v1 disease rules

[Adm.Lee]

Did any of you ever use these? I always skipped them. There was almost always some player who couldn't make it to one of the game sessions back in the day, so I rationalized by saying that PC was sick for however long the session lasted.

I've just been reading them in more detail (as well as the fatigue rule), and I notice that the effects of being sick seem vague. There's infection, diagnosis, and recovery, but what happens when you have it? Say, Minor Disease "fever, general body pain, vomiting, discoloration." So what? In game terms, I mean. The character is unaffected beyond the GM saying, "Yeah, you feel like crap."

Recovery sets a base fatigue level, but not actually being sick.

I must be missing something (which happens to me often), can anyone help me out?

[Draq]

I guess the GM would just play it up in detail for the story, but your right, there need to be some type of stat penalty or something to mimic the symptoms in play mechanics.

[Legbreaker]

Doesn't "fatigue" already penalise the character in that manner?
Effects of Fatigue: All of a character's effective attributes are reduced by 1 for each level of fatigue. If any attribute is reduced to 0, the character becomes unconscious
Some of the diseases can impose fatigue level 3. This is on top of the usual fatigue a character may have from Hard Work or lack of sleep. It's quite possible for some characters (ANY stat of 4 or less) to find themselves passing out.
Note the other effects of fatigue:
Direct fire is made more difficult by fatigue. When rolling for a direct fire task, after all adjustments are made for range, recoil, etc., the die roll is increased according to the character's fatigue level. For each level of fatigue, the die roll is increased 3 points at short range, 2 points at medium range, and 1 at long range or longer.
Load is reduced by 10% per level of fatigue.
Throw range is reduced by 10 meters per level of fatigue.
Unarmed combat damage is reduced by one per level of fatigue.
So not only are they at risk of passing out, they cannot shoot as well, carry as much, or punch as hard. Rolling against skills is also more difficult giving it's against skill plus controlling attribute in most cases.

V1 is very similar with differences being mainly which attributes are effected, the adjustments for a D100 instead of D20 system, etc.

[Draq]

Oh, duh. I feel dumb now.

[Adm.Lee]

Fatigue will do that, but what I'm missing is any connection between being sick and being fatigued. I see that fatigue levels may be imposed in the post-disease recovery period, but what I'm missing is any fatigue imposed while being sick. v2's disease tables (while easier to read) still don't say how many/if any fatigue levels to impose while the character is sick.

My house ruling may be to add fatigue levels, but I'll have to wing it on how many levels.

[Legbreaker]

This is the way it appears in the V1 Refs book:
Dysentery
Transmission: Contaminated food and/or water. Infection
Number 60.
Symptoms: Abdominal pain, diarrhea.
Diagnosis: AVG
Misdiagnosed as: Cholera, or minor disease.
Treatment: Replace fluids ( + 30%), relieve pain (+ 10%).
Course of the Disease: Incubation: 1 -3 days (1D6/2). Phase I:
3 days. Phase II: 7 days. Base Recovery Number: 195.
Failed Recovery Death Probability: 5%
Post-recovery Debility: 7 days. With treatment, fatigue at level
1 base; without, level 2
I believe the problem here is formatting. It should read as follows:

DysenteryTransmission: Contaminated food and/or water.
Infection Number 60.
Symptoms: Abdominal pain, diarrhea.
Diagnosis: AVG
Misdiagnosed as: Cholera, or minor disease.
Treatment: Replace fluids ( + 30%), relieve pain (+ 10%).
Course of the Disease: Incubation: 1 -3 days (1D6/2). Phase I: 3 days. Phase II: 7 days.
Base Recovery Number: 195.
Failed Recovery Death Probability: 5%
Post-recovery Debility: 7 days.
With treatment, fatigue at level 1 base; without, level 2
Note the last line re fatigue is separate to post recovery debility, and should apply from the moment Phase 1 begins, and will continue until the Post-recovery Debility period has expired.
This is on top of any symptoms which would impair the character while suffering the illness - Abdominal pain & diarrhea in the example above are going to make it very difficult to carry out some tasks. Vomiting may invoke the starvation rules, and so on.

Yes, getting sick can be quite nasty if you look at this way, but these diseases have killed many people over the centuries, they are nasty.

[swaghauler]

I agree with Leg's interpretation. I do change the Fatigue DURING the illness by doubling the post-illness recovery Fatigue and applying it during the illness (especially if treatment fails). This Fatigue can be reduced by treatment during the illness. Why? In the real world, good nursing care can go a long way towards reducing both the symptoms and treatment time of a disease.

[Adm.Lee]

That makes vastly more sense, Leg, thank you! As for some symptoms affecting other rules (vomiting = no food), that's the kind of connection I was hoping to find, but not seeing. Ah, and looking at Upkeep, I see that lack of food can also impose fatigue levels.

Swaghauler, you may be on to something as well. So, in the above case, it could be 2 levels of fatigue (2x if untreated) during the Phases I and II, and 1 or 2 during the 7 days of recovery.

[ArmySGT.]

The rules for Dysentery must be assuming modern anti-diarrhetic, analgesics, Intravenous rehydration, and modern nursing for the low transmission rates, rate of recovery, and low mortality.

Dysentery was a primary killer of troops during the American Civil War. The deaths from dysentery were dehydration causing renal failure.

Wipe out that 20th century knowledge and limit supplies and whole villages or refugee camps can be depopulated in weeks.

[Silent Hunter UK]

Yes, getting sick can be quite nasty if you look at this way, but these diseases have killed many people over the centuries, they are nasty.

In fact, it was more common historically for soldiers to die of disease while on campaign rather than enemy action; Henry V is thought to have died of dysentery himself while in France.

The first case where this was reversed was in the Prussian-Danish War of 1864