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> New Diseases, Homebrewed Illnesses?
MaxMahem
post Dec 6 2007, 05:44 AM
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I really like the disease rules in Augmentation, which are an excellent way to simulate various diseases. I was wondering if anybody had come up with any homewbrewed illnesses?

Heres one I've come up with:

Necrotizing Fasciitis
Vector: Injury
Speed: 12 hours (4)
Penetration: 0
Power: 6
Nature: Bacteria
Effect: Physical Deterioration

A catch all name for an infection of any of a number of "flesh eating bacteria." Its vector is unusual in that an infection can only occur through an open wound or injury of some type. Typically due to an improperly sanitized wound, or unsanitary surgery. Most of the bacteria that cause Necrotizing Fascitis do not survive well outside of their home environments which makes treating a weapon to cause such an infection difficult.

The most deadly effect of Necrotizing Faciitis, is its ability to eat a characters flesh right off his bones. Every time the power of the disease is not reduced to 0 by the resistance test, subtract one point from either STR, BOD, or AGI at random. If any of these stats are reduced to 0 the character slips into anaphylactic shock, and if reduced to a negative number the disease is fatal. In addition the GM may apply a penalty to face-to-face social interactions to represent the disfigurement that comes with the disease. Since the infection is localized, amputation can be an effective treatment, immediately curing the infection.

While a rare infection Necrotizing Fasciitis can be incredibly deadly. Without medical aid fatalitie rate is nearly 100%, and even with medical aid it is well above 25%. Often times amputation of the effected part is the only effective treatment for the infection. Attributes lost to Necrotizing Fasciits can only be recovered through genetic treatment, replacement with cyber/bioware, or karma expenditure.

::edited corrected spelling grammar/whatnot, removed cha drain, and slight tweaked the stats to make the disease more survivable::
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Karaden
post Dec 6 2007, 06:04 PM
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Mmm, only suggestion I have is to take away the potential Cha loss from it. I know it makes sense to you, but Cha is a purely mental thing and has nothing to do with your actual physical beauity. You could be butt ugly and have a Cha of 8, and you could be really handsom with a Cha of 1. Cha is how you interact with people. The good looking girl that is a pain every time she opens her mouth is an example of the second type.

Now, what it can do, is give penilities for social interaction ala "Oh my god! Your cheek is missing!" or something else. This will usually have similar results, but you have to keep things like astral combat in mind. It doesn't matter how you look in the astral plane, it is your force of personality that counts.

*edit*

Note that this is also why cosmetic surgery never mentions anything about raising your Cha stat in augmentation, but it does mention you getting bonuses to social interaction.
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Fortune
post Dec 6 2007, 10:38 PM
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QUOTE (Karaden)
Note that this is also why cosmetic surgery never mentions anything about raising your Cha stat in augmentation, but it does mention you getting bonuses to social interaction.

Really? Hmmm ...

QUOTE (Augmentation pg. 23)
Cosmetic Surgery
To reflect the ability of cosmetic surgeons to beautify people, any net hits above the threshold on a Cosmetic Surgery Test may grant a +1 increase to Charisma. The maximum bonus obtainable from cosmetic surgery would be +3.
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Zak
post Dec 6 2007, 11:10 PM
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and i thought you meant necrophile facists. :eek:
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MaxMahem
post Dec 7 2007, 01:07 AM
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Here's another one.

RAIDS
Vector: STD
Speed: 1 Month (4 with medical aid, otherwise incurable)
Penetration: -2
Power: 2
Nature: Viral
Effect: Immune System Degredation

RAIDS, or Rapid Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, is a modern descendant of AIDS once the scourge of the 21st century is still alive and kicking today. Though curable with modern anti-virals attempts to vaccinate against it have proved ineffective due to the disease ability to mutate rendering the vaccine useless. The current strain is circulation is no longer a killer, however its weaker nature and rapid onset makes make the disease far more insidious. Unlike AIDS RAIDS can be transmitted almost immediately after infection and is much more likely to communicated through sexual contact (nearly 100% of the time).

