Effects of long-term exposure to mana

[Cheomesh]

I have a sideline setting I run adventures in (GURPS 4th Edition) when either I didn't get to plan something or we've reached a "break point" in my main (Hyborean Age) campaign.  It is modernesque and takes place some decades after a sorcerous WW2 broked the world.  Much is shamelessly ripped from whatever, so you know the story.  The war (and modern society) ended with some event called the Rift / Rending / plot_device and now a goodly deal of the planet is less than optimal for repopulatation.  Most of humanity is crowded in these towering cities or the nearby suburbs in blue zones/lighter yellow zones.  Blue zones are in troughs between laylines.  They are normal to low or no mana regions, depending on residual pockets, jammers and winds from mana-storms.  They're much like real life, except with the odd garbage/sludge elemental, dire rat, zombie/skeleton getting out of old grave yards, etc.  Yellow zones are between blue and red zones (which are ley lines) both physically and figuratively and feature as normal to high mana zones, increasing in potency / danger as you approach the ley lines.  While things (plants, animals, etc) grow and live out there, many of which are largely untouched/normal (especially in the lighter regions), there are much more common run-ins with "rift-beasts" (mutated or imported animals that came between planes) and other creatures (earth elementals and their kin).  There is little supported human settlement out there, most particularly in solid yellow zones (some suburbs of the city-states are in lighter to moderate yellow zones).  

It's kind of like post apocolyptia, complete with scavengers but with much more fantastic beasts and the odd sorcerer.  It gets less hospitable as you approach red zones.  Mana torms are more common out there, especially on red-borders.  Red zones are inhospitable, rife with beasts and twisted plants and whatnot.  Just don't go into them because you'll fall into a plot hole or something.

Any case that's not the point, and I've typed way too much.  What this thread is about is what will happen to you if you live in more concentrated zones for prolonged periods of time, eating magic infested plants, drinking the water (beware of water elementals, they're sometimes dangerous), and sleeping on the cold, hard mana-infested soil.  I had not originally thought of it, but a player who I'd given a run down of an earlier draft mentioned mutations and that fits the theme of magic=radiation/radiation=magic.  I gave him a cursor answer, glowing eyes and whatnot, curtosey of Dune.  Other than that, a bit of magic resistance is probably the norm. ISimply being able to cast spells isn't an effect - the concentration of mana makes it soanyone can.  If they know how that is.  I'd thought about the usual physical mutations, lke super skin or whatnot but I decided to toss this up in the air before going much further.  What do you guys theorize?

M.  

PS Why does this thing go haywire when I reach the bottom of the scrolly thing?

EDIT:  This probably belongs in META; my fault.

[beejazz]

flesh that no longer holds its shape
flesh that holds whatever shape you'd like it to
glowing eyes
black eyes
no eyes
extra eyes
too many limbs
fewer limbs
no limbs
too many joints
fewer joints
no joints
huge
little
color change
invisible (constantly)
ignored (constantly)
when you walk it sounds like bells
when you walk it sounds like a foghorn
you have a soundtrack now
you can eat anything and everything now
you can only eat salt ever again
you no longer need to eat
you no longer need to drink
you can only drink wine
you no longer need to breathe
you're aquatic now
you have insanely long fingers
you have fingers in wrong places
you have no fingers
your jaw unhinges
your jaw fuses shut
you have a long prehensile tongue
you have extra tongues
you have no tongue


... just off the top of my head.

[Seraph]

flesh that no longer holds its shape
flesh that holds whatever shape you'd like it to
glowing eyes
black eyes
no eyes
extra eyes
too many limbs
fewer limbs
no limbs
too many joints
fewer joints
no joints
huge
little
color change
invisible (constantly)
ignored (constantly)
when you walk it sounds like bells
when you walk it sounds like a foghorn
you have a soundtrack now
you can eat anything and everything now
you can only eat salt ever again
you no longer need to eat
you no longer need to drink
you can only drink wine
you no longer need to breathe
you're aquatic now
you have insanely long fingers
you have fingers in wrong places
you have no fingers
your jaw unhinges
your jaw fuses shut
you have a long prehensile tongue
you have extra tongues
you have no tongue


... just off the top of my head.

Skin peels off
prone to fatigue
hyper-energetic
hemophilia
Poisonous blood
thick blood that clots easily (character's wounds are less severe)
Smells bizarre
Luminescent skin (hard to hide, but you provide your own light source)
Atrophied muscles
hallucinations
Prophecies
Nightmares
insatiable hunger
senses heightened or dulled
physical deformity (hunchback, clubfoot, etc.)
Emotional instability (sudden uncontrollable laughter/rage)

[Cheomesh]

So, upon further research I've discovered I'm actually ripping off Rifts, which I was previously unaware of it existing.  L<3ve it when I do that :D

M.

[Stryker25B]

Basically ripping off Rifts, maybe some Shadowrun as well. But on the bright side, some of the best things were made by expanding on a solid core concept. Unless you intend to create an entire system from scratch, it's probably the best thing to do. And even if you did choose to start completely from scratch; you'd be hard pressed to not have some elements that mimic other systems or worlds.

