Will It Work For You? The different sapient (and non-sapient) species have different biologies. Medical substances and techniques that work on one species may have different effects on another – it might not work at all, or may be extremely harmful. Since most medical research has been done by Humans for Humans, it is the Humans that have access to the most sophisticated healing technology. Organisms which are more biologically similar to Humans will often be able to benefit from their medicines, but the greater the evolutionary difference the more likely that any given medical method will not work. The class of creatures on which a medical method is effective is often listed in the description. The following list gives descriptions of the groups of taxonomic closeness to Humans that can be found in the animal world. Deuterostomes: One of the two main groupings of complex animal life (the other being protostomes), the deuterostomes found on Earth include the chordates (below) and echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers). Tweechi and Laer are both deuterostomes. Chordates: Chordates are animals that have a dorsal nerve cord and a few other common traits (often only observed during embryonic development). Vertebrates are chordates, as are certain other worm-like creatures found on Earth. Chordates are not native to Earth, and may be found on other worlds. No other sapient species in the Verge is a chordate. Vertebrates: Vertebrates are chordates where the dorsal nerve column is enclosed in stiff, segmented, often bony, vertebrae. Vertebrates evolved on Earth, and are only found on other planets when taken there by Humans. Tetrapods (see below), ray-finned fish, lobe-finned fish, and cartilaginous fish (such as sharks and rays) are all vertebrates. Tetrapods: Tetrapods are a radiation of vertebrates that, at one point in their evolutionary history, adapted to move about on land. The tetrapods include amphibians (such as frogs and salamanders) and amniotes (see below). Amniotes: Amniotes are tetrapods that further adapted to life on land by developing an impermeable skin and reproductive methods that are not tied to water (including the amniotic egg, for which they are named). The major groups of amniotes are the reptiles (including modern snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodilians, and birds), and the synapsids (whose only modern surviving members are mammals). Mammals: Mammals are amniotes with hair and which feed their young with milk secreted from their breasts (along with other details of anatomy of the jaw and brain). Notable mammals are dogs, cats, horses, cattle, rats, mice, squirrels, bats, and whales; but there are many others. All enhanced animals are mammals. Primates: Primates include the apes and monkeys, as well as lemurs, tarsiers, and lorisoids. They have forward facing eyes, grasping hands with fingernails, and many are adapted for life in the trees. Great Apes: The great apes are large, tail-less primates. Pannovas and Humans are great apes, as are the sub-sapient orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees. For broad classes of methods that have different forms that can be used on many different species, it is often most useful to define the taxonomic distance over which the medical method works. To do so, it is convenient to use the taxonomic rank of Linnean classification: Domain separates known life at the largest scales – eukaryotes (all multicellular organisms, and some unicellular life), bacteria, and archaea. Kingdom arranges living things according to very broad strokes – animals, plants, and fungus. Phylum divides a kingdom up into the next size of classification. Among animals, the chordates, arthropods, annelids, and molluscs are significant phyla. Class further splits phyla. Among chordates, mammals, ray-finned fish, and cartilaginous fish are examples of classes. Order is a subdivision of a class. The bats, primates, carnivorans, and rodents are all orders of the mammals. Family is the next level of classification within an order. For example, cats, dogs, weasels, and bears are all families within the carnivora. Genus are groups of similar species within a family. Among cats, the panthers, lynx, cheetah, cougar, and felis cats (small wild and domestic cats) are all genera. Species make up a group of individual organisms that share common traits and (mostly) form a reproductively closed set (meaning that reproduction generally occurs within a species, but not outside of it – although there are messy exceptions that confound tidy categorization). For example, among the panthers, lions, tigers, jaguars, and leopards are all species. Sometimes only one species makes up an entire genus, such as the cougar or the cheetah.

Pharmaceuticals

Most pharmaceuticals are also toxins at higher doses. If administered by someone with competence in the Heal skill, or taken as a prescription according to the directions of someone with the Heal skill, it can be assumed that the medication simply causes its normal described benefits without needing to worry about the Dose, Potency rolls, healing, and the like. Otherwise, assume a DC 5 to get the dose right to enjoy the benefits of the medicine without suffering adverse symptoms.

• Altitude Medication: A dose of altitude medication reduces the Potency of altitude sickness by 4.
  • Dose: -2 for one pill.
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: 10 minutes.
  • Period: 8 hours.
  • Cycles: 1.
  • Healing: value of [2-Vigor] hours.
  • Symptoms: Keep track of fractional Fatigue points. The Potency of altitude sickness checks is reduced by score of [Fatigue points taken] + 6.

