Grumpy RPG Reviews
Explorer
Among some unfortunate people, Vicissitude is making things ugly.
This supernatural disease appears among populations mundane and magical. Three different infections – UMZ-148, P3X and Dusha-Hansen’s Disease – make Vicissitude possible and each imparts a similar set of powers and punishments on the infected. Storytellers should choose the variation which best suits the goals and objectives of their campaign.
Initially Vicissitude, in-game, manifests as a severe infection of a mundane disease and the uninfected usually dismiss assertions by the infected that the disease is supernatural and malicious. A person infected may combat Vicissitude through force of will and conventional treatments and defeat it, or believe they have reached an accommodation with this disease after they have discovered its potential for granting shape-shifting powers. All forms of Vicissitude are cunning.
As the infection progresses, the infected begin sleeping poorly – waking and not feeling rested. When they do awaken, they discover their appearance has changed in some manner, such as eye color, hairline, height or similar effects. It requires a conscious use of Vicissitude to restore the appearance to “what it should be.” Sometimes an infected is unaware of the fact their appearance changes even as they are awake – such as shifting to match the appearance of someone to whom they are speaking. An infected person’s personality twists as the disease progresses.
People dealing with a Metastasis Infection no longer bleed red, though what they do bleed varies by the specific type of infection. If aware they are bleeding the wrong color, an infected may change the blood to the proper color and consistency if they are in physical contact with the blood. The personality of the infected has changed dramatically by this stage, to the point they are temperamentally unrecognizable as the person they were before the infection.
Though the infection is curable, Vicissitude frequently kills the infected – for a flexible definition of kill. Unfortunately, harm created by Vicissitude persists in many ways; even people cured of it are likely to produce children suffering from anencephaly, ichthyosis or cyclocephaly, among other debilitating or fatal conditions.
UMZ-148
The Food and Drug Administration designates it “Unknown Morphic Zwitterion, incident number 148” and in the future discovering it sees wide distribution in energy supplements, homeopathic remedies and snack foods will be alarming. As things stand, the FDA dismisses the anomalous results of tests run on isolated samples of UMZ-148, a type of amino acid whose properties seem to change in atypical ways. Historically biochemists employed the term “inner salts” for amino acids, a mistranslation of the original terminology best rendered as “essential salts.” The Prescott Group – specifically the conglomerate’s Food and Snack branch and Health Supplement’s branch – distributes chips, energy boosters and similar products laced with UMZ-148, which comes from a source in the Rub' al Khali. Principal consumers include school students, those who travel frequently and those who work late. A single bag of chips or bottle of ginger pills is not sufficient to cause an infection – but dozens of bottles worth of pills, or dozens of bags of chips, consumed across a few years is sufficient to act as a vector. It is possible to contract UMZ-148 by feeding on someone with an already Severe Infection. At the acute stage, it appears to be localized scleroderma.
P3X
While individual medical professionals wonder about incidents of insanity accompanying an otherwise mundane, though unpleasant, infection of scabies, no one bothers to do a broad study of the phenomenon and so no one notices many of these infections started with medical malpractice. Polybius XXX is a tool of the God Machine, the scabies are actually microscopic machines disguised as natural parasites and this is simply the latest version of a long-running set of hardware-wetware-software tests run by the God Machine. Some of the first tests occurred in Seattle in the early 1980s, though things looked most promising following tests at a TV station in Toronto in the same period. Medical products compromised with P3X nanites serve as the primary vector for infection and this process usually has specific intended targets; however, the chaos at even efficient hospitals means the nanites often find introduction into a random person. Many people serve as cogs in the God Machine’s machinations – some know it and some do not – and ideally, P3X allows the God Machine to replace “important” people if the original dies at an inconvenient time or undergoes a problematic philosophical change. Iterations receive a three-year test cycle and God Machine agents terminate surviving infected at the conclusion of the cycle.
