STEM Packs
One of the most common healing devices found in the world of Therafter. Suitable for near future settings.
Class I
A staple of the battlefield medic's equipment, provides quick healing for traumatic injuries as well as limited regeneration. They are packaged as single-use, pneumatically driven large-bore syringes.
These devices inject a cocktail of several substances:
- Omni-match Stem Cells (tm) which have been made genetically compatible with 99% of the general population.
- Anti-rejection drugs which address minor genetic incompatibilities.
- PHL-80 Cell Division Accelerator to greatly speed the healing process.
- Pure Sucrose to fuel the enhanced cell growth
- Numerous proprietary chemicals to complete and control the function of the primary components.
These need to be used with care by Diabetics and those with other energy-system disorders due to the significant increase in metabolic activity induced by STEM packs. It is largely this side effect which leads to recommendations on minimizing use of STEM packs over short intervals of time.
STEM packs may trigger adverse, life-threatening side effects in .1% of the population, and flu-like symptoms in .9%. They have been linked to an increase in cancer and mutation rates in 1% of users, with those with preexistence mutations having a significantly higher occurrence rate.
STEM Packs are Species specific. Specialized veterinary versions are available.
Class II
These STEM packs are intended to be used directly on an injury - in addition to the normal payload of a Class I STEM pack, powerful coagulants and a biocompatible scaffold is sprayed into the wound. This has the effect of being able stop even arterial wounds though a tourniquet is still recommended prior to application. Chances of side effects are not significantly different from Class I, but the effects are more severe when they occur.
5th Edition Homebrew Campaign Stats
Class I STEM Pack Heals 2d10 Minor and 2 Traumatic wounds.
Class II STEM Pack Heals all Minor wounds and 2d6 Traumatic wounds.
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? Responses (5)
Update: Mainly in support of the Therafter PBP, this still could be a useful detailing of the ubiquitous futuristic healing potion.
especially liked the (tm) 1/2 point extra just for that 4/5
I like this, there is just enough crunch and technobabble to make it plausible and a strong degree of functionality that makes it useful.
Okay, per Aramax's suggestion, pulled the stats out into an attached idea. I personally prefer them inline. Thoughts?
I like them in-line, you could use a block quote or something
A solid version of the slap patch idea, you play so fast a loose with the immunology and that I wouldn't even bother.
Expansion IDEAS: ONLY USE THE DONKEY PATCH ONCE
If a human used an animal version the immediate effects would be the same assuming PHL-80 is not species specific. But there would be a slow burn with the body possibly rejecting the transplanted tissue of over a mater of weeks. So the damage would just be delayed.
Or the body may never reject that transplant tissue (I assume the immuno suppressants are locale-actually very doable, stems are local immuno suppressants), but the immune system is likely to get primed. That means if somebody gets exposed second exposure to the same animal antigens they will have a very strong response. This would likely be a Delayed Type Hypersensitivity response swelling and tissue destruction at the sight of exposure, but anaphylaxis would not be off the the Table (get it? Game table...bah). If there is enough inflammation and antigen presentation a person that has had a strong reaction to a patch may also develop an immune response to PHL-80. Which again may render the drug less effective, but could lead to anaphylaxis or if gave a large enough dose of PHL-80 and the anaphylaxis didn't kill you than kidney failure from all the antibody-PHL-80 complexes in your blood.
PLOT IDEA:
So if the cancers are the result of the designed stem cells than perhaps that cells would be designed with a back door cytopathic pathway. The cells may be designed to express receptor for a toxin that is not produced by humans, to have a gene response to some type of artificial hormone or be susceptible to a designed virus. The end result would be that all the daughter cells from these stem cells could be eliminated by being exposed to this substance. In the real world such a back door would be a good idea (I am going to pitch today to my stem cell buddies). In the world of crazy super villains this could be a problem because they could design weapon that would cause everyones STEM PACK tissue to suddenly die.