From radiation sickness to alien viruses, illnesses can be debilitating without a trained doctor to treat them..

Illnesses and disease all use a countdown pool, usually based on the victim's END attribute, although some are based on other attributes, including mental or psychic illneses based on WIL. Some stronger or weaker viruses and diseases may increase or decrease the start of the countdown pool. Most countdown pools require a check every day, but a few may allow for weekly checks or inflict hourly checks. This information is noted in the table below.

Unless otherwise noted, a creature infected with any disease suffers one or more conditions until cured.

Catching a Disease

To be affected by a disease, a character is subjected to an attack against DEFENSE or MENTAL DEFENSE.  This could be as a result of a creature attack, or poison, or even an attack by the environment.  If the attack is successful, the character contracts the disease.

Each disease mentions the basic method of transmission.

Treating Diseases

Treating a disease requires a LOG check. This must be done at the same interval that the disease progresses – so if a disease requires daily dice pool rolls, the LOG check must be made daily. Of course, medical skills and facilities help enormously with the LOG check.

Success. Usually, three successes are needed to treat a disease.

Failure. If the pool is depleted to zero, the victim permanently suffers the effect noted – often death.

Fantasy Diseases

Modern Diseases

Futuristic Diseases

Bubonic plague. This incredibly potent disease has, at times throughout history, wiped out entire thirds of populations. Any contact with an infected creature’s blood, saliva, or bodily fluid chances transmission of the disease (which, even with excellent care, has only a 50% survival rate). Victims suffer from gangrene of the extremities, chills, malaise, fever, muscle cramps, seizures, and swelling of the initial infection site, lymph glands, armpits, and groin.  Victims are Sick while suffering this disease.

Creeping chills. This illness causes dementia, leaving the victim unaware of the most basic facts about himself or those he knows.  Victims are Forgetful while suffering this disease.

Creeping parasites. These parasites affect the brain, its victims often displaying forgetfulness and amnesia, before eventual death.  Victims are Forgetful while suffering this disease.

Devil rot. A horrible disease caused by contact with devils and demons, the vicitm's flesh becomes hotter and hotter to the touch. While victims eventually spontaneously combust, in the meantime they gain SOAK 5 (heat/fire) and their touch does an additional 1d6 heat damage.

Dysentery. One of the most common killers of soldiers throughout the 18th and 19th century, this disease is the result of poor sanitation and hygiene. Victims have drunk or eaten something with traces of feces from an already infected creature, generating cysts that travel through the digestive system before exploding in the intestines, where amoebas burrow into the organ’s walls and create abscesses or ulcers. Victims are Sick while suffering this disease.

Flesh rot.  Victims of this unpleasant disease resemble zombies more than they do living people. Over a period of times, flesh turns rotten, and is slowly eaten away.  The stench is incredible, and the disease is incredibly painful. This disease is all the more dangerous because it is airborne.  Victims are Sick while suffering this disease.

Influenza. The common flu is deceptively dangerous despite the effectiveness of vaccinations. Victims are Fatigued while suffering this disease.

Bacterial pneumonia. This sickness causes fever, rigors, coughing of blood, dyspnea, chest pains, and teeth chattering as fluid continually fills the victim’s lungs. Victims are Sick while suffering this disease.

Hookworm. Always take care to make sure that whatever water you find in the jungle, you clean it carefully—otherwise you may soon find yourself with a hookworm living in your intestines. There is no obvious immediate means to determine this infection has taken root aside from anemia and iron/protein-deficiency, and once the victim starts coughing, feeling chest pain, wheezing, and becomes feverish, they are suffering more from the hookworm’s larva than anything else. Victims are Sick while suffering this disease.

Macrovirus. This airborne illness is particularly dangerous because it reduces the victim's desire to actually do anything about it.  The illness causes extreme lethargy, worsening to the point where the victim will not eat, and simply wastes away. Victims are Fatigued while suffering this disease.

Moor plague.  An unplesant illness caused by scratches and cuts in foul swamps, this illness slowly turns the victim's skin green; additionally, the victim begins to emit the most unpleasant stench. Victims are Slowed while suffering this disease.

