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FlakJacket
Now normally, I was never really all that interested in medical skills since there was usually either a magician handy or a street doc in which case it was lie back and pay the bill at the end of it. Taking Biotech/First Aid was generally good enough to keep everyone together until we could get to a professional.

Until now. I was digging around for a new character concept since I didn't want them to be just another generic "Oh she's an ex-Special Forces soldier" routine and came accross the Airforce's Pararescue bods. I figure that someone from a group like this would have no trouble transfering to something like DocWagon or one of the other semi-militarised medical organisations.

Granted, there's no way in hell that you could probably fully make one of these guys in character creation without cutting a few corners, but since this is more of a mental exercise due to my currently being gameless, I figure that's not a problem since there's no real limit. What is though, is that I have no idea what type of medicals skills they would have. I'm currently trying to sift through Man & Machine but any help would be gratefully appreciated. Danke. smile.gif
Siege
Look at the "Street Doc" or "Paramedic" for what constitutes medical skills.

Active skills:
Biotech
B/R electronics
B/R computers
Computers (maybe)
Chemistry

Knowledge skills:
Medicine
Anatomy
Cybertechnology
Biotechnology
Surgery
Chemistry
Biology

Those are the quickie ones I can think of.

-Siege

Edit: Depending on how fancy you want to go, you can add:
Nanotechnology
Plastic/cosmetic surgery
Gene therapy (I really love those SotA protein upgrades)
Seville
You know, after the "Chair Force" comment... smile.gif

Just a little info on PJs (and I don't know that much about them, being a little peon copilot). In the Air Force, these guys are special operations. I'm not sure they're all attached to AFSOC, but regardless, the training they go through is more comperable to CCT or Minibuds than a normal military training program. The story I hear is that they're to only ones in the U.S. military to actually be drowned and resuscitated, and a bunch of other stuff that I know I could never do. I have an amazing amount of respect for those guys, probably above and beyond any other operators in the military.

In terms of actual medical training, I'm guessing that they probably have pretty good levels of biotech, but not much else. In the Air Force we have a bunch of med techs who can fill in for doctors indefinitely (I worked with a few of these, and they're also a really solid bunch) but these guys are all TSgt and above who've been working ERs and Field Hospitals for years. I doubt that a PJ would have much of their training, as that kind of thing (like prescribing medicine) really isn't something that they would need.

What they would definitely know is Parachuting (really high), Diving and Athletics (just as high), and some pretty decent combat skills (as I understand they go through a lot of the same training as Combat Controls). Also, they would know a lot about the military and aviation (not how to fly, but the airplane itself, how to talk to pilots over radios, etc.)

Hope this helps. I was a good a helo driver in AFSOC who plays with some guys time to time (when he has the time), so maybe one of them are around with more accurate information.
FlakJacket
Well I found the skills in the surgery section, which kinda makes sense I suppose. Basically all you really need are a high Biotech skill - specialised in either First Aid or Trauma Surgery depending on how advanced you want them - and Medicine/Traumatology for diagnosing things. Other knowledge skills would probably also be good as complimentary skills, plus things like Computers and Electronics and the B/R options for the WD40 brigade. biggrin.gif

Anyone care to hazard a guess on what kind of skill levels they might get up to, 'cause otherwise I'm generally just guessing. smile.gif I figure they've got to be fairly compotent since the Airforce tends to not like pilots they've sunk several million bucks training dying on them.
TinkerGnome
The character should probably be pretty skills oriented. I'd probably shoot for skills A and something like this:

Active (Body 4+, Quickness 4+, Strength 4+, Intelligence 6+)
Biotech 6 or 5/7
Computer 3
Computer B/R 4
Electronics B/R 4
Athletics 4
Stealth 4
Parachuting 3
Underwater Combat 2
Unarmed Combat 4
Edged Weapons/Knives 2/4
Pistols/miltary sidearm of choice 2/4
Small Unit Tactics 2
Leadership 2
Etiquette/Military 2/4 or Etiquette 3
Car 3

Knowledge (assuming intelligence 6)
Medicine 6
Cybertechnology 4
Chemistry 4
Metahuman Anatomy 4
Military Proceedures 4
Biotechnology 3
Biology 3
Psychology 2
Siege
This might be considered point-munching, but:

With a knowledge skill of "surgery", it would add complimentary dice to biotech: surgery rolls.

-Siege
TinkerGnome
You already get your equipment rating as complimentary dice to surgery rolls. I'd disallow an additional knowledge skill for it. It might, however, be complimentary to the medicine roll to create the surgery plan, though.
Lilt
When I made Lilt (The street doc character I took the name from for this account) I took these skills:

Skills (34 pts)
Biotech 6
Electronics(Cybertech) 4(6)
Electronics(Cybertech) B/R 4(6)
Computer(Cybernetics) 4(6)
Computer(Cybernetics) B/R 4(6)
Negotiation 4
Ettiquette(Medical) 3(5)

He had combat skills too but he took them as skill chips for his skillwires system.
Siege
Chipping combat skills? Oooh, bad idea. grinbig.gif

-Siege
Buzzed
Wouldn't you be better off with Anatomy instead of Biology? Biology would be more appripiate for vetinarians... Siege had the riight idea, get them both! Of course if you wanted to become a hardcore vetinarian, you would want to take a "k9 anatomy" "feline anatomy" ect ect.

Also. To actually perform surgery on someone, I would think that surgery would be an active skill, not a knowledge skill. And surgery is a specialization listed in M&M. But a doctor needs years and years of school, practice, ect ect to learn this. I don't know why surgery and first aid are both specializations instead of base skills.

Biotech = first aid = stabalize the patient
Surgery = surgery(duh) = Make patient heal (specialize in implant surgery ect ect)

That is how I would do it, but oh well, I didn't write the books.

All you need is Biotech then to be a doctor. ohplease.gif Maybe actual doctors in hospitals have a minimum Biotech of 12 when they get out of medical school.
Namer18
Biology as a general subject covers a good chunk of information important to practicing medicine. You might also want to look at:
Pharmacology-giving medication
Biochemistry-dealing with toxins
Physiology-knowing what to fix with your surgery skill, differential diagnosis
I would put all of these plus surgery, anatomy, biotechnology, and psychology into medicine since they are simply parts of a general medical education.

Namer18
Siege
I included Biology because it's listed as a knowledge skill for Street Docs.

I concur that Anatomy would be a good skill for medical types. Biology covers general life functions, etc. etc.

I'd go so far as to say full-blown doctors would actually have both. Or wrap Anatomy as a specialization of Biology.

-Siege
Lilt
QUOTE (Siege)
Chipping combat skills?  Oooh, bad idea. grinbig.gif

My GM never stopped me. It meant that I could use my chipjack expert driver (grinbig.gif) to boost the combat skills and still use full combat pool to dodge. Plus I still got my +1 die from enhanced artwinkulation (grinbig.gif) on my chipped skills. Yes, that was the most munchie character I ever played.
Siege
I mention it only because if your GM uses gear deterioration, you can get flocked if you lose your combat chips.

It's the only critical drawback to relying on chipped skills. grinbig.gif

-Siege
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