RAIDS itself is very rarely fatal. However its primary effect the degradation of the victims immune system which can lead to other fatal diseases. Ever time the power of the disease is not reduced to 0 by the disease resistance test, the character gains a cumulative -1 penalty to subsequent disease resistance tests. If the disease resistance test is successfully in reducing the power to 0 it slowly regenerates itself reducing the penalty by 1.This effect is subtle and hard to notice. Every time the victim is subjected to a non-Aids disease resistance test they can make a Logic+Medicine (5-current penalty) to try and determine something is wrong, otherwise the disease remains undetected. Routine blood work immediately detects the disease.

RAIDS infection while no longer at epidemic proportions remains a serious problem in 2070. An estimated 33% of all sex workers are infected with the disease, some of whom have likely caught, cured, and recaught the infection several times. Metahumans with more robust immune systems, such as orks, dwarves, and trolls may be infect with the disease for long periods of times without ever realizing it. In addition while blood and tissue donations that go through the legitimate medical sources are routinely scanned, those through other sources are not. So a small, but not insignificant (maybe ~5%) chance of acquiring the disease through second hand black market parts/bioweare exists.
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Karaden
post Dec 7 2007, 04:57 AM
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You'll notice that that is an optional rule, and steps quite out of line with anything that you'll find anywhere else. No other example in all of the books provides a direct corilation to improving your looks improving your Cha. After all, if Cha could be adjusted that easily, then people could just put on a good looking disguise and instantly go from Cha of 1 to Cha of 5 or 6. Why would anyone bother with actually getting any points in Cha if they just need a good enough mask to get the same or better effect.
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Fortune
post Dec 7 2007, 07:06 AM
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I didn't make the rule. I was merely responding to your post where you erroneously claimed that Augmentation 'never mentions' a bonus to Charisma in relation to cosmetic surgery.
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FrankTrollman
post Dec 7 2007, 08:23 AM
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QUOTE (Fortune)
I didn't make the rule.

Neither did I/ I really honestly have no idea where it comes from. My best guess is that it's the result of an editor being overly cheeky with a subsystem. The rest of the book is written in line with page 122 of the Basic Book, in which being romantically attractive gives you a +2 bonus on social skills (but affects your charisma in no way).

Since everyone on the project of Augmentation agreed in principal to work up cosmetic surgery in that way, I literally don't know where that optional rule came from. I don't know who penned it or why it made it into the final draft. I did not see it in a near-to-final draft, for example.

---

Anway, I'm glad that people like the Disease Rules. Diseases are lots of fun, and paring it down to the ones we used for Augmentation was hard. There are books of just diseases that are longer than all of Aumentation for example.

-Frank
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Karaden
post Dec 7 2007, 04:54 PM
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QUOTE (Fortune @ Dec 7 2007, 02:06 AM)
I didn't make the rule. I was merely responding to your post where you erroneously claimed that Augmentation 'never mentions' a bonus to Charisma in relation to cosmetic surgery.

I know, I was just pointing out that it is compleatly off with anything in any of the other books, as FrankTrollman backs me up on that.

The point here is that you should change the potental Cha loss to a penelty in social interaction, heck, even substitue a -2 penelty perhaps, missing part of your face after all is -very- upsetting to people you are trying to talk to. Of course a proper mask(disguise) or some such could likely be used to cancle out the penelty untill you can get properly cured and healed.

*edit*

P.S. like how you did AIDS, good work.
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Nasrudith
post Dec 7 2007, 07:04 PM
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Wait shouldn't AIDs be curable after a month via the cure disease spell? Granted if immune system damage is already done it wouldn't be able to cure that.
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Moon-Hawk
post Dec 7 2007, 07:08 PM
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QUOTE (Nasrudith)
Wait shouldn't AIDs be curable after a month via the cure disease spell? Granted if immune system damage is already done it wouldn't be able to cure that.

