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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8200117" data-attributes="member: 42582">In RuneQuest, disease is not (primarily) a biochemical state of affairs. Disease is caused by evil sprits or similar sorts of evil visitations. And the way to cure it is by contesting those forces with one's own, good, magic.Rolemaster inclines the opposite way. It has rules for diseases that reflect (in a rough-and-ready way) contemporary medical classifications. Diseases can be cured using magic (the Purifications spell list) but this seems to be about magically removing/killing pathogens and toxins in the body. Other healing magic is clearly defined as operating on tissues in a biological fashion; there is even magic that permits the transplant of organs.What about D&D? Some healing magic appears to operate by interacting with biological processes - eg Cure Blindness and Regenerate seem to be able to produce the regrowth of tissue. And in Gygax's AD&D we are told that, by using the Cure Disease spell, "The cleric cures most diseases - including those of a parasitic, bacterial, or viral nature - by placing his or her hand upon the diseased creature." In 4e D&D the Cure Disease ritual doesn't refer to pathogens but still talks about "incubation" periods for diseases, suggesting a biological approach. And the Cure Disease ritual is different from, thought structurally identical to, the Remove Affliction ritual which clearly is concerned with driving out or dispelling evil sprits and effects afflicting an individual.But the characters who can cure disease - typically clerics and paladins - can also drive out and destroy evil spirits (eg via Turn Undead, Protection from Evil, the Dispel Evil spell, etc, or in 4e D&D via their ability to inflict radiant damage). So is it possible to construe the curing of disease as more like RQ and less like RM?And what about other FRPGs?</blockquote>

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