Page 177 - World of Darkness

Without food and/or water over an extended period, that are suffered automatically. Stamina + Resolve (see
your character becomes susceptible to disease. Any rolls “Resisting Poison or Disease,” p. 49) might be rolled to
made to resist disease suffer normal wound penalties when resist harm from illness in a contested action. A number
your character’s Health falls to 3 or lower. The Storyteller of successes must be achieved in excess of the damage in-
might also call for rolls to fight off disease where he would curred per period. If insufficient successes are rolled, the
not have done so when your character was healthy and full damage for that period is suffered.
immune. Damage from illness can be treated as bashing or le-
The Survival Skill (p. 76) may allow your character thal (or aggravated if the ailment is supernatural in ori-
to forage for sustenance for himself and any companions. gin). The effects of the ailment might also pose penalties
The Iron Stomach Merit (p. 113) may also help him to to Stamina + Resolve rolls — say from -1 for a cold to -3
persevere by drinking and eating substances that do not for tuberculosis. These penalties might apply to all other
normally have any nutritional value. dice pools as well. Or, the Storyteller could decide that
Health points lost due to deprivation cannot be healed symptoms can be ignored until damage suffered from ill-
until your character gains access to a sustained supply of ness reduces your character to three or fewer Health points,
food and/or water. If he has gone without both and comes and wound penalties are imposed. It might also be impos-
upon a water supply alone, the Health he has lost to thirst sible to heal damage from illness until the disease itself is
heals normally. Still denied food, however, he continues overcome.
to lose Health to starvation and cannot heal damage lost Beating an illness can involve extended or even ex-
to it until he gets a steady food supply, too. tended and contested Stamina + Resolve rolls. A com-
Using the Survival Skill to find food and water for mon cold might call for a total of three to five successes,
one day — or even a few consecutive days — doesn’t con- with one roll made per day. Fighting cancer might de-
stitute a “steady supply.” It only suspends the loss of Health mand 30 or more successes, with one roll made per month.
for those days, after which points are lost again. Bonuses gained might reflect medications taken (+1) or
extensive medical treatments (+1 to +3).
Disease
Drugs
Diseases ravage the World of Darkness. Sadly, nor-
mal people are their primary victims. Beyond the threats People take drugs all the time to escape the hard-
that nature poses, such as Ebola, cancer and even the com- ships of their lives. In the World of Darkness, where hu-
mon cold, a creature that feeds on people might transmit manity has a subconscious, ingrained awareness that it is
ailments. Other beings might even control the spread of prey for monstrous predators, drugs are a frequent means
disease to keep humanity cowed and afraid. of short-term happiness and oblivion.
The Storyteller can use the threat of infection as a It’s impossible to discuss every drug that your charac-
plot device to increase tension and introduce socially rel- ter might take or be exposed to, but the list below offers
evant topics to a story. She could introduce biological directions on how to handle various kinds. The intent
warfare or serial killers using disease as a weapon to take here is to address the effects of recreational and habitual
danger to new heights. Moral issues could arise as charac- drugs taken in tolerable doses. An overdose, whether self-
ters face unwitting disease carriers, or they deal with the induced or inflicted upon a victim, is covered under “Poi-
infection of a friend, family member or ally. sons and Toxins” (p. 180). The former use simply alters a
Characters with appropriate training can research character’s perceptions and ability to function normally.
antidotes and cures for diseases. Perhaps the “disease” that The latter leaps straight to threatening to kill the charac-
drives people to drink blood or that keeps their bodies ter.
alive after natural death can be undone. Although find- A tolerable dose of a drug alters a character’s aware-
ing a cure for HIV should not occur within the frame- ness and capacity to function. Your character might take
work of your game, an Intelligence + Medicine roll can the drug willingly or it might be slipped to him, but the
allow your character to detect the presence of HIV, hepa- application is not immediately life threatening. It could
titis or other diseases, assuming he has access to the ap- be possible to fight the effects of a drug by making Stamina
propriate equipment and a sample of a subject’s blood. + Resolve rolls. See “Resisting Poison or Disease” (p. 49)
Developing a cure can take hours, days or years. Develop- for details. The potency or dosage of drug taken can influ-
ing an antidote is an extended action (Intelligence + ence such rolls. A potent drug imposes a -2 to -3 penalty.
Medicine), with a goal of 20 or more successes depending A mild drug or small dose can impose a -1 penalty to ig-
on the elusiveness of the ailment. nore the effects.
If your character suffers from a disease, she may take The Storyteller might rule that a drug’s effects are a
damage over time based on her rate of decline, on her genuine challenge to overcome; contested and extended
Attributes or on the nature of the illness. The Storyteller rolls are required to do so. Rolls might be made every hour,
determines how often your character must face damage and successes gained in that period suggest how well your
from the disease — every hour, day or week. Each period character resists for the period of the roll. A drug might
typically imposes a number of Health points of damage be assumed to have a standing number of successes against

176
Chapter 7- COMBAT