When we speak about historical settings,we often point that an infected wound would be the end of a character. Thus, people conclude, PCs that actually fight "need" access to magic healing, or an unrealistic damage system.
For quite some time, I was accepting this opinion and believing that "people in the past were just that tough they survived".
Then I remembered actual historical stories, and it didn't fit, but I wasn't in the mood to use stories as proof.
Last week, a wound on my leg (about 5 cm long and wide, but shallow) got infected. In fairness, everything would get infected with 5 days of neglect...but it was a time of great stress, so I had no time to visit the doctor. You know, like it routinely happens with PCs in games?
I recovered using nothing but herbal remedies, and an unguent my wife prepared from different kinds of food - no, I'm not kidding you - and which drew the pus from the wound. Then the herbal remedies kept it clean and disinfected it enough for it to recover.
I doubt any modern medicine would have done (much) more than that...in fact, it got infected while I was treating it with modern disinfectants!
All the herbal ingredients are easily found where I live (I don't know the names in English of most of the herbs, though I remember my Granny showing me some of them and explaining they are good for burns, or for infected wounds). The unguent can easily be prepared in any agrarian setting.
Another "truism" against historical gaming was put to rest, in my book.
For quite some time, I was accepting this opinion and believing that "people in the past were just that tough they survived".
Then I remembered actual historical stories, and it didn't fit, but I wasn't in the mood to use stories as proof.
Last week, a wound on my leg (about 5 cm long and wide, but shallow) got infected. In fairness, everything would get infected with 5 days of neglect...but it was a time of great stress, so I had no time to visit the doctor. You know, like it routinely happens with PCs in games?
I recovered using nothing but herbal remedies, and an unguent my wife prepared from different kinds of food - no, I'm not kidding you - and which drew the pus from the wound. Then the herbal remedies kept it clean and disinfected it enough for it to recover.
I doubt any modern medicine would have done (much) more than that...in fact, it got infected while I was treating it with modern disinfectants!
All the herbal ingredients are easily found where I live (I don't know the names in English of most of the herbs, though I remember my Granny showing me some of them and explaining they are good for burns, or for infected wounds). The unguent can easily be prepared in any agrarian setting.
Another "truism" against historical gaming was put to rest, in my book.
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