Traveling in your typical modern day sewer: what rolls for illness?

[Nolgroth]

Re: Traveling in your typical modern day sewer: what rolls for illness?

 

I don't know as I would roll unless there was an explicit Complication that addressed the issue. On the other hand, if a player was going to be absent for a session soon after the sewer adventure, then I have grounds to say that the player contracted some sort of fever. Point back to the sewer as a probable cause. Used the same gimmick for other scenarios too (really bad sea-sickness etc).

[phookz]

Re: Traveling in your typical modern day sewer: what rolls for illness?

 

I would agree that just being down there should incur no roll at all. If you get doused with it, maybe a CON at +2 to keep from getting something, but I wouldn't require a roll unless you got a lot of it on you, or you went swimming in it for a while. If you ingest some of it, or get it on an open wound, I would probably require a CON roll, but not at the severe minuses suggested earlier. I would impose the minuses based on how long it was exposed. For example, get some splashed on an open wound, that would be a CON check. If the open wound were exposed for a minute to it, CON -1, then -1 for every step down the time chart.

 

 

As the title asks' date=' what kind of rolls (and at what bonus/penalty) for illness via (bacteria, fungi, virii, pests etc) would you make the players roll for their characters while traveling in a modern day sewer?[/quote']

 

You also mentioned pests - that's a different issue. There are certainly numerous pests that could be in a sewer. Rats, raccoons, alligators, cockroaches, spiders, snakes, pretty much any creepy crawly (yeah, I know, alligators aren't usually categorized as creepy crawly) could show up. You could probably go with a Survival or KS roll to avoid the worst of the bad-nasties.

[Markdoc]

Re: Traveling in your typical modern day sewer: what rolls for illness?

 

Heh. My very first real job was working for the sewage treatment plant - and taking samples from sewer lines was major part of what I did. It was actually a pretty cool job, and there's the build-your-own-coffee-machine-out-of-lab-parts story ....

 

Anyhoo, here's my suggestions.

Real life.

Your chances of contracting something by breathing in sewer air are pretty much the same as breathing in countryside air ie: less than your risk on the street. What's in the water and sludge comes out of people's colons and urethras, and it's not going to do you much, if any, damage if you breathe it in. If you do, your immune system will eat those suckas for breakfast (literally: it's not gonna waste protein and lipids). Your biggest breathing risk is asphyxiation - specifically from methane. Sewer workers use rebreathers or oxy on deep sewer lines for that reason, not infection. As an aside, sewers do not smell as bad as you'd think - human waste only gets really stinky as it dries out - and sewers tend to be wet. Most sewers don't smell any worse than an elderly public toilet and sometimes better.

Your significant risks are:

1. exposure of sewer waste to open wounds (not that great, in real life, but not insignificant: the most likely outcome is short term, but rather nasty fever). If you are really unlucky, gangrene or tetanus

2. Exposure of mucosal surfaces to liquid. This includes mouth, nose and eyes, which is why sewer workers often wear goggles. The most common outcome of this is getting the runs and/or mild fever but there's a wide range of possibilities, most of 'em nasty. Eye infections from getting splashed in the face are the nastiest as even a minor inflammation is going to be painful and might cost you your sight, if you are really, really unlucky.

 

In-game.

I like to make sewers nastier in-game than they are in real life because players are happy to have their PC wade neck deep in s*** whereas in real life, people don't do that. You can make 'em behave more appropriately by forcing them to make rolls. In general I would never bother to force a roll for "being in the sewer" but CON rolls for falling in, getting splashed or having open wounds (happens frequently on adventures ) are reasonable. A failed CON roll by itself will have no immediate effect, but in the next few days the player will get fever (reduced END, INT, REC and/or DEX) or the runs (character suddenly caught short with possible humourous roleplaying effects: no game mechanics aside from maybe a small minus to DEX - real life tells us it is possible to engage on a full-on fire fight while suffering from explosive diarrhea). A badly failed roll (-5) might give the PC a severe infection - in the eyes (blinding), in an open wound a deep tissue infection (which I treat per the disabling rules, depending on where the wound is). A badly failed roll combined with stupidity - getting wounded fighting waste deep in sewerage - might even give you gangrene or tetanus - which means bringing the disabling rules into play followed by death in a few days if not treated.

 

cheers, Mark

[MisterVimes]

Re: Traveling in your typical modern day sewer: what rolls for illness?

 

Here is an excellent list of diseases that are found in sewage water. Extrapolate what you will in game terms (I know I will be), but I too, would probably not require a roll beyond Unluck.

 

ISDH: Diseases involving sewage

[RexMundi]

Re: Traveling in your typical modern day sewer: what rolls for illness?

 

Heh. My very first real job was working for the sewage treatment plant - and taking samples from sewer lines was major part of what I did. It was actually a pretty cool job, and there's the build-your-own-coffee-machine-out-of-lab-parts story ....

 

Anyhoo, here's my suggestions.

Real life.

Your chances of contracting something by breathing in sewer air are pretty much the same as breathing in countryside air ie: less than your risk on the street. What's in the water and sludge comes out of people's colons and urethras, and it's not going to do you much, if any, damage if you breathe it in. If you do, your immune system will eat those suckas for breakfast (literally: it's not gonna waste protein and lipids). Your biggest breathing risk is asphyxiation - specifically from methane. Sewer workers use rebreathers or oxy on deep sewer lines for that reason, not infection. As an aside, sewers do not smell as bad as you'd think - human waste only gets really stinky as it dries out - and sewers tend to be wet. Most sewers don't smell any worse than an elderly public toilet and sometimes better.