  Price: $1.5 for a container of 30 pills.

• Analgesic: At full strength, an analgesic pill eliminates all feelings of pain. Those under its effects will not suffer from stunning or impairment. However, this comes at a cost. Without the stimulus of pain, your own actions are likely to injure you and make any injury worse.

  If you do anything other than rest, the DC to avoid bleeding from any injury you have increases by 2. Every time you take an action that costs a Breath Point, make a Vigor check against the DC of the injury to avoid re-opening the wound and causing bleeding at the original rate of that wound and your DC to avoid bleeding cycle goes up by 4 instead of 2.

  Whenever you take an action that costs a Breath Point, make a DC 5 Coordination check or cause your own unarmed damage to yourself. If the action costs two breath Points, the DC increases to 7. If you use Extra Effort, the DC goes up again to 9 for +1 to Brawn or 11 for +2 to Brawn.

  If you are injured while under the influence of analgesic, you might not notice it. Make a DC 6 Awareness check to realize you are wounded.

  The DC to heal any wound goes up by 2 if at any time during the healing interval you were under the influence of an analgesic. If you took an action that cost a breath point while under the influence of the analgesic, the DC goes up by 4 instead.

  Analgesics are only legally available with a prescription. If taken as a pill, they take effect in 10 minutes. If injected into a vein, they take effect in one combat round. Either way, the effect lasts for 12 hours.

  • Dose: -1 for one pill.
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: 10 minutes.
  • Period: 8 hours.
  • Cycles: 1.
  • Healing: value of [4-Vigor] hours.
  • Symptoms:
    • At 0.1 Fatigue up to 0.2 Fatigue, the subject's sense of pain is dulled and penalties from impairment are reduced by 1 while the DC to avoid stunning drops by 2.
    • At 0.2 Fatigue up to 0.3 Fatigue, the impairment penalty decreases by 2 and the and the stunning DC by 4.
    • At 0.3 Fatigue up to 0.4 Fatigue, the impairment penalty decreases by 3 and the stunning DC by 6.
    • At 0.4 Fatigue up to 0.5 Fatigue, the impairment penalty decreases by 4 and the stunning DC by 8.
    • At 0.5 Fatigue or more, the full effect of the medicine kicks in as described above.

  Works On: Tetrapods
  Price: $2 for a package of 12 pills.

• Antidote: An antidote is a medication that chemically neutralizes a specific toxin. Each antidote only neutralizes one specific toxin or a closely related class of toxins. For example, separate antidotes are available for sleep gas, paralysis gas and venom, nerve gas, Gummi neurotoxic venom, Gummi phototoxic venom, and Gummi dissolver venom. Different kinds of toxic animals usually require different antidotes – so that pufferfish neurotoxins, scorpion neurotoxins, cone snail neurotoxins, and cobra neurotoxins all require different antidotes even though they are all neurotoxins.

  An antidote takes effect in ten minutes if taken as a pill, or in one combat round if injected into a vein. Fatigue points from the antidote and its specific toxin mutually cancel each other out at a 1:3 ratio (that is, if you take one Fatigue from the antidote and you have 3 or more Fatigue from the toxin, the one point of antidote Fatigue goes away along with three points of toxin Fatigue). Against other toxins, the Fatigue adds normally.

  • Dose: +0 for one pill
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: standard for method of exposure.
  • Period: 4 hours.
  • Cycles: 1.
  • Healing: value of [2-Vigor] hours.

  Price: $2 for a package of 30 pills.

• Antihistamine: An antihistamine dose will give +2 to Vigor to avoid alergic reactions when used by true vertebrates. Antihistamines are avaiable over the counter.
  • Dose: -3 for one pill.
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: 10 minutes.
  • Period: 8 hours.
  • Cycles: 1.
  • Healing: value of [2-Vigor] hours.
  • Symptoms: At 0.1 Fatigue up to 0.2 Fatigue, the subject will have +1 to Vigor checks to avoid alergic reactions. At 0.2 Fatigue or more, the bonus increases to +2.

  Works On: Vertebrates
  Price: $0.5 for a package of 15 pills.

• Antiseptic: A topical ointment. Applied to an open non-penetrating wound, it prevents that wound from getting infected.

  Price: $1.5

• Cure: Common infectious diseases have over-the-counter cures available. Less common infectious and cancreous diseases have cures available by prescription (largely because they require a specialist to diagnose the correct disease so the right cure is given). Each disease requires its own cure, a particular cure is designed to genetically attack one particular pathogen. New or unknown diseases will not have cures available.

