Diseases

I said on Sunday that I intended to talk about diseases in game on monday as a discussion topic. Unfortunately, life and tiredness got the better of me and that didn't exactly play out. Instead, I am talking about it 4 days late. Sorry everyone.

Anyways, I am not sure how i feel about diseases in the modern context. In Dungeons and Dragons, they can sometimes be a good thing to increase the excitement of the game but if anything, they feel more like a plot device in D20 modern. I feel that the diseases in this game have far too powerful a chance to ruin characters by decreasing core attributes. In D&D it is possible to use cure disease to prevent this from happening but with D20 modern, unless spells are used, that nolonger is possible. Yes you could carry around antidotes, but that seems to be against the idea of the game.

Another possibility is to get the Players to realize something is up and get the infected person to a doctor. I feel this is the best bet but unfortunately am not entirely sure how to implement it. The other flaw here is that the characters might not realize it fast enough. For instance, if you have a smart hero contract a disease that drains strength, (s)he may not realize it until it's too late to do anything about it.

I think that disease may come up at some point when the game continues, but it will be with trepedation and caution that i go down that path. Another thing that could happen is that you spook the players into being paranoid about disease. Also not a good idea.

As usual, thoughts? comments?