Defining a Disease

Diseases are defined in much the
same way as poisons (see Poison,
p. 437). For each disease the PCs
encounter, the GM should specify:
Vector: How the disease spreads.
Diseases are generally blood, contact,
digestive, or respiratory agents. These
terms mean just what they do for poi-
sons; see Delivery (p. 437).
Resistance Roll: The HT roll to
avoid the disease. Anyone exposed
must roll, possibly at a penalty. Most
diseases allow a roll at HT to HT-6.
The means of exposure can modify
this roll; see Contagion (p. 443). On a
success, the victim does not contract
the disease. On a failure, he does, but
he gets further rolls – once per “cycle”
– to throw off the disease.
Delay: This is the incubation period
– the time between initial exposure to
the disease and the appearance of the
first symptoms in those who fail to
resist. This is 24 hours for a “generic”
disease, but can vary considerably for
real-life diseases.
Damage: The disease’s effects in
game terms. This is typically 1 point of
toxic damage, but it might be higher –
up to 1d – for virulent diseases. DR
does not protect against disease!
Symptoms (fever, sneezing, coughing,
spots, rash, etc.) appear after the sub-
ject starts to suffer injury. Injury from
disease will not heal naturally until the
victim makes his HT roll to recover!
Cycles: Like a cyclic poison, a dis-
ease damages its victim at regular
intervals until he makes a HT roll or a
maximum number of cycles passes.
The “default” interval between HT
rolls is one day. The number of cycles
varies with the deadliness of the dis-
ease; for instance, a potentially fatal
disease might only inflict 1 HP per
cycle but endure for 20-30 cycles.
Symptoms: A disease can cause
attribute penalties, temporary disad-
vantages, etc. after the victim loses a