Disease

Disease is somewhat omnipresent. Whenever a character falls in an open sewer, gets bitten by a rat, eats food he isn't sure is good, or enters the wrong ward of the hospital, that character has been exposed to a disease. Whenever the GM decides it is appropriate, the character begins to be infected. Characters do not normally catch disease without an obvious reason, but the GM may of course throw disease at them essentially at their discretion - everything is airborne, and it is easy to get food poisoning.

All Heal checks against disease are long-term care.

Each disease has a save DC, an incubation period, a number of effects, and a method of transmission.

When a character is first exposed to a disease, they must make a fortitude save equal to the disease's DC. If they are aware they will be exposed to this specific disease and a heal check (DC 20) has been made in the past hour, they get a +1 on this save. If they succeed on this save, they cannot be affected by this disease for another hour.

If the save is failed, they are now infected by the disease, which lays dormant for its incubation period. The character does not know that they are infected, though a successful heal check (DC disease's DC - 5) will reveal that they are infected.

At the end of the incubation period, the disease takes effect. It immediately causes its effects on the first day. Each successive day allows a new save. If the save beats the DC by less than five, no effects are taken from the disease. If the DC is beaten by five or more, the disease is cured and recovery may begin. A heal check may be substituted for either of these fortitude saves, though the healer must spend at least 2 hours each day to make the check. A character who is not resting takes a -1 on this check for each hour they are active.