Forum

BALLISTIC M-INJECTOR (O)
A medicurgical injector that can be fired with a Vulcan weapon to lend medical assistance from afar (Short Range). First, test ranged combat to hit the target – if you hit, the injector counts as an m-dose

Cool you think, first aid from afar. I can see that being useful if I have an injured comrade covered by an enemy sniper. But what does an m-dose do? Well it gives +1 to Medicurgy rolls. Assuming your injured comrade isn't a medic, it's bloody useless to him. That's 1000 birr (the Third Horizon's currency) down the drain. If he is a medic, he'll likely have his own m-doses, and only b50 each.

I think the point is that it lets YOU give medical aid from afar. It's you that gets the bonus, not the person you target. You roll to hit, if you hit, then you roll the medic test. As you said, useful if you can't get to the patient, and the patient is unable to treat themselves (such as if their Broken or Dying from a critical injury)

OK, then does that mean it can only be fired by someone with Medicurgy?

Yeah, M-dose on its own has always seemed rather weak to me - sure, it gives medics a bonus, but does nothing for anyone else - and the ballistic m-injector seems almost totally pointless if it still requires a Medicurgy roll after you shoot someone.

I've pretty much houseruled m-dose as having an additional property: if you dose someone who's Broken, they can immediately "push on" (p. 94), recovering one HP without having to wait 1d6 hours, no Medicurgy roll required. I think of it as an adrenaline shot. (Dosing someone who's not Broken only has the normal +1 to Medicurgy rolls and doesn't heal any HP in and of itself.)