RE: [OT?]Dangerous Alian Wildlife

G'day Alan,

> The Good News is that the necrosis has stopped,
> her shoulder is still mostly intact, and she's healing.

After 5 weeks that's amazing! One lucky lady! (Well excusing the bite in
the
first place that is).  

> But not a lot is known about a lot of Australia's 
> venomous wildlife, and there have been cases of 
> fatalities due to necrosis caused by beasties unknown.

This and the subsequent reactions to it does bring up a good point to do
with the space colonies. That joke post I sent about Australia was
probably
very close to the mark about absent minded use of sharp sticks and
checking
you shoes, especially if you grew up in the bush - Derek grew up in town
and
so doesn't smash his shoes repeatedly against the wall every morning...
well
at least not as much as I do, and he doesn't check the bed for snakes or
the
loo for spiders before settling down... another couple of bush habits
I've
found hard to break. However, anyone coming out here new often becomes
horrified with what we just accept as everyday, and I'm sure it runs
back
the other way too (my Kenyan friend doesn't bat an eyelid when
discussing
lions, but I'd be way scared if I ran into one). This would create
problems
from colonies and their ability to draw recruits/immigrants if people
really
did start to suffer cases of "xenophobia". Gamewise this could also have
some strong scenario based effects. For instance, hidden surprises like
the
"killer bugs", but also even just cases of extra morale effects:

e.g.1. Pvt Bloggs get bitten by wildlife in turn one and the screaming
he
does as a result sees the mission motivation for the rest of his squad
go
from medium ("we're out to kick reasonable butt as this place is worth
having") to low ("who the hell would want this place anyway?").

e.g.2. Pvt Bloggs get bitten by wildlife in turn one and the screaming
he
does as a result sees the squad do a panic roll everytime it comes into
similar vegetation/circumstances after that.

e.g.3. Pvt Bloggs get bitten by wildlife in turn one and the screaming
he
does as a result sees him turn into one of the wildlife (fast acting
xeno-rabies)...

Much in the same way as DAWGIE's militia (I think it was DAWGIE, but I
have
a poor memory) used the bugs as a trap for the guys chasing them down,
you
could use these kind of levellers to give militia a chance in "high tech
kick ass squad comes to quieten the unruly natives" scenarios.

Just a thought