  While taking a cure, the medication itself gets rolls to overcome the disease in parallel with the Vigor checks of the patient. Typically, the cure rolls with an effective Vigor of +6, which affects both the frequency of healing rolls and the DC of Potency checks, although this effective Vigor can change with the disease and the particular cure. Cycles resisted by the cure count toward the cycles needed to end the disease, but failures do not.

  Because a cure is specifically tailored to remove a given disease, there is always a chance for the cure to work and end the infection. The Potency DC is never more than 12 for a cure, and five resistance checks in a row by the cure will always stop the disease. The Period of a disease's Cycle for the cure checks is never longer than three days.

  • Dose: -2 for one pill.
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: 10 minutes.
  • Period: 1 diurnal (day)
  • Cycles: 1.
  • Healing: value of [2-Vigor] hours.
  • Symptoms: The cure gets an effective score of (score of [amount of Fatigue taken] + 6) to defeat the disease, counting fractional Fatigue.

  Price: $2 for a container of 30 pills.

• Decompression Medication: A dose of decompression medication will give a +10 bonus to Vigor to avoid the effects of decompression sickness; corresponding to an increase of the safe rate of decompression from 4 kPa per kilosecond (15 kPa per hour) to 100 kPa per kilosecond (400 kPa per hour).
  • Dose: -2 for one pill.
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: 10 minutes.
  • Period: 8 hours.
  • Cycles: 1.
  • Healing: value of [2-Vigor] hours.
  • Symptoms: Keep track of fractional Fatigue points. The subject gains a bonus to Vigor for Potency checks of decompression sickness of score of [Fatigue points taken] + 12, to a maximum of +10.

  Price: $1.5 for a container of 30 pills.

• Healing Stimulator: A healing stimulator pill will give +2 to Vigor for the purpose of healing wounds, both for determining the frequency of rolls and overcoming the DC. Healing stimulators are available over the counter.
  • Dose: -3 for one pill.
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: 10 minutes.
  • Period: 1 day.
  • Cycles: 1.
  • Healing: value of [4-Vigor] hours.
  • Symptoms: At 0.1 Fatigue up to 0.2 Fatigue, the subject will have +1 to Vigor for the puprose of healing wounds. At 0.2 Fatigue or more, the bonus increases to +2. These bonuses are lost after the listed period is up. After the period is over, all fractional accumulated Fatigue can be neglected.

  Works On: Vertebrates
  Price: $0.5 for a container of 50 pills.

• Hypercapnia Medication: A dose of hypercapnia medication reduces the Potency of the long term effects of carbon dioxide poisoning by 4.
  • Dose: -2 for one pill.
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: 10 minutes.
  • Period: 8 hours.
  • Cycles: 1.
  • Healing: value of [2-Vigor] hours.
  • Symptoms: Keep track of fractional Fatigue points. The Potency of the long term effects of carbon dioxide poisoning is reduced by score of [Fatigue points taken] + 6.

  Price: $1.5 for a container of 30 pills.

• Melanin Stimulating Lotion: Where applied to skin, this lotion stimulates the local production of melanin, resulting in a tan or darkening of skin pigmentation that lasts for approximately 2.5 megaseconds (a month). This is used to provide long term protection against ultraviolet radiation, or for cosmetic purposes. Different grades of lotion are available, providing different strengths of effect from a slight change in shade to turning even pale skin a dark ebony color. There is a current fad on New Carolina to use tanning lotion to produce temporary tatoos.

  Tanning lotion only works on individuals who posess the genes for melanin production. People who lack these genes (albinos) get no benefit from melanin stimulating lotion, although if they undergo gene surgery to correct their condition the lotion will work as normal.

  Mass: 0.2 kg for a tube that gives five full body applications to a Size +0 individual.
  Price: $0.5 for a tube that gives five full body applications to a Size +0 individual.

• Painkiller: At safe doses, a painkiller will reduce the penalty from impairment by 1 and decreases the DC to avoid stunning or overcome the pain of impairment by 2. It takes ten minutes to take effect, and lasts for 12 hours. Painkillers are available over the counter.
  • Dose: -3 for one pill.
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: 10 minutes.
  • Period: 8 hours.
  • Cycles: 1.
  • Healing: value of [4-Vigor] hours.
  • Symptoms: At 0.2 Fatigue or more, the subject's sense of pain is dulled and penalties from impairment are reduced by 1 while the DC to avoid stunning or overcoming impairment drops by 2.