Well, Cure Disease gives additional dice to resist a disease based on hits. So depending on how powerful a disease is, you might not be able to afford the services of a sufficiently skilled magician to shake it.
Illnesses are for poor people.
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hyzmarca
post Dec 7 2007, 07:50 PM
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1 month is a little fast, given that HIV usually takes 8 years to develop into AIDS without treatment. The average Body 3 human would need to get 2 hits on a Body test 96 times for that to work out, statistically very improbable, though in reality it is the most common outcome.
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darthmord
post Dec 7 2007, 09:03 PM
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The virus may have mutated to work faster over time. It does state in his write-up that it mutates often which makes vaccination rather ineffective.
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MaxMahem
post Dec 8 2007, 01:18 AM
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QUOTE (hyzmarca)
1 month is a little fast, given that HIV usually takes 8 years to develop into AIDS without treatment. The average Body 3 human would need to get 2 hits on a Body test 96 times for that to work out, statistically very improbable, though it reality it is the most common outcome.

Fair enough. I considers this when sating it up, but I figured any disease with a speed of 1 year would be to slow acting to have any game effect (even if it was accurate). I'll adjust AIDS in 'RAIDS' to compensate. Just consider the virus to have mutated to be faster acting.

QUOTE
Wait shouldn't AIDs be curable after a month via the cure disease spell? Granted if immune system damage is already done it wouldn't be able to cure that.

Its not listed in the rules but I figure ANY disease (even the incurable ones) can be treated through the use of magic, nanotechnology, or genetic engineering. I would rule that if you can reduce the diseaes power to 0 by any of these methods it is cured next time it comes around. The problem with any of these methods is that they are all pretty expensive. I've also modified the disease to let the immune system damage slowly come back.

Also diseases that deal stun damage can also be lethal as the damage can stage over to physical if left unchecked.

QUOTE
Mmm, only suggestion I have is to take away the potential Cha loss from it.

I understand what you are saying, it's certainly gameable either way. I may go ahead and adjust it in line with the recommendation though.

Anyways, here's another one.

Staph
Vector: Injury
Speed: 1 Day (2)
Penetration: -6
Power: 4
Nature: Bacteria
Effect: Nausea, Malaise, Stun Damage

XRSA or Extensively drug Resistant Staphylococcus aureus is perhapses one of the most common infections in the world. By some accounts over 25% of the worlds population is infected with it at any one time. Most of the time a Staph infection is not serious, manifesting on the skin as pimples and the like. However if the infection is internalized through an injury, it can become extremely deadly and is still one of the number one killers in hospitals today.

A descendant of drug resistant MRSA and VRSA variants XRSA is resistant to virtually all anti-biotics in existence. Which makes treating it difficult. In fact modern techniques focus around bolstering the bodies immune system to fight the infection off. The (meta)human immune system is relatively adapt at fighting the infection and so can cure it on its own given enough time.

Serious Staphylococcus aureus infections are generally only contacted through improper medical treatment. As the (meta)human immune system is quite capable of containing the infection on the skin. However Staphylococcus aureus widespread nature and resilience to disinfection make such an infection a minor (but real) risk even at first rate medical facilities (~1%). In less upstanding medical facilities the risk is considerably greater.
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MaxMahem
post Dec 8 2007, 08:32 PM
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Here's a fun one for your runners who insist at living at squatter or street lifestyle.

Scabies
Vector: Contact/Lifestyle
Speed: 1 week (4)
Penetration: 0
Power: 4
Nature: Parasite
Effect: Malaise

Scabies is caused by the mite, Sarcoptes scabiei which burrows under the victims skin and lays its eggs causing irritation and a allergic reaction in most victims. The rash and bumps that break out all across the victims body are both irritating, and psychologically disturbing as the victim realizes there are in fact tiny insects living on and inside his skin. Victims of scabies may incur and additional -1 penalty to face to face charisma based test due to the unsightly rash and constant itching. While not highly contagious, Scabies can be contracted through prolonged physical contact with an infected person or sharing infected clothing or bedding.

