[ICON] Revising Medical Overlays

[redwood973]

We may soon have a new PC nurse joining our group. I would like some assistance in revising the Nurse Overlay before we set down to character creation. I was sure there was a Nurse Overlay floating around here somewhere, but have been unable to find it. So, if you have any recomendations on revising the one on the data sheet please let me know.

Also, if you have any ideas for the other three overlays on the sheet let me know. Just to let you know when I wrote up this up I had revised the Corpsman overlay by adding a computer skill to it (I belive that was the only change I made).

Also, has anyone had a PC Nurse in there games. I am a little unsure of having a PC Doctor and PC Nurse at the same time. Not really sure how to keep the nurse included in the action.

Thanks for the help.

[Edited to attach the new, revised .pdf sheet--again.]

[D.S.McBride]

Wow! If anything, we're going to end up using your worksheet to provide character detail for our games!

Re the Nurse Overlay: To the best of my knowledge, such a thing did not exist, either in the Core books or the Player's Guide. This is a question that simply hasn't come up before, and my congrats to the person who's planning on taking up this role; it's definitely making a foray into the "road less travelled".

I'll have a look in the LUG books and see if I've missed anything regarding medical support personnel, but again, I think you've likely laid down the first steps on the path with this.

[Owen E Oulton]

The Counsellor is short by 3 DP (1 skill level).

My suggestion would be to replace the Medical Science (Psychology) 2 (3) with my house-rules skill Psychology (Psychoanalysis) or (Specific Race or Culture) 2 (3), and add Medical Science (First Aid) 1 (2) to bring the points up.

Here is the text of my Psychology skill, which can also be found in the <a href="http://www.coldnorth.com/owen/game/startrek/universe/newrules.htm">House Rules</a> section of my site:

Psychology (Intellect)
Abnormal Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Psychology (Specific Race or Culture), Xenopsychology

The Psychology skill deals with the workings of the sapient mind. Abnormal Psychology deals with the study of mental illnesses; Forensic Psychology with reconstructing the motivations behind a particular act (usually as part of a criminal investigation), Psychoanalysis with the treatment of psychological disorders; Psychology (Specific Race or Culture) with the psychological processes of a specific species; and Xenopsychology with the study of the psychological processes of unfamiliar races.

I've never liked the concatenation of Psychology into the Medical Sciences skill, and think that this is much more reasonable.

You may also want to put an optional Code of Honour (Hippocratic Oath) (points to be balanced with equivalent Advantages or Skills) to the packages.

[Owen E Oulton]

Oh, 'nother point...

Language (Terran)? Which Terran language - there are hundreds... The so-called "Federation Standard" in LUG and "Galacta" in FASA are essentially English, advanced by a few centuries, and explicitly stated to be so in TNG.

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

The first thing I did with both ICON and CODA, was split psychology off into it's own skill group. It simply doesn't work as a subset of medicine.

Great overlay.

[redwood973]

Originally posted by D.S.McBride
Wow! If anything, we're going to end up using your worksheet to provide character detail for our games!

Oh, gee. Thanks.

Originally posted by D.S.McBride
Re the Nurse Overlay: To the best of my knowledge, such a thing did not exist, either in the Core books or the Player's Guide. This is a question that simply hasn't come up before, and my congrats to the person who's planning on taking up this role; it's definitely making a foray into the "road less travelled".

I'll have a look in the LUG books and see if I've missed anything regarding medical support personnel, but again, I think you've likely laid down the first steps on the path with this.

I ran through all the fan made Sourcebooks last night after I posted this thread, but I found no nursing overlay in those either. I would swear someone had posted one to these boards at one time. I have done a search for everything I could think of: nurse, nursing, medical and have found nothing. If anyone has a copy of it, or is able to find it, please let me know. I remember thinking it was better than the overlay on the datasheet.

I think Tina wants to play a nurse because it apparently has not been done. We can not find a single word in any book about playing medical support staff. Every book assumes the player will be a doctor. I did have an idea after posting this thread last night on keeping a nurse involved in the action. Have the nursing skills tests before allowing the doctor to role. Any successful nursing skills roles ads a bonus to the doctors roles. Nothing too big, just a one or two point bonus. That way I can keep her involved while having a PC doctor too. Any ideas/thoughts?

Originally posted by Owen E Oulton
The Counsellor is short by 3 DP (1 skill level).

My suggestion would be to replace the Medical Science (Psychology) 2 (3) with my house-rules skill Psychology (Psychoanalysis) or (Specific Race or Culture) 2 (3), and add Medical Science (First Aid) 1 (2) to bring the points up.

