Disease, Medicine, and your Game

1. Disease, Medicine, and your Game

   #1

   This thread is for collecting various things related to the healing arts and injuries and diseases. This dovetails with the Plague Thread ( http://www.rpgcitadel.com/guild/index.php?topic=2383.0 ), so if you have a plague please post it there. Now if you have an idea for this thread, please feel free to post it here.
   
   And because I am hyper organized, here are some posts that would of been in this thread had it been in place.
   
   The Silver Star - A Healing Organization
   http://www.strolen.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=21381#21381
   
   Seven Stars - Red Cross for the fantasy world
   http://www.strolen.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=34291#34291
   
   Department of Health Protection
   http://www.strolen.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=34436#34436
   
   We could use some regular diseases or links to them as well.

2. Jerusalem syndrome

   #2

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_syndrome
   
   Every world has religious centers. Jerusalem is a holy center for three seperate religions. Your player chracter, or a trusted NPC, enters an area that they consider very important to them. This could change them.
   
   Note: This is more of a psychological/ spiritual disorder than a proper disease, but it is quite cool.
   
   Jerusalem syndrome From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
   
   The Jerusalem syndrome is the name given to a group of mental
   phenomena involving the presence of either religiously themed
   obsessive ideas, delusions or other psychosis-like experiences, that
   are triggered by, or lead to, a visit to the city of Jerusalem.
   
   The best known, although not the most prevalent manifestation of the
   Jerusalem syndrome, is the phenomenon whereby a person who seems
   previously balanced and devoid of any signs of psychopathology,
   becomes psychotic after arriving in Jerusalem. The psychosis is
   characterised by an intense religious theme and typically resolves
   to full recovery after a few weeks, or after being removed from the
   area.
   
   Dr. Yair Bar El et al. claimed1 that there is a specific syndrome
   which emerges in tourists who had no previous psychiatric history.
   However this has been disputed, especially by Dr. Moshe Kalian and
   Prof. Eliezer Witztum2,3. They stressed that nearly all of the
   tourists who demonstrated the described behaviours were already
   mentally ill prior to their arrival to Jerusalem. Further, of the
   small proportion alleged to have exhibited spontaneous psychosis
   after arrival in Jerusalem, there was no evidence presented that
   they had previously been well.
   
   History
   The syndrome was first clinically described in the 1930s by
   Jerusalem psychiatrist Heinz Herman and pertains to behaviors
   exhibited by some visitors to Jerusalem. Whether or not these
   behaviors specifically arise from visiting Jerusalem is debated, as
   similar behaviors have been noted at other places of religious and
   historical importance such as Mecca and Rome (see Stendhal
   syndrome). It is known that cases of the syndrome had already been
   observed during the Middle ages, since it was described in the
   itinerary of Felix Fabri and the biography of Margery Kempe. Other
   cases were described in the vast literature of visitors to Jerusalem
   during the 19th century.
   
   The majority of Jerusalem Syndrome patients are harmless and are
   usually regarded with pity and/or amusement. The most significant
   exception occurred in August of 1969, when an Australian tourist,
   Michael Rohan, overwhelmed with a feeling of divine mission, set
   fire to the al-Aqsa Mosque. His act was followed by citywide
   rioting. These events helped form the premise of a movie called The
   Jerusalem Syndrome. However it should be noted that whilst Rohan was
   both delusional and religious, he met none of the other supposed
   symptoms of the "syndrome".
   
   Bar-El et al. suggested that at the approach of the year 2000, large
   numbers of otherwise normal visitors might be affected by a
   combination of their presence in Jerusalem and the religious
   significance of the millennium, causing a massive increase in the
   numbers of Jerusalem syndrome admissions to hospital. Despite a
   slight increase in tourist hospitalisations with the rise in total
   tourism to Jerusalem during the year 2000, the feared epidemic of
   Jerusalem syndrome never materialised.
   
   Types
   The 'classic' Jerusalem syndrome, where a visit to Jerusalem seems
   to trigger a intense religious psychosis that resolves quickly or on
   departure, has been a subject of debate in the medical
   literature2,3,4. Most of the discussion has centred on whether this
   definition of the Jerusalem syndrome is a distinct form of
   psychosis, or simply a re-expression of a previously existing
   psychotic illness that was not picked up by the medical authorities
   in Israel.
   
   In response to this, Bar-El et al. classified the syndrome1 into
   three major types to reflect the different types of interactions
   between a visit to Jerusalem and unusual or psychosis-related
   thought processes. However Kalian and Witztum have objected that Bar-
   El et al. presented no evidence to justify the detailed typology and
   prognosis presented, and that the types in fact seem to be unrelated
   rather than different aspects of a syndrome.
   
