ToME WikiOrvin: Maybe this is too evil, but...How about allowing players to contract diseases that do not immediately manifest their symptoms, and which players are only aware of once they exhibit symptoms? So, if some icky thing touched you and gave you influenza, you might not know it until a few days later when, in the middle of a battle with Vort, you suddenly became weak, hungry, confused, etc. Disease symptoms could include: weakness (manifested through stat loss and/or speed loss), hunger, confusion, blury vision (reduced perception), hallucination, etc. Diseases could have racial immunities and susceptibilities. Maybe, some objects could grant resistance (reduced chance of acquiring a disease) or immunity to diseases.
NeilStevens: Simple question: Do you think players would enjoy this?
Orvin: I would.
JaekTheBarbarian: I wouldn't. At least, the way that it was explained above, I wouldn't. The main problem that I have with it is that it isn't realistic. With many common colds/virii/etc., the symptoms don't all affect you at once. It's much more progressive, and you notice a lot of symptoms before the symptoms that would hurt your gameplay come into effect. OTOH, if the symptoms were progressive, one would expect a potion of CCW to get rid of the cold entirely, so having it could contribute to gameplay. If it were to be implemented in this way I'd have to wonder whether or not it'd be worth it to be able to have a cold that takes three days to affect you and can be cured by a potion of CCW - even if that's the most realistic way to do it.