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The Medical skill allows for the
treatment of wounds and diseases. It is broken into three cascades: Diagnosis, Trauma Aid, and
Surgery.
Diagnosis reflects a familiarity with
injuries, diseases, allergies, and other maladies, and their treatments.
Diagnosis also covers pharmaceutical knowledge that allows the
prescription of drugs and knowledge of their interactions.
Trauma Aid reflects expertise in first
aid, shock treatment and the stabilizing of patients for transfer to a
location where more comprehensive care is available. This is the cascade
of choice for combat medics and corpsmen.
Surgery is the aspect of the Medical
skill that allows repairs to be made to injured bodies, as well as more
advanced procedures such as transplants, implants, biological
modifications, and twisted applications like vivisection. This skill is
used in combination with Electronics skill to allow cybernetic implants.
To attempt a Medical task on an
unfamiliar form of life is a Formidable or Impossible task, depending
upon what is being attempted. If the organism is broadly similar to
terrestrial animals (i.e., a carbon-based, oxygen-breathing,
water-drinking creature), a Biology roll of at least Difficult level can
enable the task. If the creature is radically different from terrestrial
animals (for example, a creature that metabolizes ammonia or combusts in
an oxygen atmosphere), the Xeno-Biology skill must be used instead.
Failure of either of these rolls can indicate that there were no
materials (drugs, breathable atmosphere, plasma, saline solution, etc.)
that were compatible with the creature that could be used during the
procedure, or that figuring out how the creature worked took too long,
and it just died.
For purposes of Medical skill, humans
and Terran organisms are considered to be the default for the expertise
of human characters. The Aslan, Vargr, Droyne, K'kree, and Hivers are
all broadly terrestrial in that they have nerves, blood, internal
organs, etc., that work in similar fashions. While a Medical task on a
Vargr would not require a Biology enabling roll for a human doctor, a
task on any of the four other races would. Likewise, a doctor must make
a Biology roll to enable an operation on a human.
For the treatment of wounds, see the
Wounds and Damage section for details. Diseases are left to the
referee's discretion.
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