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Old 06-24-2014, 11:21 AM   #11
Genesis
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Default Re: Cast-Iron Stomach, RtMH, etc: Safely drinking methanol and other nastiness?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
I agree that's what it says but it shouldn't. Cast Iron stomach is the ability to eat things that are nasty without consequences. Cellulose is pretty much the poster child for a material that's non-toxic but non-nutritive.
...
The ability to derive nutrition from cellulose ought to be Universal Digestion. It turning not-food but not-poison into food.
I agree, here - cellulose digestion should definitely be covered by Universal Digestion, and not Cast-Fe Stomach.

Quote:
Originally Posted by malloyd
You can drink some petrochemicals with no advantages at all - most of them are not terribly toxic, though expect some vomiting and/or laxative effect.
If you are drinking one in quantities that *are* normally toxic, only Metabolic Hazards will help. None of these advantages will let you get any nutritional value from them.
Here I definitely disagree, however. This is, likewise, a banner case for Universal Digestion, as the PC wants to derive nutriment from a non-nutritious, but largely benign, material.
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Old 06-24-2014, 12:00 PM   #12
Desthro
 
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Default Re: Cast-Iron Stomach, RtMH, etc: Safely drinking methanol and other nastiness?

Cast-Iron
Can eat Normally Edible foods, but the food has become fetid or otherwise inedible through natural processes

RtMH
Will protect you from the toxic effects of anything.

Universal digestion
Can eat things that aren't normally edible, are organic in nature, but are also non-toxic.
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Old 07-10-2014, 05:32 AM   #13
vicky_molokh
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Default Re: Cast-Iron Stomach, RtMH, etc: Safely drinking methanol and other nastiness?

Quote:
Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
As long as the selection is about as narrow as it is for human food, that's a Feature, not an advantage. Cast Iron Stomach is part of Reduced Consumption for a reason. It reduces the *cost* of food. As long as your species pays as much for food as the human PCs do, it doesn't have one. If its food is cheaper than that of humans, it gets enough levels to match the price.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
I agree that's what it says but it shouldn't. Cast Iron stomach is the ability to eat things that are nasty without consequences. Cellulose is pretty much the poster child for a material that's non-toxic but non-nutritive.

Humans consume (and then excrete) cellulose all the time. Dieticians call it "fiber". It's ability to soak up undesirable substances in the process might even be a good for you as the nutritionists claim (probably not though, pop nutrition is a major source of modern pseudoscience).

The ability to derive nutrition from cellulose ought to be Universal Digestion. It turning not-food but not-poison into food.
Judging by the mix of description combined with the examples in BIO, it seems that Universal Digestion is for 'digest non-food', while Cast-Iron Stomach is 'eat food that is non-nourishing/non-edible for humans' (with the option to trade the default group of edible foods for non-humans whose diets are as narrow as human ones).

But one of the bigger problems for me is figuring what levels correspond to what breadth of diet. Or how much cheaper other stuff is. E.g. there's mention of rotten vegetables and fuzzy blue-green meat, dishwater, sour milk and cellulose. But does sour milk count as Level 1 (i.e. 2/3 cost), Level 2 etc.? Ditto with other stuff. Of particular interest is carrion (assuming that normal foods count as okay too) - how do I benchmark the levels for that?
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Old 07-10-2014, 07:26 AM   #14
CraigM
 
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Default Re: Cast-Iron Stomach, RtMH, etc: Safely drinking methanol and other nastiness?

This is rather nitpicky, but in response to the assorted "this is/isn't a poison" comments: as any chemist will tell you, the dose makes the poison.

Arsenic is perfectly healthy in the right quantity; table salt is totally lethal in the wrong quantity. Poison/not-poison really isn't a meaningful distinction, chemically speaking.
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