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  #1  
Old 04-14-2018, 08:29 AM
pmulcahy11b's Avatar
pmulcahy11b pmulcahy11b is offline
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Originally Posted by The Dark View Post
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.
That's something Zombie movies leave them out that makes them more tense and more final for the victims, but also more fake -- the possibility of recovery from the illness. But I would also think that the cleanup of necrotic tissue on a recovering victim would be daunting, but necessary (and one of those diseases where part of the cure is worse than the disease, or possibly even fatal).
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  #2  
Old 04-14-2018, 08:28 PM
Enfield Enfield is offline
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Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b View Post
That's something Zombie movies leave them out that makes them more tense and more final for the victims, but also more fake -- the possibility of recovery from the illness. But I would also think that the cleanup of necrotic tissue on a recovering victim would be daunting, but necessary (and one of those diseases where part of the cure is worse than the disease, or possibly even fatal).
I actually think that having recovery possibilities does make it more intresting. Because in most zombie or infected movies you do know after a bit how long infection spreads. In the original George A. Romero series it might take hours or days for a person to eventually die and become a zombie, whereas dying quicklyl from blood loss or shock would result in immediate turning. The Walking dead works on a similar logic. Whereas in 28 Days Later and similar franchises (or The Crossed series) infection spreads within minutes if not seconds in some cases. It is inevitable.

However this means that you automatically know what to do and have no moral dilemmas. I think it's more interesting to have those. It also requires effort--you might have to keep someone on observation, run successive tests, etc.
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Old 04-15-2018, 03:36 PM
The Dark The Dark is offline
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Originally Posted by Enfield View Post
I actually think that having recovery possibilities does make it more intresting. Because in most zombie or infected movies you do know after a bit how long infection spreads. In the original George A. Romero series it might take hours or days for a person to eventually die and become a zombie, whereas dying quicklyl from blood loss or shock would result in immediate turning. The Walking dead works on a similar logic. Whereas in 28 Days Later and similar franchises (or The Crossed series) infection spreads within minutes if not seconds in some cases. It is inevitable.

However this means that you automatically know what to do and have no moral dilemmas. I think it's more interesting to have those. It also requires effort--you might have to keep someone on observation, run successive tests, etc.
Yes, this was the gist of what I was thinking (but couldn't put into words) when I kept in the potential for recovery. It creates a much more interesting (to me, at least) moral dilemma to know that while the zombie will probably die anyway, there's a possibility of recovery. Another area to think about is how they react to less-than-lethal defenses - how much does CS discourage a zombie horde? What about beanbag rounds or tasers? (For a potentially more light-hearted take, can you distract them with hamburgers?)

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Originally Posted by swaghauler
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.
True. My main goal was to make it so there was a possibility of Phase I recovery IF you were already robust AND had a good doctor AND rare (in a post-apoc scenario) medicines. Someone who wanted an in-universe rationalization that probably makes no sense but sounds cool is that the virus doesn't directly infect humans, but rather infects a bacterium that then infects humans. Without the bacterium's protective coating, the virus dies in the human body, so the anti-bacterial is an indirect attack on the virus (I'm pretty sure that's total BS and would be shocked if a virus actually worked that way, but it'd be good enough for Hollywood ).

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To replicate this, I'd give a zombie a killing bite of from 0 (no penetration) to 2 points of wound damage (roll 1D3-1). Most HTH attacks would be "grappling attacks" designed to immobilize their "prey" so that they can "eat" (bite) that prey. This will result in a number of people getting bitten but then escaping from the grasp of their attackers.
Which, in turn, would make the unarmed combat supplement more useful, since different martial arts give bonuses or maluses to the "escape" action to get out of grapples.
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  #4  
Old 04-16-2018, 12:45 PM
swaghauler swaghauler is offline
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Originally Posted by The Dark View Post
True. My main goal was to make it so there was a possibility of Phase I recovery IF you were already robust AND had a good doctor AND rare (in a post-apoc scenario) medicines. Someone who wanted an in-universe rationalization that probably makes no sense but sounds cool is that the virus doesn't directly infect humans, but rather infects a bacterium that then infects humans. Without the bacterium's protective coating, the virus dies in the human body, so the anti-bacterial is an indirect attack on the virus (I'm pretty sure that's total BS and would be shocked if a virus actually worked that way, but it'd be good enough for Hollywood ).
I'm not going to say a Bacterial/Virus hybrid couldn't happen in the age of Biology and Eugenics. I'm not sure what kind of gene-splicing it might take though.
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  #5  
Old 04-16-2018, 01:12 PM
Enfield Enfield is offline
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Originally Posted by swaghauler View Post
I'm not going to say a Bacterial/Virus hybrid couldn't happen in the age of Biology and Eugenics. I'm not sure what kind of gene-splicing it might take though.
I'm inclinedto keep it simpleand make iteither/or, each can present challenges thatin a postapocalyptic scenario are difficultto dealwith.
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  #6  
Old 05-14-2018, 06:45 PM
.45cultist .45cultist is offline
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Originally Posted by swaghauler View Post
I'm not going to say a Bacterial/Virus hybrid couldn't happen in the age of Biology and Eugenics. I'm not sure what kind of gene-splicing it might take though.
Don't forget prions, which can damage the brain.
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Old 05-16-2018, 05:04 PM
swaghauler swaghauler is offline
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Don't forget prions, which can damage the brain.
YEP! Prions are so new that only about a dozen Prion-induced diseases have been documented (Mad Cow being one of them). They are even smaller than viruses and have the ability to damage the subject's DNA too. Unfortunately, ALL of the Prion-induced diseases are FATAL. Still, a Prion COULD be responsible for the disease in question, there would just be NO CURE.
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  #8  
Old 05-30-2018, 07:13 AM
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Jason Weiser Jason Weiser is offline
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I was about to suggest prions....and perhaps it is a research project that gets away from someone.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion

The main issue, Prions take years or decades at times to incubate. Or, at lesst the ones we know about?
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