  Works On: Tetrapods
  Price: $0.5 for a container of 50 pills.

• Pressure Narcosis Medication: A dose of pressure narcosis medication gives a -4 RS to the ambient pressure for determining the narcotic effects.
  • Dose: -2 for one pill.
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: 10 minutes.
  • Period: 8 hours.
  • Cycles: 1.
  • Healing: value of [2-Vigor] hours.
  • Symptoms: Keep track of fractional Fatigue points. The subject reduces the effective pressure for determining narcotic effects -(score of [Fatigue points taken]) - 6 RS, to a maximum of -4 RS.

  Price: $1.5 for a container of 30 pills.

• Procoagulant: A procoagulant helps with blood clotting. At safe doses, it gives a +2 to all Vigor checks to avoid bleeding. It is only effective for mammals. Overdoses act like hemotoxins, dangerously thickening the blood of any true vertebrate. Procoagulants are available over the counter.
  • Dose: -3 for one pill.
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: 10 minutes.
  • Period: 4 hours.
  • Cycles: 1.
  • Healing: value of [2-Vigor] days.
  • Symptoms: During the period of the drug's cycle, the drug will help to stop bleeding from wounds. At 0.1 Fatigue up to 0.2 Fatigue, the subject will have +1 to Vigor checks to avoid bleeding. At 0.2 Fatigue or more, the bonus increases to +2. These bonuses are lost after the listed period is up. After the period is over, all fractional accumulated Fatigue can be neglected (only full fatigue points represent internal microclots that thicken the blood).

  Works On: Mammals
  Price: $0.5 for a container of 30 pills.

• Radiation Treatment: Taken after exposure to ionizing radiation but before the delayed effects set in, or prophylactically up to 24 hours before exposure to ionizing radiation, radiation treatment medication can assist the body in recovery. Reduce the Potency of the radiation to 4 for both delayed and initial effects. The treatment will also reduce any chronic effects from the exposure. Radiation treatment medication is available over the counter.
  • Dose: -1 for one pill.
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: 10 minutes.
  • Period: 20 hours.
  • Cycles: 1.
  • Healing: value of [4-Vigor] hours.
  • Symptoms:
    • At 0.2 Fatigue up to 0.3 Fatigue, reduce Potency of radiation exposure by 1
    • At 0.3 Fatigue up to 0.4 Fatigue, reduce Potency of radiation exposure by 2
    • At 0.4 Fatigue up to 0.5 Fatigue, reduce Potency of radiation exposure by 3
    • At 0.5 Fatigue or more, the full effect of the medicine kicks in as described above.

  Price: $3 for a container of 15 pills.

• Sleep Aid: A sleep aid pill lets the subject get a full night's sleep. It takes effect in half an hour, and the effects last for eight hours. The subject will be drowsy (-1 to Coordination, Smarts, Awareness, and Spirit) if awake while the medication is active. Sleep aid medication is available over the counter.
  • Dose: +0 for one pill.
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: 10 minutes.
  • Period: 2 hours.
  • Cycles: 3.
  • Healing: value of [3-Vigor] hours.
  • Symptoms: At 0.5 Fatigue or more, the subject is drowsy and at -1 to Coordination, Smarts, Awareness, and Spirit. A drowsy subject is likely to fall asleep. Sleeping subjects can be awoken, but will be drowsy and must roll against Spirit every 30 minutes or fall asleep again. At the first full Fatigue point and every Fatigue increment thereafter, the subject is at an additional penalty of -1 to Coordination, Smarts, Awareness, and Spirit.

  Works On: Class specific
  Price: $1 for a container of 30 pills.

• Stimulant: One safe dose of stimulant will leave the user feeling energized. Sleep will be impossible for the duration, and the user's penalties for Fatigue are reduced by 1 (the user still suffers the full symptoms of any toxins, however). At higher levels of Fatigue, the user may not notice that he is impaired (DC 6 Awareness check) even though he is suffering penalties or near collapse. A stimulant pill takes ten minutes to take effect, an injection into a vein will take effect in one combat turn. The effects last for four hours. Mild stimulants are available over the counter.

  Different sapient species have different stimulants, except that the great apes (including Humans and Pannovas) can use the same stimulants. Using a stimulant that is safe and effective to one species on a different species from a completely different branch of the phylogenetic tree of life can have unpredictable consequences. If there is any effect at all there is usually some stimulant effect, but the doseage may be wrong potentially causing dangerous levels of overdose.

