I could so badly use a list like that now for a situation in my original fiction.....

Is it wrong that that makes me laugh? I think so, and yet...bwah!

I want to have [Hurt-ee] have his legs broken badly enough that he can't walk out of [desert, snowy woods, other isolated place] but not badly enough that he can't have sex with [Comfort-er]. What do you recommend?

And this is so damn close to my actual question it's not even funny. Seven original plots in the world, huh?

Well, as long as you're not writing original fiction about gay mounties, I think you're safe.

The answer to your question, Susan, is don't have Hurt-ee break his/her legs. (Fanficcers always go with the most drastic, life-threatening possibility, and double-points for its involving both blood and vomit.) Surely there's a nice sprain or something to be had that doesn't involve sedatives and plaster-of-paris.

Oh, I hadn't even considered broken legs--my tentative idea was musket ball or pistol shot to the thigh, only a flesh wound, but made worse than it needs to be when Injuree and Comforter decide to go ahead and dig it out (I think they could've safely left it in, since it seems 19th century soldiers often carried around stray bits of ammunition in their old wounds that would occasionally ache or work their way out, but my characters don't know anything about medicine and would just guess), and the wound gets infected. I'm just not sure that's a severe enough wound for my purposes, or OTOH that if it was badly infected enough to keep him laid up, that Injuree could avoid gangrene or similar permanently damaging ickiness. Because he can't be permanently damaged until much later in the plot, when I need a way to get him out of the army.

Okay, as long as people with compound fractures and/or flesh-eating bacteria aren't having gymnastic sex scenes, you get a pass from me.

I admit, I know very little about (a) what a person would do, medically, in 1810 and (b) what the result would be. There is a bit of (seemingly plausible) surgery on a bullet would in Master and Commander that you might consult, just to get a feel for how it works.

I can't think that all wound infections resulted in gangrene, death or permanent disability. We get over respiratory infections all the time. Surely there's a book on this sort of thing, but I don't know what it is.

Nutty is much with the realism when it comes to ficcish injuries.

t has fond memories of discussions of electrolyte imbalances and other results of torture during the beta process for "Written on a Thumbnail">

I can't think that all wound infections resulted in gangrene, death or permanent disability.

Yep, especially given that the character in question is in his 20's and in good health. I just don't know how to strike a realistic medical balance between "can't go anywhere just yet", which is necessary for the plot, with, "oh, but he heals well and everything is fine."

Maybe he sprains an ankle after all--he could still get the injury while they're trying to evade a French patrol, so I wouldn't have to lose that scene.

has fond memories of discussions of electrolyte imbalances and other results of torture during the beta process for "Written on a Thumbnail"

That was So! Much! Fun! I think it must be the kind of fun demolitions-people have, planning how to blow up a building.

Fun, yeah, although I was by that point too lazy to implement a lot of your suggestions. Not to mention that I still needed the poor schmuck on his feet and snarky for the Great Escape. Alien stimulants were used to gloss over a lot of my errors. Yay for science fiction, which allows us to cheat! *g*