Blue Plague

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
July 14, 2015 - 7:58pm
I am thinking about the BP... I think the infected might not have symptoms right away, and that would have helped it's spread, so the victim feels fine but is contagious thus spreading the illness, by the time the first blue welts appear the chance of curing the victim is low, & tons of people have been exposed.

Is 90% mortality rate to high?


 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."
Comments:

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
July 16, 2015 - 5:11am
This plague reminds me of how black plague is spread... by vermin.

So maybe a 2 week incubation period in which the victim does not feel sick (I was thinking a month) but they are contagious, then the first symptom shows then if medical care is sought in the first 20 hpurs the victim only has a 50% chance of survival, which plummenting survival rates every day delayed.


 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."

jedion357's picture
jedion357
July 16, 2015 - 7:54am
Two weeks incubation sound good. Does Zebs guide give a mortality rate?
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
July 17, 2015 - 9:13am
No Zebs is not very helpful:
Zebs gives us no stats on BP.

Here is what I have from Zebs in general.

1) It came from an alien ship that crashed on Starmist (that sounds like an adventure we never got, maybe from R&D playing? Also note this ship's race is not identified which could mean it is not the assumed Klik or Sathar options... but a new race, clearly they got the plague which could have wiped out their whole civilization for all we know).

2) Unspecified space vermin believed to have spread it.

3) Said vermin got on a ship which then makes several stops and spreads it (we need a name for this ship as you can bet every citizen in the UPF would know that name... maybe on it's last jump it never makes it to port so the supposed plague ship is out there somewhere a ticking time bomb?)

4) it spread fast, they gives us 4 plague worlds but the 5 quarantined planets, names off a few temporarily quarantined planets. (I tried figuring out how long it would take the plague ship to go to all affected systems... too long before the crew would show symptoms even if I extend incubation to a month and there was no logical jump pattern, I then thought maybe the ship only made a few stops, the vermin are in the cargo, or get onto a station and from there get onto other ships, the crew may not have gotten infected right away as well, but I doubt they would have been able to go to all the systems without someone connecting the dots... so a few jumps to busy stations is probably all it took to spread to other systems, especially if you are contagious but feel fine).

5) The first symptom some one exhibits is the blue welts. Not fever, not coughing, not nausea and so on... all of a sudden you have a blue welt rash, then you go down hill from there. So day 1 of symptoms you might still feel okay, but you got a weird rash off to the med-clinic, they give you some cure all medicine (which they expect to work but doesn't), run some tests trying to figure out what you have, they whole hospital and anyone there (other patients, staff, visiting families, staff families and so on) are all being exposed no one knows this is a deadly disease yet...

6) High mortality rate and scarred survivors.

7) Cure found & immunization, UPF declared plague free, everyone do the happy dance except for the scarred people and the folks stuck on the quarantined planets, then fast forward to 111 f.y. and nearly 90 years have passed for those quarantined worlds in a plague free UPF... hum. Immunization note = Virus

8) The implied feel to this plague is like the spread of the black plague... vermin = rats spread it via ships to cities and thus countries (spacestations and thus planets). Then they tossed in some after effects like unsightly blemishes/scarring (there could be other medical issues as well many diseases leave people messed up more than just obvious unsightly scars). 

So I went a did some casual reading on deadly plague type diseases... the black plague is 2 days to 2 weeks (different sites, different info) till you see first symptoms, and that little bug can wipe out cities & nations multiple times, and 5 to 15 people a year get in the USA. 

Anyhow I think we should have stats on this disease so I am going to try and work something up: My reasoning is this, obviously the UPF is not plague free if they attack every ship that tries to leave Alpha through Epsilon... maybe someone wants to do the apocalypse setting (besides me) and wants the blue plague around or they want to do the whole as it is happening collapse of society or immediate after effect and have the PCs be trying to survive in a hot zone. And there could be a ship a drift with plague, maybe a few, or alien facilities found with vermin carriers alive and so on.

BTW: Once medical staff does know they can die too by trying to treat you historically speaking on this planet staff often refuses at local medical facilities (they often do not have the necessary facilities or training and know it, and lets be honest fired but alive is a better option then dead any day and in many countries if a whole hospital says no to treating a patient no one is going to fault them in that country), thus other nations send military medical staff (like USA) or UN funded teams in and if you die the populace may riot or protest where you are buried as well no matter what precautions are taken if they perceive a threat to them from the decaying body. (It's happened) On the other hand local religious beliefs can spread illness if the community interferes with how a body needs to be disposed of. In a major plague scenario, there would be a lot of dead, in their homes and so on decaying, leading to more vermin with the disease and possibly other diseases occurring as result of the decaying dead. 
 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."

jedion357's picture
jedion357
July 18, 2015 - 4:02pm
I'm always of 3 minds concerning the Blue Plague: 1) ignore it and Quarrentined systems altogether 2) allow for Blue Plague but nix Quarrentined systems 3) keep everything but try to rationalize the illogical bitz. I sometimes feel it would be best if we just got rid of the stupid Quarrentined systems. The developer behind Zebs wanted to take SF in a Gamma World direction at least 2 of the new PC races in Zebs came out of his personal GW game. The plague world were probably part of the GW vision.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
July 18, 2015 - 9:51pm
I agree the GW aspect is in Zebs... but 5 worlds? I think after 90 years more or less the UPF would need to consider going to at least one to see if they can be recolonized... I just don't buy the whole BP has corrupted the ecosystem, everything would be dead. The virus would not have a host species.

