Author: MHP
Here are some new rules for poison in WFRP which I thought were sorely needed. Not so very detailed, I know, but they were made hastily and kept simple in the spirit of Warhammer.
Manufacturing Poisons | Cost of Poisons | Detecting Poison
The Poison Test | Induction and Recovery | Treatments
Poison Deterioration | Antipoisons
Additional Rules | Examples
Different types of poisons need different ingredients and procedures when manufactured. And some poisons cannot be manufactured at all, at least not by man.
Toxins are created by various members of the flora in the Old World. The raw poison can be either gathered from the plant as it secretes it (without harm to it) or it can be extracted from the plant (a proceidure which destroys it). The former allows the collection of enough raw poison for one dose/week but the latter immediately gives enough for d3+1 doses. Each type of toxin has it's own plant which it is made of (elfbane and manbane made of the same plant though). They are relatively easy to make after the raw poison is available. Most of them only require one additional ingredient to be fully prepared. Elfbane is the exception but that requires one additional ingredient in addition to the two that make manbane. Thus if that ingredient is added to a manbane, elfbane poison can be made. If a plant is plucked to have its raw poison extracted later, it loses the equivalent of one does/day so they are best used fresh.
Deleriants are more of a chemical nature. They are created from d4+2 ingredients and to make them one needs the Chemistry skill in addition to the Prepare poison skill. They are harder to make than toxins and there is a -10 penalty to the test.
Animal Venoms are taken from animals such as snakes, spiders and scorpions. These animals can produce the equivalent of one dose/day. Animal venoms are used as they come from the animal and thus are not manufactured. These are very rarely used as they lose potency very quickly.
Manufacturing poisons takes about half a day for toxins and a full day for deleriants. Making multiple doses at the same time does not increase the time that much. Add +10% to the time needed for each additional dose made. Ingredient mentioned here above, including the raw poison taken from plants to make toxins, each cost 3d10 silver shillings.
Fully made toxins cost 5 GCs per dose (add 40-60% for daemonbane, truefoil and graveroot), deleriants cost 6-8 GCs per dose (depends on their potency) and animal venoms cost 10-12 GCs. Bladevenom costs from 80% to 120% extra.
The rules for detecting poisons in food or drink in the rulebook give a far too good chance of success. Therefore I suggest that the chance of noticing that something is amiss (15% for goblet, etc) is averaged with half the characters Int score. Total result is rounded up.
Or if you are feeling nasty as a GM, the 5, 10 and 15% chances are all the character gets for detecting the poison.
When a creature gets poison in its system, it must make a T-test and consult the following table. For multiple doses, roll once for every dose but there is a –5 penalty to all the tests for each additional dose beyond the first. I usually rule that one dose is the smallest portion of poison that can be taken. But if you want to allow half doses then simply give a +20 to the poison test. Example: If someone ingests 2.5 doses of manbane, then he must make three poison tests. Each test is made with a -10 penalty (-5 to all for each dose beyond the first) but the final test (half dose) has an additional +20 modifier (for being half dose) for a total of +10 on that test.
Rolled 01-02 - No ill effects.
Made by 30+ - Drowsy for ten turns.
Made by 01-29 - Drowsy for one hour.
Failed by 01-29 - Full effects, lasting for d8+4-T hours.
Failed by 30+ - Full effects, lasting for d8+8-T hours.
Rolled 99-00 - Full effects of two doses, lasting for d8+8-T
hours.
When suffering from a poison, it doesn't just instantly start working but rather slowly takes effect. First the creature becomes drowsy, then unconscious, then paralysed and finally dead, unless poison type determines otherwise. It depends on how the poison gains access to the creatures' system how well it will work.
Ingested, food/drink - Drowsy after 2d6
turns, then change effect every d6 turns thereafter.
Ingested, pure - Drowsy after d4 rounds, then change effect every
d4 rounds thereafter. Any poison tests are at -10.
Bladevenom - Drowsy in the next round, then change effect every
d4 rounds thereafter.
Note that these are shortest times, there are poisons that work more slowly. In extreme cases, there could be a poison that works more quickly. When determining recovery time from poison effects, reverse the time periods and double them. Optionally, the GM can alter these times depending on the situation. If someone is awoken after becoming unconscious, he will be drowsy for the remainder of that time.
Anyone with both Cure disease and Prepare poison skills might be able to help a character suffering from the effects of a poison. The treatment takes 2 turns and the victim must rest immediately thereafter for at least an hour. First he must make an Int test to recognise the symptoms. This is done with a -20 penalty if he doesn't know how the poison got into the victims' system. Then he must make another Int test, with a -40 penalty if the first one was unsuccessful (showing not only that it is very difficult to cure poison but almost impossible if you don't know what kind of poison and how it is affecting the character). If the second one is successful, the poisoned character can make another T test (still with any penalties due to multiple doses) against one dose that failed before. Note that this is usually the dose that failed with the least difference. If the result of that re-roll is better than the original roll then the victim gets to keep that. But he cannot get worse by this so if the result of the re-roll is worse than the original, then there is no change and the treatment failed.
If the healer critically fails the first Int test, he cannot help the victim at all. If he critically fails his second Int test, he has done things worse and the victim must re-roll a T test (still with any penalties due to multiple doses) for a dose that was originally a success. If the result is worse, he keeps it, else there is no change. If there was no successful poison test before, then re-roll the one that failed by the least difference, only making a change if the result is worse than before.
There are also various special herbs that can help treat poisonings. Check the Shadows over Bögenhafen supplement and the Herbiary guide.
