GURPS Star Trek - Canon Vulcans

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Spock’s parents were way beyond bestiality — they were less closely-related than a penguin is to a palm tree.

Depends on how you look at things. Bestiality is morally problematic largely because one party cannot give consent, but that's not the case for a human-Vulcan relationship. And the fact they are interfertile indicates they are markedly more genetically similar to each other than a penguin is to a palm tree, despite ostensibly evolving on different planets - presumably, whatever mechanism causes species that look human to be common must force them to conform to markedly similar genetics, making them more akin to subspecies of each other.

Originally Posted by dcarson

And if it's a diplomatic functions the Klingons are going to be picky as possible to gain a edge. If you can claim or make the host feel they are slighting you that nudges negotiations a bit.

It can also be useful for making the host uneasy and on the backfoot, if you require something they find unpalatable, which a lot of humans (and I'd imagine other species) would think of raw meat and live worms as. Me, I'd serve them that, then for myself have some breaded and deep-fried worms alongside a steak that is seared on the outside but raw in the center, a side of tartar (both steak and tartar made of the same meat they are eating raw), and a nice salad. Eating largely the same meal, but prepared in a manner palatable to my species.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

I could imagine McCoy starting off from default with Vulcan medicine, since he regularly seems startled by aspects of Vulcan physiology that even a competent cross-species paramedic should know about. Sheer talent, luck, and hard study gets him up to speed quickly, however. There's an episode where Spock nearly gets killed and Dr. M'benga - an actual Vulcan specialist - steps in.

Arguably, a more realistic treatment would be to have McCoy not be entirely certain what is normal for Spock - not because he is Vulcan, but specifically because he is a human-Vulcan hybrid, and there haven't been enough of those for proper baselines to be established.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Either that or there are as-yet-unknown commonalities to humanoid physiology that make medical treatment far easier. Starfleet doctors seem to be about to do everything from dentistry to heart transplants on just about any humanoid species without too much trouble.

I call it ridiculous bonuses from excellent equipment, very high levels of EO (Medical) and a "core" Pharmacy, Physician, and Surgery skills, and maybe Wild Talent. (But rather pitiable First Aid levels, so instead of trying CPR or putting the patient in stasis they just wave a medical tricorder over them and gravely announce their death.)

Interfertility implies a good degree of commonality, yeah. They may also have adaptive medicines of some sort - maybe those airhypos they use so often have a variety of drugs (or drug precursors that can be instantly synthesized), and they interface with the medical scanning equipment to determine give the proper dosage of the proper drug(s). For not bothering with CPR or similar, maybe they've got immediate treatments that can do anything traditional first aid can - and do it better - and when they announce someone is dead, it's because the tricorder indicates there is no method available to revive them (for someone who's heart has merely stopped, they hit them with a "revive" hypo and they're back on their feet in no time).