Snowball is another messed up world too, just not quarantined. 

Anyhow the big BP should not cause panic if the UPF has been immunizing people, I just started wondering about how to describe this plague in case anyone wanted to do the whole survive the plague scenario.

I am thinking of writting up this one and a few other "classic" space/sci-fi plagues, maybe a few parasites too.


 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."

jedion357's picture
jedion357
July 19, 2015 - 4:56am
Well I support you , I'm just of 3 minds on this issue all the time.

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

iggy's picture
iggy
July 19, 2015 - 4:14pm
I tend to allow for the blue plague but then assume the quarentines are over but the stigma remains.  Not many people want to visit the old quarentined worlds.  If any are still quarentined then I would limit that to one and add that the MSO and the locals got out of hand and conflict ensued with warfare of some sort happening with nuclear and biological weapons employed.  Someone resorted to a scorched earth policy of over reaction.  Some people fought back and it escelated.
-iggy

rattraveller's picture
rattraveller
August 9, 2015 - 11:38pm
Yes the planets are all permanently quaranteed because of the plague. There is no UPF conspiracy even if one of the planet's is named Miranda.
Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go?

iggy's picture
iggy
August 10, 2015 - 6:20pm
Rattraveller made an observation about the long life spans of the core four races and how beings would not want to remember the names of the worlds they quaranteened so they keep the designations.  That got me to thinking of a way to reconcile the plague cure and the continuing existance of quaranteened worlds.  What if the plage is only qurable in its early stages of infection?  The plague worlds are populated with advance stage survivors who cannot be cured.  The frontier is likely waiting out their life spans because the plague did not kill them out right.

Other worlds that were quarentiened briefly likely have some plague isolation zone for their few advance stage survivors.  These could be biodomes.

What I am thinking is that everyone is still susceptable to infection by advance stage blue plage because there is still no cure for it.  Only initial stage blue plague is curable with the MSO vaccine.  If you contact someone with advance stage blue plague you can catch that and immediately progress into advance infection or die because you technically already have the inital stage blue plague through vaccination.

Initial stage blue plague kills most beings but some survive.  Some that survive go into advanced infection and live out a debilitating life and are infectious to everyone because their bodies are no such effective plague factories.  They live but others they infect run a high risk of death as the plague overwhelms their bodies.
-iggy

rattraveller's picture
rattraveller
August 10, 2015 - 7:56pm
Planets full of Typhiod Marys sound pretty good to me.
Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go?

rattraveller's picture
rattraveller
August 10, 2015 - 7:57pm
Of course the final days of Typhiod Mary could be a good source material.
Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go?

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 11, 2015 - 9:22am
What if the plague mutated and those worlds were written of to save the rest of the Frontier
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 11, 2015 - 1:54pm
You, as small as Space Fleet is, pickets to watch these systems would represent a significant portion of the available Star ship hulls. I guessing mine fields are used with minimal picket forces. 
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

TerlObar's picture
TerlObar
August 11, 2015 - 3:07pm
The problem is that you can't quarantine sub-space radio broadcasts.  Even with a quarantine in place, there could, and probably would, still be communication with the planet unless you posit that all the technology has fallen apart.  And there is no real reason for it to do so, at least not initially.  So you would have transmissions from the planets begging for help or relief or just broadcasting their misery for all to see and possibly accusational material aimed at the UPF for abandoning/condemning them.

Personally, I just pretend those worlds are unexplored and don't have the blue plage in my timeline.  I see it as part of Kim Eastland's attempt to "Gamma World" the Frontier and push it in a more post-apocolyptic direction.  It's interesting to consider but I just don't see it being possible to completely cut off and isoloate five star systems and never let anyone or anything in or out.  There will be leakers and you will be constantly dealing with the plague in your campaign on the "clean" worlds.  Then you have the issue of how do you have a disease that is so bad that you have to cut five worlds out of society but at the same time not so bad that when people get off those worlds and start infecting the unwashed masses, it's not a problem?

I'm sure something can be thought up to make it fit in but I think there is more work there than one realizes. 
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iggy's picture
iggy
August 11, 2015 - 5:53pm
@TerlObar, another set of valid points for all to remember.  Hence to comment I made above about if there is still a quarantine it would be one world that was fought on during the plague.  It effectively quarantines itself by becoming a place that no one wants to visit any more.  The frontier can have its tragic mistakes. 
-iggy

JCab747's picture
JCab747
May 5, 2016 - 8:08pm
Tchklinxa wrote:
Is 90% mortality rate to high?

This plague reminds me of how black plague is spread... by vermin.

So maybe a 2 week incubation period in which the victim does not feel sick (I was thinking a month) but they are contagious, then the first symptom shows then if medical care is sought in the first 20 hours the victim only has a 50% chance of survival, which plummenting survival rates every day delayed.


