Diseases and You

Ketsuban · 06-10-2009, 09:42 AM

A friend of mine has a character with a condition called Tate-Fairchild rabies. When an uninfected person is affected, they become deranged, seek out the nearest animal and bite them, allowing the virus to acquire a copy of the animal's genome; it then begins to modify the patient's genome and physiology to match the animal they just bit.

Me being on a GURPS kick, I wondered about the logistics of statting something like this. Let's simplify it to simple viral lycanthropy, and assume the lycanthrope template is 100 points. It seems simple enough to the naive eye: a package containing the Alternate Form and an Affliction granting the Alternate Form on a failed HT roll. However...

Granting a permanent Advantage is heavily discouraged by the comment on Extended Duration on p. B105.
There doesn't seem a particularly good way to model a progressive disease which can be treated if caught early, or a disease where the effects worsen over time.

The best way to mitigate point 1 to my mind is to craft the afflicted disease such that the total is 0 or less (since there's no explicit prohibition of permanently afflicting others with disadvantages), but the pricing of Alternate Form makes this problematic, since it's dependent on the current point cost of the player (Alternate Form costs 15+0.9*(Pt-Pc) if Pt > Pc, else 15).

Any thoughts?

Bruno · 06-10-2009, 09:52 AM

Have a look at Infectious Attack - I think it's exactly what you want. (it's a disadvantage, basic set p140)

Dragondog · 06-10-2009, 10:02 AM

Alternate Form is not dependent on the current point cost of the character, it is dependent on the cost of his racial template and the cost of the new racial template.

If the character already has gone so far so that he has AF, just add AF as normal. If he's in the progress of getting there, let him pay/gain points as the sickness progresses.

If it allows him to bite several animals and transform between them, that's Morph with a must bite limitation.

Passing it on to the bitten animal, or others, is Infectious Attack as Bruno mentioned.

Ketsuban · 06-10-2009, 10:03 AM

Infectious Attack seems close to what I want, but I like that Affliction's pricing scales with the Advantage being afflicted (that seems like a good way of curtailing diseases to keep them reasonable). Besides that, Infectious Attack is specifically supernatural - It covers lycanthropy, vampirism etc. which is transmissible, but not more mundane concepts I can see PCs wanting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragondog

Alternate Form is not dependent on the current point cost of the character, it is dependent on the cost of his racial template and the cost of the new racial template.

My point stands - the point cost is variable, so statting a balanced diseases (0 or less, per my reasoning in the OP) is difficult if not impossible.

tanniynim · 06-10-2009, 10:04 AM

Also, it sounds like Lycanthropy is a Red Herring in this case. From the description, I wouldn't give a character Alternate Form. They would just be permanently changed to resemble the animal that they had bitten. If a character gained this in play, I would either give them a net disadvantage or would make the advantages and disads balance out.

2 is pretty easy.
Just say "After 1d6 (or whatever) days, the incubation period is over and the disease sets in."
"After 1d6-4 days, the victim goes on rampage and attempts to bite the nearest animal he or she can catch. If given the antidote before they bite an animal, they can heal with a HT roll. If they fail 3 HT rolls, the virus is incurable."
"After an animal is bitten, the victim begins to develop the animal's characteristics over the course of 1d6 weeks."

Then assign balanced (or not) disads and ads that match the animal bit.

Bruno · 06-10-2009, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ketsuban

Infectious Attack seems close to what I want, but I like that Affliction's pricing scales with the Advantage being afflicted (that seems like a good way of curtailing diseases to keep them reasonable).

I would say that the definition of "reasonable" is entirely GM determined, as it's highly subjective. It's also questionable that it's any sort of advantage at all for my super 600 pt super werewolf template guy to bite my arch enemy and have him also aquire the 600 pt super werewolf template, which he can then use to hunt me down and make my life miserable now that he's 1200 points of evil.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ketsuban

Besides that, Infectious Attack is specifically supernatural - It covers lycanthropy, vampirism etc. which is transmissible, but not more mundane concepts I can see PCs wanting.