Dusha-Hansen’s Disease
The appearance of a new strain of leprosy – or Hansen’s Disease – alarms medical professionals aware of the phenomenon. Normally the bacteria mycobacterium leprae causes Hansen’s Disease and is treatable with multiple drugs, including rifampicin and ofloxacin; however, the new strain is resistant to this treatment and the environmental factors that normally inhibit the disease. Further, incidents of Dusha-Hansen, though rare, are highest in the developed world. According to some supernatural creatures aware of Dusha-Hansen, the disease originated in the sewers of Undergotham, while others point to the mold growing in the ruins of Chernobyl and still others say it has multiple sources. While likely sapient, any sentience in Dusha-Hansen is either so alien or so insane as to make communication impossible and prediction difficult – no one knows its goals, purpose and infection incidences are random. It is wantonly sadistic to the infected, their friends, family and those with a Metastasis level infection are likely to commit egregious violations of the Masquerade – supernatural authorities react to Dusha-Hansen infections the way mortal authorities react to terrorists with biological weapons. Dusha-Hansen is transmissible by the transfer of bodily materials – primary vectors include sex with attractive people and the door handles of public restrooms – and it may go dormant apparently indefinitely.
Disease Progression
Vicissitude functions as a supernatural disease, which any corporeal player character in the World of Darkness may contract. Taking levels beyond Acute Infection permits the Storyteller to replace an infected character’s existing vice, virtue, an aspiration or breaking point with something “selected” by Vicissitude, one such replacement per level of infection. Reducing the infection by a level requires spending four experience points and expenditure of a willpower point.
Voluntary use requires the expenditure of a willpower point and Vicissitude alternations are possible to animals and humans. Post-mortem alterations are possible and alterations to the living usually inflict pain and mental trauma; people savaged by Vicissitude often develop conditions such as Amnesia, Bestial, Broken or something similar springing from the event, which may function as a breaking point. A character may add their Vicissitude score to rolls to soak damage. There is a one-step regression for use of Vicissitude on others, willing or unwilling, as compared to employing Vicissitude by the infected on their own bodies. For example, while an infected may alter their own bones at Metastasis Infection, they cannot alter the bones of others until they possess Terminal Infection. Any performance of Vicissitude in combat against a resisting target requires the target be grappled (p. 157 of the World of Darkness Rulebook) and fine manipulation is impossible.
Acute Infection (Vicissitude O)
After exposure, your character develops what appears to be a severe case of localized scleroderma, scabies or Dusha-Hansen… even if that is impossible. Your character believes, for impossible to define reasons, the disease is supernatural and offers various powers to a host. Until achieving a resolution, your character suffers a -2 penalty to her Physical stats.
Possible Sources: Your character encountered an infection vector.
Resolution: The character elects to embrace the disease – believing she may master it – or she fights it, expending a Willpower point, four experience points and enduring the appropriate medical treatment.
Beat: Your character chooses to fight the infection or pursue its power.
Chronic Infection (Vicissitude •)
Your character may alter her appearance with a roll of Dexterity + Crafts + Vicissitude; each success permits changing one aspect of appearance, such as fingerprints, hair or eye color, scent, etc. Changes are indefinite, lasting until altered by a further use of Vicissitude or in some other manner. Impersonating another person requires a Wits + Subterfuge roll. Your character may grant herself the Striking Looks Merit but doing so imposes a -2 or -4 penalty depending on which version of the Merit she is trying to gain. Lastly, your character may half healing times involving lethal and bashing damage, but not aggravated damage.
The infection assumes control of your character when she is unconscious and at zero Willpower.
Possible Sources: Your character had an Acute Infection.
Resolution: Your character chooses to accept the Vicissitude infection or battles it.
Beat: Your character fights the infection or pursues its power.
Severe Infection (Vicissitude ••)
Your character may rearrange her organs, sever or attach nerves and veins, correct existing deficiencies in vision or hearing, attach or insert recently severed limbs, skin or organs and decrease her weight by extruding mass. This requires an extended action (one hour per roll, target is three success for attaching limbs or skin and five for replacing, adding or rearranging organs). The roll is Dexterity + Crafts + Vicissitude - Stamina and a failure inflicts 1L damage, 3L on a dramatic failure. Your character may alter her Physical Attributes by moving one dot per dot in Vicissitude; this cannot raise an Attribute higher than five dots.
The infection assumes control of your character when she is unconscious.
Possible Sources: Your character had a Chronic Infection.
Resolution: Your character fights the infection or pursues its power.
Beat: Your character chooses to fight the infection or pursues its power.
