Showing posts with label poison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poison. Show all posts

Friday, December 10, 2010

Gas as Contamination (NML-The Mutant Front)

For a No Man's Land- The Mutant Front campaign Gas plays a major role as the boogie man doom of the setting. Chemical contamination is the lingering threat that kills and mutates.

The rules need to be adjusted to reflect the threat and danger of Gas. The method used for No Man's Land- The Mutant Front is to modify the existing radiation rules.

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Contamination
Chemical Contamination (hereafter simplified as Contamination) is a common hazard in the apocalyptic setting of No Man's Land- The Mutant Front.
Linger contamination in many regions expose people to it's hazards long after the shells have burst. Some mutants bear a continuing that of contamination and others may use it as a weapon their body produces.
Contamination is recorded as an intensity class of 1 to 10. Damage from contamination occurs per exposure which may be per attack or ongoing exposure by the round,turn or hour. Some areas may expose visitors to the threat of contamination over a longer period. If characters are exposed to this weaker background contamination during overland travel saving throws are recommended to be made but once per day. Contamination in some areas may only pose a threat to those that eat local foods, contact too much dust or drink the water in the contaminated area.

A victim of contamination typically suffers 1d6 damage per intensity level on a failed save vs contamination. Some gases have special effects that also effect those that fail a save. A successful saving throw reduces damage to half that of a failed save and no special effects are suffered. If a character prone to mutation fails 5 saving throws versus contamination in one day, the character receives one new random mutation that will develop fully in 2-5 days.

Some mutations, special abilities and equipment will reduce the intensity level of contamination a character is exposed to. If this contamination is reduce under an intensity level of 1 no harm will be suffered.

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Future posts will cover special effects of gases and modification to mutations and equipment.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Mutant Berries III

More berries for your Mutant Future campaigns.

Yellow Gloom Berries
The berries grow on small withered black leaved bushes in areas generally devoid of other vegetation. These "glowing" berries don't provide enough light to see by and if eaten will expose the gourmand to an intensity 1d4+4 radiation attack, per berry eaten.
It's not well known but it is the seeds of the yellow gloom berry that retain the radiation.

Gloom Berry Syrup.
About 20 gloom berries must be harvested and carefully skinned. The skins are retained and are boiled in a pot with 2 quarts of saltwater. The liquid should be boiled off until the skins have mostly dissolved and there is not more then 2 cups of liquid left behind. The syrup may be applied to cloth, armor or other surface to resist radiation blasts; any directed radiation attack will be considered 2 intensities lower. the syrup retains it's effects for 1-3 days after application.

Nox Berry
Small black berries with yellow spots that grow on high bushes. These berries produce body wracking purgative effects. Eating one will sicken a human or humanoid for 1d6 turns. If eaten within a turn of a poisoning a new saving throw is allowed against a poison, any damage suffered previously is adjusted to account for the new save. Mutant animals will suffer the effects of a 1d8 intensity poison if they ingest a nox berry.

Floyd Berry
A variety of small oblong berries that grow on low rambling plants. During midsummer a patch of floyd berries will typically have 3d10 ripe berries on any given day.

Purple Floyd Berry
Eating a purple floyd berry will cause one to go blind for 1d6 turns. Otherwise they are nourishing and rather nice tasting.

Purple Floyd Berry Wine
Collecting the juice and skins of 24 purple floyd berries and allowing them to ferment will produce about cup of Purple Floyd Berry Wine. Drinking this wine will blind one for 2d6 turns but afterward they will discover they have precognition (as the mutation) for the next 2-7 hours.

Blue Floyd Berry
Getting the juice of one of these berries on the skin of a human or humanoid will force them to make a save vs poison or be overcome with vivid hallucinations rendering them helpless for 2-7 rounds. If one eats the 2 or more the hallucinations will render one helpless for 2-8 hours. Mutant animals, plants and androids are uneffected.

Lemon Floyd Berry
these bright yellow floyd berries smell of lemons. If 3 or more berries are eaten a save vs poison must be made or the victim will fall into a deep sleep for 2-7 hours and can not be forcefully woken until at least half that time has passed.

Lemon Floyd Berry Dust
If the seeds of 12 Lemon Floyd Berries are collected dried and ground up they will produce a powder that will reverse any soporific condition in but a round. (They wake one up). This will work to reverse ingesting lemon floyd berry itself even if half the sleep time hasn't' passed yet.

