Poison

For specifics on particular poisons, please click Poisons. The following is a general guideline for how poison works.

Poison can work in two ways: acute or chronic poisoning. Acute poisoning is a dose strong enough to cause immediately fatal or debilitating damage. Chronic is usually smaller doses that build up over time. If a character uses poisons, they will have damage scores for acute-level doses and chronic-level doses, though some are strong enough that chronic poisoning is unlikely to happen or weak enough that acute doses are unlikely to be usable.

Every poison will also have a period of time before it has effect. It is rare for them to be instantaneous, but some are much faster than others. Acute-level doses work quicker than chronic ones, usually. Poisons also might have different damage levels based on how they are ingested, injected, or applied.

Ultimately, when a poison starts taking effect, the character will roll STR or poison resistance against the power of the poison. Some poisons are wound-only, some are wound and stun. The higher success the poison has, the more harm it causes and the faster it kills. Most poisons can be totally eliminated from a body with an exceptional or critical roll on STR/poison resistance.

For acute poisons, it requires a total of three critical successes, six exceptional, twelve species, 24 normal, or 48 ties to kill someone. For chronic, the power of the poison increases as new doses are introduced, building on the failure/success of the past rolls. A critical success resisting the poison means the next dosage starts over. An exceptional success means the poison rolls at -3 on its next roll. A special success means the poison rolls at -1 the next time. A normal success means the poison rolls with no penalty or bonus. A tie is +1, a normal failure +2, special failure +3, exceptional failure +6, critical failure +9. The poison needs the same number of successes as acute to kill, but it has a much lower damage rating to begin with.

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Disease

Every disease works differently, but it starts with an infection roll vs. STR or disease resistance. The failure rate determines how quickly symptoms set in and the initial damage rolls. As the disease progresses, it continues to roll vs. STR or disease resistance as the immune system fights it. These can be done daily (in-game), but they increase as the disease comes closer to killing the character, moving to hourly, then every minute, then every round. It requires three critical successes, nine exceptional, 27 special, 81 normal, or 243 ties to kill.

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Radiation

Radiation is extremely dangerous and deadly. It is toxic and destroy the body rapidly.

Radiation damage is determined by failure level:

Roll	Result	Immediate Symptoms	Penalty	Latent Period	Illness	Strength	Recovery	Death
Normal failure	Moderate poisoning	Nausea, vomiting, fever, headache	-1 in combat, -3 out	1 month	Blood poisoning, nerve damage, fatigue	8	6 months with treatment	Two months without treatment
Tie	Mild poisoning	Nausea and loss of appetite	None	None	None	1	1 hour, no treatment necessary	None
Exceptional failure	Severe poisoning	High fever, gastrointestinal distress, dizziness, nerve damage	-6 in combat, -9 out	None	Severe blood poisoning, disorientation, electrolyte disturbance, purpurra, low blood pressure	20	5 years with treatment	4 weeks without treatment
Special failure	Major poisoning	Gastrointestinal distress, fever, headache, nerve damage	-3 in combat, -6 out	None	Blood poisoning, nerve damage, fatigue, hair loss, purpurra, hemorrhaging	14	2 years with treatment	6 weeks without treatment
Critical failure	Fatal poisoning	All of the above plus seizures and unconsciousness	-9 in combat, -12 out, unconsciousness	None	Unconsciousness and death	26	None without supernatural intervention	Within 48 hours