Orman's Syndrome. This illness attacks the neural structures of the brain, gradually causing memory loss. By the time it reaches its conclusion, the victim loses all sense of identity and all long-term memories.  The victim will not recognize close friends or family members, or recall his own name, career, or skills. Victims are Forgetful while suffering this disease.

Petrification. A rare disease, this bacteria hardens the victim's skin and organs until he or she reaches the consistency of stone. While suffering from the illness, the victim gains an additional SOAK 5 (all) for each dice removed from the dice pool, although he dies when the pool reaches zero. Victims are Slowed while suffering this disease.

Radiation sickness. Radiation sickness is a painful, debilitating condition which ends in the victim’s death. Symptoms include vomiting, intestinal pain, bleeding, hair loss, and fever. Victims are Poisoned while suffering this disease.

Retrograde psychosis. This is a severe condition of the mind which reduces the victim's mental age, eventually turning him into the equivalent of an infant. Victims are Confused while suffering this disease.

Rigellian fever. This powerful virus causes extreme fever, sweating, and nausea, eventually resulting in the victim's death. Victims are Sick while suffering this disease.

Salt plague. This unpleasant disease feeds on the victim's salt levels.  The victim eventually loses her humanity as her salt cravings become so intense that she becomes violent, seeking the salty blood of other victims.

Sepsis. Exposure to infections and toxins through injury can have horrible effects on the body, greatly weakening creatures that have fallen ill to it. Victims are Fatigued while suffering this disease.

Space dementia. Space dementia affects a small number of space travelers when they first encounter FTL speeds. It can be treated, but left alone it will result in memory loss, hallucinations, and madness. Victims are Confused while suffering this disease.

Syphilis. Though it is becoming less common in the developed world, this debilitating disease often makes its way to developed country from wayward port cities. Initially the disease causes lesions to appear on the contact areas of infection, but after four to ten weeks later this creates a rash that spreads to extremities causing wart-like growths that harbor more infectious bacteria as the victim begins to experience fever, sore throat, malaise, weight loss, hair loss, headaches, and inflammation of the joints, optic nerves, or organs. Later stages take hold 3 to 15 years after the initial sickness begins, causing tumor-like balls of inflammation that mutate and warp a victim’s features, giving them a -1d6 to all social checks. Victims are Poisoned while suffering this disease.

Tetanus. This disease comes from infections borne on untreated wounds that can take only days or several months to take hold. The first sign is lockjaw, followed by facial spasms, stiffness of the neck, difficulty in swallowing, elevated blood pressure, and spasms for as long as four weeks. Recovery after this stage can take months and victims rarely recover fully. Victims are Poisoned while suffering this disease.

Tuberculosis. Most commonly found in the lungs, this disease causes fever, chills, night sweats, loss of appetite, weight loss, and fatigue. Typically a person with TB never sees the slow-replicating bacteria proliferate across their body, but when the sickness stops being dormant it can quickly lay a victim low for months and months of recovery via antibiotic treatments. Victims are Poisoned while suffering this disease.

Vampiris/scarlet malady. This bacteria forces the victim to drink blood in order to survive. It also causes photo-sensitivity and lengthening of the canine teeth. An infected person needs to drink at least a pint of fresh blood every day, and loses 1 END attribute point for each day that the blood is not consumed. This illness is known both as Vampiris and Scarlet Malady.

Wailing sickness. An horrific disease which leaves its victims psychotic and insane, this illness is characterized by emotional outbursts, tempers, and, eventually, violence.  Victims are Angry while suffering this disease.

White disease. This illness is a form of leprosy.  It only affects those in their middle age or older, and results in the victim's painful death. Victims are Slowed while suffering this disease.

White fog.  This illness attacks the eyes of the patient, slowly eroding his vision.  Patients tend to see an increasingly opaque white fog obscuring their vision. Victims are Blind while suffering this disease.

Wyrm flu. Supposedly an illness originally suffered by great dragons, this injury-transmitted disease is often suffered by those who survive attacks by wyrms and similar creatures. Victims are Fatiguedwhile suffering this disease.

Zombie fever.  As suggested by its name, this disease turns its victim into one of the undead, a mindless zombie hungry for living flesh. In the meantime, however, victims are Sick while suffering this disease.