Yellow Floyd Berry
These berries are about as bright yellow as the lemon floyd berry but they do not smell like lemon. If one gets the juice on their fingers from a Yellow Floyd Berry they must make a save or be paralyzed for 2-7 turns. Eating the berrys will kill a human or act as random intensity poison vs humanoids and mutant animals.
Yellow Floyd Berry Paste
If 12 or more yellow floyd berries are collected and rendered stewed to a mush, dried, pulverized and then reconstituted they produce Yellow Floyd Berry paste. Each does of this paste will produce a paralytic poison of intensity 11 if injected in a foe by dart or coating a weapon . There is one does produced for each berry over 10 used to create the paste.

Silver Floyd Berry
Are harmless and have no effects on human or mutants. The leaves of the plant carry a contact poison requiring a save to be made if precautions aren't taken by one collecting the berries or expose the victim to a soporific toxin that will force them to collapse into sleep for 2-12 hours.

Silver Floyd Berry Incense
If the leaves of the silver floyd berry plant are carefully collected. Coated in the juice of the plant and allowed to dry and then tightly rolled (the contact poison has no effect once dried) a bundle of such rolled leaves can be burnt for 2-5 turns which will require all insects within 20' to make a save (each round of exposure) or fall asleep for 1-6 turns. Some people complain the smoke gives them headaches other say it calms them slightly but not enough to have considered impact on combat or wakefulness.

possible market values
Yellow Gloom Berries .... 3 lp
Gloom Berry Syrup. .... 20 up

Nox Berrys .... 2 up

Purple Floyd Berry ...... 5 pl
Purple Floyd Berry Wine .. 25 up per glass
Blue Floyd Berry .... 8 lp
Lemon Floyd Berry .... 3 pl
Lemon Floyd Berry Dust .... 9 lp
Yellow Floyd Berry .... 5 up
Yellow Floyd Berry Paste .... 6 up per dose
Silver Floyd Berry Incense ...2 up per roll

Friday, July 17, 2009

Mutant Berries I

The weird worlds of the Mutant Future are of course rife with a riot of beings with bizarre and unusual abilities, wild appearances and new discoveries. The Flora of such worlds is just as likely to be strange and unusual as is the animal world. Here now are the first collection of mutant Berries that scavengers may find in their Mutant Future.


Yellow Frink Berry
Grows on a low bush, the Berries are ripe in the summer months when 2-12 berries will be available. A Frink berry bush usually will not be within a couple hundred feet of another Frink berry bush.

Fresh Yellow Frink Berries
Fresh Yellow Frink Berries produces a hallucinogenic poison. If one is consumed treat as Class 8 poison but instead of suffering damage the damage roll reflects the % chance each round for 3-18 rounds that one will be overcome and incapacitated by the hallucinations produced.

Fuzzy Yellow Frink Berries.
If Frink Berries are allowed to age a 2 weeks or longer they have a 33% chance of developing a slight golden fuzz (this is a a mold). Eating a fuzzy berries will expose anyone to a Class 3 Hallucinogenic poison that lasts for 2-12 rounds (as above). Mutants with mental power will find the ranges (but not area of effect if applicable) have been increased by 50% for a hour.
Eating multiple berries extend the probability of being overcome by hallucinations but does not extend the duration of the range increase for mental powers.

Red Frink Berries
A different variety of frink berry that glows on a bush with long black fronds covered in thorns. the thorns may be annoying but are relatively harmless.

Fresh Red Frink Berries
Red frink berries are typically ripe in the spring. A bush will produce 2-5 berries each year.
A normal human or any mutant eating a red frink berry will develop a random mental mutation for 2-12 turns if they fail a saving throw versus poison (one can not choose to forgo the roll)

Frink Berry Wine
This reddish-orange wine is made by collecting the juice of 40 Red frink berries and 20 fresh yellow frink berries and allowing the mix to ferment. A batch of such wine will provide 8 doses.
Each dose (small glass) of Frink Berry Wine will grant the drinker a randomly selected mental mutation for 7-12 hours but each time the drinker comes under stress a save vs poison must be made or they will be incapacitated by hallucinations for the next 1-6 rounds.
A batch of Frink berry wine will produce the same mental mutation for the same character types (roll for each type but use the same result if drinkers of the same type drink from the same batch). Frink Berry wine made from the same batch of plants only have a 20% chance of producing the same mutations as the previous vintage.

All Frink Berries will shrivel and rot in 3-6 weeks after harvest.

