Trepanation!

[Yellow Sign]

Trepanation, which is also known as trephining, trephinning, or trepanning, refers to the surgical practice of removing a small piece of bone from the skull, generally to relieve pressure on the brain. Techniques of trephinning in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica were identical to techniques practiced in the eastern hemisphere.

Trephinning involves drilling a hole into a human skull using any of several techniques. If the operation is successful, the bone begins to grow back, beginning at the rims of the hole and growing toward the center of the hole. The new bone growth is shallower than the bone at the rim, enabling scientists to determine whether a person survived after the operation. Trephinning appears to have been a truly global phenomenon, found in populations around the world dating as far back as Neolithic times.

Looks like it's been around for a long time!

 

[BlackMoria]

That is what 9mm firearms with full metal jacket bullets are for - a most efficient way to put a hole in someone's skull.

 

[Pbartender]

DIY Trepanation

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Sometimes I have to wonder about a language that invents a word to describe the act of drilling a hole in someone's head.

Damn dirty Greeks.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

If I wanted to see government agents being heroic, I could take my pick of action and detective TV shows and movies. No thanks.

The protagonists of these TV shows aren't usually horribly, horribly doomed, however.

Delta Green agents face the prospect that sooner or later they will loose most things they cared about. If they are lucky, they will just loose their jobs. But they can also loose their family - not because they are eaten by monsters, but because their spouse divorces them and takes the kids with her because the agent had one nervous breakdown too many. Many agents loose most of their sanity, struggling to keep functioning. And many just die during their missions.

But they also know that if they fail to do all those things, lots of innocent people, their country, and maybe even the whole world as they know it will be destroyed. And eventually, they realize that this doom is inevitable - that all they can do is stave it off for a few more years. Some commit suicide at this realization, while others struggle on.

Heroic? Certainly. But a different heroism than in the action and detective shows where you know that the good guys are going to win...

 

[tadk]

Or even worse

Sometimes I have to wonder about a language that invents a word to describe the act of drilling a hole in someone's head.

How about one of the greatest words to say in the English Language...I feel it just rolls off the tongue

Vivisectionist

 

[Samnell]

How about one of the greatest words to say in the English Language...I feel it just rolls off the tongue

Vivisectionist

I used to know an MD who got to watch the vivisection of a dog in med school. Lucky dog!

But my favorite word is schadenfreude.

 

[Soel]

I couls see a possible use with psionics, since I read about people doing it to "improve oxygen flow to the brain" or something. Maybe a trade of a temporary increase in power points for some fairly hefty "hole in the head" damage, but only as long as you have keep the damage.

This is along the lines of what I was thinking. Trpeanation inceases brain-blood volume, and many say (though not proven,) that their thoughts become clearer, and as a result, they are more focused as a whole. In game terms, I would allow something along the lines of a +4 to concentration checks to refocus, and maybe 1 pt of free augmentation (still provided that unless you overchannel, you cannot spend more pp than your manifester level. It could make a decent feat, I guess.

The Complete Psychic Warrior had some sorta cool ideas about opening up your chakras--literally! Really big holes are left, but you only got a small bonus.

Here's a site I always found interesting...http://www.trepan.com/_index.html
It just takes a trip down to Mexico...

 

[cmanos]

read Phil Pullman's His Dark Materials for some fun insight into trepanation

 

[Tsillanabor]

DIY Trepanation

AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

That was messed up.