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View Full Version : Incurable, fatal diseases for plot and PC's



Choco
2010-04-05, 11:46 AM
As we all know, one of the good ol' cliche storylines in RPG's is the PC's questing to cure some fatal, incurable plague that is spreading throughout the land. However, what exactly do you (as the DM) do should one or more of the PC's contract this disease?

Do you give them all the same effects as normal, or do you perhaps leave most of it the same as for nameless commoners but give the PC's ways to survive until the cure is found? Fiating that they are immune to it seems like a cheap alternative.

The reason I am asking is because I predict this might come up in my game within the next few months...

Ernir
2010-04-05, 11:50 AM
What RP system is this?

Trekkin
2010-04-05, 11:55 AM
You could always let them find a ring of delay poison, but for disease. They still have it, and their survival depends on never letting go of said item, but they won't die of the disease unless they slip up.

Ideally, let them find it before one of them contracts it.

Choco
2010-04-05, 12:13 PM
I find this useful to all systems so I did not specify, but in my case it is 4e.

That is a good point about a delaying item. The PC's, unlike the masses, would probably have the ability to get access to such powerful magics. Of course, whether or not the delaying item stops them from spreading the disease is another matter :smallamused:.

I guess since I am using 4e, mechanically this disease will not have any "cured" state, and I will probably have it consist of bout 4-ish states, with death being the last one and the first being initial contraction. I could make a custom item that gives them a fairly significant bonus to endurance checks against this specific disease rather than delaying it indefinitely, which should help with the sense of urgency :smallwink:.

Abd al-Azrad
2010-04-05, 01:55 PM
I ran an evil game where this was the plot of one of the chapters. The twist was that the PCs were the ones unwittingly spreading the disease. When they learned one of them was infected, and slowly rotting away from the inside, they took the only solution an evil party would ever need to consider: they killed her immediately and animated her corpse with a scroll of Create Greater Undead.

I laughed for a long, long time.

Keshay
2010-04-05, 02:45 PM
Have the disease effect a portion of the population that the PC's are not a part of. ie: the disease affects only young children. The PC's are full grown, but if no cure is found thier city/state/planet will eventually all die off.

Alternatively, you can go the route of the TOS episode Miri where the disease affects only adults. Make the adventuring team in late adolescence and its a race againt time to save themselves and thier friends.

Aron Times
2010-04-05, 04:44 PM
Have the disease effect a portion of the population that the PC's are not a part of. ie: the disease affects only young children. The PC's are full grown, but if no cure is found thier city/state/planet will eventually all die off.

Alternatively, you can go the route of the TOS episode Miri where the disease affects only adults. Make the adventuring team in late adolescence and its a race againt time to save themselves and thier friends.

You, sir, win one Intarwebz. :smallcool:

nargbop
2010-04-05, 05:37 PM
The real trick is creating an interesting world that doesn't have many people who can cast Heal.

Arbitrarity
2010-04-05, 06:08 PM
Yeah, 4e is relatively easy. Just make a disease without a "cured" state, but with moderate-low DC for the party level, and no effect at the end of the disease track. I.e.

No effect -> Contracted, -1 surge -> ??? -> ??? -> Death

Lunawarrior0
2010-04-05, 06:38 PM
If the setting is right, that is to say relatively low magic, there may not be enough healers to heal the entire population. So it could just be a regular disease so the party could shrug it off with some basic healing, but the commoners can't afford the 50 gold per person needed for the potion. If this were the case the method of cure may not make you immune, just cured. So over the course of a few weeks the party might have to spend 100-200 gp per person to keep themselves healthy, not a ton to a PC, but a lot more then any commoner will see in their lives, let alone the a month.

This changes the problem from having to find a cure for the disease to finding one that is cost effective, but that really is a rather trivial difference. The only problem I can see is you can't say that the king is sick and you need to find him a cure fast. But you just make the king worried about his people and you can solve that problem.

