From:	David Buehrer dbuehrer@******.carl.org
Subject:	Toxins
Date:	Wed, 24 Feb 1999 12:58:42 -0700 (MST)

JonSzeto@***.com wrote:
/
/ 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.

Noted :)

/ 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.

Thank you for explaining that to me. The horizons of my ignorance have
been expanded :)

/ Basically, the only factors in severity were
/ determined by concentration, exposure, and (to a small degree) body mass.

What do you mean by exposure? Method of exposure?

/ 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.

I was just rethinking toxins and went in a similar direction. However,
I was thinking about using the mechanics for unresisted spells. The
toxin rolls it's "force" vs a 4 (modified by Body using a table similar
to the Strength recoil table, and active detoxification systems). The
effects are based on how many successes the toxin gets.

For example a toxin might do straight damage, either 1 box of damage
per success, or one damage level per success (1 Light, 2 Moderate, 3
Serious, 4 Deadly, 5 "He's dead Jim.").

Or you could easily apply other affects.

1 success: temporary disruption of nervous system, +1 to all success
test for 12 hours.

2 successes: mild permanent nerve damage, +1 to all success tests until
nerve damage is repaired.

3 successes: moderate permanent nerve damage, +2 to all success tests,
-1 Quickness.

4 successes: severe permanent nerve damage, +3 to all success tests, -2
to Quickness.

5 successes: destroys nervous system, victim dies.

This method could be easily tailored for the average person. For
example, if the above toxin is generally lethal it might have a
toxicity of 11. On average it will earn 5+ successes vs a TN of 4.

/ 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).

Thank you for pointing that out. My horizon of ignorance has been expanded
twice today.

Any further comments are more than welcome.

-David B.
--
"Earn what you have been given."
--
ShadowRN GridSec
email: dbuehrer@******.carl.org
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/1068/homepage.htm