   Type I
   Jerusalem syndrome imposed on a previous psychotic illness. This
   refers to individuals already diagnosed as having a psychotic
   illness before their visit to Jerusalem. They have typically gone to
   the city because of the influence of delusional religious ideas,
   often with a goal or mission in mind which they believe needs to be
   completed on arrival or during their stay. For example, an affected
   person may believe himself to be an important historical religious
   figure, or may be influenced by important religious ideas or
   concepts (such as causing the second coming of Christ).
   
   Type II
   Jerusalem syndrome superimposed on and complicated by idiosyncratic
   ideas. This does not necessarily take the form of mental illness,
   and may simply be an culturally anomalous obsession with the
   significance of Jerusalem, either as an individual, or as part of a
   small religious group with idiosyncratic spiritual beliefs.
   
   Type III
   Jerusalem syndrome as a discrete form, uncompounded by previous
   mental illness. This describes the best known type, whereby a
   previously mentally balanced person becomes psychotic after arriving
   in Jerusalem. The psychosis is characterised by an intense religious
   character and typically resolves to full recovery after a few weeks,
   or after being removed from the locality. It shares some features
   with the diagnostic category of a 'brief psychotic episode',
   although a distinct pattern of behaviours has been noted:
   
   Anxiety, agitation, nervousness and tension, plus other unspecified
   reactions.
   Declaration of the desire to split away from the group or the family
   and to tour Jerusalem alone. Tourist guides aware of the Jerusalem
   syndrome and of the significance of such declarations may at this
   point refer the tourist to an institution for psychiatric evaluation
   in an attempt to preempt the subsequent stages of the syndrome. If
   unattended, these stages are usually unavoidable.
   A need to be clean and pure: obsession with taking baths and
   showers; compulsive fingernail and toenail cutting.
   Preparation, often with the aid of hotel bed-linen, of a long, ankle-
   length, toga-like gown, which is always white.
   The need to scream, shout, or sing out loud psalms, verses from the
   Bible, religious hymns or spirituals. Manifestations of this type
   serve as a warning to hotel personnel and tourist guides, who should
   then attempt to have the tourist taken for professional treatment.
   Failing this, the two last stages will develop.
   A procession or march to one of Jerusalem's holy places.
   Delivery of a `sermon' in a holy place. The sermon is usually very
   confused and based on an unrealistic plea to humankind to adopt a
   more wholesome, moral, simple way of life.
   Bar-El et al. reported 42 such cases over a period of 13 years, but
   in no case were they able to actually confirm that the condition was
   temporary.
   
   Prevalence
   During a period of 13 years (1980-1993) for which admissions to the
   Kfar Shaul Mental Health Centre in Jerusalem were analysed, it was
   reported1 that 1200 tourists with severe, Jerusalem-themed mental
   problems were referred to this clinic. Of these, 470 were admitted
   to hospital. On average, 100 such tourists have been seen annually,
   40 of them requiring admission to hospital. About 2 million tourists
   visit Jerusalem each year. Kalian and Witztum note that as a
   proportion of the total numbers of tourists visiting the city, this
   is not significantly different from any other city2, 5.

3. Disease, Medicine, and your Game

   #3

   As an aside to the Jerusalem syndrome, remember the Hauntings explained thread?
   
   Whatever we believe the cause, an effect like the Jerusalem syndrome should be in fantasy worlds stronger. With magic, and spirits and whatnot, exceptional places should have a powerful "presence". It is certainly a nice thing to do to a character... what if one PC suddenly feels the calling? *evil GM smile*

4. I can't get sick, I'm the Hero!

   #4

   So a few days ago I asked myself, "Hunter, why is nobody posting to this thread." And the answer that floated up out of my subconcious, "Heroes don't get sick, or if they do... they certainly do not die from it."
   Well unless they play GURPs, Morrow Project, or have an annoying Fringeworthy GM, but those are another story.
   
   PCs should be "the heroes" of the story. They should die in dramatic fashion, rather than just closing their eyes one day while shivering with fever. So plagues are things in the background to add tension or give them something to do. Regular diseases are things other people get, or if they get it they certainly do not die from it.
   
   But they can just get sick. Diseases can bring tension. One of the Greatest story arcs in Spider Man's history, was fighting Dr. Octopus while fighting off the flu, in the rain. What would of been a fairly standard fight, expanded into several issues, because he could not stop him because of the pain, the high fever, the slowed reflexes, so there were several engagements. He eventually took the doctor down but at great risk and personal sacrifice... it was dramatic... it was powerful... it was scary that a hero was almost killed because he had a case of the flu.
   
   So other diseases can be used to enhance the tension and difficulty of a scene. So a simple trip into the mountains to get a spell component flower becomes difficult as the entire troupe comes down with the disease (which they are getting the flower to cure)... reducing their effectiveness... unable to function normally - small speedbump monsters become major threats.
   
   There you have it. Diseases and things for the Player character.

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