Unless you are envisioning turning the Frontier into a version of Steven King's "The Stand," 90 percent is a wee bit high, especially since the more advanced planets would have better medical technology. Maybe the hospitals would get overloaded on smaller worlds, but I would think the average mortality would be far less than 50 percent.

I would peg it initially at 40 percent, which would still be very scary. The horrible scarring afterward would also be terrifying to many people.

Please see my System Brief on Devco under "Joe's Half-Baked Ideas" and provide some feedback there too.

Joe Cabadas

JCab747's picture
JCab747
May 5, 2016 - 8:30pm
jedion357 wrote:
I'm always of 3 minds concerning the Blue Plague: 1) ignore it and Quarrentined systems altogether 2) allow for Blue Plague but nix Quarrentined systems 3) keep everything but try to rationalize the illogical bitz. I sometimes feel it would be best if we just got rid of the stupid Quarrentined systems. The developer behind Zebs wanted to take SF in a Gamma World direction at least 2 of the new PC races in Zebs came out of his personal GW game. The plague world were probably part of the GW vision.


Well, after a bit of hemming and hawing for my own timeline, I decided to go with the Blue Plague and setting it in the years that Zebs said it occurred.

However, I can't image there being four or five plague systems that no one ever goes to anymore just because of this silly Blue Plague.

But, there could be other reasons to quarentine a system, just not all at once and for different reasons.

If one wanted to use the "Sarafand File" adventure, it has a couple adventure ideas such as landing on Tanzin 2, a world where all life had been killed some 5,000 years beforehand due to the use of a biological weapon.

That could be the candidate for one of the systems.

One of the quarentined systems near the Yazarian Arm could be the site of the Yaz's homeworld.

Other systems could be "quarentined" because they have some sort of natural hazard.
Joe Cabadas

rattraveller's picture
rattraveller
May 6, 2016 - 3:27pm
The Blue Plague was just a way to give a Gamemaster the option of some worlds where adventures could take place. Maybe five of them was a bit much but if you don't want to use them then don't. Of course whether you include them in the lore of your campaign is another matter.
Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go?

JCab747's picture
JCab747
May 6, 2016 - 4:05pm
rattraveller wrote:
The Blue Plague was just a way to give a Gamemaster the option of some worlds where adventures could take place. Maybe five of them was a bit much but if you don't want to use them then don't. Of course whether you include them in the lore of your campaign is another matter.


Agreed.
Joe Cabadas

jedion357's picture
jedion357
May 11, 2016 - 1:00pm
Like I said before I'm usually of several different minds on blue plague. Today I feel like yes Blue Plague and the MSO cured it as per the timeline. The quarantine worlds should be reduced in number to 1-2 and the reason they are quarantined is not Blue Plague per se but perhaps a sathar plot and or bio weapon. Perhaps the xenomorph aka Ripley's alien and eggs cavern on one- this would warrant a military enforced quarantine "because you just don't know if someone is carrying an alien in their belly"
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

JCab747's picture
JCab747
May 11, 2016 - 3:22pm
I found Rollo's adventure idea for the Plague World Beta at http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/5453

I'd vote for that to be the "official" unofficial reason for why that system is off limits.

However, it doesn't look like Rollo ever presented a revised scenario -- as he hinted that he might do.

Perhaps we should just call them the Quarantined Systems and they are off limits for different reasons.
Joe Cabadas

JCab747's picture
JCab747
May 11, 2016 - 3:24pm
PS, if you have any feedback on my System Brief for Devco (http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/9267) where the "multitudes of homeless" Blue Plague survivors went, please provide it.
Joe Cabadas

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
May 12, 2016 - 3:32pm
I have Alpha being Cys and it was the first Quarantined back in PF time...  experts in robotics and cyborg type tech had a war toasted the planet. Gamma III started as Blue Plague but a series of events led to all sorts of force being used to stop the spread, result SF version of Gamma World.

The other three I am thinking on why they are still Quarantined... also when to expect all Q's to be lifted is in the back of my mind as at somepoint it must happen.

I will try to take a peek at Devco tonight or tomorrow.
 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."

rattraveller's picture
rattraveller
May 13, 2016 - 8:36am
Here's a take. Remember the History Channel series about what would happen to the Earth if for some reason all the people vanished overnight. Apply that to the Quarantined Worlds. Through in some drastic measures to stop the Blue Plague certain governments and government officials don't want out. Add a dash of Mutated Blue Plague still being around. Spice with Megacorp secrets that need to be protected. Mix and serve to adventurers.


Oh and don't forget no one ever said that Spacefleet wasn't subcontracting the quarantine out to Mercenary and/or Sercurity services. I see a big contract for Galactic Task Force, Merco or Trans Travel.
Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go?

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
May 13, 2016 - 9:16am
You could have some one artificially keeping a world Qed past the point it should be, so they can make money, cooking the probe test results or something too.

Good ideas Rattraveler.

How about an incubation period of 3 weeks: would be 30 days - 1d10 where 10 is 0 to get individual effects to start showing in an infected person.
 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."