  The rules for stimulants given here can also be used for coffee, tea, and other caffinated beverages when consumed by Humans and Pannovas, with a typical dose of -2 for one cup. Caffeine is toxic to other species, including non-ape enhanced animals (+5 to Dose, symptoms occur at 1st Fatigue increment rather than at sub-incremental levels)

  • Dose: -2 for one pill, variable for an injection depending on how much is in the syringe.
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: standard for method of exposure.
  • Cycles: 1.
  • Healing: value of [4-Vigor] hours.
  • Symptoms: At 0.2 Fatigue or more, sleep will be impossible and the user's penalties for Fatigue are reduced by 1.

  Works On: Family to phylum specific (depending on variety)
  Price: $0.5 for a container of 30 pills.

• Suspendant: Suspendant can be delivered as a pill, injection, or as a gas via a breathe mask (using effervescent capsules to generate the inhaled mist). It puts its subject into a state of suspended animation. The subject will fall unconscious and show a near cessation of bodily and metabolic functions. In this state, it will require a DC 6 check of Heal skill + Smarts to determine that the subject is not, in fact, dead. All biological functions occur 30 times more slowly (a +10 Row Shift). This includes the effects of injuries, drugs, poisons, diseases, bleeding, worsening of injuries, and other medical conditions, and allows the subject to consume 30 times less water, food, and oxygen. Overdoses can be deadly, but because the subject enters suspended animation before death it can take a long time for her condition to worsen to the point of death.

  Suspendant is only available to licensed doctors and veterinarians, or via prescription.

  • Dose: +2 for one pill, syringe, or gas cylinder.
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: standard for method of exposure.
  • Period: 1 minute, or the Delay, whichever is longer.
  • Cycles: 5.
  • Healing: value of [-Vigor] hours.
  • Symptoms: -1 to Coordination, Smarts, Awareness, and Spirit; -1 to Coordination, Smarts, Awareness, and Spirit at every Fatigue increment. Once at mild shock, the subject enters suspended animation and the period and healing time both increase by a factor of 30.

  Works On: Vertebrates (others will be poisoned, but not suspended)
  Price: $1 for a package of 10 pills or effervescent capsules, or 3 syringes.

• Tranquilizer: A tranquilizer produces drowsiness at low doses and unconsciousness and amnesia at higher doses.
  • Dose: +2 for one pill or syringe.
  • Potency: 10
  • Delay: 10 minutes for a pill, 1 combat round for injection into a vein or with a penetrating injury, 1 minute if injected as a non-penetrating injury.
  • Period: 1 minute, or the Delay, whichever is longer.
  • Cycles: 5.
  • Healing: value of [-Vigor] hours.
  • Symptoms: -1 to Coordination, Smarts, Awareness, and Spirit; -1 to Coordination, Smarts, Awareness, and Spirit at every Fatigue increment. At the first Fatigue increment, the victim will not remember events that occured while he has Fatigue increments. At the third Fatigue increment, the victim falls unconscious.

  Works On: Phylum specific (cross phyla use does not give tranquilizing effect, but maintains toxicity)
  Price: $3 for a container of 30 pills or 10 syringes.

• Vaccine: A vaccine helps to prevent a single infectious disease by training the body's immune system to fight that disease. Starting a week after receiving the vaccine, the subject gains a bonus to Vigor for the purpose of avoiding, resisting, and recovering from the specified disease. The actual bonus depends on both the disease and the vaccine, but +4 is typical for a generic disease/vaccine combo.

  Works On: Vertebrates
  Price: $1.5

Medical Equipment

• Auto-Doc: This is a full medical robot, equipped with robot limbs designed for handling patients, diagnosis, and surgery. It moves on a wheeled chasis. An auto-doc can be tele-operated by a user, allowing them to use their Heal skill on remote patients. Alternately, it can be operated by an AI running expert systems that allow it to diagnose, nurse, and perform surgery.

  Power: 200 W
  Mass: 80 kg
  Price: $10 k

• Bandage Spray: A spray can filled with fluid that seals over injured skin and adheres together sections of open wounds. A nozzle extender allows the bandage spray to be applied to deeply penetrating wounds. A coat of spray will act as basic bandaging, and can be used for surgery to close and seal wounds. It also contains bio-active chemicals to promote healing and cellular regeneration. With any successful Heal skill check against the basic Injury DC of the wound, this can greatly facilitate healing – apply -5 RS to the time needed between healing checks. In addition, apply a +2 bonus to Heal and Vigor checks to avoid infection and bleeding and to heal the wound.

