From:	JonSzeto@***.com JonSzeto@***.com
Subject:	Diseases and Toxins
Date:	Wed, 24 Feb 1999 13:15:28 EST

David Buehrer <dbuehrer@******.carl.org> wrote,

> What follows are some new rules for Diseases and Toxins.

<snippety snip>

> When a character is "attacked" by a disease or toxin treat it like
> melee combat. How often a disease/toxin attacks is based on it's Time
> Period. The disease in the example attacks every 24 hours, the toxin
> every round.

<more snipping>

It's an innovative mechanic, and I find it very appealing when used in
conjunction with diseases. However, on the toxin side of things, I have some
reservations about the general concept.

One of the things I did previously in the Army was NBC (bugs, gas, and nukes),
and I can tell you that chemical contamination just doesn't work that way; the
body doesn't "fight" the effects by filtering the contaminant: six grams of
sarin nerve gas will still kill you regardless of how healthy you are. And it
won't go away until either the toxin has used itself up prematurely, or
someone administers an antidote. Basically, the only factors in severity were
determined by concentration, exposure, and (to a small degree) body mass.

What I would propose for the toxin side is something similar to 3rd edition
resolution of combat spells: roll a number of dice based on the relative
concentration (1= weak, 4= average, 10= strong) against a TN equal to the Body
of the victim, modified by chemical protection and/or exposure factors. If the
poison gets no successes, no effect. If it does, it inflicts a base damage,
stepped up 1 level per 2 successes. This damage takes effect after the listed
duration time passes.

This damage can be resisted only by chemical antidotes or any active
detoxification system (that actively seek out poisons, as opposed to the
kidneys, which passively wait for the blood to bring it to them). They make a
damage resistance test against the Power of the toxin, as usual, with
modifiers based on time since exposure. This stages the damage down from the
damage level the toxin had achieved.

-- Jon