Denying Our Troops Life-Saving Gear

In GURPS Magic there is a spell called Missile Shield.

It costs 7 fatigue to get started and 3 per minute after the first minute to keep going.

If you're not keeping track of fatigue, your average person has 10 and casting that spell is a hit to their available fatigue, but not crippling.

The problem is if you're humping the bush in Vietnam with medium encumbrance and it takes 4 FP an hour to march along.

The fire fight starts two hours in and you use a ring enchanted with Missile Shield to cast it and...  You're now on the verge of collapse with -5 FP.  See Basic Set p.426 for why this is VERY BAD.

Such a ring is 400 energy to make and that's a mere $150,000 if cast traditionally with "slow and sure" means and $20,000 if enchanted industrially.  With a starting wealth of  $15,000 and not enough demand to start an industrial production line...  It's probably not going to come up in play.

But something that will is a healing potion.

Chiron is the healing elixir.  Mass produced it will run a whopping $51.75 per dose.  That might seem a lot but it will heal 1d HP worth of damage per application; that's the same as 1 to 6 days of total rest and recuperation!  20 minutes of First Aid/TL7 will restore 1d-1 HP.  The standard issue field dressing has a dose of ointment form built right in!

Can you imagine how the media would be harping on things if the troops didn't get issued such a field dressing?  The medic will also be carrying a supply of Chiron too; in both powder and liquid forms.

There was sure to be a, sad faced, Walter Cronkite wondering why we couldn't spin up the production line for those rings.  60-Minutes has not yet aired...