Poisons deteriorate over time. If put in a beholder which is kept closed and sealed, it can stay fresh for several years. But if the container is not fully airtight or if it is open, then it quickly loses potency. This results in a +10 modifier to the poison test for each period of time. In case of toxins this period is 8 hours, in case of deleriants this period is one week and in case of animal venoms this period is 4 hours. In case of blade venoms these times are 1 turn (toxins), 10 turns (deleriants) and 3 rounds (animal venom). So after a flask of manbane is opened, after 20 hours there is a +20 modifier to the poison test against that manbane. Note that when a container with poison is opened for the first time it doesn't matter if it is closed again or not, loss of potency still occurs.
Anitpoisons are made to cancel the effects of poison. There are many different types of antipoison that vary in strength and which poisons they affect.
Antitoxin can only affect one type of toxin and there are as many antitoxins as there are toxins. There are two different types of antitoxins, lesser and greater. The lesser allow those poisoned to make another poison test at +10. If the result is better than the original poison test then the new result takes effect. If it is equal or worse than the original poison test then there is no effect. The greater automatically negates one dose. Both take about d6 rounds to work. Antitoxins are made from the same plant as the toxins they can negate but the lesser one has two other ingredients and the greater has double that. The cost for them is 3 GCs (lesser) or 6 GCs (greater).
Anti-Deleriants work against all deleriant poisons. There is only one type of anti-deleriant and it is made in a similar way as deleriants are with different ingredients. But additionally it requires two extra very rare ingredients costing about 2-3 GCs each. Therefore when fully made they cost about 10 GCs. When an anti-deleriant is ingested, it will within 2 rounds cancel any and all deleriant doses affecting the creature.
Antivenoms are those called that can negate the effects of animal venoms. Those are very rare, made from about d3+3 very rare ingredients and cost fully made about 20 GCs. All antivenoms are made to protect from a single species of creature. Consuming an antivenom allows the poisoned character to have another poison test with a -10 penalty. If the result is better than the original poison test then the new result takes effect. If it is equal or worse than the original poison test then there is no effect. The antivenom works in d6+2 rounds.
It is also possible that poisons have other symptoms. Those can include stomach cramps, dizzyness, vomiting, numbness and pains amongst others.
Different poisons differ in availability. Most toxins are scarce (except daemonbane, truefoil and graveroot which are rare) and deleriants and animal venoms are rare. Blade venoms made from a certain type of poison are always one category rarer than the normal poison of that type.
At the GMs discretion, the Immunity to poison skill can increase poison inception times and reduce poison effective time lengths and reduce other symptoms. Also, the skill might make it harder for antipoisons to affect the character.
And finally some legal issues. The following is made to fit into the "Long arm of the law" section found in the Middenheim: City of Chaos sourcebook. Carrying poison has SM +60, using poison and not killing the victim has SM +70 and using poison and killing the victim has SM +80. Not that this last SM is higher than the murder SM and that is becuase those that use poison are treated as being very vile indeed. All the above are classified under Criminal Law.
A human with T 3 drinks wine laced with two doses of manbane. His modified Tx10 score is 25 as he had -5 to the test because of two doses. He rolls 54 on his first test, failing by 29 and 22 on his second, succeeding by 3. That means he suffers the full effects of one dose of manbane which is unconsciousness for d8+1 hours and the second dose results in drowsiness for one hour. He starts to feel drowsy after 2d6 turns and becomes unconscious d6 turns thereafter which lasts for d8+1 hours. After he wakes up, he will be drowsy for another 4d6 turns (from the first dose) plus one hour (for the second dose) before completely shaking off the effects. If he had been awoken from his unconsciousness when one hour was still remaining, he would have been drowsy for 1 hour + 4d6 turns.
An elf with T 3 is cut by an elfbane poisoned blade before finishing off his opponent. There are no modifiers to the test so he rolls and scores a 99, a critical failure. He then suffers the full effects of two doses. In the next round he will become drowsy, d4 rounds thereafter he becomes unconscious, d4 rounds later he is paralysed and finally d4 rounds thereafter he is dead.
A human with T 3 and Int 30 eats a large plate of food that is poisoned with no less than 4 doses of manbane. His chances to notice the poison is 15% (half Int) plus 20% (4 doses) and then averaged to 18%. He fails to notice anything, too bad. He then must make four T tests, each with -15, scoring 51 (failure by 36), 33 (failure by 18), 07 (success by 8) and 49 (failure by 34). The first, second and fourth doses take full effect and the time is d8+8-T hours (being the longest time period). The third dose increases drowsiness period when recovering. The human thus becomes drowsy after 2d6 turns, d6 turns later he is unconscious, d6 turns thereafter he is paralysed and finally d6 turns later he is dead. But he manages to find a healer just before becoming unconscious, which treats him. The victim did not manage to tell the healer anything so his first Int test is at -20. But he succeeds anyway. His second Int test also succeeds, allowing the victim to re-roll the result of the second dose (being the one that failed by the least difference). Now the victim rolls a 14, success by 01. So instead of being affected by three doses, he is now, after the treatment, only affected by two doses (and mildly by the other two). Therefore, he was drowsy after 2d6 turns, d6 turns later he was unconscious (that's when his treatment started), d6 turns later he was paralysed but because of the treatment he didn't get dead d6 turns thereafter. Therefore he is paralysed for d8+8-T hours after which he will be unconscious for 2d6 turns and then drowsy for 4d6 turns (as he was affected by two doses) plus 2 hours (the doses he successfully made his T test for). That healer just saved his life.
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