Murphy's Rules: Paging Dr Bones

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Chuckg

It occurs to me that quirk-level Unusual Biochemistry exists IRL for humans, its called 'being allergic to specific meds'. Most hospitals nowadays ask you for your medication allergies before treating you, but you can still walk right into an unknown medication allergy if you've never had the stuff before.

For example, I have an unusual allergic reaction to Demerol. It's called "I stop breathing". Fortunately I was already undergoing anesthesia for general surgery the first time I was ever given Demerol, so my going into respiratory arrest didn't kill me even if it did give the anesthesiologist a stressful experience.

But you can believe it's been on my medical records ever since then, in large bold print.

Not just allergies but plain old severe to life threatening adverse reactions. One allergy medication mades me vomit every 15 minutes, 30 when asleep, until it was completely out of my system which took a horribly long 2 days.
Another, ironically, causes intense panic and other havoc.

I'm also completely "immune" to the pain killing and euphoria inducing effects of opiates. I get confused and uncoordinated when heavily dosed up, but have zero of the "universal" effects.
A large amount of corn gives me a headache. Not an allergy at all, just an unpleasant reaction.


Everyone here that lacks such reactions may just not have been exposed to the substances that would do that.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I. Being able to be poisoned is more what's going on.

That's not a valid Disadvantage unless taken by a Character who was using a Template that had Immunity to Poison on it. Then it's a "No Immunity to Poison" Disadvantage for that Character because he differs from te norm.

Being part of a norm of "Vulnerable to 18th Century Medicine" wouldn't even be the sort of Trait you noted on most Character Sheet. It's like "Subject to Gravity".

[WaterAndWindSpirit]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

Pyramid #3-44 p.35 has the comic, which we seem to have concluded is referring the the fact that aliens are said to have Unusual Biochemistry as per Basic Set p.160.

This. I wanted to know where the hell did that Murphy's Rule came from, and it has been established it came from Space assigning Unusual Biochemistry to alien species, and someone thought Viagra was the funniest example.

PS: Anyone knows where I could find a compendium of Murphy's Rules? Thanks!

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit

PS: Anyone knows where I could find a compendium of Murphy's Rules? Thanks!

Warehouse 23 has a PDF compilation: http://w23.sjgames.com/products/murphys-rules-1

This will not include the particular comic under discussion, since it seems to have been published in 2003, but is the only compilation I am aware of.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Being part of a norm of "Vulnerable to 18th Century Medicine" wouldn't even be the sort of Trait you noted on most Character Sheet. It's like "Subject to Gravity".

Of course it's not worth any points. But I'm not arguing about the point value here. Rather, I'm saying that it doesn't make sense to say, "It's not worth any points to have Unusual Biochemistry BECAUSE no one would ever give an alien a medication designed for human." The latter statement is too sweeping. Medical practice up till the twentieth century showed little care for toxicity, as you seem to agree. There are other cases: The small child who gives the alien a pill (or, for that matter, feeds chocolate to a dog), the ignorant and curious alien who opens and samples a bottle of pills . . . It's just too easy to come up with scenarios where an alien could be dosed with something unsuited to their metabolism for that specific explanation to carry much weight.

If the alien's metabolism is so exotic that they could be poisoned by normal human food, water, or air, I'd just figure that human medications were toxic too. And that's a stronger effect than the minor problems you get from UB, so I wouldn't give them UB. So I support the conclusion; I'm just disagreeing with the validity of an argument for it based on "no one's ever going to do that."

[Chuckg]

In addition to the point already raised that 'Even if everyone around you knows that you can't take human medications, you still can't take human medications.' Being unable to get the same medical care that the majority of those around you can get without going through significant extra time or expense is an actual Disadvantage.

[ravenfish]

I would argue, again, that being the only character in the party unable to count on the benefit of painkillers, stimulants, antibiotics if you are vulnerable to infection, and so on is worth disadvantage points.

EDIT: Curses. Ninja'd again.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

I would argue, again, that being the only character in the party unable to count on the benefit of painkillers, stimulants, antibiotics if you are vulnerable to infection, and so on is worth disadvantage points.

EDIT: Curses. Ninja'd again.

Unusual Biochemistry is actually appropriate for a situation where a mammalian alien is somehow stranded in a human setting where there are no others of it's kind and no commerce with where it comes from. But if it was a totally unrelated alien then a more extreme disad would be called for. For one thing it would probably starve to death anyway.

[Anthony]

GURPS could use a negative version of unusual background, where your unusual background results in low availability for food, tools, armor, weapons, etc.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit

This. I wanted to know where the hell did that Murphy's Rule came from, and it has been established it came from Space assigning Unusual Biochemistry to alien species, and someone thought Viagra was the funniest example.

Then next time can you please post an issue (or book) and page number so those looking to figure out (a) what you're talking about and (b) then answer the question have an easier shot at it?

I wasn't up to looking through 122 issues of Pyramid to figure out what you were talking about.