Sedating / Poisoning

[Gry Sarth]

In our last gaming session we had a friend of ours playing a medic, with First Aid 6D and Medicine (A) 1D. It was quite nice that he decided to not just stick to healing people, but to use his medical knowledge in an aggresive manner. At one point he wanted to con a stormtrooper into swallowing a pill that would knock him unconcious, in another situation, he sneaked behind a drunk and helmetless trooper and injected some powerful sedative in his neck.

We didn't quite know how to handle these situations, and our GM decided to play it simple and only called for First Aid rolls (which at 7D were pretty easy), if it suceeded the trooper was knocked out, if it was an extraordinary sucess, then there would be no chance of anyone detecting why the trooper was knocked out. It's important to note that the medic was equipped with that neat Medical Backpack from the SpecForces book (p39). Now I was left with a feeling that it could have been handled better, so I want to ask your opinion in what kind of variants and skills rolls would be nice for these kinds of situation.

Another situation that the medic considered was putting something in the trooper's drink...

[Error]

I think most characters with even a rudimentary knowledge of medical chemicals would be able to poison someone.

In the old army medicine chests, there used to be several syringes of morphine. Easy to OD on.
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The only words of explanation you need for any concept in the entire Star Wars universe are the words Science Fiction and Space Opera.

[cheshire]

I created a special Knowledge skill: poisons. I had a bounty hunter character that wanted to make a sleeping drug to tip a dart. So, she could use her poisons skill to make a sleeping drug of equal damage to her skill. (I.E., if she had 5D in the skill, she could make a drug with 5D potency.) If she wanted to make something lethal, the toxin would have half the strength of her skill dice rounded down. (If she had 4D in the skill, it would result in a 2D lethal toxin.)

It worked alright.

[garhkal]

[Jedi Skyler]

[garhkal]

That is coming from my experience working with corpsmen. They find it hard, to get a sringe into someone who is not ready for it (let alone expecting it). That, and the melee roll would also ensure they didnot screw up and stick themselves...
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Endwyn]

Well it works like this. First the medic must decide what to use. This would fall under two catagories, medical or poison. If the medic is going to use a medical drug then he would need to roll either first aid or medicine (GM's call) to know of the drug....unless the GM just gives it to him, such as the case with drugs compatable to morphene, ect. If you wanted a poison, it would be a Scholar: Poisons roll. That roll would be for knowing of / finding / knowing how to make type situations. Then the medic needs to administer the drug. An unaware target shouldn't be difficult at all. A to hit roll of some kind or a first aide roll to administer may be required at the GM's call. Finaly the victum gets a stamina check to see how the toxin / medicine / poison affects them.
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[Jedi Skyler]

That sounds reasonable. I totally forgot about the stamina check. D'OH!

[Argamoth]

You could make a Knowledge skill: Chemistry, for the purpose of making poisons and medicines (and other chemicals). I'd use medicine to find the appropriate dosage, and First Aid (+medicine) to see how to deliver it.

[Jedi Skyler]

[KageRyu]

I have found it best to asign drugs, poisons, toxins, diseases, etc... a STRENGTH or Potentcy value in D (a hold over from other games I have played), much like damage on a weapon. To make or manufacture a poison from scratch I would require Chemistry (for synthetics and pharmaceuticals) or a Poisons skill (for natural or hybrid organic/synthetic poisons and toxins). If the poison or drug is readily available, it merely needs to be delivered. If delivered in medical means on a willing target, this is a first aide or medicine roll. If trying to convince a target to ingest it, make con or bargain, or persuasion rolls. On an unwilling target, I have always required brawling to administer even sedatives or helpful drugs/first aide, as they are fighting, unless someone else is already restraining them. Of course there are many other ways to deliver the poisons involving many other skills (use your imagination )

For effects, I roll the Poisons Strength against the Victims Stamina to determine full effects. Many poisons have a duration, and so, there may be periodic rolls needed until it works it's way out of the victims system. For multiple doses, I use the base rules for combined actions.

Complex in it's simplicity, yes?
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"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[garhkal]

I think as an example...

Socviak tail stinger.. Socviaks are a lizard like avian race, that has one nasty 'punch'. Their tail has a number of syrenge like needles sticking out of the tip. If the tail attack hits, the 'needles' penetrate the skin and inject a potent paralytic poison.

The target when first hits, has to make a stamina check, with a difficulty equal to the 'stingers damage (lets say 5d+2). If this is made, the poison is forced out of the body.

If not, then 2 rounds later, the poison starts to take effect. EACH round, for the next minute, have them roll a stamina check, starting diff of 12, increasing by 3 each round. ANY failed check results in -1d from the HIGHEST physical stat. If and when this reduces the stat to 0d, the person is frozen rigid, and unable to move, speak or even blink (though breathing is unaffected, strangely)..
If the duration expires and they have not fully sucumb, they keep the level of 'stiffness' they have for 1d hours...
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Jedi Skyler]

That would especially suck if all the Socviaks were looking for was a pinata, and thought you'd make a fine one...

[garhkal]

Arf arf....

I am actually looking at including those guys in a module...
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Jedi Skyler]

Well, they'll certainly leave a mark on SOMEONE...