If you mean "I have tuburculosis" sort of mundane concepts, that's either a quirk, or a Secret (serious embarrassment) or possibly a Social Stigma (leprosy historically was very badly accepted, and today AIDS can get you treated almost as bad in some circles). And then whatever disadvantages your disease gives you: very unfit and reduced FP, and/or reduced HT, and/or subsceptible, and/or chronic pain, and/or dependancy (medication)...

Infectious Attack specifically covers the problem of "I give my enemies superpowers by accident." Note that anyone bitten by a were-creature or vampire or the like is likely to be ****** off about the attack in the first place, so they may not have been an enemy before, but you've probably made them one after biting them, and doublely so when they find out they've caught your problem.

rcarter · 06-10-2009, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ketsuban

A friend of mine has a character with a condition called Tate-Fairchild rabies. When an uninfected person is affected, they become deranged, seek out the nearest animal and bite them

oh, wow. I think i have that

06-10-2009, 09:42 AM	#1
Ketsuban Join Date: Jun 2008	Diseases and You A friend of mine has a character with a condition called Tate-Fairchild rabies. When an uninfected person is affected, they become deranged, seek out the nearest animal and bite them, allowing the virus to acquire a copy of the animal's genome; it then begins to modify the patient's genome and physiology to match the animal they just bit. Me being on a GURPS kick, I wondered about the logistics of statting something like this. Let's simplify it to simple viral lycanthropy, and assume the lycanthrope template is 100 points. It seems simple enough to the naive eye: a package containing the Alternate Form and an Affliction granting the Alternate Form on a failed HT roll. However... Granting a permanent Advantage is heavily discouraged by the comment on Extended Duration on p. B105. There doesn't seem a particularly good way to model a progressive disease which can be treated if caught early, or a disease where the effects worsen over time. The best way to mitigate point 1 to my mind is to craft the afflicted disease such that the total is 0 or less (since there's no explicit prohibition of permanently afflicting others with disadvantages), but the pricing of Alternate Form makes this problematic, since it's dependent on the current point cost of the player (Alternate Form costs 15+0.9(Pt-Pc) if Pt > Pc, else 15). Any thoughts? Last edited by Ketsuban; 06-10-2009 at 09:56 AM.*

06-10-2009, 09:52 AM	#2
Bruno Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Canada	Re: Diseases and You Have a look at Infectious Attack - I think it's exactly what you want. (it's a disadvantage, basic set p140) __________________ All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table A Wiki for my F2F Group A neglected GURPS blog Last edited by Bruno; 06-10-2009 at 09:52 AM. Reason: adding more stuff.

06-10-2009, 10:02 AM	#3
Dragondog Never Been Pretty Join Date: Jan 2005	Re: Diseases and You Alternate Form is not dependent on the current point cost of the character, it is dependent on the cost of his racial template and the cost of the new racial template. If the character already has gone so far so that he has AF, just add AF as normal. If he's in the progress of getting there, let him pay/gain points as the sickness progresses. If it allows him to bite several animals and transform between them, that's Morph with a must bite limitation. Passing it on to the bitten animal, or others, is Infectious Attack as Bruno mentioned. Last edited by Dragondog; 06-10-2009 at 10:06 AM.

06-10-2009, 10:04 AM	#5
tanniynim Join Date: May 2008	Re: Diseases and You Also, it sounds like Lycanthropy is a Red Herring in this case. From the description, I wouldn't give a character Alternate Form. They would just be permanently changed to resemble the animal that they had bitten. If a character gained this in play, I would either give them a net disadvantage or would make the advantages and disads balance out. 2 is pretty easy. Just say "After 1d6 (or whatever) days, the incubation period is over and the disease sets in." "After 1d6-4 days, the victim goes on rampage and attempts to bite the nearest animal he or she can catch. If given the antidote before they bite an animal, they can heal with a HT roll. If they fail 3 HT rolls, the virus is incurable." "After an animal is bitten, the victim begins to develop the animal's characteristics over the course of 1d6 weeks." Then assign balanced (or not) disads and ads that match the animal bit.