Easily infected wounds

[phoenix240]

Zombie bites, while not venomous, carry tons of infectious pathogens dangerous to humans. When they manage to injure a living human there is an extremely high likelihood of a powerful infection setting up, one that can kill even a fairly healthy person in short order. Quick and skilled medical care can help but anything less and the patient is generally done for. Some victims get lucky and the extremely hardy might survive, the extremely lucky might avoid an infection at all but generally zombie inflicted wounds are something to worry about even if minor initially. What would be some good methods to model this effect?

[Beast]

Re: Easily infected wounds

 

Damage over time IMHO would work best

 

zombie bite: RKA 1d6, Damage Over Time, Target's defenses only apply once (7-8 damage increments, damage occurs every 6 Hours, can be negated by Paramedic roll over 5 and 1 medical supply charge; if inital bite does no body effect over time is null ; +1) (30 Active Points)

 

I'm calling this the zombies normal attack(if body is done roll 1d6 odd 7 increments even 8 increments)

the 1st d6 of damage is the bite itself(if it does not get through the def of the target then no effect)

after 6hrs a fever and sickness start to set in

a paramedic roll can be made every 6hrs add -1 to the skill roll for every 2 body the target is down below 0 body

base time for paramedics is 20 min

base roll is -5

+1 for every increment down the time chart

-1 for every increment up the time chart

 

7 increments averages 21 body

8 increments averages 24 body

 

just for flavor make it 2 rolls to cure

making a roll stops the damage for the next 6hr increment

must start over if 2 rolls in a row are missed

 

remove the -5 after the last increment

target may still die due to inturnal bleeding if they survive the Zombie poison but are below 0 body

Paramedics or bleeding roll can stop this(post 12) ,then heal as normal

 

I see this as very deadly normals with no rPD and limited medical supplies (I would count medical supplies as charges and every 6hrs uses 1 charge antibotics and bandages)

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: Easily infected wounds

 

If you're going for wounds that won't heal, or actually reducing/eliminating the victim's ability to heal wounds, I'd go with a REC drain with lots of Delayed Recovery (it should come back very slowly) and a limitation that the victim's reduced REC score only applies to healing BODY; the victim could probably still recover END and STUN.

[Christopher]

Re: Easily infected wounds

 

The first question would be:

How does Illness works in your world?

 

The only rule I know of is APG II 110:

They are typicall build as Drain CON (non deadly, but keep the 0 Con Rule in Mind).

Drain Body is for Deadly Diseases (altought technically this Drain can't kill you according to Drain Body rules).

Other effects include drain Stun and Rec (jsut beign fatigued by the illness), Dex (palsy) or STR (muscle Spasms).

Bad diseases affect multiple things via expanded effect.

 

Common adders are:

Delayed Reovery (down to 5/week)

Damage Over time, with "defenses only apply once" and "can't re-apply while still working"

NND; note that thsi requires "defenses apply only once" for Dot

Extra Time (the onset time, when not already part of Dot)

 

It also lists some exampels:

HSB 27-28 has two

HSEG 215 has Inhalation Anthrax

For power, a standart flu or cold should ahve 1-2 dice, while relevant illneseses should have 3-6

[Christopher]

Re: Easily infected wounds

 

Now I totally fogot the healing methods from APG II:

Heal:

Counters the lost characteristics, but leaves the disease working.

If the GM wants he can just roll all the damage in advance to get the diseases maximum damage - once that is healed, the disease is gone for good (even if it barely started).

 

Transform:

A Major Transform can stop the disease cold, and using the "adding abilities" part even heal some of the lost points.

At GM decision a Minor Transform can stop the disease, but leave the points as they are.

See HSG 88 for a Fantasy Spell Example

 

Aid:

Limited to only to coutneract diseaseses. All the Drawbacks of Heal with no advantages and propably more expensive. But might be the right things in the rigth situations.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Easily infected wounds

 

Are we talking about an infection caused by the bite (which you then build as suggested above, or in other ways as some sort of damage over time or constant damage attack) or are we talking about the debilitating effects of a zombie bite making it more likely that ANY infection could take hold, even if it is not actually caused directly by the bite (in which case I might suggest a constant Aid to infections or even - shudder - Transforming the target into a more vulnerable target. Or maybe 'Drain LS: Disease'.)?

[Sean Waters]

Re: Easily infected wounds

 

You could also potentially have a 'Drain Body' which only works in conjunction with other powers. For example if you have a 10 Body character and 'infection Drain' 5 points, the target can still take 10 Body from bullets before starting to die but if the damage comes from a disease (be it directly damaging or a Transform) then they are treated as if they have 5 Body.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: Easily infected wounds

 

Oh, I like that idea as a concept. It is highly dubious as anything but a costed out plot device but a NND Major Transform 0 END, continuous and uncontrollable linked to an attack and limited by stops if no BODY done on attack and possibly stops if treated by professional before x BODY transformed.