Sydney Freedberg
11-10-2006, 07:54 AM
EDIT: The stats in this thread are working drafts. Please see the final versions on the Burning Empires Wiki (http://www.burningempires.com/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Lifepaths).
In an earlier thread (http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3326), I proposed:
Nurse
Time: 5 yrs
Resources: 0
Circles: 0
Stat bonus: +1 M
Skills: 5 pts: Field Dressing (Per/Agi), Pharmacology (Per), Bureaucracy (Wil/Per), Triage-wise (Per), Arrogant Doctor-wise (Per), Whining Patient-wise (Per)
Traits: 1 pt: Exhausted, Abused, Burned, Hard Hearted, Friendly Face
Requirements: any Student
To which Johnstone replied with a beautifully cynical sense of the setting:
The danger here is making it too "hospital ER". I think the medical lifepaths are rather thinly distributed, too (none in Court, or Commune seems a bit odd), but if there's going to be a Nurse LP in Freeman, and not Commune (so that its available on non-Commune worlds), it's gonna be more about minions implementing public health regimes - disease control, eugenics programs, passive (ie non-Anvil) euthanasia operations, distributing approved drugs to the overworked population, etc - than it is about really helping people.
It's the Commune lifepaths that you can make more "20th century", and Luke has less room to complain at you.
So, going pretty much directly from those suggestions, I've made up a medical lifepath for each of the settings that I thought still needed one, as well as a Public Health skill and a couple of new traits:
Nurse
Setting: Freeman
Time: 5 yrs
Resources: 0
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 5 pts: Field Dressing (Per/Agi), Pharmacology (Per), Bureaucracy (Wil/Per), Grossly inadequate clinic-wise (Per), No such thing as informed consent-wise (Per)
Traits: 1 pt: Exhausted, Burned, Hard Hearted, Just Following Orders, Friendly Face
Requirements: any Student
Court Physician
Setting: Stewardship & Court
Time: 6
Resources: 2
Circles: 2
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 7 pts: Soothing Platitudes (Wil), Etiquette (Wil/Per), Pharmacology (Per), Surgery (Per/Agi), Poison-wise (Per), Cosmetic surgery-wise (Per), Fertility treatment-wise (Per)
Traits: 2 pts: Discreet, Privileged Position, Steady Hands, Fop
Requirements: Mark of Privilege trait AND any doctor-type lifepath, Companion, Courtier, Foundation Student, Novitiate, or Adjutant Inquisitor
Camp Doctor
Setting: Anvil
Time: 5 yrs
Resources: 1
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: +1 Mental
Skills: 5 pts: Public Health (Wil/Per), Surgery (Per/Agi), Pharmacology (Per), Triage-wise (Per), Unsanitary conditions-wise (Per)
Traits: 2 pts: Can't Save Everyone, Seen It All, Steady Hands, Groundhog
Requirements: any doctor-type lifepath or Medic, Student, Foundation Student, or Cadet
Health Official
Setting: Commune
Time: 6 yrs
Resources: 1
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 4 pts: Politics of health-wise (Per), Public Health (Wil/Per), Pharmacology (Per), Surgery (Per/Agi), Bureaucracy (Wil/Per)
Traits: 1 pt: Public Servant, City Official, Idealist, Frustrated
Requirements: Coroner, any Student, or any doctor-type lifepath
Quack
Setting: Outcast & Criminal
Time: 3
Resources: 0
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 4 pts: Unsanitary conditions-wise (Per), Illegal drug-wise (Per), Poison-wise (Per), Streetwise (Per)
Traits: 2 pts: Blacklisted, Wrongly Accused, Drunk, Addicted, Amorous
Requirements: any Doctor-type lifepath
Public Health (Wil/Per)
The practice of public health requires the ability not only to identify sources of disease -- improperly dug latrines, contaminated drinking water, scuttling vermin -- but also to beg or bully the exposed population or its leaders into doing something about them. It is inherently a macro-level skill for use in building scenes.
To properly immunize troops or travellers before a visit to a disease-ridden area: Ob 1 for an area that has been thoroughly surveyed for disease; Ob 2 for a cursorily surveyed area; Ob 3 for an area known only from travellers' reports.
To survey an area to determine its endemic disease organisms and how to safeguard against them: Ob 3 for a cursory survey, Ob 4 for a thorough survey.
To identify the source of an infection: Ob 2 for natural outbreaks of disease, Ob 3 for deliberately spread infections such as bioweapons or Vaylen.
To substantially improve living conditions: in a military camp, Ob 2; in a refugee camp, Ob 3; in a sprawling slum, Ob 4.
To spread disease deliberately: Ob 3.
To find and either utilize or sterilize bodies of water suitable for Naiven to inhabit while awaiting hosts: Ob 2 on a predominantly water world, Ob 3 on a predominantly land world.
Modifiers to all of the above: World is Non-Life Supporting (which means disease organisms are confined to artificial habitats), -1 Ob; Alien Life-Supporting, +1; Ob; Zero Index, +1 Ob; Sub Index, +2 Ob.
Practice Cycle: 6 ms. Hrs/day: 4r/8d/16c
Technology: Yes, tools to take environmental samples and blood samples, and to determine what diseases they contain.
(I think Public Health might even work as a skill to roll for Infection-scale maneuvers, but that's ground I don't feel confident treading on).
New traits:
Can't Save Everyone (C-O) 3 pts
Call-on for Surgery or Field Dressing when you have more casualties than you can treat and deliberately decide to let some of them die.
