QUOTE (HunterHerne @ Jun 19 2011, 09:54 AM) 
I was under the impression that each of the three HMHVV strains had a different make-up for each species (a human can be carrier for a Harvester strain, but wouldn't be affected by it anyway). I was also under the impression that any of the species with the infection power can't be carriers, as you either have it and are a vampire, or you had it and are dead. (Infection only possibly occurs when your essence is reduced to 0)
That is how it wound up, but it wasn't how I'd have done it. Unfortunately, I wasn't doing any freelancing at the time and Bobby Derie got to do some of the stuff that I was wanting to do, and he took it in a different direction (probably at the coaxing of Peter Taylor, but that's really not the issue here).
Caveat: I could be misreading things. Wouldn't be the first time. I don't think I am, though.
Their vision was a humongous set of diseases, one for each metaspecies per strain of HMHVV. Thus, there's a vampire strain, a banshee strain, and so on and so forth. The way it's written, you can get attacked by any of them, but if you're not the same species, the worst that can happen if you survive is you get the Carrier quality and can't donate blood anymore. (This has actually happened to me; I was stationed in England for a couple of years, and now I'm considered a carrier for mad cow disease and can no longer donate blood. Very frustrating considering I'm a huge proponent of blood and organ donation...but I digress. Again.)
It's the same way for Strain II. The way it's written, you can become a carrier from a harvester or a loup-garou, but unless you're the appropriate species...you get the idea.
The way it should be...hell, the way it used to be back in SR3 and prior, and the way I approached it when Running Wild was still an SR3 boook...was that HMHVV-I was HMHVV-1. You're a human, and you get Infected by a banshee? Sucks to be you, you're turning into a vampire. It was possible under some of what I was doing to become a Carrier, but it was essentially a failed Infection and if you wandered into a mana well or some other such thing, it could be set off. I don't remember the rules I had set up for that -- it's been a long time -- but basically you got Infected, and something allowed you to get up, but the disease hadn't taken hold properly. Your Essence was hosed, of course, but seemed to recover slightly. I might have to see if I've still got the old, old versions of those rules.
Anyway, it used to be way scarier than it is now, IMO. And I've jacked this thread enough, so maybe if this comes up again, we can do it in a different conversation.