[Action] Medic lacks Physiology

[Anders]

The Medic in Action 1 (p. 13) lacks Physiology. In our reality, of course, doctors spend long hours learning anatomy and physiology. Is this an erratum or a concession to action-movie reality?

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Anders

The Medic in Action 1 (p. 13) lacks Physiology. In our reality, of course, doctors spend long hours learning anatomy and physiology. Is this an erratum or a concession to action-movie reality?

It's not on the Suitable Skills list either, so I think we can reasonably consider this to be the latter.

[Icelander]

Maybe the Physiology skill doesn't exist in Action! settings?

[Flyndaran]

I have never understood what the skill actually does. So at the least, it probably could be dumped for streamlining sake.

[shadowjack]

RAW, Physiology is the skill that eliminates the penalties for attending to an alien species… but there's no penalty for attending to your own species, so you only need it in a science-fiction (or fantasy) campaign. So, yeah, action movie realism.

(In my house rules, I instead use specialization-by-species for medical skills, and a "Xenobiology" technique to buy down the "similar physiology" penalty. Physiology skill itself becomes merely another optional specialization of Biology.)

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I have never understood what the skill actually does. So at the least, it probably could be dumped for streamlining sake.

There seems to be very little support of it, yeah. In Basic Set, you can use it to eliminate the penalties for physiology modifiers (provided you have the right specialization of Physiology), to give yourself a bonus to the HT roll for preventing the Bad Back Disadvantage from coming into play, or to default Surgery off of (albeit at -8). In Bio Tech, there are a few more uses - it's needed to successfully run a genetic simulation (at TL9; note you also need Forensics, and roll against the lower skill) or to write aging simulation software (at TL8), to take care of biogadgets (although that's just a specific case of the general use for eliminating physiology modifiers), to get a job as a specialist physician (you need both Physician and Physiology at 14+, and the monthly job roll is against the lower skill) and... that's it. It should probably be usable for a complementary skill roll on just about anything it defaults off of, however, meaning it can enhance Diagnosis, Physician, and Surgery. I'd also allow it to enhance First Aid (although any character with Physiology is more likely to have Physician), and an appropriately-related specialty could probably enhance or even stand in for certain uses of knowledge skills (an expert on reptile physiology can probably figure out if the reptilian monster you just killed is male or female, has a poisonous bite, is likely to be native to desert or swamp, and so forth by studying the corpse).

Originally Posted by shadowjack

RAW, Physiology is the skill that eliminates the penalties for attending to an alien species… but there's no penalty for attending to your own species, so you only need it in a science-fiction (or fantasy) campaign.

Or any campaign where you may need to use Body Language, Diagnosis, First Aid, Physician, Pressure Points, Pressure Secrets, or Surgery on a wild or tame animal. The target doesn't need to be sapient for physiology modifiers to apply. Granted, Veterinary can stand in for some of those (probably Diagnosis, First Aid, and Physician, but possibly Surgery as well), you need the right specialization of Physiology (although mammals, for example, should have a generous default with Physiology (Human)), and Biology-4 can stand in for Physiology in those cases.

Folding it into Biology does, of course, have some merit.

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Maybe the Physiology skill doesn't exist in Action! settings?

It's not on the list on p. 20-21 in the Action 1: Heroes book so that does certain seem to be the case.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Anders

The Medic in Action 1 (p. 13) lacks Physiology. In our reality, of course, doctors spend long hours learning anatomy and physiology.

Do medics study anatomy and physiology in such detail? I thought that basic MOS training for a medic took only about fourteen weeks, whereas basic medical training takes about six years.

[Anders]

Good point. I was thinking of doctors. But surely they must spend 200 hours on it?

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Anders

Good point. I was thinking of doctors. But surely they must spend 200 hours on it?

Doctors, probably, considering that what GURPS calls "Physiology" seems to include the complementary subject of anatomy. Medics, no. Medics' entire training (before specialising) is probably less than six hundred hours, and they have to learn to actually do stuff, not just understand one branch of biology.