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Chapter 5: Resistance

[ | Resist Rules | Stun | Distraction | Magic | Knockout/Death | Poison | Primal Nature | ]

Poison

There are many things to consider when resolving this Resist roll. Resist Poison is easily the most complex resist because of the intricate nature of many poisons and toxins.

If poison enters the character's system, then you must first consider how difficult it is to save against.

Base Penalties

+20% The character has built a resistance against this poison over time.
+10% If the poison has affected the character recently.
-30% If any poison is injected directly into the bloodstream.
0% Weak Alcoholic drinks, counter medication, relaxants.
-10% Strong alcohol, morphine (other strong sedatives), minor nerve toxins.
-20% Crack, Heroin, most illicit drugs.
-30% Arsenic, Cyanide; anything meant to be lethal or extremely overwhelming.

Serving

The Base penalty is for what is considered a single Serving of the poison. If the character ingests any more poison, the base roll is -10% for every serving thereafter. If there is a significant number of Servings ingested, increase the Immediate Effect level as appropriate (GM's call) and the number of Active Resists. For many poisons, an indicator (in grams) is given per Serving.

Duration

How long until the player must roll Resist again. For powerfully fast poisons, Duration could mean 1 second between Resist rolls; slow-acting poisons could take days.

Active Resists

This is the number of Resists that the player must make (unless the poison is prematurely removed). Until the player makes enough Resists, the poison is still actively attacking his system.

Let's say the number of Active Resists is 5. The player makes 5 rolls at designated times (according to the Duration). Once he has completed all 5 rolls, the poison starts to leave his system and the player stops Resisting Poison.

  • Every time the player succeeds to Resist Poison, his next roll is another -10% and the Immediate Effect is lowered.
  • For every time the player fails to Resist Poison, his next roll is another +10% and the Immediate Effect is felt and then raised for the next roll.

    If the character passes out he must continue to Resist Poison. If the effects of the drug are fatal enough, the character may have to Resist Death.

    • Immediate Effect

    Once a character fails a roll, he feels the Immediate Effect of the drug.

    Certain Poisons may have an upper limit on how bad the Immediate Effect can be. No matter how much the character ingests (eg, a tranquilizer) the effects may never go beyond a certain level. This is up to the GM or may be listed by the poison.

    Each time the player fails, the Immediate Effect penalties stack. This means that for each failure, the character will be hit with new penalties as specified by the poison (or GM) ontop of old ones.

    You'll notice that some poisons will have a listed 'First Effect'. That means that despite what Immediate Effect Level you're currently at with the poison, the first time you fail, this is the first penalty to hit your character. It only hits you once, but stays with you until the poison is gone. Also, the poison may have a listed penalty that you should use as part of the Immediate Effect level.

    Effect Levels

    No Effect The poison may still be in the character's system, but he doesn't notice it.
    Minor The character is going to be fuzzy with 'Immediate:small' penalty for the next few hours.
    Slight Same as above.
    Somewhat 'Immediate:Major' penalty.
    Considerable Same as above.
    Serious Might Resist Knockout. 'Immediate:Extreme' penalty.
    Unconscious The character must Resist Knockout (-20%). 'Immediate:Extreme' penalty which may last for a few days.
    Dangerous The character must Resist Knockout (-40%). 'Immediate:Crippling' penalty for a few hours.
    Possibly Fatal The character must Resist Death(-20%). 'Immediate:Crippling' penalty which may last for a day.
    Lethal The character must Resist Death(-40%). 'Immediate:Crippling' penalty for up to a week.
    Resolve the Red Damage immediately.

    Immediate Penalties

    GMs, don't be afraid to have a penalty to be on Resist Poison. The drug could make them delirious, making it that much harder to continue resisting the drug.

    It is up to the GM (or in the poison's description), but try to choose two or three effects that seem to fit the nature of the poison and inflict them upon the character. Remember, come up with your own penalties if you see none that fit the amount of punishment you deem necessary. Also, an Extreme reaction can be a few Major or Small penalties instead of one Extreme penalty.

