Topic: Realistic Diseases

[croakerdogboy]

Ok. I have a question. On Page 89 of Gamemaster Law at the top of the second column it says that many diseases are listed on the Disease Chart below. But there is no real disease chart. There is a Disease/Poison recovery chart, but that really doesn't have a description of diseases.

I am trying to model realistic diseases (like sepsis). I have gone through my materials, but I can't find anything to go on for what I need. As it is, you pretty much have Bubonic, or Pneumonic vectors with information on what the effects are with a failed throw, but a lot of diseases even with those vectors behave differently. There are plenty of samples of poisons to go on, but I couldn't find any sample diseases.

Thanks

[rafmeister]

     Think of it as an opportunity. If you want some sort of debilitating disease, let it affect CON or STR. Perhaps the failure range of the disease affects exhaustion points - either directly or by doubling/tripling the rate of exhaustion. Scars can affect both appearance and presence.

[Marc R]

Plenty of data online, or you could pick up a book like a Merck Manual on Diagnosis.

[markc]

 IMO this is one area that can use some work.

 Most of the stuff I have seen is on the web and is like the stuff in GM Law or Hands of The Healer. If you send me a PM with your email address I will see if I have any saved on my PC to send to you.
 I think there might be changes in RMSS GM Law and RMFRP GM law but I could be wrong. Also I think there might be some info in SoHK but it has been some time since I looked at it.

 I think I might handle it in two ways 1 RR to see if you get the disease and another RR to see if you recover from it. So you can have a disease that very few people get but is generally fatal when they get it.
 I also think I might have the scale run from 1-100 with average people being around 4th-7 level as this would give small childern a harder time to resist and recover from the disease.

MDC

[croakerdogboy]

I've got RMFRP GameMaster Law. I play RMSS but you get what you can on Ebay.

I also have Hands of the Healer along with most of the MERP stuff, but most of their diseases are weird Tolkenesque diseases. I am running Game of Thrones campaign using RMSS. It is extremely low magic. So I was looking for info on the simple real diseases, like Pox, Sepsis, Plague, etc. There is a lot of info on the way diseases behave in GameMaster law, along with the damage caused by failing your reaction roll by a certain amount,  but no table just laying out some common diseases, as they do poisons.

I didn't even think to  check Hands of the Healer, but I will when I get home tonight.

[markc]

 I just loked through the Hands of the Healer real fast and did not see anything. I also could not find my RMSS GM law but I did do a search on RMSS SR and I think the RMFRP GM Law and came up with nothing meaningful. The info in GM Law was on pg 89 and then had some generic examples to get the GM started.

 I do have an article that I found on the web about Diseases. I think it might have come from the guild companion but I am not sure about that. It has some baic info as well as some books to use as a reference for creating disease's and disease effects.

 I might do a internet search on diseases of the middle ages and see what you get. Read the info and try and come up with a chart with the most virulent being 50th+ level and the easyist being 1st. 

MDC

[Phil]

You might want to think about the game effects of diseases. Traditionally, games model diseases by doing things like having them attack a single characteristic (I think RQ started this idea off). Realistically, most illnesses have many linked effects - e.g. attack multiple characteristics; drain Exhaustion Points, Hit and Power Points; impose activity penalties. Some may even impose the equivalent of Bleeding (either to represent a disease that gradually weakens you, or, with a haemorragic disease, actual bleeding)

[yammahoper]

Realistic diseases;

GM; all players roll a d10. 

Mage: I rolled an 8.

Fighter; I rolled a 3.

Bard: I rolled a 2.

Barbarian; I rolled a 4.

GM; ok, all who rolled 1-3 have caught the plague.

Fighter; WHAT!!!  I have a 102 Co and the Mage has a 71.

GM; Yeah, sucks to be you.  The disease doesnt care.  Now, the fighter and bard roll a d10.  If you roll a 1-6, you die in 1-8 days, if you roll a 7-8, you are crippled for life, if you roll a 9+, you fully recover but everyone will think your in league with the devil unless you have a pious reputation.

Fighter; this sucks.

GM; yeah, welll you were told this area had the plague, and Bubonic plague is rough.

lynn

[croakerdogboy]

Well.... I was thinking more about not having access to boiled wine or such to treat a sword wound. In Martin's books there are a few outbreaks of plague, and I think the odds of being a winner are about as you stated, but overall it is not as devastating.

However, this would be a really really fun way to off annoying characters.