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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Nice write-up. The only issue I have with it is GDW's unrealistic/inaccurate depiction of disease treatment. This is the same issue GDW had with fuel (considering Methanol a viable liquid fuel and using AvGas for jets). GDW fails to fully and distinctly describe the diseases in their books and it will often result in an incorrect prescribed treatment. That major failure being the LACK OF DISTINCTION between a BACTERIAL DISEASE and a VIRAL DISEASE. Why is this distinction so important? Because NO antibiotic made will work on a Virus. Viruses are also MUCH SMALLER than Bacteria and can be missed by water and air filters because of it. A Virus also needs a living host to inhabit. It can only live for a day or two OUTSIDE of a living cell before dying itself (some can survive longer in a liquid environment).
Because of the Virus's immunity to bacteria and the fact that it frequently "mutates" from host to host, it can be VERY DIFFICULT to cure. It takes a Vaccine made from either a dead or a greatly weakened virus combined with other compounds to enable the body to generate the appropriate defense against the disease. The other option is a Viral Suppression Therapy. Some examples of Viral Suppression Therapy would include the invasive program of pills and intravenous treatment for HIV, Flu and Shingles Shots to prevent getting or at least reducing the severity of a viral strain if you contract it. Another example of a Viral Suppression Therapy would be the prescribing of Tamiflu for a severe flu outbreak. Some Suppression Therapies (like Tamiflu) would grant a +1 to treatment while others (like aggressive HIV treatment) would grant a +2. A VACCINE would provide a cure.
The only other issue I see would be the 90-day "runtime." I'm assuming a 28 Days Later kind of infection here where the "infected" are actually ALIVE but mad and therefore, NOT DEAD MEN WALKING. Most hemorrhagic fevers raise the core body temperature WELL over 100F. This results in a very high thirst and general dehydration. One of the issues with dehydration is that it causes your blood to "thicken," so that it carries less O2 and nutrients. Therefore, even if an "Infected" is eating & drinking regularly (and the virus is consuming less than half the created cellular energy to replicate itself), they will STILL starve to death faster than an uninfected subject. Additionally, high body temps and a constant adrenaline surge will burn out a body pretty fast. Anyone who has ever been in a fight KNOWS that it feels like you ran a marathon just a few minutes afterward. This is the "letdown" from an adrenaline surge. A CONSTANT adrenaline surge would eventually "burn you out," especially if you're fighting off a major viral infection. I think an infected trapped where they cannot feed will die in 30 days and most infected will succumb to death from malnourishment (even despite eating constantly) in about 60 days.