Pills in traveller....

[Trent]

You know, it's amazing what you can take a pill for these days, things that used to be untreatable or even fatal not long ago (Like when traveller first graced the world with it's presence...) can now be treated or even cured with pills.

Take ulcers, for example. People died from ulcers when traveller came out, or had to manage their lives very carefully after getting them. Some ulcers required surgery to deal with.

Now? You take a pepcid or a prilosec, and that's it.

There are pills to delay or even reverse hairloss now, which people have been struggling with for millennia.

And, of course, you can get those "male enhancement" pills, as TV ads tell us over and over and over and over....

Now, think with me a minute: What kind of pills do you think will be available in the traveller era? Seriously, can you imagine the pills they might have?

I can see it now. Woman goes to her walgreen's and says "I was out on a scout mission for a couple years, and I found this lump in my breast a while ago. What do you think I should do?"

The pharmacists pulls out a small gadget, points it at her and says "Well, it's stage 3 breast cancer, and it's spread thruout your lymph system. I'd recommend the extra strength "Tumornators", we have them in aisle 6 and they're on sale this week."

"Thanks."

(Why do I hear GM's across the world going " 'Tumornators'"? Ha, I gotta use that in my next game!" ?)

Clogged arteries from too many burgers at starport joints? Have a couple "PlaqueBusters" and your blood vessels will be clean as the proverbial whistle in 24 hours!

Safe steroid pills that bulk you up in weeks? Pills that give you an attractive scent? (New Smell ya later, now with french vanilla and pine scent!)

Any other pills you can think of? Change your eye color with a couple cosmetic pills? Natural blond pills that change your hair color as long as you stay on them, with the optional deluxe version that also lowers your IQ? (JOKE!!!)

Traveller is an amazing universe, I can only imagine what would be available in the local drugstores on a typical planet in it. If anyone has any other ideas for pills in traveller, let's hear 'em...

 

[veltyen]

Traveller as a generic sci-fi sure.

Traveller as per canon not so much.

When running near-future sci-fi (rather then space opera with Magic like the canon Traveller universe) medical technology tends to be a little bit more available and a little bit more powerful.

Specific technologies:

Targeted nanotech therapies - normally under therapeutic usage but could be in a pill. HK nanites that seek specific problem areas and rebuild/destroy and remove suspect tissues. Could be used for the treatment of most ailments. Could also be used as an anagathic - for example re-adding non-coding block DNA to stop one of the issues that occurs with ageing.

Functional change pills. Want lungs that can breathe an atmosphere with a higher then normal percentage of sulfuric acid? How about skin that is now bulletproof? Nanites building superfibre filaments (Kevlar and friends) throughout the dermis.

Skill pills (warning - may erase memories) that restructure the brain to allow new skills without that slow "learning" part. Just alter the structures in the brain, not even terribly hard to do.

 

[flykiller]

If anyone has any other ideas for pills in traveller, let's hear 'em...

night or ir vision.

psi immunity. "got my pills 'gainst psionic death ...."

fear/adrenalin suppressant.

intelligence enhancement.

alien pheromones. induce positive reactions in olfactory-dominant species such as vargr.

 

[ShapeShifter]

antigrav pills, for when you just wanna float around some. :rofl:

pills to counter allergies to vargr fur.

IMC jumps make some people sick. Pills may be used to help with that.

pills to neutralise the effects of slowtime, quicktime.

pills to make High Passage even groovier.

pills in lieu of food

 

[Spinward Scout]

Allergy pills that actually work. Or that last a looong time.

RNA transfer learning pills.

Zero-G counter-effect. Basically anti-vertigo pills.

 

[Redcap]

"Broken bones? SuSag's Rapibind™, a simple ten daily tablet treatment course, that concentrates free calcium and phosphates present in all baseline Human blood to the site of a break at twenty times the normal rate of healing; (Note, MUST be taken in conjunction with Core & Marrow production enhancers, such as SuSag's Corrogrow™), available from your local Instellpharm™ outlet throughout the Spinward Marches..."

GM: Rapibind™ is cheap enough at Cr 100 (One Hundred Imperial Credits) per ten-tablet treatment set, which will assist in the rapid healing mof standard breaks in any bone up to the size of a Femur (upper leg bone); for larger, such as one of the components of the Human hip, the blurb on the side of the box recommends (insists, actually) a visit to an autodoc, or by preference a Human-run emergency room facility. However, if Rapibind™ is used, then the allied product Corrogrow™ must also be purchased. At Cr 1,000 (One Thousand Imperial Credits) per ten-day course (of twenty more tablets) treatment...!

 

[flykiller]

SuSag's Rapibind™

such and similar pills might explain ct medic's tremendous healing abilities.

 

[Redcap]

Could be

 

[Beerfume]

Wikipedia has a good article on fictional drugs, many of which could easily be converted for Traveller use.

Wikipedia List of Fictional Medicenes and Drugs

I've done this with a few of them, but it's easy to upset game balance. To even things out I try limit the drug's effect, include negative side effects, or make the drug rare or very expensive.

 

[GypsyComet]

McCoy's one pill dialysis from ST4 comes to mind.

 

[kilemall]

One major advance I would expect is drugmakers- a standard piece of equipment in all sickbays, that makes the drug right there.

Point of doing that is you make the drug tailored to the patient's specific biology, rather then do a mass-produced dosage/side effect juggling game like now.

Should avoid a lot of the synergy rule, if one recalls that from CT.

