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Old 09-14-2019, 07:43 AM   #1
Anders
 
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Default Disease or Sickness?

Magic has the spells Relieve Sickness, Resist Disease and Cure Disease. In game terms, is there a difference between sickness and disease?
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Old 09-14-2019, 09:18 AM   #2
ericthered
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Default Re: Disease or Sickness?

Relieve sickness specifies that it affects symptoms rather than underlying causes, while cure disease specifies it removes the cause but leaves existing effects in place.

So in this case "sickness" refers to symptoms, while "disease" refers to causes.

As with many things in GURPS, the description is more important than the name.
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Old 09-14-2019, 08:27 PM   #3
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Default Re: Disease or Sickness?

So, if you need someone up quickly, you should cast Relieve Sickness first (and probably Remove Contagion, so no-one else gets sick), and then case Cure disease when you have ten minutes to spare. Otherwise you cast them in whatever order, or let them recover from the symptoms on their own, though if you're nice (or worried that the symptoms might kill them in the next few minutes), you'd still cast Relieve Sickness before Cure Disease.
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Old 09-16-2019, 02:26 AM   #4
vicky_molokh
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Default Re: Disease or Sickness?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anders View Post
Magic has the spells Relieve Sickness, Resist Disease and Cure Disease. In game terms, is there a difference between sickness and disease?
B81 has notes on Disease being a subset of Sickness:
Quote:
Originally Posted by B81
Common: A group of related items
encountered as often in nature as in
an attack, or some other suitably
broad subset of “Very Common.”
Example: Poison (all toxins, but not
asphyxiants or corrosives) or Sickness
(all diseases and environmental syn-
dromes
). 15 points.
Occasional: A group of closely
related items more often encountered
in nature than as a deliberate attack,
or a subset of a “Common” group.
Examples: Disease (all bacteria,
viruses, fungus infections, etc.
) or
Ingested Poison. 10 points.
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Old 09-16-2019, 06:27 AM   #5
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Default Re: Disease or Sickness?

Environmental syndromes... possibly heat stroke or dehydration, hypothermia?
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Old 09-16-2019, 06:28 AM   #6
Anders
 
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Default Re: Disease or Sickness?

Seasickness too.
That cleared things up a bit. Thanks Vicky.
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