Evil Idea: Doomsday Disease Attack

[Fnord23]

I wanted to simulate a Doomday Disease on a Master Villian. (I am the GM) Basically when he dies he releases a disease into the wild that spreads like wildfire wiping out (he hopes) humanity.

 

Here is what I got so far. It is a RKA 1 Pip (5 points active).

NND+1 (Disease Immunity or self contained Breathing is the Defense)

Does Body +1

Area of Effect Radius (Unselective) +3/4

1 Charge (Continuous lasting a week) +1/2

Sticky + 1/2

Trigger +1/4 (Activates upon Characters death no conscious control.)

and to top it off,

Invisible Power Effects +1 to represent microbes that cannot be seen.

No Range -1/2

 

The problem: According to Steve (and FRED Revised), Although this is what I want to simulate, Sticky will not transfer to second, third or further degree contacts. It only affects people that touch the body firsthand. This kills my evil plot dead. Any suggestions?

 

I suggested having to buy multiple sticky to simulate the "Contagious" effect, but he did not comment on it. I will probably institute a "Contagious +1" advantage that has to be bought on top of Sticky in my campaign. I don't have to do this, I could always use a megascale +1 1/2 to infect the earth instantly instead. Anyone out there got a better idea?

 

Here is one thing I also noted. The powers as I have listed them are pretty nasty in combination, and only costs 27 points. Right now people start dying as soon as they come to close to the body. A dead give away.

 

However, if the power is bought with an additional Time Delay +1/4 set at one hour... It still only costs 27 Points! Then the poor saps that touch the body (or come within 3") won't realize they are contagious! They would go around infecting everyone for one hour until their bodies start melting! The fools! Mwahahahaha!

 

Am I being too evil...

 

What do you people think? Is this too much? I am just playing with the most versatile system out there. Not trying to break it. Ideas? Comments? Suggestions? Words of Evil Praise?

[MitchellS]

Re: Evil Idea: Doomsday Disease Attack

 

Your build has a couple of problems. First, you need to purchase the continuous advantage. You can't use continuing charges on an instant power. You must make the power constant. Second, the area effect of the power is 1". Is the intent that the power stay in the 1" for the week? Third, I think you might need to buy continuous twice: once to make the constant and once to make the power stay on and keep effecting the target infected.

 

Now, as far as contageous, what you really need is a compound power. The first power will be the damage power. The second power will be a transformation which will give each person the damage power as a damage shield and the transformation power. So each person touched will take damage and be transformed into someone who can infect someone else. I don't know what the point cost is but it will probably be huge. The transformation attack will probably need to be purchased NND making it even more expensive.

 

So you have:

 

Virus: 1 pip RKA, Continuous, nnd, does body, area effect, increase area, continuous attack, trigger. 1 charge lasting 1 week plus HUGE TRANSFORMATION ATTACK WITH ADD POWER.

[Fnord23]

Re: Evil Idea: Doomsday Disease Attack

 

Well first off, you are right, I need Continuous. I checked the char sheet, and I did buy continous Just forgot to mention it in my post. OOPS.

 

Secondly, the Transformation attack would work almost exactly like I want, but it is a bit too complicated don't you think?

 

Personally, I like my "Contagious +1" suggestion better. Like I said I could always just megascale it for +1 1/2. If I could Megascale an attack to hit the whole world, then a simple +1 for Contagious on top of Sticky is justifiable IMHO. Especially since it is a lot less powerful than a +1 1/2 Megascale. Why pay the points for a godawful Transformation attack?

 

Thanks for the advice though. You proabably found the "Rules Proper" way to simulate this attack.

[MitchellS]

Re: Evil Idea: Doomsday Disease Attack

 

Well first off, you are right, I need Continuous. I checked the char sheet, and I did buy continous Just forgot to mention it in my post. OOPS.

 

Secondly, the Transformation attack would work almost exactly like I want, but it is a bit too complicated don't you think?

 

Personally, I like my "Contagious +1" suggestion better. Like I said I could always just megascale it for +1 1/2. If I could Megascale an attack to hit the whole world, then a simple +1 for Contagious on top of Sticky is justifiable IMHO. Especially since it is a lot less powerful than a +1 1/2 Megascale. Why pay the points for a godawful Transformation attack?

 

Thanks for the advice though. You proabably found the "Rules Proper" way to simulate this attack.

I don't find xd6 transformation NND damage shield [normal person into contagious person] to be too complicated, but to each his own.

 

Ultimately the damage is really just a special effect of a GM's caveat. You're either trying to kill everyone in the world or you want the players to find a way to solve the problem and save the world. You're 27 AP version is a little too easy to dispel, IMO.

 

As far as contagious it seems like you're getting too much bang for the +1 buck. Sticky is +1/2 and only works via one person. You want a +1 to function on up to 7 billion.

 

Personally I'd just consider this a plot device not a power. Assign a skill difficulty modifier and a time period to cure it and then force the players to find a way to do it faster to save more lives. Not everything needs to be statted, IMO.

