[X] My Assistant

[ShadowGhost]

I've got players who have taken common and uncommon allergies.

Is there a list of allergies somewhere I can use, or do you have your own lists of allergies?

As we houserule it, GM picks the actual allergies while players pick type and severity.

One allergy I've given to one player (Not Awakened) is Orichacium - meaning no mage can use a sustaining focus on the person, and Weapon foci do extra damage as per the rules.

[TinkerGnome]

Most non-weapon foci don't use (magical metal that I can't spell). That said, the "commonality" of an allergy is entirely up to the GM. Players should assume that all allergies that they won't run across at least once a day are uncommon unless the GM tells them otherwise.

Smog is common. Acid rain is common. Plastic is common. Soy is common. Sunlight is common.

Insect venom, of various kinds, is uncommon. Most real foods (meat, etc.) are uncommon. Magical materials are uncommon.

Etc.

[Ancient History]

I've never seen a "magical metal" as an allergy (not that it can't be done). SIlver, iron, gold, yes. Plastic, sure. Certain herbs, certainly (I'd have to check).

Frankly, allergy(grass clippings) should be uncommon in modern Seattle. :wobble:

[kuroko]

Balsam is one I gave a character once. Given the general rarity of it I called it rare (no points for this) and docked a point off the severity. But it did make for a nice roleplaying moment when a priest tried to bless the group.

(for those that don't know balsam is an oil used to make anointing oil in the catholic church).

Other ones I can think of are silicon (uncommon), lead (not sure - but would make life unpleasent for a decker/rigger/technician), fiberglass (common), latex (common), certain types of rubber (variable), and polyester (common - would also incur a lifestyle cost i imagine).

[Capt. Dave]

Hmmm...all my PCs seem to have "Allergy-->Bullets: Severe"
heh heh heh.

I don't have a list, per se, but here's what I've seen over the years:

Gold, silver, copper, orichalcum
Plastic, plastisteel, wood
Soy, chocolate
Trolls, gorillas
dogs, cats
Neurostun (never got to use that one, unfortunately...)
That's all I can currently remember.

[theartthief]

I had an assasin who had an allergy to soy. My GM ruled that he had to take a High Lifestyle to avoid it in foods.

Personally, I was diagnosed with allergies at 12. The doctor told my mom, "Ma'am, it's easier to tell you what he isn't allergic to."

With that in mind, here you go:

hay
grass
all flowering plants
dust
pet dander
perfume (almost all)
household cleaners
feathers
mold
and the list goes on

Consider allowing the PC to use drugs to treat the allergies [maybe one level less in severity] for a decent amount of nuyen. After a few years of drugs my body built up resistance to most everything. While not symptom free, life is much better now. ;)

- thartthief

[Thistledown]

Two of the worst I've seen for runners are both drawn from reletives, actually.

First: Adhesives. Bandaids, patches, you name it. They give my dad a bad rash for about a week after they're applied. Annoying to shadowrunners when applying a slap-patch of any kind, ie, antidote, stimpatch, etc.

Second: Horse Serum. Not known much, but this is want most ingected medicines use as their base (instead of water, etc.). On most people it has a perfectly neutral reaction. The medication is mixed in, then fed through IV. My uncle is allergic to it, so he has to get medicine mixed with a different base.

A third one (not so bad for runners, but annoying): Dioxycycline. It's an antibiodic, like penicillan. Any antibiotic would make a good allergy flaw though. If you've got another type, no problem, otherwise you'll be hurting. In my case (I have this one), it makes the skin extremely photosensitive.

I've seen a runner take the adhesives one, but not the others. The thing is, I suppose they would count as uncommon or rare, but I think it should count for more because of the circumstances you'll be in when they come into play. What do you think?

[Shrike30]

Severity of allergies is one of those things that was always kind of surprising to me.

There was a dance teacher at my school who was frighteningly allergic to perfume. The problem was, she didn't really have any warning... she'd literally drop unconcious due to the reaction, before the scent was even strong enough to pick up. Kinda scary....

