Psi-Wars diseases as Afflictions

 So, awhile back, I introduced an alternate disease system, to make diseases more usable in a more "narrative" game where tracking HP day by day is less interesting.  I've been working on psychic powers, particularly Necrokinesis and Psychic Vampirism and they, plus some Communion powers, make sense as a source of disease.  In classic GURPS, each disease would be made as a bespoke thing, but because my version of disease is generic, in the sense that all trivial diseases work more or less the same way, and all major diseases work the same way, and so on, then it should be possible to apply a generic disease as an affliction.

How, then, would we price it?  There are two possible ways.  First, we can determine what a disease would look like in RAW GURPS and work out its cost (on the theory that my system is an abstraction of the RAW), and we can work out what a literal Affliction using my new rules would look like, and decide which direction we'd like to go.

Trivial Diseases

By default, a Trivial Disease amounts to inflicting a quirk on someone; the effects can be a little worse, but we can treat it as so.  The duration shouldn't be longer than a week, but we can effectively treat it as "permanent" with the condition to eliminate it as an HT roll.  This doesn't include contagiousness, but it gives us a rough idea of what it might cost.  The result is something like this: Affliction 1 (Quirk +1%; Permanent (HT roll or medical treatment to recover) +150%) [26]; That seems rather expensive, though.

If we treated it as a "real disease" we're probably looking at a Fatiguing Attack 1 pt (Contagious +20%; Cyclic, daily, 7 days +60%; Resistible, HT+1 -35%, and a Symptom at 1/3 fatigue damage that's minor, like Coughing, so +60%) [5], which is a lot smaller than the Affliction above.  This gives us the equivalent to a very minor illness that will do little more than make you feel cruddy and eventually recover (after about a week) and you're never terribly inconvenienced.

The 26 point version seems way too high, a perpetual issue with Afflictions.  The fatiguing attack gets the long duration for free from its cyclic, and I'm not sure how to reflect the fact that it's contagious or resistible (daily rolls?) with the Affliction version.  These would surely bring down the cost.  I think it highlights how useless the Affliction approach is, but it is useful to think of it as a long-duration quirk.

Minor Disease

By default, a Minor Disease amounts to inflicting a -5 to -10 point disadvantage on someone; if we use the same logic for a trivial disease, our affliction is The result is something like this: Affliction 1 (-10 point disad +10%; Permanent (HT roll or medical treatment to recover) +150%) [26]; Again, our permanence is the only thing that matters, making this a largely futile exercise.

If we treated it as a "real disease" we're probably looking at a Fatigue Attack 1 pt (Contagious +20%; Cyclic, daily, 20 days +200%; Resistible, HT-2 -20%, and a Symptom at 1/2, Nauseated or something, +80%) [10].  "Toxic" might be more accurate, but that more than halves the cost.

Major Disease

By default, a Major Disease amounts to inflicting a -15 to -20 point disadvantage on someone; if we use the same logic for a trivial disease, our affliction is The result is something like this: Affliction 1 (-20 point disad +20%; Permanent (HT roll or medical treatment to recover) +150%) [27].

If we treated it as a "real disease," we're almost certainly talking about Toxic damage, and quite a bit of it, so Toxic 1d (Contagious +20%; Cyclic, daily, 20 days +200%; Resistible, HT-5 -5%, and a Symptom at 1/3 HP, something pretty intentse like Terrible Pain, +60%) [15].

Greater Disease

This is where "$#!^ gets real." A Greater Disease is reasonably a Terminal Illness or possibly up to a Heart Attack, as it's pretty dire, so we're looking at something like Affliction 1 (Terminally ill or something similarly dire +100%; Permanent (HT roll or medical treatment to recover) +150%) [35].  Finally, a value that matters!

If we treated it as a "real disease," we're looking at something spectacularly nasty. It might be something like Toxic 1d-1 (Highly Contagious +50%; Cyclic, hourly, 24 hours +470%; Resistible, HT-5 -5%, and multiple sets of Symptoms worth, say, +100%) [20].

Pricing Generic Disease Afflictions

Alright, so we have some rough guides here.  At least if we're discussing disease as innate attacks, they're not especially expensive, even as they get extreme.  From the perspective of an Affliction, the thing that makes them "the worst" is their long duration, but the actual effects are fairly minor, which is consistent with their relatively low cost.

A Trivial Disease is probably a +0%.  Is it worse than stunning a target? I think it's a wash. Coughing or Itching is worse enough to be an enhancement, and they last for minutes, but they're immediate.  A trivial disease triggers whenever the GM says it does, and it's pretty easy to get over (HT +1) and won't impact you for more than a scene.  As an innate attack, it would be worth less than an affliction, so it's probably fair at +0%, especially if we say it has an onset.

A Minor Disease is worth more than +0%.  It's roughly double the point-cost as an innate attack, and the actual disadvantage is actually worth some points. It's probably on par with hitting someone with an actual irritation condition, though I'd still give it an onset, so +50% seems a reasonable value.

A Major Disease is a serious problem if someone hits you with it.  We're likely looking at something on par with incapacitation, which suggests more like +100%

A Greater Disease isn't as bad as a Coma, because you can still move around and operate, "but you'll die in a matter of days" is reasonable, and Coma is +250%, so +200% feels reasonable for a Greater disease.

These values push them past their costs as innate attacks (10 for Trivial, 15 for Minor, 20 for Major, and 30 for Greater), but I think these are good values to start with. They feel like they hit the right levels, though Trivial might be "too expensive" compared to Minor.

I think in all cases, the disease won't manifest immediately unless the target fails by a hefty amount (say, 5+), and will otherwise follow all the normal rules for a disease.  We'll treat it as a normal modifier which is to say, you can apply it with other modifiers (like Malediction or Blood Agent, etc).