Doing science

[Janx]

Somewhat unsurprisingly, medical technobabble is more tough.

I swear most of Beta is brain parts...

I could get you a copy of the ICD9 codes....that's every diagnostic code for everything you could have wrong with you....


Maybe look at these as trees, instead. Brain is the organ, the sub parts being temporal, parietal, frontal, etc.

There's likely a standard list of things I can do to any of those brain sub-parts.

 

[Morrus]

I swear most of Beta is brain parts...

I could get you a copy of the ICD9 codes....that's every diagnostic code for everything you could have wrong with you....


Maybe look at these as trees, instead. Brain is the organ, the sub parts being temporal, parietal, frontal, etc.

There's likely a standard list of things I can do to any of those brain sub-parts.

I think I'm better going with fictional things than real things. A doctor can look at it and say "OK, that's totally fictional", and that's OK. But trying to make it make actual medical sense is just going to annoy doctors!

 

[Janx]

Maybe also split the concept up.

doctoring/engineering has 2 parts. What is wrong. What will fix it. Sometimes the challenge is the first part, sometimes the latter part. Sometimes both.

In which case What is wrong is 2 columns on a table:

A is Bing

A=temporal lobe of the brain
B=seizing

What fixes it (from column C):
10cc of hydrocurazone
vulcan MindMeld
10mAmp electrostatic shock
10 rads of Morrusium radiation




Engineering:
the "Dylithium" is "out of alignment"

what fixes it:
restart the Dylithium chamber
realign the dylithum matrix
flood the chamber with neutrinos
replace the dylithium crystal


I think my fixes part could be tweaked to be columns C and D of random stuff, but it should be kind of easy making A & B columns of "what's wrong"

 

[Janx]

I think I'm better going with fictional things than real things. A doctor can look at it and say "OK, that's totally fictional", and that's OK. But trying to make it make actual medical sense is just going to annoy doctors!

I know, I was teasing. there's like a zillion rows in my ICD9 table. You do NOT want to roll on that. Plus, we had to pay for that table.

For medical though, you could setup the basic categories of sci-fi medical organs:

brain/nervous system
respiratory
cardiovascular
immunological

Then just make each of those have a sub-table of the right-ish random parts.

then the usual verbs might apply
inject
inoculate
excise
incise
cauterize
stimulate

followed by the who's who list of made up tools and drugs

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, it's on the internet. Lots of stuff. I just whipped through it and stole some words; this is what I came up with. All complete nonsense of course, but it makes for lots of fictional medical procedures!

 

[Morrus]

Maybe also split the concept up.

doctoring/engineering has 2 parts. What is wrong. What will fix it. Sometimes the challenge is the first part, sometimes the latter part. Sometimes both."

Diagnosis isn't part of what I'm trying to do here. The diagnosis is "the door's locked; we need to open it", or "the FTL engines are down; we need to fix them"; or "she has Space Rabies; we need to cure her!" or what-have-you.

What we're after here is procedures. Fictional procedures which mean nothing, sure, but procedures nonetheless. We already know the problem in-game; this is the player deciding to use science to find the solution.

So the cure for space rabies is to cauterize the eroded frontal gene. Which we all know, of course; that's common knowledge!

 

[Janx]

Diagnosis isn't part of what I'm trying to do here. The diagnosis is "the door's locked; we need to open it", or "the FTL engines are down; we need to fix them"; or "she has Space Rabies; we need to cure her!" or what-have-you.

What we're after here is procedures. Fictional procedures which mean nothing, sure, but procedures nonetheless. We already know the problem in-game; this is the player deciding to use science to find the solution.

So the cure for space rabies is to cauterize the eroded frontal gene. Which we all know, of course; that's common knowledge!

For the simple case of "the door's locked" which isn't a problem, unless you want to get out of the room, the other two you've spilled the beans.

The "engine is down" doesn't tell you whats wrong with it. Which is more random stuff you could be rolling.

She has space rabies also jumped the gun. She's sick. Until the doctor looks at her and says "she has...(rolls)...Space Rabies" all you know is she's sick.

You've got 4 columns to work with (by your original table). I'm just saying the first 2 could be defining specifically what is wrong, and the last 2 could be how to fix it.

Even the door has the aspect that needs to be targeted (the LM75 thermal sensor) and then you can still apply the action (directed thermolytic radiation triggering an ACPI stop)*.

*an LM75 really is a thermal sensor and aiming a heat gun at one really does trigger a Temp Deadly shutdown of a PC per the ACPI specification.

 

[Morrus]

For the simple case of "the door's locked" which isn't a problem, unless you want to get out of the room, the other two you've spilled the beans.

The "engine is down" doesn't tell you whats wrong with it. Which is more random stuff you could be rolling.

She has space rabies also jumped the gun. She's sick. Until the doctor looks at her and says "she has...(rolls)...Space Rabies" all you know is she's sick.

You've got 4 columns to work with (by your original table). I'm just saying the first 2 could be defining specifically what is wrong, and the last 2 could be how to fix it.

Even the door has the aspect that needs to be targeted (the LM75 thermal sensor) and then you can still apply the action (directed thermolytic radiation triggering an ACPI stop)*.

*an LM75 really is a thermal sensor and aiming a heat gun at one really does trigger a Temp Deadly shutdown of a PC per the ACPI specification.

It does that already. Sure, you start from the premise that she has Space Rabies (which is a narrative thing) but the tables tell you precisely what that means.

You know that the procedure is to stimulate the inflamed endocrine cluster. You might know it's Space Rabies, but this has just told you that the endocrine cluster is inflamed, and that you need to stimulate it.

The door also already mentions the part that needs triggering. If I get "intensify the ionic nanite seal" we know that the ionic nanite seal is the bit that's being targeted, and we're intensifying it.

Or if I get (another random roll) pressurize the primary proton container, we know that the primary proton container is the thing, and pressurization is the action. It's all in there.

But if you particularly wanted situation-specific tables, you could make a "door" table and an "FTL drive" table and a "brain" table if you wanted; the content of the tables doesn't matter, because you can create as many as you want, as specific or general as you like. For now, I'm stopping at fairly general engineering and medical tables because I want to concentrate on the actual system, not the data. But data is totally plugin-able. You could write a book just full of tables for every specific type of situation you can think of. In fact, if I get this working, I might!

 

[Morrus]

So, injecting choices.

There are four columns (or three for a minor science).

What if you can choose which attributes to use? Maybe the first (verb) column is an attribute other than LOGIC. Maybe it requires a steady hand, or concentration, or strength or something. Then you could use INTUITION (which includes perception) for any other column of your choice, but must use LOGIC for the remainder?

So each verb in the first column has a predetermined non-logic attribute. That means non-scientists can help, too. "Here's hold that contact in place and don't move a millimeter!", "Glad I have a high END score or my hand would be shaking!"

That gives a little variety and choice. And then if 25% of the items on each table had a complication upon failure. Overall, we have a fairly dynamic system there. Not a lot of choice, but there's a sprinkling of choice, randomness, variety, and complications there while still keeping it fairly fast and simple to run.

 

[Morrus]

This Mastermind approach has been playing in my mind. I just can't quite pin down how to use it, and how it relates to attribute checks.

I think there's really something here if I can get the system right. Then the infinite possibilities of data sheets for different types of situation makes for a wonderfully customisable science system - or, heck, problem solving system generally. It would work with herbalism or alchemy in a fantasy game, too.