Author Topic: *Cough* *Sneeze* "I have the flu..." Giving PCs the sniffles.  (Read 2248 times)

Offline bibliophile20

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*Cough* *Sneeze* "I have the flu..." Giving PCs the sniffles.
« on: February 07, 2011, 04:34:08 PM »
Two of my PCs are college students (and all of my players are), so I was struck by ideas on how to complicate their lives in that traditional manner of dorm-rot, the malaise that seems to effortlessly circulate through the dorms in the winter. 

The best way to do this, I feel, is to have the at-risk PCs make an Endurance roll at the beginning of the scenario; those that fail the roll are afflicted with a sticky (and slimy) aspect that's worded along the lines of "The Flu", "Dorm Rot", "I'm Normally As Healthy As An Ox... Someone Please Shoot Me."

Then, over the course of the scenario, compel that aspect at inconvenient times: a Stealth roll is botched because of a sneeze, a Discipline roll is gone because the character can't focus through the haze of DayQuil, etc. 

Can also work for allergies.   ::)

Thoughts?  Has anyone afflicted their PCs with the flu yet and have stories?
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Offline sjksprocket

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Re: *Cough* *Sneeze* "I have the flu..." Giving PCs the sniffles.
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2011, 04:40:17 PM »
I might use this idea for an example for a serious consequence for one of my character with a fatigue (modified hunger) track. She would get worn down and then get sick. which would be hilarious. the character is an eight year old animal shape shifter with the trouble "flips the table". Getting sick would be an interesting challenge for the player.

Had a funny thought. A character with Mono. It might be a good excuse if one of your collage going characters can't be around for a while.
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Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: *Cough* *Sneeze* "I have the flu..." Giving PCs the sniffles.
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2011, 05:57:34 PM »
Could also be modeled as a poison, making an attack against Endurance every so often. Stress accumulated in this way wouldn't disappear at the end of the scene.

Offline devonapple

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Re: *Cough* *Sneeze* "I have the flu..." Giving PCs the sniffles.
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2011, 07:06:35 PM »
There's a Conflict type which I can't locate in the rules at the moment, but it's called something like a Conflict for Effect (that's not it). You just set up a simple Conflict, but failure means a straight consequence.
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Offline Richard_Chilton

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Re: *Cough* *Sneeze* "I have the flu..." Giving PCs the sniffles.
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2011, 11:35:50 PM »
You could add a sticky aspect to their dorm of "Flu outbreak in progress", or one to the city of "Flu epidemic" and let people tag it as normal.

Your PC gets tagged with it, he has the flu for a few days.

Richard