Possible Market Values
Fresh Yellow Frink Berry .... 5 lp
Fuzzy Yellow Frink Berry .... 2 Up
Red Frink Berry ................. 5 Up
Frink Berry Wine (8 drinks) .... 300 Up

(prices are for 100 plastoons = 10 lead pieces = 1 uranium piece, wasteland scavenger pricing)

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Save or Die Slowly...The Drum Beat of Death

Lot's of folks aren't big fans of the good old "Save or Die" method of RPG threats. I'm generally in agreement that it's usually no fun. I am however in favor of Save or Die Slowly which I also fiendishly cheer as The Drum Beat of Death.

Scenario 1a:
DM: "oh no, the sargath worm has bitten Normo for 1 point of damage, it's wicked fangs drip with yellow ichor, make save versus posion"

Dave (playing Normo): "I get a 7, oh crud that doesn't make it does it"

DM: "No, you shake in horrible spasm spitting up yellow humours and die."

The rest of the party, following the death of Normo and the sargath worm: we split up Normo's gold and everyone can pick an item from his gear and we move one.

Scenario 1b:
DM: "oh no, the sargath worm has bitten Normo for 1 point of damage, it's wicked fangs drip with yellow ichor, make save versus posion"

Dave (playing Normo): "I get a 7, oh crud that doesn't make it does it"

DM: You start shaking violently...

Round #1 following the poisoning

Fred : I slay the sargath worm...

Dave: Am I okay?

DM: just a moment let's resolve Fred's attack on the worm

Fred: A 17, for 7 points of damage...wooo hoo.

DM: your blow splits the worm is half, both halves writhe briefly dripping foul ichor on the floor as it's spams dwindle.

Dave : okay i search for treasue.

DM: you are starti to feel nausea and shaking too fiercely to do that, Normo suffers 2 damage.

Dave : oh no...quick someone heal me.

Ann: I only have 2 cure light wounds spells left.

Dave: Well, give me one.

Ann: I'm not sure it will work.

Dave: Please!

Ann: first I'm going to make sure nothing is coming up behind us.

Round #2 following the poisoning.

Fred: I clean my sword off I don't want to end up like Normo.

Dave: hey!

DM: Normo starts spitting up yellow bile, that's another (rolls a die) 4 pts of damage.

Dave : oh no...heal me now !!!

Ann: okay, okay...that's 6 points back to you.

Dave: great I'm also back to full. How do I feel?

Round #3

DM: you still feel awful, it's like your intestines are being tied in knots until they burst within you... that's another 4 pts of damage.

Dave : What ! oh no !! Quick heal me again.

Ann: It will not work. I'll start last right on you now if you want.

Fred: I search for treasure while Ann gives Normo last rights.

Dave : what ? No.

round #4 following the poisoning:

Dave: can't someone suck the poison out or something.

Ann: I'm not doing that.

Fred: do I find anything, I'll put Normo out of his misery for you Dave.

Dave : No , wait...can't I do anything?

DM: sure, you shake in horrible spasms. 3pts damage. Fred you found an old silver dagegr among the skeletal remains.

Dave:I drink some wine maybe that'll slow it down.

Ann: I don't think you should drink wine while I administer last rites.

Rounds #5 following the poisoning

Fred: I put the dagger in my belt, let's move on.

Dave: No.. wait, can I walk?

Dm: with effort you may move, you take 6 more points of damage.

Ann: well that screws up the last rites.

Dave: I rush for the main staircase maybe I can get to camp and the stash of healing potions before I die.

Fred: oh no you don't.

Ann: I try to comfort Normo.


Round #6
DM: Normo staggers towards the door and Ann blocks him (right?).

Ann: yes I do, I kindly but firmly put my hand n his shoulder.

Dave: Normo slips away.

DM: Normos staggers away from Ann and suffers 5 more points of damage...


Let's close the door on that scene.


As you can see a lot more play action comes out of "Save or Die Slowly" then comes out of "Save or Die".

How do I do it?
Well normal saves and then damage each round until the # of dice the poison should do is accumulated. If its normally save or die I'm a kind soul and cap the damage at 2 or 3 dice per HD of monster/module level. Sometimes if the save would mean 1/2 damage the character suffers 1/2 the total number of dice.
Really noxious poisons and fearsome obvious effects (boulders crushing you) do a fair amount of damage up front (maybe 1/2 total) and the drumbeat follows.

This system tends to be in the "gritty" end of the adventuring spectrum and requires a tiny bit of extra record keeping and it certainly makes the death of a fellow adventurer noticeable and more active part of play, not just an "oh shucks he's dead, let's move on" sort of situation.

I can certainly see some groups not enjoying this situation so a DM may want to avoid it or use it as a tool so the players have their characters really avoid being poisoned. There is the freak chance the character can be saved in such a situation or possibly die a heroic death fighting on knowing death is certain regardless of the outcome fo the next fight.