  Each can of spray is sufficient for treating one +12 Injury on Size +0 patient. For patients of different Size, RS the number of wounds treated by the patient's Size × 2; for injuries of different severity, use the usual rules for combining scores. For most small wounds, tracking the amount of bandage spray expended can be neglected.

  Mass: 0.25 kg
  Price: $1.5

• Biosynthesis Reactor: A biosynthesis reactor allows pharmaceuticals to be produced in the field on demand. New cures or antidotes can be prototyped, and a pharmacy can manufacture medications as needed without maintaining a large inventory. Synthetic blood, artificial microbes, and other biological and biochemical products can also be made on demand. Product can be produced at a rate of $1 per kilosecond (15 minutes) from basic feedstock costing 75% the commercial price of the finished product, with an additional kilosecond to change between the final products produced. In addition to medical supplies, a biosynthesis reactor can grow other useful biological products, such as wood and silk

  Power: 30 W
  Mass: 50 kg
  Price: $25 k

• Brain Scanner: A brain scanner consists of a helmet with numerous projections that fits over the subject's head connected to a base unit by a cord. It will map brain connections and indicate brain activity. A user can get an idea of his subject's basic personality, psychiatric conditions, current mental state, and determine if external influences (e.g. fatigue, medications, toxins) are having an influence on the subject's psyche. The scanner cannot directly read memories, but by exposing the subject to stimuli (such as images or verbal descriptions of things which may or may not have happened) the user can determine if the subject finds the stimuli familiar. The scanner can also be used to determine if the subject is being truthful or deceptive. Using a brain scanner is a test of the user's Use Gear (medical) skill + Smarts against a DC of 6. If the subject is uncooperative, he can resist by forcing a second roll as a contest of the subject's Sprit + Meditate skill against the user's Use Gear (medical) skill + Smarts.

  Although cumbersome, a trained user wearing a brain scanner can use it in the same fashion as a neural pickup.

  Brain scanners that work on Gummis cannot be used on other species, and vice versa.

  Power: 30 W
  Mass: 30 kg
  Price: $20 k

• Decontamination Hut: A vehicle-portable unit for decontamination. When activated, the shelter self-erects. Victims to be treated are stripped bare, washed down with sprays of chemical foams that will kill most microbes and bind to particulates and external chemicals, then scrubbed hard and rinsed off. The hut is illuminated by ultraviolet lamps that help to kill microbial life. The hut itself is made out of materials that catalytically degrade biological material and many chemicals under ultraviolet illumination. The victim's clothes are incinerated, as are other pieces of equipment that cannot be reliably decontaminated themselves.

  Decontaminating a victim takes 10 minutes and requires the assistence of a person or robot to do the scrubbing and washing. The hut has enough decontamination foam and water to treat 20 Size +0 patients. Victims treated can be assumed to have all external biological organisms, toxins, and radioactive material removed. Decontamination will not help against any toxins, pathogens, or radioactive material that has already entered the body (such as via inhalation, ingestion, or though open wounds), nor will it do anything against exposure to ionizing radiation. (Ionizing radiation consists of the "rays" that emanate from a source and interact with the body to cause sickness. It cannot be removed from someone because it has already passed and the damage has been done. Radioactive material is matter that emits radiation; radioactive contamination is radioactive material where it is not wanted – often in the form of tiny dust-like particles that stick to skin and clothing. If not removed it will continue to emit radiation that can cause sickness, and can spread to other places or find its way inside the body where it can cause greater harm.)

  People doing the decontaminating should wear biohazard suits. When dealing with potential radioactive contamination, a suite of radiation detectors is strongly suggested.

  Power: 10 W
  Mass: 120 kg. 30 kg for a refill of the expendible supplies.
  Price: $500. $5 for a refill of the expendible supplies.

• Diagnosis Bed: A diagnosis bed is a bed the patient lies on, with attached sensory equipment. It has the same equipment as a medscanner (see below), including biochemical assays, genome sequencing, and vital signs monitoring. Its ultrasound and MRI are boast higher resolution to give a crisper image of the patient's insides. Diagnostic tasks with a diagnosis bed give a +2 to Use Gear (medical) skill because of the equipment quality.