    Small
    • The GM may decide to do things such as increased difficulties on all rolls.
    • Disorient penalties or dizzy behaviour.
    • Lose some hitpoints and fail Resist Balance every once in awhile.
    Major
    • -20% and -4 to all rolls.
    • Disorient and Awkward penalties.
    • Reduced Shock value.
    • Half PFb.
    • 1 Red damage or some decent hitpoints damage.
    Extreme -
      Some resists automatically fail.
    • The character cannot perform any rolls with attached difficulties.
    • Experience violent reactions (including blood loss and spasms).
    • The character can no longer spend Ki.
    • 1 Red damage.
    Crippling
    • The character has a few Stats lowered to 1 (temporary).
    • Can no longer spend Chakra.
    • No PFb and half shock value.
    • May spout incoherently and be completely unaware of the situation.
    • May lose all mental and/or physical control.
    • This injury may cause 2 Red damage immediately or over time.
    Lethal
      This will knock you to the ground and may even cause up to 3 Red damage immediately. You must Resist Death and even if you somehow manage to wake back up (say in a number of hours or a day), you'll likely wake up in Crippling pain.

    Lasting Effect

    The Lasting Effects of a poison are usually listed in hours or days. This is usually some penalty that occurs in the aftermath (a hangover or numbness from a toxin). More damaging poisons may have lasting effects that do further damage. Each hour (or day) that passes, the character rolls Resist Primal Nature. Each time he fails, he gets +10%. Once he succeeds, the lasting effects are gone and the poison has completely left his system.
    EXAMPLE

    Name: Arsenic
    Immediate Effect: Lethal
    Resist Penalty: -30%
    Active Resists: 4 Resists
    Max. Effect: Lethal
    Duration: 1 Round
    First Effect: None.
    Penalties: None specified, but do some damage.
    Lasting Effects: None Specified.
    Serving: 1g

    What this means is that the character will be required to resist the arsenic every round (look at the Duration) for 4 rounds.

    Fred has a Resist Poison of 90%. This arsenic is -30%; Fred has to roll 60 or lower.

    Every time Fred successfully resists, the Effect is lessened by one level (remember, it won't actually hurt the character until he fails).

    Fred rolls his resist and succeeds. The Immediate Effect of the Arsenic is now Possibly Fatal. He rolls again at 50%. He succeeds and the effect is now Dangerous. Next time it's 40%, he rolls and fails. Fred has landed on Dangerous Effect. By that, he must now Resist Knockout (and succeeds). Fred now experiences a Crippling Penalty. The GM decides that Fred vomits blood and finds it difficult to focus (and therefore nearly incapable of combat or clear thought). The Immediate Effect of the poison goes back up to Possibly Fatal.

    Fred succeeds on his next Resist Poison roll; the effect moves back to Dangerous. Fred is now done all of his active resists, the Arsenic will start to leave his system. So Fred has experienced Crippling Penalties and luckily nothing stacked ontop of that. And that's it! Fred makes some Resist Primal Nature rolls (each time getting another +10%) to get rid of the lasting effects as decided by the GM; he may take some more damage, but it likely will not kill him.

    So Fred did take some Red damage in the process. Since there weren't any Lasting Effects specified, the GM was nice and left Fred in pain but not in any persisting agony from the poison (other than the Red damage).

    EXAMPLE

    Name: Snake Bite
    Immediate Effect: Slight
    Resist Penalty: 0%
    Active Resists: 20 Resists
    Max Effect: Dangerous
    Lasting Effect: Days, 3 damage per failure.
    First Effect: -30% Resist Poison.
    Penalties: -10% to Resist Poison for each Immediate Effect Level.
    Duration: 1 Hour
    Serving: 1g

    Let's take Fred again. He has a Resist Poison of 90%. This is really good, let's see if it helps him.

    Fred has to make a Resist Poison every hour (look at Duration) for 20 hours.

    Fred rolls and succeeds. The effect is now reduced to Minor. Rolling again, brings it down to No Effect. And it has No Effect...at least for the moment. Unfortunately, the poison Effect can never be reduced to less than that and eventually, Fred starts failing. After several hours, Fred is rolling at -70% on No Effect.

    He fails, but at least he gets +10% for the next roll right? The GM notices that the poison specifies a penalty to -30% Resist Poison upon the first failure. This makes it a lot harder. In fact, Fred's Resist Poison is now at 0%. He fails again, obviously. And again. And again. Every time Fred fails, the poison gets harder to resist. Even though he gets +10% each time he fails, the Immediate Effect on the poison makes it harder by -10%; his Resist Poison NEVER goes up.

    So Fred keeps failing time after time, until the poison becomes Dangerous. The poison starts to do real damage to his insides and he realizes that if this keeps up...he'll die. Even if he does survive, the lasting effects are for Days! That means that for the next few days, Fred will find it difficult to even stand. Rolling Resist Primal Nature is difficult and his insides start getting churned up by the Lasting Effects.
    Copyright (©) 2006 by Charles Roy and Michael Vendittelli. Chaos Fantasy System created by Charles Roy and Michael Vendittelli.