Illness

In addition to the physical dangers of the world, characters are often accosted by the sniffles and other common ailments, as well as many serious infectious diseases. When it comes to sickness and plague, running out of tissues is the least of your worries.

Illness is an acute condition — it comes on suddenly and puts a strain on your body. Whether you're combating the flu, shock, motion sickness, or a hangover, illness can make even the simplest of tasks difficult thanks to symptoms like pain, fever, nausea, and fatigue.

The debilitating effects of an illness are represented by its severity, a number from 1–5. When a creature contracts an illness, it moves one stage down the Knockout Track for each level of severity. These Knockout Track penalties remain in place as long as the symptoms of the illness persist.

In addition to Knockout Track penalties, an illness can impose other effects on the unhealthy creature, like conditions, Continual Damage, or penalties to specific skills.

Some illnesses have cures that remove the ailment entirely. Many illnesses that can't be cured can be treated with medicinal remedies to relieve the symptoms. Some illnesses have neither a cure nor a treatment and must run their courses.

Illness makes lethal Stamina Drain (e.g. starvation, dehydration) much more difficult to survive. For example, if you contract a severity 3 illness (which puts you at stage 3 on the Knockout Track), you only need to fail two Stamina checks to fall comatose. A third failure means death. If you contract a severity 5 illness (which renders you comatose on its own), a single failed Stamina check means death.