Discreet (Dt) 3 pts
Adds two successes to any body of argument where the character is trying to avoid divulging information about a client.
In an earlier thread (http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3326), I proposed:
Nurse
Time: 5 yrs
Resources: 0
Circles: 0
Stat bonus: +1 M
Skills: 5 pts: Field Dressing (Per/Agi), Pharmacology (Per), Bureaucracy (Wil/Per), Triage-wise (Per), Arrogant Doctor-wise (Per), Whining Patient-wise (Per)
Traits: 1 pt: Exhausted, Abused, Burned, Hard Hearted, Friendly Face
Requirements: any Student
To which Johnstone replied with a beautifully cynical sense of the setting:
The danger here is making it too "hospital ER". I think the medical lifepaths are rather thinly distributed, too (none in Court, or Commune seems a bit odd), but if there's going to be a Nurse LP in Freeman, and not Commune (so that its available on non-Commune worlds), it's gonna be more about minions implementing public health regimes - disease control, eugenics programs, passive (ie non-Anvil) euthanasia operations, distributing approved drugs to the overworked population, etc - than it is about really helping people.
It's the Commune lifepaths that you can make more "20th century", and Luke has less room to complain at you.
So, going pretty much directly from those suggestions, I've made up a medical lifepath for each of the settings that I thought still needed one, as well as a Public Health skill and a couple of new traits:
Nurse
Setting: Freeman
Time: 5 yrs
Resources: 0
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 5 pts: Field Dressing (Per/Agi), Pharmacology (Per), Bureaucracy (Wil/Per), Grossly inadequate clinic-wise (Per), No such thing as informed consent-wise (Per)
Traits: 1 pt: Exhausted, Burned, Hard Hearted, Just Following Orders, Friendly Face
Requirements: any Student
Court Physician
Setting: Stewardship & Court
Time: 6
Resources: 2
Circles: 2
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 7 pts: Soothing Platitudes (Wil), Etiquette (Wil/Per), Pharmacology (Per), Surgery (Per/Agi), Poison-wise (Per), Cosmetic surgery-wise (Per), Fertility treatment-wise (Per)
Traits: 2 pts: Discreet, Privileged Position, Steady Hands, Fop
Requirements: Mark of Privilege trait AND any doctor-type lifepath, Companion, Courtier, Foundation Student, Novitiate, or Adjutant Inquisitor
Camp Doctor
Setting: Anvil
Time: 5 yrs
Resources: 1
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: +1 Mental
Skills: 5 pts: Public Health (Wil/Per), Surgery (Per/Agi), Pharmacology (Per), Triage-wise (Per), Unsanitary conditions-wise (Per)
Traits: 2 pts: Can't Save Everyone, Seen It All, Steady Hands, Groundhog
Requirements: any doctor-type lifepath or Medic, Student, Foundation Student, or Cadet
Health Official
Setting: Commune
Time: 6 yrs
Resources: 1
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 4 pts: Politics of health-wise (Per), Public Health (Wil/Per), Pharmacology (Per), Surgery (Per/Agi), Bureaucracy (Wil/Per)
Traits: 1 pt: Public Servant, City Official, Idealist, Frustrated
Requirements: Coroner, any Student, or any doctor-type lifepath
Quack
Setting: Outcast & Criminal
Time: 3
Resources: 0
Circles: 1
Stat bonus: none
Skills: 4 pts: Unsanitary conditions-wise (Per), Illegal drug-wise (Per), Poison-wise (Per), Streetwise (Per)
Traits: 2 pts: Blacklisted, Wrongly Accused, Drunk, Addicted, Amorous
Requirements: any Doctor-type lifepath
Public Health (Wil/Per)
The practice of public health requires the ability not only to identify sources of disease -- improperly dug latrines, contaminated drinking water, scuttling vermin -- but also to beg or bully the exposed population or its leaders into doing something about them. It is inherently a macro-level skill for use in building scenes.
To properly immunize troops or travellers before a visit to a disease-ridden area: Ob 1 for an area that has been thoroughly surveyed for disease; Ob 2 for a cursorily surveyed area; Ob 3 for an area known only from travellers' reports.
To survey an area to determine its endemic disease organisms and how to safeguard against them: Ob 3 for a cursory survey, Ob 4 for a thorough survey.
To identify the source of an infection: Ob 2 for natural outbreaks of disease, Ob 3 for deliberately spread infections such as bioweapons or Vaylen.
To substantially improve living conditions: in a military camp, Ob 2; in a refugee camp, Ob 3; in a sprawling slum, Ob 4.
To spread disease deliberately: Ob 3.
To find and either utilize or sterilize bodies of water suitable for Naiven to inhabit while awaiting hosts: Ob 2 on a predominantly water world, Ob 3 on a predominantly land world.
Modifiers to all of the above: World is Non-Life Supporting (which means disease organisms are confined to artificial habitats), -1 Ob; Alien Life-Supporting, +1; Ob; Zero Index, +1 Ob; Sub Index, +2 Ob.
Practice Cycle: 6 ms. Hrs/day: 4r/8d/16c
Technology: Yes, tools to take environmental samples and blood samples, and to determine what diseases they contain.
(I think Public Health might even work as a skill to roll for Infection-scale maneuvers, but that's ground I don't feel confident treading on).
New traits:
Can't Save Everyone (C-O) 3 pts
Call-on for Surgery or Field Dressing when you have more casualties than you can treat and deliberately decide to let some of them die.
Discreet (Dt) 3 pts
Adds two successes to any body of argument where the character is trying to avoid divulging information about a client.