06-16-2015, 07:43 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA
|
GURPS epidemiology help sought
Is there anyone on this forum who has some background working with diseases, like a doctor or epidemiologist? I'm writing a Pyramid article and would like someone knowledgeable to double-check what I've written, being as that I only have a journalism degree, so not only am I not a doctor, but I don't play one on television since I'm not an actor either.
|
06-16-2015, 07:50 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
|
Re: GURPS epidemiology help sought
That sounds promising!
I'm in biology, but not epidemiology or medicine. You can probably find better.
__________________
I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. |
06-16-2015, 08:07 PM | #3 |
Petitioner: Word of IN Filk
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Longmont, CO
|
Re: GURPS epidemiology help sought
Pmandrekar is a geneticist who might be able to lend a hand, or know someone who could.
(And hail to a fellow journalism graduate, by the way! We really should club together on a Latin motto for our guild; I'm thinking a translation of "Sleep is for the weak.")
__________________
“It's not railroading if you offer the PCs tickets and they stampede to the box office, waving their money. Metaphorically speaking” --Elizabeth McCoy, In Nomine Line Editor Author: "What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Stronger" |
06-16-2015, 08:11 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA
|
Re: GURPS epidemiology help sought
Tantum debiles dormiunt. (I really should have been a Latin major.)
|
06-16-2015, 08:27 PM | #5 |
☣
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
|
Re: GURPS epidemiology help sought
"People called the weak, they go the sleep"? ;)
__________________
RyanW - Actually one normal sized guy in three tiny trenchcoats. |
06-17-2015, 03:53 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA
|
Re: GURPS epidemiology help sought
Only the weak sleep. Unlike Brian's, my phrase needed no moods other than the indicative or cases other than the nominative.
A little more explanation of my request: I need someone to look over a bunch of real-world diseases I wrote up. |
06-17-2015, 06:53 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: The Land of Enchantment
|
Re: GURPS epidemiology help sought
I started working on a disease list, once, mostly to use in post-apocalyptic settings. Never had time to finish it. It's a big job- lot's of time spent with the Merck Manual. A list (with a preponderance of food- and water-born examples):
Amoebic Dysentery Anthrax (Bio-Tech p.113) Popular biological weapon Botulinum Toxin (Bio-Tech p.113) Botulism This disease is a food poisoning caused when spores of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum are allowed to germinate in anaerobic conditions- classically, in a can or other airtight sealed food container that has not been properly sterilized or has had its integrity somehow breached. Bubonic Plague (Bio-Tech p.113) Cholera (Reign of Steel: Will to Live p.48) Campylobacter Food Poisoning This bacterium is found in animal (including human) feces, and is currently the most common pathogen causing bacterial food poisoning in the world, comprising over 75% of such infections. Clostridial Food Poisoning Though caused by the same organism responsible for gas gangrene this is typically a mild form of food poisoning. Cryptosporiasis Dengue Fever Diptheria Ebola (?) And Marburg? Enterohemorrhagic E. coli Food Poisoning Giardiasis Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease Hantavirus North America's own cute hemorrhagic fever. Hepatitis A Hepatitis B Hepatitis C Influenza (Bio-Tech p.113) Leprosy Listeriosis Malaria Measles Mumps Sterility? Polio Q Fever Popular biological weapon Rabies Salmonellosis Shigellosis A kind of dysentery, Smallpox Another popular biological weapon- some intensely terrifying variants were made by the Soviets, including one that doesn't cause pox and thus is difficult to diagnose clinically. Spongiform Encephalopathies Mad Cow (aka variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob) and everyone's favorite: Kuru! While fascinating, I don't see much point in stats for Fatal Familial Insomnia. That's (thank the Maker) not transmissible and is covered by the Terminal Illness disadvantage... Spotted Fevers Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Mediterranean Spotted Fever, Queensland Tick Typhus (all spread by ticks) or Scrub Typhus (spread by “chigger” mites). Tuberculosis Tularemia (Bio-Tech p.113) Typhoid Typhus Viral Gastroenteritis meant to represent a variety of viral infections causing diarrhea and/or vomiting which are spread by fecal-oral contamination of food or, more commonly, water. Such viral infections are much more common than bacterial infections. Possible pathogens include noroviruses, rotaviruses, enteroviruses, etc. These tend to be annoying but not life-threatening infections, except to the very young, very old, or infirm. Yellow Fever Of course, you could just subsume all of those bacterial food poisonings under one heading and just randomize the severity somehow to represent different pathogens. Botulism would still need it's own entry, though. You could randomize the dysenteries, too... Damn, now you've got me interested in this again. But if you're publishing a Pyramid article, why would I bother? :) Last edited by acrosome; 06-17-2015 at 07:17 PM. |
06-17-2015, 08:11 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Austin, TX
|
Re: GURPS epidemiology help sought
Interesting thread.
Hepatitis D and E also exist, by the way. I'd heard of D, but I didn't know about E until I looked up D for this thread.
__________________
Play Ogre? Want an interactive record sheet? Want a random dungeon? How about some tables for that? How about a random encounter? |
06-21-2015, 03:14 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: The Land of Enchantment
|
Re: GURPS epidemiology help sought
True, but they're both oddballs (A, B, and C are the heavy hitters) and not likely to be significant in a gaming setting. Though, of course, neither is Kuru- but everyone loves Kuru.
Last edited by acrosome; 06-21-2015 at 03:19 PM. |
Tags |
disease, epidemiology, gurps |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|