Poison Rules

A poison is given the following stats.

• Rating = strength of poison
• Duration: length of effectiveness for 1 dose
• Effectiveness: number of times poison must be resisted during Duration
• Damage Level

Example: Rattlesnake Venom

Most rattlesnake venom is a particularly nasty hemotoxin more likely to maim rather than kill outright. If left untreated, however, rattlesnake venom will kill.

Rating: Good
Duration: 15 minutes
Effectiveness: 15
Damage Level: Hurt

To resist a poison, the victim must roll Stamina versus Rating once every minute until treated or the Duration has expired.

• Success: Subtract relative degree of success from Damage Level to calculate the effect of the poison for each check.
  • e.g., relative degree = +1 so Damage Level is reduced from Hurt to Scratch
• Failure: Add relative degree of failure to Damage Level.
  • e.g., relative degree = -1 so Hurt goes to Very Hurt
• Critical Success: Ends Duration prematurely; the body has defended itself.
• Critical Failure: Loss of limb or worse.

Scale and Damage Capacity modifiers reduce the Damage Level of a poison.

Damage taken for each resistance roll = Damage Level - (relative degree) - (Scale + Damage Capacity)