[MUD-Dev] Poisons (was Foods)

[Travis Casey]

> Kristen Koster <kkoster at origin.ea.com> wrote:
> 
> I've always had a soft spot for thieves and assassins so one of the 
> things I've been playing around with is a more realistic poison system 
> than just -5hp per tick or even subtle variations on that theme. After 
> some research, I've got a rather complicated idea but I've been 
> striving to streamline it and ensure its playability. Any suggestions 
> or comments will be appreciated.

[various good ideas on how to do poisons deleted for brevity]

For those for whom it's an option, abandoning the traditional hit point
system can open up new possibilities for poisons.  I've used a (pencil-
and-paper) system in which damage reduced the character's Health attribute,
and a Health of zero resulted in death.  Poisons were given six basic
characteristics: 

 - Resisting attribute: the attribute the character rolls against to 
   avoid ill effects.
 - Power: a number indicating how hard the poison is to resist.
 - Target attribute: the attribute the poison (or drug, really) affects.
 - Onset time: how long after exposure the first check is made.
 - Check time: how often checks are made after that.
 - Run length: how many total checks need to be made.

This allowed for poisons/drugs with many effects.  For example:

a generic fast, powerful killing poison
resisted by:  Health
power:        12
target:       Health
onset time:   one round
check time:   one round
run length:   10

LSD
resisted by:  Will
power:        8
target:       Perception
onset time:   one minute
check time:   ten minutes
run length:   12

Alcohol
resisted by:  Health + Size
power:        4
target:       Intelligence and Agility (note:  if either drops to zero,
  the character begins losing Health instead)
onset time:   one minute
check time:   thirty minutes
run length:   2

Multiple doses of a poison could be fully cumulative (power and run length
are added) or partially cumulative (only run length added).  

In a magical environment, some really weird combinations are possible:

Shrink Potion
resisted by:  Magical Power
power:        8
target:       Size (if Size is reduced to 0, the character shrinks down
  to nothing and dies!)
onset time:   instant
check time:   one day
run length:   5

There were also rules for how long it took to recover lost points of an
attribute once the drug ran its course.  This system, with appropriate
modifications, will work for diseases as well.
--
       |\      _,,,---,,_        Travis S. Casey  <efindel at io.com>
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