Scabies is endemic in the homeless and squatter population, despite being relatively simple to cure with over the counter insecticides. This can be attributed to an over-reliance on home remedies which may not be effective and a general lack of sanitation which often leads to re-infection. At the GM's option a failed Edge (1) test for those living at squatter and a failed Edge (2) test for those living at street indicates re-infection with the disease. The GM could optionally also require these test each month to see if someone living at these levels acquires the infection.
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HappyDaze
post Dec 8 2007, 11:18 PM
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Anyone want to take a stab at mental illnesses using these rules (with adjustments as needed)?
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hyzmarca
post Dec 9 2007, 01:26 AM
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Electro-Gonorrhea
Vector: Contact
Speed: 6 Hours (Until Cured)
Penetration -5
Power: 3
Nature: Bacterial
Effects: Arcane Resistance, Malaise, Electrical Secondary Effects, Stun Damage

Caused by an awakened variant of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Electro-Gonorrhea is spread when bacteria-laden pus is introduced into a body cavity , most commonly through sexual contact. It usually infects, the vagina, cervix, urethra, bladder anus, throat, or sinuses and is most often spread by sexual contact.

Electro-Gonorrhea is feared due the the bacteria's ability to generate high voltage electricity. A single Neisseria electro-gonorrhoeae bacterium will use a deadly electrical charge to protect itself from a host's immune cells, kill anti-bacterial nanites, and burn through condoms. Alone, it wouldn't be noticed. But a sizable colony of electro-gonorrhoeae discharging all at once has the effects of a taser, forcing the host to resist (power)S damage and suffer electrical secondary effects.
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Kyoto Kid
post Dec 9 2007, 01:55 AM
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..hmm, I'm going to have to dig out some of my old med journal CDRs tonight. :vegm:
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MaxMahem
post Dec 11 2007, 05:53 AM
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Electro-Gonorrhea sounds painful. I sure don't want it!

All the previous diseases have been things you could infect a PC with. This is one you probably shouldn't. Unless you want to bring back that old "not much time left to live" disadvantage (which I always hated). Can't recall its name. Anyways:

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Vector: Injection (Special)
Speed: 1 Week (Incurable)
Penetration: Untreatable
Power: 4
Nature: Prion
Effects: Mental degeneration

Most diseases can be cured fairly quickly with modern medicine. Even those that are not can almost universal be dealt with if Magic, Nanotechnology, or Genetic Engineering. Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (or CJD) is one of the only, if not the only absolutely incurable diseases in existence in the 6th world. It is caused by Prions, tiny self-replicating proteins within the brain. These tiny disease causing agents become part of the victims Aura, making magical treatment ineffective. They are too small to be effectively combated with nano-machines, and to similar to other brain proteins for genetic engineering to make the body resistant. All treatments are completely ineffective.

Thankfully CJD is very rare in metahumans, effecting only one out of a million or so naturally, and being almost impossible to transmit. However a strain of CJD known as Advanced Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (or AVCD) it has been cultivated for use as an effective assassination weapon. Unlike typical CJD, AVCD starts to take effect fairly rapidly, manifesting in a manner of weeks instead of years to decades.

Transmission is still difficult. While it is possible to transmit CJD or AVCD via either injestion of contaminated material or injection, these methods are not guaranteed to have rapid effect and may manifest years to decades later if at all. However if AVCD is injected directly into the Cerebrospinal fluid it is virtually guaranteed to take effect in a manner of weeks, and is 100% fatal. After the disease takes effect the victim usually only lasts a few weeks to a few months at most.

The effects of CJD are both subtle, debilitating, and humiliating. CJD causes fairly rapid brain degeneration. Each time the power of the disease is not reduced to 0, the victim looses a random point of either logic, charisma, reaction, willpower, or intuition. If any of these stats are reduced to 0 the victim falls into a coma, and at negative levels they die. Points lost in this manner may not be recovered by any means except karma expenditure or genetic restoration, however mental degradation is generally to rapid for these to be an effective treatment. CJD is also subtule and hard to detect (most blood test do not check for Prions) victims recive a -2 penalty on diagnostic tests.
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Whipstitch
post Dec 15 2007, 01:26 AM
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Actually, there is a canon disease in the book that reduces charisma via destroying skin: The Bedlam variant known as Ravage.