  Mass: 60 kg
  Price: $20 k

• Doctor's Bag: A portable bag or case of basic diagnostic and first aid equipment, for performing medicine in the field. In addition to including everything in a first aid kit, it includes several electrotourniquets, hypodermic injector, a reactive bandage, and nerve block units; as well as basic equipment for diagnosis (stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, oxygen saturation monitor, otoscope, pen light, tongue depressors, swabs, sample containers, assay boards, reflex hammer, and so forth) and common pharmeceuticals (assume one container of altitude medication, analgesic, antihistamine, antiseptic, decompression medication, healing stimulator, hypercapnea medication, painkiller, pressure narcosis medication, procoagulant, radiation treatment, sleep aid, suspendant, and tranquilizer. The referee may allow a Smarts + Heal skill check to see if the doctor packed any particular additional medication, such as an appropriate cure or antidote, with a DC set by the unlikeliness of preparing for that eventuality).

  Mass: 5 kg
  Price: $40

• Electrotourniquet: A set of electrodes attached to a small SMES. When properly applied and activated, they cause blood vessels to contract shut, limiting bleeding. With a Smarts + Heal skill check against the basic Injury DC, the bleeding of a wound can be stopped.

  Price: $0.5

• First Aid Kit: Bandages, bandage spray, antiseptic, tape, gauze, painkillers, gloves, ice packs, forceps, scisors, and the like, for basic care of wounds. A fresh first aid kit will have one syringe and three pills of suspendant.

  Mass: 1 kg
  Price: $5

• Hibernation Unit: A hibernation capsule is a coffin-shaped device with a bed inside and readout displays on the front. A cooperative, unconscious, restrained, or helpless subject placed inside the unit can be put into hibernation with a DC 6 check of Smarts + Use Gear (medical). When in hibernation, the subject's body functions nearly cease. The subject does not need food or fluids, and can survive for up to a day without oxygen. The effects of injuries, drugs, poisons, diseases, and other medical conditions are suspended, neither worsening nor recovering. The subject will be unconscious, and will not age during the period of hibernation.

  Power: 50 W
  Mass: 50 kg
  Price: $35 k

• Hypodermic Injector: This piece of equipment is used to inject drugs under the skin of a patient. The adanced versions used in the Verge no longer use needles, rather using a flexible sliding and reciprocating tube system similar to the proboscis of a mosquito, for a painless injection. For an intravenous injection, the patient must be cooperative, restrained, helpless, or unconscious; and the person administering the injection must make his Heal skill + Smarts check against a DC of 2. Intravenous injections normally have a delay of only one combat round. Otherwise, the injector can deliver the medicine or drug subcutaneously or intramuscularly, with a delay of 100 seconds.

  Mass: 0.1 kg
  Price: $1

• Life Support Pack: This backpack-sized device will, if placed on the chest of a critically injured or ill patient, maintain respiration, circulation, and an open airway for as long as it has power. Robotic limbs will unfold that periodically compress the chest and abdomen, and intubate the patient to maintain a clear airway and supply air to the lungs. Defibrillator paddles can restart a stopped heart. If necessary, the device can attach to major vessels to artificially pump blood. Even if the chest is destroyed, the brain can be kept alive (although unconscious) artificially by pumping oxygenated blood through the carotid artery and jugular veins.

  Power: 30 W
  Mass: 12 kg
  Price: $5 k

• Medscanner: A portable medical diagnostic laboratory, about the size of a large book. It performs biochemical assays of body fluids, full-genome sequencing (including the genomes of viruses and bacteria, which can be matched against a built-in database), monitors heart rate and blood pressure, includes an electronic stethoscope for listening to breathing and etc., and has a small ultrasound scanner and weak-field MRI with advanced signal processing software.

  Mass: 1.5 kg
  Price: $800

• Nerve Block: A nerve block is a postage-stamp sized device that can be affixed to a patient with a built-in patch of gecko adhesive. It numbs and paralyzes the body "downstream" of the location where it is placed. For example, if the nerve block device is placed on a patient's elbow, his arm would be numb and unresponsive from the elbow down. If placed on the base of his neck from behind, he will be paralyzed and numb from the neck down. Placing the nerve block on the base of the skull will fritz the brain stem, preventing the patient from breathing and carrying on with other vital bodily functions.

  A nerve block has little effect on Gummis, only numbing a small patch of skin in its vicinity, because Gummis use bio-fiber optics instead of nerves for long range communication through their bodies.

  Placing a nerve block on an uncooperative subject requires a successful hit in melee combat. Treat the block as having 5 points of Penetration that will not cause injury. The penetration is merely a carrier for the symptoms. If the patient is cooperative, restrained, helpless, or unconscious it can be assumed that the nerve block is placed on the correct location if the person administering the block has any Heal skill at all.