Choco
2010-04-06, 08:33 AM
Well, I was planning on having this disease basically be a WMD launched by the BBEG. He had spent years researching a virulent and deadly disease that cannot be cured by conventional magic, and then let it loose on his opponents. So the PC's have to either find/research a cure (No, the BBEG does not have the cure, being undead he and his minions are immune anyway :smallbiggrin:) or get some divine intervention.

The problem arises if the PC's contract the disease, especially early on.

Keshay
2010-04-06, 08:46 AM
Well, I was planning on having this disease basically be a WMD launched by the BBEG. He had spent years researching a virulent and deadly disease that cannot be cured by conventional magic, and then let it loose on his opponents. So the PC's have to either find/research a cure (No, the BBEG does not have the cure, being undead he and his minions are immune anyway :smallbiggrin:) or get some divine intervention.

The problem arises if the PC's contract the disease, especially early on.

You could have the party being infected be a plot point. Perhaps one of the reasons the disease is so virulent is that it stays benign for so long after initial infection, then months or years later: BAM dead an hour after the first symptoms.

For a long time it was thought to be a relatively rare and, while tragic for those affected, non-threatening disease. Only recently, the government/whoever's in charge discovered how to detect the disease in its non-active state, only to find out that everyone has it and could die at any moment, thus launching the hightened sense of urgency in finding a cure.

Heck, you could even do a portion of the campaign prior to the discovery of universal infection. Have a random NPC or two drop dead while the players are in town, NPC2 mentions that while this has been known to happen from time to time, the instances are now more frequent. Additionally, inthe past only elderly or sickly people have succumbed, but recently young, otherwise healthy peopel have been suddenly dying (and make the deaths greusome and painful, heck, just use Bubonic Pague as a template. After the appearance of the first buboe most people had only hours to live.)

Choco
2010-04-06, 09:37 AM
Sweet, that is the perfect idea right there, and would fit the personality of this BBEG nicely (he is very old and very patient, not really in a hurry).

To make it better, perhaps there would have been a similar disease centuries ago that is now the stuff of legends (kinda like the bubonic plague is now). Now, the disease itself is not so legendary, but the fact that the "cure" was mass genocide would be. No preassure though.

Lysander
2010-04-06, 09:41 AM
You could also make it that a small percentage of the population (like .02%) is naturally immune to the disease, and that the PCs all happen to be that fortunate. That could be the reason why they were assembled to find its cause, because they were the most skilled warriors with natural immunity.

licidy
2010-04-07, 10:27 AM
I just recently had my party defeat a BBEG who had unleashed an incurable disease. And yes, the players contracted it. The way I handled it was they suffered the same effects as everyone else, and since there was a cleric in the party he had to prep multiple lesser restorations per day in order to keep the party mobile (thankfully he didn't contract it). The party got wise though and invested in crafting Periapts of Health, which I ruled stopped the disease from advancing but did not cure it.

In this campaign the BBEG was an illusionist who had written a spell called Phantasmal Plague, to which the only real cure was to either get immunity to fear or benefit from True Seeing. The disease forced Will Saves each night or you were tormented with hypochondriactic nightmares which prevented any rest that night; and on a failed Will they had to make a Fort Save as their body's immune system attempted to respond. On a failed Fort they took 1d4-1 damage to each ability score, and on a successful Fort they took 1d4 damage to a random ability score. If anyone could achieve a full week of restful sleep they'd be cured of the plague. The kicker however, was that anytime someone attempted to cast a spell on an infected person that would attempt to remove the disease or dispel magical effects, the caster would have to make a Will Save versus a phantasm or contract the plague themselves!

drengnikrafe
2010-04-07, 11:26 AM
Lure them into plot things they wouldn't otherwise attempt with the promise of a cure for the disease. Make the disease immune to normal magic. Have a caster working towards a cure. Give him the disease too. Have a "prophet" find a "cure", and people swarm to him, hoping for said cure. But then, it's not really a cure, it's just false promises, as he creates an army to attack and infect a city he's been after for awhile.
A video game once had an incurable disease that one of the main characters got. She simply survived until the cure was found, but about 2/3rds of the way between when she got it, and when the cure was found, her mind started warping.
The possibilities are endless.