Ghouls, and how they propegate Options

[Draco18s]

I'm afraid to ask. Why did you feel compelled to tell us about the herp in such detail? I have such a horrible mental image right now.

Because it effects me several times a year. I do not wish to go blind. I'd cut off my right hand first.

And most people don't know that "cold sores" are herpes. "It's just a cold sore." Guess what, the cold sore my grandmother had when I was eight?

Yeah.

I get to live with that.

(Sidenote: it's not the least appetizing thing I could take about. Some of the stuff I get to deal with at work--and I'm a programmer--makes me lose my lunch)

[Jeremiah Kraye]

Pro-tip: don't get herpes for real, it's not so much the unbearable itching (it's like having chickenpox, only over a quarter square inch of skin), it's the fact that if you get it in certain places your life will suck horribly; like your eyes. You go blind when it flares up. And it's incurable. Sure, there are various drugs to treat it, but just makes the rash go away in days, rather than weeks.

Also FYI: cold sores are herpes, don't let anyone who is not a doctor tell you otherwise.

The good news is that transmission from person-to-person is difficult. They call it a "sexually transmitted disease" but really all that means is that it requires infected bodily fluid transfer (like kissing: hooray cold sores, the #1 oral disease in humans!).

Yep it sucks, just be glad that in general herpes (specifically cold sores varient) is not a deadly and debillitating disease and in general it only flares up during periods of weakness or specific conditions. (Cold sores are called cold sores for a reason).

Kind of like chicken pox though, earlier you get it (and it's a widely propogated problem) the less damage it does. Ahh the diseases of our lives.

[Draco18s]

Yep it sucks, just be glad that in general herpes (specifically cold sores varient) is not a deadly and debillitating disease and in general it only flares up during periods of weakness or specific conditions. (Cold sores are called cold sores for a reason).

Stress level plays a part too, but then stress plays a part in how efficient our immune system is.

Kind of like chicken pox though, earlier you get it (and it's a widely propogated problem) the less damage it does. Ahh the diseases of our lives.

Eeh. Not so sure that comparison works.

But yes, it is not a deadly and debilitating disease. MOST chronic diseases aren't these days if you're an "average healthy adult" otherwise.

[Yerameyahu]

Great, now burning Edge isn't even an option, except at the tenth test and .9 ESS lost. Even at Power 6 and Penetration -3 ghouldom is all but certain for Joe Average.

That's fine with me, it *should* be scary. If the new numbers are still too rough, we could tweak them more… but it should still be very scary for Joe Average.

Having to roll another test could be called an effect.

As Draco18s said, disease explicitly have Effects; continuing to fight off the disease is not an effect.

[StealthSigma]

That's fine with me, it *should* be scary. If the new numbers are still too rough, we could tweak them more… but it should still be very scary for Joe Average.

Joe Average is not Runner Ryan.

Joe Average has 3 BOD (for a human/elf), 4 BOD (for a dwarf), 6 BOD (for an ork), or 7 BOD (for a troll). Respectively, you get 1 hit, 2 hit, 2 hits, 2 hits on average to resist diseases. That means that on average, the disease would still be "fatal" to most people at power 4. Joe Average is basically screwed without some really good luck in this situation.

I looked at the numbers for the errata. I posted what an average situation would look like while having a very high disease resistance pool (higher than most average runners would have). You need at least an average Edge and the gear to make surviving it an option or you need to have phenomenal luck on your rolls. Now, if you can find about 6 more dice from genetech and nanotech that would apply, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. You might not need edge to survive it at that point and that gives you a lot more wiggle room to survive it but it's still a huge investment towards a singular purpose.

[Jeremiah Kraye]

Which to me seems silly, since I suspect that the idea behind becoming a ghoul is that if you get ravaged by a ghoul and survive without medical aid you should succumb, but with no possible way to improve your chances, it seems exactly as someone said, lucky ghoul = making you a dick GM to certain players.

Also makes any varient of prime-runner ghoul especially deadly as after ghoulification there's A: no turning back, B: Possible loss of character via in play repercussions, C: he probably would ravage the crap out of you.

As for fixes I'm pretty sure that current viral infections can be fought with something like a Z-pack, additionally its been found that certain compounds do hinder the capability of virus' to interact or propogate in the body... the idea that nothing like that exists that improves the chances after the fact (because installing ware after the fact seems silly), seems odd.

[X-Kalibur]

Because it effects me several times a year. I do not wish to go blind. I'd cut off my right hand first.

And most people don't know that "cold sores" are herpes. "It's just a cold sore." Guess what, the cold sore my grandmother had when I was eight?

Yeah.

I get to live with that.

(Sidenote: it's not the least appetizing thing I could take about. Some of the stuff I get to deal with at work--and I'm a programmer--makes me lose my lunch)

Further side note in regards to Herpes, Chickenpox is Herpes Varicella. It stays in your body FOREVER. Later in life it can return in what we call shingles (Herpes Zoster). Shingles are extremely painful as they follow nerve lines and can also cause blindness. You find it more commonly in older adults (and they do have a vaccination of sorts for it, Zostavax) but I know someone as young as 37 who has had it flare up on them. Working as a nurse totally desensitizes you to those sorts of topics. I ate the whole time I was typing this.

[Stahlseele]

i'd rather know how a PROGRAMMER has to deal with this kind of stuff at work . .

[Jeremiah Kraye]

Further side note in regards to Herpes, Chickenpox is Herpes Varicella. It stays in your body FOREVER. Later in life it can return in what we call shingles (Herpes Zoster). Shingles are extremely painful as they follow nerve lines and can also cause blindness. You find it more commonly in older adults (and they do have a vaccination of sorts for it, Zostavax) but I know someone as young as 37 who has had it flare up on them. Working as a nurse totally desensitizes you to those sorts of topics. I ate the whole time I was typing this.