Big limits would be the drugmaker would require all sorts of expensive supplies to keep stocked, and can't take it into the field. A party so equipped would likely set the drugmaker to make a standard batch of adventuring drugs to take along before leaving the ship/base.

 

[Carlobrand]

McCoy's one pill dialysis from ST4 comes to mind.

I thought that was a kidney regenerating pill.

 

[Barrel]

One major advance I would expect is drugmakers- a standard piece of equipment in all sickbays, that makes the drug right there.

Point of doing that is you make the drug tailored to the patient's specific biology, rather then do a mass-produced dosage/side effect juggling game like now.

Should avoid a lot of the synergy rule, if one recalls that from CT.

Big limits would be the drugmaker would require all sorts of expensive supplies to keep stocked, and can't take it into the field. A party so equipped would likely set the drugmaker to make a standard batch of adventuring drugs to take along before leaving the ship/base.

Oh, that's smart; I like it! What TL do you think it would be available at?

 

[coliver988]

Oh, that's smart; I like it! What TL do you think it would be available at?

I feel that as TL goes up, the variety of the drugs goes up.

TL 9 - aspirin, general antibiotics, general muscle relaxants, generic vitamins, generic allergy pills, generic knockout pills
TL A - specialized antibiotics for specific diseases, able to handle different species, specialized vitamins based on user genetics, tailored allergy pills, species specific knockout pills
TL B - fast, slow drugs, anti-rad, high end vitamins
TL C - cure for the common cold, attribute increasing (at cost of int?)
TL D - anti-psi drugs (beats the tin foil hat), attribute increases with no penalties

and thats where my imagination while at work quits (and people are showing up).

I'd also make the size go down: they start off almost a cubic meter, end up the size of a coffee maker. Price may actually go up. And as TL increases it can actually use more generic supplies (i.e., cheaper) until we have a Mr Fusion so to speak.

 

[kilemall]

Oh, that's smart; I like it! What TL do you think it would be available at?

Well, I imagine different versions would come in at slightly different TLs, plus T5 is all about the makers.

So I'd say peg it to whenever robots/computers can have skills, equivalent to the autodocs or one TL below for manual physician input versions, and whatever makes sense for the T5 rules.

 

[Redcap]

One major advance I would expect is drugmakers- a standard piece of equipment in all sickbays, that makes the drug right there.

Point of doing that is you make the drug tailored to the patient's specific biology, rather then do a mass-produced dosage/side effect juggling game like now.

Should avoid a lot of the synergy rule, if one recalls that from CT.

Big limits would be the drugmaker would require all sorts of expensive supplies to keep stocked, and can't take it into the field. A party so equipped would likely set the drugmaker to make a standard batch of adventuring drugs to take along before leaving the ship/base.

Aha, thought so - this was an idea used in Almost Human. But don't get me wrong - it's a marvellous idea, and I never joined the dots until you did!

http://almost-human.wikia.com/wiki/Chemulon-6_ChemPrinter

IN game terms, I'd say you're spot on target; consumables-wise, there'd likely be a couple of levels or n=more; Basic remedies (aspirin, pain killers, ibuprofen-style products, etc, i.e. over the counter meds. Then there's be stuff found in an ER, antibiotics, anaesthetics, stronger painkillers, etc. Then there are the remedies, cold cures, virus inhibitors, virus eradicators, cures for this that and the other, and finally, the proprietory stuff, like cancer cures, body mods, et al. Each consumable pack would be available at certain costs, each item down the list becoming that much more expensive; with an itemised log being kept by the machine of everything it dispenses. You'd have to factor in controls like registered medic/doctor/specialist authorisations, lockouts to prevent illegal narcotic manufacture, and so on, but the building blocks (sorry, couldn't help that) are there

 

[wellis]

Traveller as a generic sci-fi sure.

Traveller as per canon not so much.

When running near-future sci-fi (rather then space opera with Magic like the canon Traveller universe) medical technology tends to be a little bit more available and a little bit more powerful.

Specific technologies:

Targeted nanotech therapies - normally under therapeutic usage but could be in a pill. HK nanites that seek specific problem areas and rebuild/destroy and remove suspect tissues. Could be used for the treatment of most ailments. Could also be used as an anagathic - for example re-adding non-coding block DNA to stop one of the issues that occurs with ageing.

Functional change pills. Want lungs that can breathe an atmosphere with a higher then normal percentage of sulfuric acid? How about skin that is now bulletproof? Nanites building superfibre filaments (Kevlar and friends) throughout the dermis.

Skill pills (warning - may erase memories) that restructure the brain to allow new skills without that slow "learning" part. Just alter the structures in the brain, not even terribly hard to do.

But wouldn't even canon Traveller have advanced medicine and all? Or do you mean that canon Traveller is a little too bound to 1950s-1970s ideas on tech for this?

 

[Redcap]

But wouldn't even canon Traveller have advanced medicine and all? Or do you mean that canon Traveller is a little too bound to 1950s-1970s ideas on tech for this?

I agree, but this also rests on whether you are also (as I am) of the opinion that the game setting advances with our own understanding of, and wish for, more advanced tech and knowledge: With greater understanding, comes greater expectations, after all

 

[wellis]

I agree, but this also rests on whether you are also (as I am) of the opinion that the game setting advances with our own understanding of, and wish for, more advanced tech and knowledge: With greater understanding, comes greater expectations, after all

One thing I find funny in Traveller is how you have a bunch of separate device scanners instead of say one device that combines a bunch of them together in one item.

 

[Redcap]

Same as today's reasoning: Failure redundancy