One of those things that every decently stocked medkit should have in it is a couple of epi-pens or epinephrine syringes (epi is synthetic adrenaline). It's about the only thing that's going to stop a severe systemic allergic reaction from killing someone, if it's that intense.

I've actually seen its use once on someone with asthma who was turning blue with the aid car still 10 minutes out... the change was almost immediate. It's not exactly what epi was intended for, but the dose opened his airway and helped out his heart.

Hmm... i wonder... character with a couple of severe allergies, and an adrenal pump to help with them?

[John Campbell]

I know a few people who are allergic to nuts. One has such a strong allergy to peanut oil that getting near peanut butter is potentially fatal for her.

[MrSandman666]

same here. My ex-girlfriend is so allergic to pineaples that she won't enter a room with an open can of pineaples because she's afraid to get in contact with it. When swallowing only a little bit of it (like a spoonfull of multi-vitamin-juice) she will go into spasms immediately. A slightly higher dose is potentially lethal.
Good thing I don't like pineaple. She always made me brush my teeth and rinse my mouth when I ate something with pineaple in it before she would allow me to kiss her again.

[Lantzer]

Practically anything could be used for an allergy. I'm told that allergies are our immune system's response to an absence of parasites. Our bodies are expecting to have to fight off hordes of parasites, but can't find any to fight off. So the immune system gets more sensitive until it can find something to fight. Industrialized nations with good health care are the biggest places for allergies. Source: 'Parasite Rex', by somebody. The book is at home.

As for more supernatural alergies, Cold Iron (Uncommon) is a favorite.

[CircuitBoyBlue]

[Drunk Lu]

I'm allergic to hay fever, chlorine, and insect bites. Does that count?

Christ Jesus, it would entertain the Hell out of me to inform some hapless PC that his face is swelling to the point of blindness and breathing difficulty because he got bit by a mosquito in the precisely wrong part of his face (happened to me once).

Another entertaining allergy is penecillin. It happens, my dad was allergic to it.

Or you could play a character like my fiancee, who's allergic to just about anything that hasn't been processed and re-processed to remove itself as far as humanly possible from any natural substance, ever.

[JaronK]

Well, with my cat shaman, I couldn't help but give him a moderate allergy to dogs. Unfortunately, this means hellhound bites are at +2 power. Ouchie.

JaronK

[Drunk Lu]

[xizor]

i am amazed that no one has said that they are alergic to milk, i am.
do you have any idea how easy it is to get posined at a pitsa parlor?
i would get really really sick if they didnt wash the knife off realy well before they cut the pitza. it was the chease oil on the knife that would get me.

i know some poeple that are alergic to flour. that is in almost everything.

also if the air quality is so bad in the 2060's what percentage of the population will be breathing caned or filtered air all the time?

ps
it is so much fun to wear a sars mask at school :grinbig: . i am also alergic to pollen, so i have an excuse.

[tisoz]

I was working at a pizza place several years ago when a couple requested a pizza with no cheese. The woman explained she was allergic to dairy. I warned them the prep people usually used the hobart mixer to chop and mix the cheese, empty it then make the dough immediately after. The dough mix would pick up any cheese sticking to the mixer, so it kind of saved about an hour. It as all going on a pizza anyway, so it didn't seem like a big deal.

They yelled at me so much and called me so many names, I wish I hadn't warned them.

BTW, the grossest thing I saw in a pizza place was one that would put moldy cheese on the pizza. They cut it off a big round of cheese, so the health department never made a big stink. It is safe to eat molded cheese, but you are supposed to discard the moldy part.

I ate there once, thought the pizza had a wierd taste, but couldn't put my finger on it, and later got sick. Much later, I visited a friend who was working there and saw what they did. He said the owner said the oven heat would kill the mold so it was ok. That was the wierd taste.

[hunter5150]

I personally like latex. It should be rated at uncommon because it is easily avoidable. I usually give it level 2 at least. However the real trick comes into play when Docwagon shows up when the char is half dead and they pull on the latex gloves to patch him up. Now the real danger of the allergy sets in.

[CircuitBoyBlue]

Heh. Easily avoided for YOU, maybe...:)