  • Dose: +2. Fatigue from this dose will never cause actual Fatigue penalties or effects, nor does it add to other Fatigue - it is merely for keeping track of symptoms. Fatigue does not accumulate from multiple hits, use only the highest Fatigue from any hit to determine effects.
  • Potency: 10.
  • Delay: none.
  • Period: As long as the block is attached.
  • Cycles: 1.
  • Symptoms:
    • Head: On a penetrating brain hit, the subject is rendered unconscious.
    • Neck: On a penetrating spine hit, immediate paralysis of the entire body except for the head. A Respiraition/Airway special effect roll combined with a spine hit means a brain stem hit, and the nerve block will also cause asphyxiation.
    • Torso: On a penetrating spine hit, immediate paralysis of the body below the block.
    • Limb hits: On a penetrating hit, roll to see if the nerves were affected – a 1 on 1d6 indicates a nerve hit. If so, the limb is paralyzed below the block.
  • Healing: immediate once removed.

  Mass: 50 g
  Price: $2

• Reactive Bandage: This bandage contains actively controlled elastomers controlled by integral flexible and stretchable electronics. When applied to an injury, it will configure itself to best seal the injury against contamination, clean the wound, and restrict bleeding. For deeply penetrating wounds, the bandage can be rolled up or otherwise inserted into the wound to help seal the wound and prevent excessive bleeding. Chemically active micro-manipulators destroy pathogens, remove dirt and debris, encourage clotting at the wound site, hold the wound together, and close off opened blood vessels. Apply a +4 bonus to Heal and Vigor checks to avoid bleeding, infection, and contamination of the wound, and for healing and recovery of the wound, and apply an additional -5 RS to the healing time for the wound. All bonuses are cumulative with medication. If synched with a computer, the bandage can be controlled by any installed artificial intelligence program instantating the Heal skill to apply the same bonus to the AI, although you will need someone to remove the bandage from its packaging and apply it (however inexpertly) to the wound site (if available, a robot can perform this function allowing the AI to autonomously treat the wound).

  Price: $3

• Sleep Stimulator: A piece of Gummi technology that can be used to send a Gummi into a rest or sleep state. It uses flashes of infrared light to sedate the Gummi's ganglion zooids through activating the infrared biological fiber optics that the zooids use to communicate. It only affects Gummis.

  A sleep stimulator can only be used on an uncooperative subject if the subject is restrained, helpless, or unconscious. Against such a resisting subject, treat the stimulator as having a non-wounding carrier attack with Pen 7, applying the following effects if the penetration gets past armor:

  • Dose: +12. The sleep stimulator causes Drain instead of Fatigue. The dose can be dialed down for a more gentle assist to sleep if desired.
  • Potency: 10.
  • Delay: none.
  • Period: As long as the stimulator is attached.
  • Cycles: 1.
  • Healing: until the subject would awake normally, once the stimulator is removed.

  Power: 0.1 W
  Mass: 0.3 kg
  Price: $15

• Surgical Gear, Kit: Basic gear for performing surgery in the field. Includes the usual scalpels, forceps, clamps, gauze, tissue glue, anaesthetic, and so forth in addition to more advanced tools such as endoscopes and surgical microbots.

  Mass: 6 kg
  Price: $30

• Surgical Gear, Transportable: Compact surgical tools allowing a small operating room in a space the size of a van or trailer. This level of gear gives a +1 quality bonus to Heal skill for surgery.

  Power: 100 W
  Mass: 100 kg
  Price: $5 k

• Surgical Gear, Hospital: A full set of advanced surgical tools filling a full room, giving a +2 qualtiy bonus to Heal skill for surgery. If the tools are specific to a particular specialization, they give a +4 quality bonus instead for that specialization, but no bonus otherwise.

  Price: $100 k

• Synthetic Blood: A safe synthetic blood substitute that can be used to replace blood lost to injury. It has a shelf life of hundreds of megaseconds (years) without refrigeration. One package of sythetic blood will restore 5 Blood Points to a size +0 vertebrate (for patients of different Size, use value of [5 - 3 × Size] Blood Points). Synthetic blood is flushed from the body more rapidly than natural blood. The patient's body removes the added substitute blood at a rate of 1 Blood Point every value of [7-Vigor] hours, necessitating regular replacement until the patient's natural blood is regenerated.

  Mass: 1 kg
  Price: $0.5

Back to Vergeworlds Main Page