supplies, staff wages, patients who can't pay).
Shared Recovery (Community Gift)¶
(1cc/5xp)
Your group has developed rituals, routines, or traditions for processing harm together. When the party takes Downtime as a group in the same location, each character may assist one other character's recovery without spending a Downtime action.
This represents communal care, shared meals, storytelling, and mutual support becoming part of your group's culture.
Design Notes¶
Recovery Gifts are intentionally:
Personal vs. Assisted split - Some improve your own recovery, others let you help. Both are valuable.
Non-magical - These represent training, experience, cultural techniques, or folk medicine—not spell effects.
Complementary to existing systems - Work alongside Chirurgeon skill and Recovery rules without replacing them.
Balanced costs - Mostly 1cc/5xp, with Community Gifts at 2cc/10xp to reflect broader investment.
Scarcity as choice - Several gifts involve tradeoffs (Burn the Night Oil, Veteran's Wisdom, Shared Burden) to maintain tension.
Cultural specialization - Species/culture prerequisites on some gifts tie recovery techniques to setting lore.
Complication hooks - Healer's Hall specifically creates ongoing story through Complications.
These gifts reward characters who invest in recovery and care, make healers more mechanically distinct, and ensure that "taking care of each other" is a supported playstyle rather than assumed background noise.