New GM; wondering if I’m missing something.
I have a group of new PCs (and new players) headed into the Redmond Barrens (Squatter’s Mall) at night (time constraints), following clues. Some of the obstacles/events I thought might come into play were: Devil Rats, low force (2-3) Roaches, small time gangs protecting turf, and Ghouls. Then I actually read about Ghouls…
Tell me if I understand this correctly:
HMHVV III
Vector: Contact
Speed: 1 day (10)
Penetration: -6
Power: 8
Nature: Retroviral
Effect: Pain (Agony?), Nausea, Essence Loss, Transformation
A PC gets attacked and injured in melee by a ghoul at 20:00 4/1/72. Nothing obvious happens.
At 20:00 4/2/72 he rolls Body (8 ). (If he was uninjured in melee or otherwise touched the ghoul he adds the chemical rating of any armor or suit -6 (for HMHVV III penetration) for his first roll only?) Each hit on this roll reduces the Power by one (= PP or Previous Power). If he doesn’t reduce the Power to 0 he loses 0.1 Essence. If he doesn’t reduce the Power to his Body rating or less he suffers from Nausea. If he doesn’t reduce the Power to his Willpower he suffers from Agony.
At 20:00 4/3/72 he rolls Body (PP + 8 ). Each hit on this roll reduces the Power by one (providing a new PP). If he doesn’t reduce the Power to 0 he loses 0.1 Essence. If he doesn’t reduce the Power to his Body rating or less he suffers from Nausea. If he doesn’t reduce the Power to his Willpower he suffers from Agony.
At 20:00 4/4/72 he rolls Body (PP + 8 ). Each hit on this roll reduces the Power by one. If he doesn’t reduce the Power to 0 he loses 0.1 Essence. If he doesn’t reduce the Power to his Body rating or less he suffers from Nausea. If he doesn’t reduce the Power to his Willpower he suffers from Agony.
This happens every day for 10 days at 20:00 until the final roll (the (10) in the Speed attribute) on 4/10/72.
After 4/10/72, if he is still alive and untransformed (Ha!), he rolls Body (PP-PH (PH = Previous Hits) every day at 20:00 until he reduces the Previous Power to 0.
If at any time his Essence is reduced to 0 he dies. If at any time his Essence is reduced a total of 1.0 by this disease he transforms into a ghoul and takes the Infected (Ghoul) Quality.
He may spend Edge on his rolls. He may use antivirals but they will not help him because their max Rating is 6 and the Penetration of the disease is -6. He may receive a Cure Disease spell at -6 to the hits rolled. He may receive the Increase Body spell just before 20:00 to increase his Body up to his augmented maximum during his Disease Resistance roll. Can he use Zeta-Interferon before the first Disease Resistance test (and every 24 hrs for the next 10 days before 20:00) to stop the disease, or at any point after a Disease Resistance test to reduce the disease from Power 8 to Power 4?
Doesn’t this mean that with a Body of 15 (max augmented troll body), counting every 3rd dice as a hit, on day 10 he will have failed every roll and the Power will be 35 and the character will have lost 1.0 essence? Zeta-Interferon will save this character, and has a 50-50 chance (on average) of saving a character with a body of 12. If you are not an ork or troll whose emphasis is Body, you are screwed. As above, with Max Augmented human body (9) without Z-I on day 10 you transform (or die) and the disease is at power 53(!!); with Z-I it is at power 17
I’ve read that Ghouls are not uncommon in the barrens and seen it mentioned that some GMs throw them out when the game slows to add a fight for some excitement. These do not seem like opponents that should just be dropped in to a game to watch bullets fly, because it seems like if you go against these guys, you’re gonna become a ghoul, or die if you’ve had a lot of augmentations (low essence). This seems like an opponent that would fundamentally transform the game from a story POV 24 hrs after they were dropped in, especially against new PCs (not to mention new players).
Is there something I’m missing here? Something I’ve misunderstood?
Questions, corrections, comments, advice, opinions?
