07-23-2016, 04:05 AM | #11 | |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Physician and Physiology
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Biology is a massive impossibly expansive skill but as written, it covers everything biological and gives quite a few defaults to all sorts of other skills. Physiology covers anatomy which should be covered by Physician, Surgery, and Biology. Forcing all doctors, nurses, and surgeons to learn another hard skill that doesn't actually do anything makes realistic characters that much more expensive for no gain I can see.
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Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check. |
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07-23-2016, 04:45 AM | #12 |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Physician and Physiology
The Flight 13 adventure requires a Will roll to attack the child-like monsters for characters whose sheets include Empathy. At least that's where I once got a similar idea back in the day.
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07-23-2016, 05:05 AM | #13 |
Join Date: Jul 2012
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Physician and Physiology
Physician alone can do a lot, particularly when First Aid defaults to it at no penalty.
If you get injured he can… -use Physician as First Aid to bandage for 1 HP. -use Physician as First Aid to treat shock for another X HP depending on TL. -use Physician for +1 natural recovery rolls and perhaps heal 1 HP per X days. I mainly know it from a TL 4 game (which did have the Physician skill however), where after each fight proper medical treatment would heal 2-3 HP for everyone who was wounded. Before the healing spells started being used. Another aspect is that I consider someone with the Physician skill to essentially know the healing rules off by heart. So using Low-Tech, they know what Heat does (+1 HT rolls vs infections), and then combine that with the bonuses with Physician (say +1 to natural recovery rolls). So with the time and facilities they give a +2. In many ways I treat Physician as the “nothing goes wrong” skill, where making the roll avoids later complications from injury that might otherwise happen. Also, the +1 to natural recovery rolls could be applied a lot of different ways – it could mean recovering HP, it could mean recovering from infection, it could mean recovering from crippling injury. Overall, Physician is not exciting, but it's the kind of skill where you feel the absence of it more than you feel the presence. |
07-23-2016, 07:03 AM | #14 | |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Physician and Physiology
Quote:
I agree with everything else in your post.
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The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
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07-23-2016, 04:17 PM | #15 | |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Physician and Physiology
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The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
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07-25-2016, 03:18 AM | #16 | |
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: near London, UK
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Physician and Physiology
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I remember an argument back in the day, maybe on GURPSNET, that Physiology ought to give a bonus in melee because you knew where to hit; that's effectively become Pressure Secrets in 4e.
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07-25-2016, 01:32 PM | #17 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Physician and Physiology
Quote:
Anybody whose Physician skill comes from a modern medical training probably should have a point in Surgery anyway, while the hedge wizard whose high Physician skill comes from his mastery of herbal medicine might very well not be able to stop major bleeding or set bones either.
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07-30-2016, 10:57 PM | #18 |
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: USA, Arizona, Mesa
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Physician and Physiology
I've just taken for a new character in a Weird War III (alien/demonic invasion) game an optional specialisation of Physiology I hadn't seen mentioned here: Physiology (Combat).
My group has used this in previous games (and will be in this game, of course) as Physiology focused on harming the target species, rather than the more usual therapeutic uses. |
07-30-2016, 11:47 PM | #19 |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Physician and Physiology
I would expect the exact opposite. Empathy grants supernatural ability to detect that they're not real children but monsters.
__________________
Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check. |
07-31-2016, 03:46 AM | #20 |
Join Date: May 2016
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Physician and Physiology
Once again John has a well-researched, well-written thread that I'd love to read.. if I could focus my eyes a little easier! :P
On that note, I'd love to subscribe to a thread where John posts links to every new "Skill of the Week" post! |
Tags |
basic, physician, physiology, skill of the week |
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