Metastasis Infection (Vicissitude •••)
Your character may employ Severe Infection as an attack, to harm a target’s internal organs and inflict lethal damage. The attack roll is Dexterity + Medicine + Vicissitude - Defense and inflicts 3L damage.
Your character may alter her bones, increasing or decreasing her height, sharpening her teeth and giving herself bony spikes on her knuckles or quills from anywhere on the body. Either application inflicts one point of lethal damage. This requires an extended action (one hour per roll, target is three success for knuckle spikes or five for quills). The roll is Dexterity + Crafts + Vicissitude - Stamina. Knuckle spikes inflict 1L damage and quills inflict 2L damage per turn during a grapple, or 1L damage to anyone making a barehanded attack on the character.
If your character consumes the brain of the recently slain, she temporarily gains access to the memories and personality aspects of the dead individual, allowing you to roll Wits + Subterfuge + Vicissitude to impersonate the individual. This ability lasts a number of days equal to your character’s Vicissitude rating.
The infection assumes control of your character when she is at zero Willpower – this is lost time for your character who is unaware of what is happening.
Possible Sources: Your character had a Severe Infection.
Resolution: Your character chooses to accept the Vicissitude infection or battles it.
Beat: Your character chooses to fight the infection or pursues its power.
Terminal Infection (Vicissitude ••••)
Your character may employ Metastasis Infection as an attack, the roll is Dexterity + Medicine + Vicissitude - Defense and inflicts 4L damage. The character may attempt to cause a target’s rib cage to move inward, piercing the heart. This imposes an additional -5 to the roll, but instantly kills a mortal target. Against vampires, it halves the target’s Vitae pool in addition to inflicting lethal damage.
Your character may conduct a coherent internal dialogue with UMZ-148 and P3X while Dusha-Hansen is an incoherent babbling thing. The infection assumes control of your character when she is at zero Willpower – this is lost time for your character who is unaware of what is happening.
Possible Sources: Your character had a Metastasis Infection.
Resolution: Your character succumbs to the Vicissitude’s power or fights back.
Beat: Your character chooses to fight the infection, or Vicissitude takes them over indefinatly.
This supernatural disease appears among populations mundane and magical. Three different infections – UMZ-148, P3X and Dusha-Hansen’s Disease – make Vicissitude possible and each imparts a similar set of powers and punishments on the infected. Storytellers should choose the variation which best suits the goals and objectives of their campaign.
Initially Vicissitude, in-game, manifests as a severe infection of a mundane disease and the uninfected usually dismiss assertions by the infected that the disease is supernatural and malicious. A person infected may combat Vicissitude through force of will and conventional treatments and defeat it, or believe they have reached an accommodation with this disease after they have discovered its potential for granting shape-shifting powers. All forms of Vicissitude are cunning.
As the infection progresses, the infected begin sleeping poorly – waking and not feeling rested. When they do awaken, they discover their appearance has changed in some manner, such as eye color, hairline, height or similar effects. It requires a conscious use of Vicissitude to restore the appearance to “what it should be.” Sometimes an infected is unaware of the fact their appearance changes even as they are awake – such as shifting to match the appearance of someone to whom they are speaking. An infected person’s personality twists as the disease progresses.
People dealing with a Metastasis Infection no longer bleed red, though what they do bleed varies by the specific type of infection. If aware they are bleeding the wrong color, an infected may change the blood to the proper color and consistency if they are in physical contact with the blood. The personality of the infected has changed dramatically by this stage, to the point they are temperamentally unrecognizable as the person they were before the infection.
Though the infection is curable, Vicissitude frequently kills the infected – for a flexible definition of kill. Unfortunately, harm created by Vicissitude persists in many ways; even people cured of it are likely to produce children suffering from anencephaly, ichthyosis or cyclocephaly, among other debilitating or fatal conditions.
