Here are my yet untested house rules for the Nurgle enthusiasts in my group. Feel free to comment or use.

= Let's Get Infected! =

Make your own Nurgle's Blessing! Use Medicae for a crafting test after choosing modifiers. Total of chosen modifiers cannot exceed -60 or +60.

The GM may assign modifiers for existing samples, equipment or other factors.

== DISEASE ATTRIBUTES (choose one or several) ==

The toughness test to resist disease effects is challenging (+0). For each additional -10, resisting specific effects may be made more difficult by -10.

* fever-inducing: test toughness daily or suffer fatigue equal to failure levels -10
* hemorrhaging: test toughness daily or suffer Blood Loss -20
* collapsing: test toughness daily or die -30
* wasting: test toughness daily or suffer d5 [choose: STR, AGI, TOU, INT, WP] ability damage -10
* deteriorating: test toughness daily or suffer d5 [choose: STR, AGI, INT, WP; attn.: not TOU] permanent ability damage -20

== DURATION ==
* parasite - permanent -30
* viral - temporary 5d10 days -10
* bacterial - temporary d10 days +0

== PERSISTANCE ==
For each -10 or +10, victims gain the modifier to their toughness tests to resist an infection. The baseline modifier to resist infection is +0.

== ANTIBIOTE RESISTANCE ==
For each +10 or -10, producing a cure and/or vaccination becomes equally more or less challenging. The baseline modifier and time to produce a vaccine is equal to the difficulty to produce the disease sample.

== INFECTION ==
* poison (ingestion or injection only) +20
* fluid exchange +10
* touch -10
* airborne -30

== INCUBATION TIME ==
* fast (day approx.): +0
* medium (week approx.) -10
* slow (month approx.) -20

== GRANDFATHER'S BLESSING ==
* conduct RITUAL with +0 modifier; gain +10 for each success level for disease crafting test. Ritualists must resist infection from one of Papa's blessings after successful ritual. Failure indicates Contempt of the Warp.

= Crafting and time benchmarks =

Crafting roll success and failure modifies time needed to produce a sample one step per level.

Quantity: adjust time modifier for one step for more samples as per aquisition quantity to craft more samples, with one sample being at +10 to test. Benchmark presumes only one sample produced.

* +60 6d10 minutes
* +50 d5 hours
* +40 d10 hours
* +30 2d10 hours
* +20 day
* +10 d5 days
* +0 d10 days
* -10 d5 weeks
* -20 2d5 weeks
* -30 d5 months
* -40 2d5 months
* -50 - year
* -60 - d5 years

= Example disease: Iocanthian Groin-Rot =

The Groin-Rot transmits only by exchange of fluids (+10). The first symptoms begin only after a month or so, making it hard to detect and easy to spread by accident (-20). The effects of the parasite are painfully permanent (-30), making the victim suffer permanent d5 Strength damage daily if a Toughness test is failed (-20) and a high fever if another Tougness test is failed (-10). The fever is particularily persistent, making the roll to resist it -10 more difficult (-10). Luckily, the infection can usually be resisted by fit individuals (+20 to resistance) and the Iocanthian shamans have found many herbs to treat the parasite (+10 to antidote).

TOTAL MODIFIER TO CRAFT: -40 Medicae test and 2d5 months of work to produce one (+10) working sample.

I love this, and I love you. It's getting put to use. If we find anything blaringly wrong with it I'll let you know.

Very interesting. Will use.

Elgrun said:

Love not me, love the Grandfather.

The only obvious bug in the system I've encountered during the testing considers the "Wasting" attribute for the disease. I've only recently realized that ability damage heals at the rate of 1 point per hour, so the attribute is pretty much harmless. If we rule that ability damage gained this way heals at the rate of 1 point per day (as I presumed previously), it becomes as dangerous as originally intended.

Why wouldn't you allow for permanent Toughness damage?

Elgrun said:

It seemed too lethal at the time of writing, as toughness dropping to zero is the only stat loss that can kill a character. And as such, I thought that it would be the only option ever considered by players using the system.

You're free to allow it in your games, of course!

Well, I like the option because it's another way to craft a lethal disease, but it's a slower death then, say, collapsing or bleeding out. And slow death is very, very nurgly.

But also, while players may never choose to use other attributes they're missing out. A population that's lost all of its intelligence is ripe for the picking, the same for Strength or Willpower. It still completely shuts down society.

Elgrun said:

True enough. Imagine, for example, a population sapped of its willpower under the influence of heretics with even a bit of intimidate, let alone a fear rating.

In the game I'm running, our heretek, still working within the Ad Mech, recently completed his first home-grown malady - a venerial disease parasite that saps strength (permanently) and toughness from its victims. After a massively successful blessing ritual (a total of +60 modifier to crafting from the ritual, as the heretek had both nurglian alignment and the Mark of Nurgle), it took him mere hours to produce ten or so samples.

And of course he has been recently forcibly drafted into service as a medical officer, overseeing a "joy division" attached to an Imperial Guard occupation force. DEAR GOD-EMPEROR WHAT HAVE I DONE