Your significant risks are:

1. exposure of sewer waste to open wounds (not that great, in real life, but not insignificant: the most likely outcome is short term, but rather nasty fever). If you are really unlucky, gangrene or tetanus

2. Exposure of mucosal surfaces to liquid. This includes mouth, nose and eyes, which is why sewer workers often wear goggles. The most common outcome of this is getting the runs and/or mild fever but there's a wide range of possibilities, most of 'em nasty. Eye infections from getting splashed in the face are the nastiest as even a minor inflammation is going to be painful and might cost you your sight, if you are really, really unlucky.

 

In-game.

I like to make sewers nastier in-game than they are in real life because players are happy to have their PC wade neck deep in s*** whereas in real life, people don't do that. You can make 'em behave more appropriately by forcing them to make rolls. In general I would never bother to force a roll for "being in the sewer" but CON rolls for falling in, getting splashed or having open wounds (happens frequently on adventures ) are reasonable. A failed CON roll by itself will have no immediate effect, but in the next few days the player will get fever (reduced END, INT, REC and/or DEX) or the runs (character suddenly caught short with possible humourous roleplaying effects: no game mechanics aside from maybe a small minus to DEX - real life tells us it is possible to engage on a full-on fire fight while suffering from explosive diarrhea). A badly failed roll (-5) might give the PC a severe infection - in the eyes (blinding), in an open wound a deep tissue infection (which I treat per the disabling rules, depending on where the wound is). A badly failed roll combined with stupidity - getting wounded fighting waste deep in sewerage - might even give you gangrene or tetanus - which means bringing the disabling rules into play followed by death in a few days if not treated.

 

cheers, Mark

 

Hated the rebreathers......and got an eye infection once that was the God of All Pinkeye, heh, seriously though, what I hated was the wildlife that lived in the combined lines. I like the idea you got there with the disabling rules.....the negatives seem about right as well. Scale feels spot on so far, but question is would it be reasonable to increase the detrimental effects based on various levels of "sewerishness* Because I definitly remember a difference in the nice seperated system Sewers snagging samples, and the rather NASTY ones back in Turkey....

 

~Rex

[Sidetrack]

Re: Traveling in your typical modern day sewer: what rolls for illness?

 

Hydrogen Sulfide or sewer gas is a real concern worth reading up on.

 

http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/factsheets/hydrogensulfide.htm

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15894856

[RexMundi]

Re: Traveling in your typical modern day sewer: what rolls for illness?

 

Good find. Lots of fun to be had with that.

 

~Rex

[Ragitsu]

Re: Traveling in your typical modern day sewer: what rolls for illness?

 

The evil rats will attack.

[feralucce]

Re: Traveling in your typical modern day sewer: what rolls for illness?

 

Sewer traveling is not as dangerous as you would suppose. If the pipes are big enough to travel in, then you are working with the run off (the street system). You are dealing with the oil, trash and run off from the city streets... What most people consider the sewer is the the waste treatment pipes... most of these are much to small to travel in, but if they are big enough, these are typically positively pressured, and completely FULL of sewage. The smaller pipes are too small for humans and are gravity fed... Once they reach the pump stations, the pipes get bigger but are pumped at pressure, filling and preventing entrance...

 

I used to be a waste management employee... The biggest worry you would have is drowning...

[dmjalund]

Re: Traveling in your typical modern day sewer: what rolls for illness?

 

The biggest problem with Supers going via sewage tunnels is the smell - i.e. they will end up smelling like sewerage until they next wash (THOROUGHLY)

 

Imagine what the media would think of a super showing up in public smelling of that

 

and also

 

any character with a secret id would have to explain to their DNPC(s) why they smell

[RexMundi]

Re: Traveling in your typical modern day sewer: what rolls for illness?

 

Sewer traveling is not as dangerous as you would suppose. If the pipes are big enough to travel in, then you are working with the run off (the street system). You are dealing with the oil, trash and run off from the city streets... What most people consider the sewer is the the waste treatment pipes... most of these are much to small to travel in, but if they are big enough, these are typically positively pressured, and completely FULL of sewage. The smaller pipes are too small for humans and are gravity fed... Once they reach the pump stations, the pipes get bigger but are pumped at pressure, filling and preventing entrance...

 

I used to be a waste management employee... The biggest worry you would have is drowning...

 

Heh, you need to get on the horn to the guys up in Milwaukee then and tell them to stop dumping billions of tons of raw sewage into the drinking water every time it rains because of their idiotic Combined Sewer system......

 

Poo......Milwaukees biggest contribution to the Lake Michigan ecosystem.

 

~Rex

[feralucce]

Re: Traveling in your typical modern day sewer: what rolls for illness?

 

Rex, someone should be reporting them to the EPA... if they truly have a combined waste/run off system, they are breaking MANY MANY laws.

 

And that smell... doesn't come out... I got a single drop on a shoe... we had to ride with the windows down... washed it, bleached it, tried over 40 different chemicals... it still stank to high heaven... had to throw the show out