Damn. I never even noticed that overlay was short. I really like your Psychology skill (would psychoanalysis be the necesarry skill for a councilor and the other skills just added skills for character flavor? I am afraid I don't know much about this branch of medicne.). I belive the overlay already has the First Aid skill, do you have anyother suggestions to get the point total up?

Originally posted by Owen E Oulton
You may also want to put an optional Code of Honour (Hippocratic Oath) (points to be balanced with equivalent Advantages or Skills) to the packages.

Damn. See that's why I love you guys. How could I have overlooked something so simple (and important) as the Hippocratic Oath? Question: do nurses also have the H.O. disadvantage? Would there be anything like it for the corpsman?

Originally posted by Owen E Oulton
Language (Terran)?

Oops. Didn't realize that was still in there. Everyone seems to speak english as their first language in Star Trek (since it was an american t.v show ) so in our game English and Terran are the samething. I think I will change that to "Federation Basic" to get it back more in line with LUG.

Originally posted by Capt Daniel Hunter
The first thing I did with both ICON and CODA, was split psychology off into it's own skill group. It simply doesn't work as a subset of medicine.

Great overlay.

Yeah that does make a lot of sence, and I love Owens phychology skill. And thanks.


Please anyone with any thoughts/ideas let me know, if about the overlays or on how to include a PC nurse into the game with a PC doctor.

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

While this doesn't really apply to your campaign, since you already have a PC doctor, I've tended to use nurse NPCs as away team medics, instead of using the ship's doctor. I also think that some small ships might just have an EMH and a couple of nurses.

I think nurses have great potential as PCs (of course, being a nurse, I'm probably biased). I also think the nurses may potentially do a lot of the day to day running of sickbay, and handle all the minor cases without bothering the doctor.

[redwood973]

I checked out my copy of the LUG Errata. It shows that the Councilor's Overlay should have included "Personal Equipment (choose) 1 (2)" which was left out. I have placed that into the overlay.

Capt Hunter, I too see great things for a PC nurse. I just which I did not currently have a PC doctor. I am thinking of trying out the nurse and see how it goes for a few sessions. I am sure the player would not mind coming up with a new character if we feel the nurse is not working out.

Any other thoughts/ideas? We will be working on creating the character Saturday afternoon, so I would welcome comments until then (hell, afterwards too ).

[Dan Gurden]

I was sure there was a Nurse in the Players Guide, in the Enlisted Section. But that was just as an Enlisted (if its there at all), and agree that there is plenty of room for an Officer Nurse, among the senior staffing requirements.

In the Venture games, I also see the Chief Nurse as the deputy head of the Medical Deopartment. As this offers a good generic medical background rather than the more specialised Physicians (but then I also go with the smaller medical staffs seen on screen or in the tech manuals, ie; 12 on a Galaxy Class and 2 on an Intrepid, not including Lab Techs/Corpsman)

[redwood973]

The Medical Specialist in the Player's Guide according to the description with the overlay says it can be used for nurses and corpsmen.

When I first made up the datasheet I had thought about using the same overlay for both nursing and corpsmen. But I felt it best to separate the two as they are vastly diffrent, and nursing demands much more education than being an E.M.T.; and thus deserving of a full 54 point overlay.

By tradition nurses have been commissioned officers, due to the extended education they receive for their nursing degree.

Just some thoughts I had about the subject.

[redwood973]

For those interested in the datasheet the newest version is posted at the top of this thread. If anyone has any further comments, suggestions or ideas please pass them along to me. Thanks.

[redwood973]

Per request. . .a more printer friendly sheet has been posted to the first post of this thread. It also corrects some typo and other errors.

Please discard all previous sheets in favor of this one.

[RealPity]

I had this in my files, must be the one that was posted waaaaaaaaay back:

Nurse (54)

Administration (Infirmary/Hospital/Sickbay) 1 (2)
Athletics (choose Specialization) 1 (2)
Computer (choose Specialization) 1 (2)
Dodge 1
Energy Weapons (Phaser) 1 (2)
First Aid (choose Specialization) 2 (3)
History (Federation) 1 (2)
Language
Federation Standard 1
Law (Starfleet Regulations) 1 (2)
Personal Equipment (Medical Tricorder) 2 (3)
Planetside Survival (choose Specialization) 1 (2)
Science, Medical (Choose specialization) 1 (2)
Science, Physical (Chemistry) 1 (2)
Shipboard Systems (Medical) 2 (3)
Vehicle Operations (Shuttlecraft) 1 (2)

[redwood973]

Hrm, I don't see a nurse dealing with Administrative issues unless they are the head nurse or nurse administrator. Probably a skill they pick up in a tour of duty as head nurse/nurse admin rather than a skill picked up in the overlay.

[RealPity]

Yep, might make sense to drop that & up the medical science to 2 (3)