Asthma

[Anders]

How would you simulate Asthma in GURPS? Maybe something like Epilepsy, but instead of Seizure you begin to choke?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Anders

How would you simulate Asthma in GURPS? Maybe something like Epilepsy, but instead of Seizure you begin to choke?

At our TL, you'd want to look at giving it Mitigator, I think.

[Anders]

Definitely. But that goes for most Epilepsy variants as well.

Asthma can also be triggered by some kinds of blood pressure medicines.

[Stormcrow]

You might be able to capture the important effects with Unfit or Very Unfit, possibly adding in Light Sleeper. The primary game effect of asthma will be reduced HT rolls.

You might even include Susceptible to Respiratory Viruses, though most GMs don't regularly check whether characters come down with colds. It's not that you're more likely to catch a cold; it's that most people who catch a cold won't have significant game-related effects and can ignore them, but your increased coughing a wheezing will be significant enough to put into game terms.

All of these should have the possibility of a Mitigator if you have access to medicine or inhalers to reduce symptoms.

[malloyd]

A lot of chronic conditions are decently modeled by the *mechanics* of Bad Back and/or Chronic Pain - both of which are basically a condition under which you can suffer a penalty to everything and a method you can recover from it. They just need different fluff text.

I suspect if Kromm and David had thought of Irritating Conditions earlier, or had more time to work on cleanly integrating them with the rest of the rules, these might have both become part of a more generic Chronic [irritating condition] mechanic, possibly with a somewhat expanded set of irritating conditions, but that's into house rules territory now.

[Culture20]

Originally Posted by malloyd

A lot of chronic conditions are decently modeled by the *mechanics* of Bad Back and/or Chronic Pain - both of which are basically a condition under which you can suffer a penalty to everything and a method you can recover from it. They just need different fluff text.

I suspect if Kromm and David had thought of Irritating Conditions earlier, or had more time to work on cleanly integrating them with the rest of the rules, these might have both become part of a more generic Chronic [irritating condition] mechanic, possibly with a somewhat expanded set of irritating conditions, but that's into house rules territory now.

Due to availability of effective medication, Asthma seems less dangerous than it really is these days, but it's less irritating than it is deadly. Choking seems like a much better fit for the effect.

[Anders]

Yep. An untreated asthma attack can easily end in death.