Radiation poisoning - confusion around rules ?


Rules Questions


Hi folks

Can someone please help me to understand what I am missing in interpreting the rules regarding recovering from the effects of radiation poisoning.
I'm referring to combat against something where there is a source of radiation - like melee with a monster which is a radiation source.
I am not talking about Radiation Sickness - that is clearly documented.

The rules for radiation exposure (Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 404) say:

A creature that leaves an area suffused with radiation is essentially cured of the poison effect.
and
As usual for poison effects, an affected creature requires rest to recover from radiation poisoning.

My confusion is in the apparent contradiction in the first and second points:
The first says that leaving the area of radiation cures the poison effects.
The second says that you require rest to recover from the poison effects.

Based on the first point, I am assuming that (for example) if my CON poison track has progressed to 'Impaired', and I use my turn to leave the area of radiation, then my poison effects are cured and I revert back to 'Healthy' - which means that all the penalties that were imposed by the CON poison track are cleared.
If I re-enter the area of poison effect in any subsequent turn, then I would treat it as an initial poisoning again (i.e. HP loss with initial exposure) and also have to roll every turn I am in the radiation area to see if I avoid radiation poisoning or if I change to 'Weakened' and progress along the CON poison track.

But, that second point says I require rest to recover from radiation poisoning (or 'remove radioactivity') ??
Is this recovery for the effects imposed by the CON poison track? - i.e. the hit point loss, and the penalties to saves and checks?
Or is this supposed to reference a poisoning effect like 'exhaustion' (which doesn't apply to the CON poison track)?

Thanks


“Cure” for poisons means you stop making saves and don’t get worse. But your progress on the poison track doesn’t get any better for being cured of the poison. Improving on the track takes an entire nights sleep to go up the track one step, or two tracks with medically assisted bed rest (approximately, I’m fuzzy on the details). EDIT: See below, you progress half as fast as this - two nights of regular sleep or one day of full bed rest gets you a single step of recovery on the poison track.

Remove Radioactivity spell totally restores you on the track if you have access. Otherwise it’s slow.

The Exchange

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Starfinder CRB page 414 wrote:
Curing an Affliction: . . . Poisons and drugs work differently—fulfilling the cure condition (or reaching the end of a poison’s duration) removes a poison from the victim’s system, but she remains at the same step on the track and recovers gradually. For every day of bed rest (or two nights of normal rest), a victim moves one step toward healthy. This rate of recovery is doubled by successful Medicine checks (see Long-Term Care on page 143), though tenacious poisons might require a longer recovery period.

I'm not a fan of the terminology of afflictions in Starfinder. Just like you, when I read "cure" I think "all better." But what "cure" really means is "the poison is removed and will not alter the subject's condition any further." Any negative effects already inflicted (like moving down the Constitution Poison Track) are still in place on the victim. Then the victim gradually gets better by resting.

Radiation is particularly confusing:
A very early, low-level, Season 1 Starfinder Society scenario had a radiation effect. And no one, I mean no one, was running it properly. When I finally understood exactly how radiation works I did some probability calculations and figured out that one out of every three groups would need at least one remove radioactivity if the encounter was being run properly. Which was well beyond the purchasing power of a level 1 or 2 character. So. . . dead.

I know the author and jokingly questioned: "Did you mean to kill so many PCs this early in the campaign?" She herself hadn't really understood the rules and didn't realize how deadly the situation was. Neither did the developer for the scenario.

Which is a long-winded way of saying: No one should feel bad for misunderstanding radiation rules.


Thanks Belafon and Xenocrat

That was the clarity I was hoping to get.
Makes more sense now.

Makes understanding the use of environmental protections more important.

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