Not that I'd mind if you guys swept that info under the rug, mind you, but just saying...
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Nasrudith
post Dec 15 2007, 01:51 AM
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QUOTE (hyzmarca)
Effects: Arcane Resistance

What exactly do you mean by arcane resistance? Does that mean cure disease has less of an effect on it or that they gain resistance to all spells?
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Whipstitch
post Dec 15 2007, 01:55 AM
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It means the disease's power is doubled for the purposes of determining the Force required for Cure Disease to be effective and magical preventative measures operate at only 50% effectiveness.
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Method
post Dec 15 2007, 02:35 AM
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MaxMahem: One week seems a little short for a prion disease. Unless you were going for some kind of awakened strain or something. Generally prion disease have long incubation periods (months to years).
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Malicant
post Dec 15 2007, 02:52 AM
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I have a very hard time believing a disease like CJD would pose any problem in a setting like SR. It's just prions, they are not immune to scienctific breakthroughs (It should be remenbered that in SR you can rewrite the complete genetic structure of a person. You can reset a 80 year old to 20 years, you can make asians into caucasian).

Artificial and awakend diseases are plausible, but anything like this seems just odd. Would destroy my suspesion of disbelief.

Also, why exactly don't metahumans get CJD? To me they seemed genetically very similar to humans, only those magic-genes are diffrent that make them dwarfs, trolls and stuff. Seems rather odd, too.

You should create funky bio weapon grade diseases and VITAS wannabees. Not convert realworld diseases. It's really odd.

btw, hyzmarca has the right idea how to do this. made me chuckle.
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MaxMahem
post Dec 15 2007, 04:00 AM
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QUOTE (Method)
One week seems a little short for a prion disease. Unless you were going for some kind of awakened strain or something. Generally prion disease have long incubation periods (months to years).

Generally you are right, Prion diseases (even those that are transmitable) due to end to have fairly long onset periods. However this is not a typical Prion disease but at strain that has been carefully cultivated to take effect much more rapidly. Also for maximal effect large quantities of it are injected directly into the Cerebrospinal fluid facilitating infection. There is some precedent for this Varient Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease starts effecting people around the age of 20 instead of much later in life, so it is possible for the disease to take effect more rapidly.

QUOTE (Malicant)
I have a very hard time believing a disease like CJD would pose any problem in a setting like SR. It's just prions, they are not immune to scienctific breakthroughs (It should be remenbered that in SR you can rewrite the complete genetic structure of a person. You can reset a 80 year old to 20 years, you can make asians into caucasian).

Its certainly possible that they could have developed a cure, but we have no reading on it either way. Prion diseases are very rare, it may not have been worth the mega-corporations time or money to develop a cure for it. Also while it may be possible to rewrite large portions of a persons genetic structure, that doesn't necessarily mean they are able to perform the fine mesh kind of coding that might be necessary to make someone immune to CJD. And even if they could, that doesn't mean anyone has put the time and money into actually doing it. IN any case I already listed my technobable reasons as to why CJD (and AVCD) have not yet been cured, make of them what you will.

QUOTE
Artificial and awakend diseases are plausible, but anything like this seems just odd. Would destroy my suspesion of disbelief.

We have different preferences then. I find awakend or advanced forms of current diseases to be more compelling then new and completely unknown ones. I have no problem believing the Megacorps could engineer a new strain of an existing disease that was resistant to treatment. I should also point out that a good chunk of the diseases in Augmentation are of this nature as well.

QUOTE
Also, why exactly don't metahumans get CJD? To me they seemed genetically very similar to humans, only those magic-genes are diffrent that make them dwarfs, trolls and stuff. Seems rather odd, too.

Not sure where you are getting this from, meta-type makes no difference in vunerability to CJD (or AVCD). Other than Dwarfs, Orks, and Trolls immune systems being naturally more robust (higher BOD), giving them slightly better odds. In fact I'm pretty sure I always used metahumans instead of humans when using that term...
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