Pretty much... which is kind of why I directed the comment towards chickenpox. From what I've read all varients of herpes follow this same line of thought.

Ever read bad code?

[Stahlseele]

Hell no, i try and stay as far away from coding ANYTHING, even a simple web-page . .
I am a Networking/Server kinda Guy, not Coding and Databasing stuff x.x

[Draco18s]

Further side note in regards to Herpes, Chickenpox is Herpes Varicella. It stays in your body FOREVER. Later in life it can return in what we call shingles (Herpes Zoster).

Did not know that chicken pox was a variant. The rest I did know (excepting the clinical name of shingles).

i'd rather know how a PROGRAMMER has to deal with this kind of stuff at work . .

Poorly.
If the question was "how does that come up?" It's because I make training programs for big pharma.

[Jeremiah Kraye]

Imagine if you will... a properly configured firewall... and at the very bottom, one of your asshole administrators typed an any-any rule with a small comment that said, "Opened temperorily to check something - dated a year ago"

How would you feel about that?

[Draco18s]

Imagine if you will... a properly configured firewall... and at the very bottom, one of your asshole administrators typed an any-any rule with a small comment that said, "Opened temperorily to check something - dated a year ago"

How would you feel about that?

Ha. That's pretty funny.
And actually I'd get a friend to start doing Naughty Things to the network through that hole (nothing permanent, but enough to throw red flags) until one of the admins went to figure it out. And then go "hey, what's this?" and point at the firewall entry.

[Stahlseele]

Did not know that chicken pox was a variant. The rest I did know (excepting the clinical name of shingles).



Poorly.
If the question was "how does that come up?" It's because I make training programs for big pharma.

Yeah, that would explain that . . My guess was coding for 4chan or something . .

Imagine if you will... a properly configured firewall... and at the very bottom, one of your asshole administrators typed an any-any rule with a small comment that said, "Opened temperorily to check something - dated a year ago"

How would you feel about that?

I work for Vodafone. I have to deal with much worse than that -.-

[Draco18s]

Yeah, that would explain that . . My guess was coding for 4chan or something . .

4chan would be a step...up. Mostly sideways, but still a step up.

Looking at the bedsores on some guy's ass is less preferable than what typically shows up on 4chan. Not by much, but still worse.

[StealthSigma]

Yeah, that would explain that . . My guess was coding for 4chan or something . .

Like bronies?

[Stahlseele]

Like bronies?

We have our deviants, everybody does, but do not throw us all into the same pot and call us black, kettle.

[Draco18s]

Like bronies?

Meh. I have a story in my email now that horrifies most bronies.

MLP/Twilight crossover.
Twilight Sparkler also takes a bite out of Applejack (who likes it).

And that's the tame summary.

But it didn't make me retch. Or want to eat salads for a week.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Which to me seems silly, since I suspect that the idea behind becoming a ghoul is that if you get ravaged by a ghoul and survive without medical aid you should succumb, but with no possible way to improve your chances, it seems exactly as someone said, lucky ghoul = making you a dick GM to certain players.

Also makes any varient of prime-runner ghoul especially deadly as after ghoulification there's A: no turning back, B: Possible loss of character via in play repercussions, C: he probably would ravage the crap out of you.

As for fixes I'm pretty sure that current viral infections can be fought with something like a Z-pack, additionally its been found that certain compounds do hinder the capability of virus' to interact or propogate in the body... the idea that nothing like that exists that improves the chances after the fact (because installing ware after the fact seems silly), seems odd.

There are Pharmaceuticals and Biomedicals, in game, that can counter diseases. Unfortunately for HMHVV, these do not work. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[StealthSigma]

Meh. I have a story in my email now that horrifies most bronies.

MLP/Twilight crossover.
Twilight Sparkler also takes a bite out of Applejack (who likes it).

And that's the tame summary.

But it didn't make me retch. Or want to eat salads for a week.

This does not surprise me. You did have balls big enough to admit you got herpes from your grandmother without elaborating.

[VykosDarkSoul]

Argh..if only i werent at work, i could link the picture.....

Its Conner and Murphy MacManus (Sean Patrick Flanery & Norman Reedus) standing holding the plastic rifles from a Deer Hunter Arcade game, pointed at the back of an Edward (Robert Pattinson) cardboard cutout.....

hehe...still makes me giggle just thinking about it.

[Draco18s]

This does not surprise me. You did have balls big enough to admit you got herpes from your grandmother without elaborating.

Meh. I'm at that point in my life where it doesn't bother me.

[Patrick Goodman]

Had it been me (and it wasn't), some of the high-end pathogen-fighting cyber, bio, and geneware probably wouldn't have been excluded, although it might not have been as effective against HMHVV as against a mundane virus. I think Bobby went a little overboard, but then, he likes it dark. Really dark. I think a little bit lighter shade of charcoal would still have been effective without making it an automatic "roll a new PC" disease. But that could just be me.

[Stahlseele]

Hell, if i remember, he admitted to having made a mistake with the touch not injection vector . .
He may like dark, but not that dark i think . .

[VykosDarkSoul]

Still gotta go over this with my Co-GM, but I am thinking about running it something like this (subject to change (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) )

Speed: 1 Day (10)
Vector: Injection
Penetration: -3
Power: 6
In order to infect, physical damage must be caused by a natural weapon of the ghoul, or by injections of the bodily fluids (eww). Upon initial contact a test must be made to resist, if this is succesfull, then it did not stick.

(have to look into the cyber/bio/gene ware to see if we are going to allow any of it to work, but if it does, it will probably be at a reduced value)