[Fnord23]

Re: Evil Idea: Doomsday Disease Attack

 

Actually I am playing with the transform idea. A 1 pip Major transform continuous with 1 continuing charge for 1 week etc. etc. would do it. It works against power defense, so NND isn't necessary really, but I want to give the Disease immunity out so I will keep it. You found a way to make it even cheaper. Grats.

 

There must be a bug with Hero Builder because it says the Area of effect is 3".

 

And yes I expect the heros to beat it, just not with clean shorts.

 

P.S.: Megascale at +1 1/2 would affect 7 Billion too, and it's in the rule book.

[freakboy6117]

Re: Evil Idea: Doomsday Disease Attack

 

if you really want the disease to be a global killer, it needs a long gestation period. if it's a couple of days before its effects are noticeable. then a couple more days when the victim is just exceptionally contagious but not that sick like say a relatively heavy flu, finally you quickly become much sicker and die your body exploding releasing a cloud of virulent goo.

if you really want to start the apocalypse have the heroes fight the villain in an air port or major sporting event(international). with a long gestation you get thousands of people infected and contagious, traveling on long hall air flights spreading the disease around the world and infecting more travellers as they do. the disieaqse woudl spread to every major city on earth in days before any one even knew there was a problem.

[Kristopher]

Re: Evil Idea: Doomsday Disease Attack

 

Vaguely reminiscent of Stryfe and the Legacy Virus.

[Cancer]

Re: Evil Idea: Doomsday Disease Attack

 

if you really want the disease to be a global killer, it needs a long gestation period. if it's a couple of days before its effects are noticeable. then a couple more days when the victim is just exceptionally contagious but not that sick like say a relatively heavy flu, finally you quickly become much sicker and die your body exploding releasing a cloud of virulent goo.

if you really want to start the apocalypse have the heroes fight the villain in an air port or major sporting event(international). with a long gestation you get thousands of people infected and contagious, traveling on long hall air flights spreading the disease around the world and infecting more travellers as they do. the disieaqse woudl spread to every major city on earth in days before any one even knew there was a problem.

 

Along these same lines, for real nastiness you might extend it somehow ... this probably would be a Linked Transformation ... someone who survives the first infection becomes a carrier, and continues to transmit the disease around them. Also, a separate but secondary effect of the initial transformation might be making the victim sterile. Someone really trying to extinguish the human race will realize they probably won't get everyone with the initial infection, but if everyone who survives cannot reproduce, then the extinction is delayed but just as inevitable.

 

Even more evil is include a "carrier transformation" for a nonhuman reservoir/vector, like influenza has in chickens, ducks, etc. Make the carrier organism something ubitquitous and hard to live without, or impossible to exterminate. That way the disease keeps coming back even after all the currently-living humans are cured and made immune.

 

Another seriously evil thing would be to give it an HIV-like variability, so that whatever cure/defense gets created against it becomes ineffective after some short time. This starts sounding more like something to build into a character than a mere power, though.

[Red Knight]

Re: Evil Idea: Doomsday Disease Attack

 

Not to be a kill-joy... but what about making the disease a plot point and forget about writing it up in infinite detail. Figure out how it kills.... IE: the damage and such.... How it spreads and how long it incubates could all be ploy devices....

 

Just my two cents.

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: Evil Idea: Doomsday Disease Attack

 

a virus with multiform, then it can change so vacinations and treatments arn't effective anymore

[Evil102]

Re: Evil Idea: Doomsday Disease Attack

 

Not to be a kill-joy... but what about making the disease a plot point and forget about writing it up in infinite detail. Figure out how it kills.... IE: the damage and such.... How it spreads and how long it incubates could all be ploy devices....

 

Just my two cents.

 

Sounds like a plan.

 

I'd suggest that the only two games-mechanics details you really need to think about are:

 

1) Which powers/SFX will give an immunity or resistance to the virus/disease.

2) Which powers/SFX will help cure the plague (either in the character, or whoever the character uses the power on).

 

Past that, just concentrate on the real-world properties of the virus. Factors to consider would be:

1) Vector. How is it spread? Touch? Bodily fluids? Airbourne? If it's airbourne, how long can it last outside a host?

2) Latency. How long does if take for a victim to start showing sympoms? Really nasty evil crap may have the host bleeding from their eyes within an hour of being infected, but this will actually help minimise the spread. The problem arises if the host can go several days (or weeks) before showing sympoms. Plenty of time to go on holiday and spread the pestilence around the globe...

3) Lethality. What sort of fatality rate are you looking at here? Bear in mind that something as brutal as the Black Death only had a lethality of about 50% if I recall correctly. Even diseases as trouser-wettingly terrifying as Ebola aren't 100% lethal.

4) Symptoms. Ah, the icky stuff. Grab yourself a thesaurus and have fun. Run the gamut from "laboured breathing", "spasmodic twitching" and "uncontrollable vomiting" all the way up to "pus-filled lesions", "agonised rictus" and of course "bled out". Remember that such descriptions aren't only to ratchet up the fear factor and indulge your sadistic impulses , they may also give the characters vital clues and insights into the nature of the pestilence, and possibly the cure.