Quote:
Originally Posted by The Dark
I like it. Just for the heck of it, I rewrote it like a disease from the v2.2 rule book with some fill-in-the-blanks guesses for things that weren't mentioned in the original write-up:
S1R1
Transmission: Contact with infected fluids (saliva), able to survive on surfaces for ~24 hours. Infection Number 5.
Symptoms:
Phase I: Fatigue, dizziness, fever, sneezing
Phase II: Delirium, amnesia, muscle spasms, dementia
Phase III: Hallucination, violent psychosis
Diagnosis: Formidable
Misdiagnosed As: Influenza or minor disease
Treatment: Relief of symptoms (+2), Antibiotic- (+3) or Antibiotic+/- (+1). Treatment effective only in Phase I (or during Incubation). If multiple antibiotic types used, count only the best one.
Course of the Disease:
Incubation: 1 day
Phase I: 1d3 days
Phase II: 7 days minus Phase I
Phase III: 90 days
Base Recovery Number: 30
Failed Recovery Death Probability: 9. Roll for Death Probability after Phase III, not Phase II.
Postrecovery Debility: Fatigue at level 2 for 20 weeks
The infection number means there's about an 85% chance of catching it if exposed (5 or higher on 2d6), while the recovery number is higher than any disease in the book (rabies is at 26). The death probability means 90% will die after Phase III, and any survivors (either due to treatment or random chance) will be moderately fatigued for almost 5 months. Some treatment is possible, but it has to be quick, and it's unlikely to be effective (the roll is a d10 + treatment modifiers + doctor's Medical Diagnosis skill + infected person's Constitution). The disease can be tweaked to last longer or shorter in Phase III, have different Postrecovery Debilities, have a higher or lower Infection Number, etc. I would rule a bite should count as exposure to infected fluids.
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very nice work, thank you. I agree with the bite, I also think (since I'm using a bit of the Crossed as inspiration) that other fluid exchange (french kissing, sexual intercourse, swallowing bodily fluids) should also count, as would getting fluids into an open wound. However I felt that the Crossed and 28 Days Later viruses worked TOO quickly; for a virus that's actually too fast and would cause crash and burn far too quickly. For example, let's say that four people get the virus and rapidly change to the last stage, then if they're suddenly shot they're dead, that's it. If they manage to get home and then infect others, that's a virus that's transferring at the top of its game.
I like the 90 day limit I think that's very reasonable, and I think I am going to make it a calculation of weeks to months, so for instance post stage iII 1d6 x 10 days on average, since different individuals will have different physical degrees of strength and con, and also be subjected to different combined bodily stresses depending on environment, etc.