UMZ-148
The Food and Drug Administration designates it “Unknown Morphic Zwitterion, incident number 148” and in the future discovering it sees wide distribution in energy supplements, homeopathic remedies and snack foods will be alarming. As things stand, the FDA dismisses the anomalous results of tests run on isolated samples of UMZ-148, a type of amino acid whose properties seem to change in atypical ways. Historically biochemists employed the term “inner salts” for amino acids, a mistranslation of the original terminology best rendered as “essential salts.” The Prescott Group – specifically the conglomerate’s Food and Snack branch and Health Supplement’s branch – distributes chips, energy boosters and similar products laced with UMZ-148, which comes from a source in the Rub' al Khali. Principal consumers include school students, those who travel frequently and those who work late. A single bag of chips or bottle of ginger pills is not sufficient to cause an infection – but dozens of bottles worth of pills, or dozens of bags of chips, consumed across a few years is sufficient to act as a vector. It is possible to contract UMZ-148 by feeding on someone with an already Severe Infection. At the acute stage, it appears to be localized scleroderma.
P3X
While individual medical professionals wonder about incidents of insanity accompanying an otherwise mundane, though unpleasant, infection of scabies, no one bothers to do a broad study of the phenomenon and so no one notices many of these infections started with medical malpractice. Polybius XXX is a tool of the God Machine, the scabies are actually microscopic machines disguised as natural parasites and this is simply the latest version of a long-running set of hardware-wetware-software tests run by the God Machine. Some of the first tests occurred in Seattle in the early 1980s, though things looked most promising following tests at a TV station in Toronto in the same period. Medical products compromised with P3X nanites serve as the primary vector for infection and this process usually has specific intended targets; however, the chaos at even efficient hospitals means the nanites often find introduction into a random person. Many people serve as cogs in the God Machine’s machinations – some know it and some do not – and ideally, P3X allows the God Machine to replace “important” people if the original dies at an inconvenient time or undergoes a problematic philosophical change. Iterations receive a three-year test cycle and God Machine agents terminate surviving infected at the conclusion of the cycle.
Dusha-Hansen’s Disease
The appearance of a new strain of leprosy – or Hansen’s Disease – alarms medical professionals aware of the phenomenon. Normally the bacteria mycobacterium leprae causes Hansen’s Disease and is treatable with multiple drugs, including rifampicin and ofloxacin; however, the new strain is resistant to this treatment and the environmental factors that normally inhibit the disease. Further, incidents of Dusha-Hansen, though rare, are highest in the developed world. According to some supernatural creatures aware of Dusha-Hansen, the disease originated in the sewers of Undergotham, while others point to the mold growing in the ruins of Chernobyl and still others say it has multiple sources. While likely sapient, any sentience in Dusha-Hansen is either so alien or so insane as to make communication impossible and prediction difficult – no one knows its goals, purpose and infection incidences are random. It is wantonly sadistic to the infected, their friends, family and those with a Metastasis level infection are likely to commit egregious violations of the Masquerade – supernatural authorities react to Dusha-Hansen infections the way mortal authorities react to terrorists with biological weapons. Dusha-Hansen is transmissible by the transfer of bodily materials – primary vectors include sex with attractive people and the door handles of public restrooms – and it may go dormant apparently indefinitely.
Disease Progression
Vicissitude functions as a supernatural disease, which any corporeal player character in the World of Darkness may contract. Taking levels beyond Acute Infection permits the Storyteller to replace an infected character’s existing vice, virtue, an aspiration or breaking point with something “selected” by Vicissitude, one such replacement per level of infection. Reducing the infection by a level requires spending four experience points and expenditure of a willpower point.
Voluntary use requires the expenditure of a willpower point and Vicissitude alternations are possible to animals and humans. Post-mortem alterations are possible and alterations to the living usually inflict pain and mental trauma; people savaged by Vicissitude often develop conditions such as Amnesia, Bestial, Broken or something similar springing from the event, which may function as a breaking point. A character may add their Vicissitude score to rolls to soak damage. There is a one-step regression for use of Vicissitude on others, willing or unwilling, as compared to employing Vicissitude by the infected on their own bodies. For example, while an infected may alter their own bones at Metastasis Infection, they cannot alter the bones of others until they possess Terminal Infection. Any performance of Vicissitude in combat against a resisting target requires the target be grappled (p. 157 of the World of Darkness Rulebook) and fine manipulation is impossible.
