Adding Mundane Hazards to RPGs

As I sit here pondering how the exceedingly high pollen count aggravated my asthma and allergies leading to a sinus infection that has now resulted in pneumonia, I can only help but wonder why mundane diseases and allergic reactions seldom – if ever – figure into role playing games.

Okay, yes only a geek would have pneumonia and start thinking about how to apply it to role-playing. And, yes, my constitution is really only a point or two above Raistlin Majere’s. However, those things aside, I still think that this is something that could be played up more.

Lets first start with allergies. I have played with several groups that used random weather tables to make the gaming experience more varied: rain makes progress slower and tracks hard to spot, snow can affect visibility, etc. However, dry warm weather could spark off a sneezing and coughing spell for one or more of the player characters (or villains) making them travel and act more slowly, impair decisions, miss attacks due to watery eyes, mispronounce words to a spell, or cause all sorts of other interesting effects.

Also, a character could order the special in a tavern and be served wombat stew. What if the character had never eaten wombat and discovered, to their horror, that they were allergic? They might break out in itchy, blistering, hives suffering charisma, attack, and defense penalties. Or, they might start to go into shock and need urgent clerical attention.

Next, we move on to disease. While I have experienced diseases figuring into Dungeons and Dragons games, it was usually magical in nature such as mummy rot. However, there is no reason why adventurers can’t just get sick. They travel through all sorts of bacteria and fungal infested places like swamps, surely they are bound to pick something up.

As with allergies, diseases could cause minor inconveniences to player characters or villains such as sneezing and coughing, or it could be much worse. It would be interesting to see how a player handled their character being almost too weak to stand just as orcs are attacking. Or using hemorrhagic fever as a biological weapon against an evil mage by puking blood on them shortly before seeking assistance from the party’s cleric. Also, a good bout of dysentery would liven up any campaign.

As you can see, for the nefarious DM, the possibilites are almost endless. Just remember to not overdo it, and make it random. For instance, being bitten by a mosquito should not always cause alternating fever and chills; only once in a great while. Also, maybe the next time someone gets a disease from a mosquito bite, they develop some a lesion instead. This way players never know what is going to cause a disease, or what disease they may get.