Acute Infection (Vicissitude O)
After exposure, your character develops what appears to be a severe case of localized scleroderma, scabies or Dusha-Hansen… even if that is impossible. Your character believes, for impossible to define reasons, the disease is supernatural and offers various powers to a host. Until achieving a resolution, your character suffers a -2 penalty to her Physical stats.
Possible Sources: Your character encountered an infection vector.
Resolution: The character elects to embrace the disease – believing she may master it – or she fights it, expending a Willpower point, four experience points and enduring the appropriate medical treatment.
Beat: Your character chooses to fight the infection or pursue its power.
Chronic Infection (Vicissitude •)
Your character may alter her appearance with a roll of Dexterity + Crafts + Vicissitude; each success permits changing one aspect of appearance, such as fingerprints, hair or eye color, scent, etc. Changes are indefinite, lasting until altered by a further use of Vicissitude or in some other manner. Impersonating another person requires a Wits + Subterfuge roll. Your character may grant herself the Striking Looks Merit but doing so imposes a -2 or -4 penalty depending on which version of the Merit she is trying to gain. Lastly, your character may half healing times involving lethal and bashing damage, but not aggravated damage.
The infection assumes control of your character when she is unconscious and at zero Willpower.
Possible Sources: Your character had an Acute Infection.
Resolution: Your character chooses to accept the Vicissitude infection or battles it.
Beat: Your character fights the infection or pursues its power.
Severe Infection (Vicissitude ••)
Your character may rearrange her organs, sever or attach nerves and veins, correct existing deficiencies in vision or hearing, attach or insert recently severed limbs, skin or organs and decrease her weight by extruding mass. This requires an extended action (one hour per roll, target is three success for attaching limbs or skin and five for replacing, adding or rearranging organs). The roll is Dexterity + Crafts + Vicissitude - Stamina and a failure inflicts 1L damage, 3L on a dramatic failure. Your character may alter her Physical Attributes by moving one dot per dot in Vicissitude; this cannot raise an Attribute higher than five dots.
The infection assumes control of your character when she is unconscious.
Possible Sources: Your character had a Chronic Infection.
Resolution: Your character fights the infection or pursues its power.
Beat: Your character chooses to fight the infection or pursues its power.
Metastasis Infection (Vicissitude •••)
Your character may employ Severe Infection as an attack, to harm a target’s internal organs and inflict lethal damage. The attack roll is Dexterity + Medicine + Vicissitude - Defense and inflicts 3L damage.
Your character may alter her bones, increasing or decreasing her height, sharpening her teeth and giving herself bony spikes on her knuckles or quills from anywhere on the body. Either application inflicts one point of lethal damage. This requires an extended action (one hour per roll, target is three success for knuckle spikes or five for quills). The roll is Dexterity + Crafts + Vicissitude - Stamina. Knuckle spikes inflict 1L damage and quills inflict 2L damage per turn during a grapple, or 1L damage to anyone making a barehanded attack on the character.
If your character consumes the brain of the recently slain, she temporarily gains access to the memories and personality aspects of the dead individual, allowing you to roll Wits + Subterfuge + Vicissitude to impersonate the individual. This ability lasts a number of days equal to your character’s Vicissitude rating.
The infection assumes control of your character when she is at zero Willpower – this is lost time for your character who is unaware of what is happening.
Possible Sources: Your character had a Severe Infection.
Resolution: Your character chooses to accept the Vicissitude infection or battles it.
Beat: Your character chooses to fight the infection or pursues its power.
Terminal Infection (Vicissitude ••••)
Your character may employ Metastasis Infection as an attack, the roll is Dexterity + Medicine + Vicissitude - Defense and inflicts 4L damage. The character may attempt to cause a target’s rib cage to move inward, piercing the heart. This imposes an additional -5 to the roll, but instantly kills a mortal target. Against vampires, it halves the target’s Vitae pool in addition to inflicting lethal damage.
Your character may conduct a coherent internal dialogue with UMZ-148 and P3X while Dusha-Hansen is an incoherent babbling thing. The infection assumes control of your character when she is at zero Willpower – this is lost time for your character who is unaware of what is happening.
Possible Sources: Your character had a Metastasis Infection.
Resolution: Your character succumbs to the Vicissitude’s power or fights back.
Beat: Your character chooses to fight the infection, or Vicissitude takes them over indefinatly.
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