I've been pondering the side effects of exposure to magic in my own setting, and I came up with many of the same conclusions already listed. I suppose what you'd need to decide on is the severity of the consequences of exposure and how long it would take to reach a certain level of severity. If my character plunges headlong into the depths of a red zone for a day, is he going to come out the other side a gibbering, semi-gelatinous mass of elbows and teeth or does it take longer for the effects to manifest? Is there a way to counteract the exposure (I assume not easily else people wouldn't have to live in safe zones in the first place.)

[Cheomesh]

You're right; I brought up setting rips to one of my players and we concluded it doesn't matter.

Not sure about shadowrun though; I've done a few (half baked) sci fi settings in the past that supposedly drew from it.  I'll admit I've got the gist of the setting, but I always thought it sounded rather silly.  Suddenly, people are dwarfs, elves and gnomes.  Meh.  I'll have to grab a sourcebook and draw inspiration.  In fact, I should feel less like I'm ripping off and more like I'm being inspired - it helps.  Also Fallout.

In any case, I'm not entirely certain so far about what of the above I'll use.  Severity of exposure is certainly a factor.  To answer your questions (which in turn answers my own questions as I'm deciding with certainty):

If you plunge into the depths of a redzone, you'll probably die from a mana storm of some kind.  If that doesn't happen, some beast will get you.  Failing that, you might walk into another dimension (which may or may not have a return vector).  Failing that, reports claim that survivors have come out rather something like a zombie.  Could be propoganda, though.  I'm guessing you'd have to spend anywhere from a day to a month to have harsh effects, depending on how severe the areas are (R1 to R3).

Exposure via upbringing isn't apparently reversable (a-la Dune's blue eyes from Spice exposure).  One of the things my other player mentioned was using GURPS' "Magic as powers" approach; just have N/PC's accrue unpredictable, possibly uncontrollable Powers as a result of long term exposure.

Who knows?  This one's more off the cuff than usual, so it's up in the air.  Let the plot decide, you know?

M.

[Stryker25B]

Chalk it up to lack of sleep, but I read "you might walk into another dimension (which may or may not have a return vector)." As "you might walk into another dimension (which may or may not have a return rectum)." Which brings up the possibility of that other dimension being a living breathing... thing.  I'll jot that one down for later.

Unpredictable and uncontrollable powers are always an interesting twist to the story. DM can make them up on the fly since the possible effects are infinite and therefore there would be no "table" to roll on to determine said side-effects. It reminds me of my first ever D&D session in which my character put on a mysterious girdle without bothering to even attempt to see what enchantments were on it. Alan spontaneously became Alana and the game forever changed. I've noticed too often that players don't want to play character with disadvantages that are simply outside of their control- unless the DM can make it more interesting than detrimental.

I'm glad my questions to your questions led to answers, it's funny how that works. I'm still working on the side effects for long term exposure to runectar (liquid, physical magic) in my setting so your answers will in turn lead me to more branching lines of questions that may or may not lead to answers and in the end {i}I{/} might emerge a gibbering, semi-gelatinous mass of elbows and teeth. I'll be sure to write down any conclusions I come to before the transformation so that someone can use them for something and thereby justify my semi-gelatinous state.

[Cheomesh]

Chalk it up to lack of sleep, but I read "you might walk into another dimension (which may or may not have a return vector)." As "you might walk into another dimension (which may or may not have a return rectum)." Which brings up the possibility of that other dimension being a living breathing... thing.  I'll jot that one down for later.

I did that once, years ago.  Sadly, didn't think of making them spawn into cosmological colon...

Unpredictable and uncontrollable powers are always an interesting twist to the story. DM can make them up on the fly since the possible effects are infinite and therefore there would be no "table" to roll on to determine said side-effects. It reminds me of my first ever D&D session in which my character put on a mysterious girdle without bothering to even attempt to see what enchantments were on it. Alan spontaneously became Alana and the game forever changed. I've noticed too often that players don't want to play character with disadvantages that are simply outside of their control- unless the DM can make it more interesting than detrimental.

Reminds me of the girdle from Baulders Gate - the one you get off that troll and can't remove because it's cursed.

My players are better with it.  They're the same from my Conan group, and one even decided to play a huge man with a bad back and bad joint pain (which we ended up doing away with since it never came up and we mis-calcuated points).  I'd probably create a few "stock" powers for them to roll against, many of which would probably be in the perk realm (1 point).  Major things simply wouldn't be common, though.  The main dangers keeping development out of the deeper yellow zones are the storms, the animals, politics and crummy land value.  Parts of it are also like 3rd world warzones - people do live out there, after all.

I'm glad my questions to your questions led to answers, it's funny how that works. I'm still working on the side effects for long term exposure to runectar (liquid, physical magic) in my setting so your answers will in turn lead me to more branching lines of questions that may or may not lead to answers and in the end {i}I{/} might emerge a gibbering, semi-gelatinous mass of elbows and teeth. I'll be sure to write down any conclusions I come to before the transformation so that someone can use them for something and thereby justify my semi-gelatinous state.

Might nab some myself; I actually read your thread just afterwards.  Glossed over it at the time (can only internet at work) but maybe I'll derive something from your results.  I reflexively mentioned some kind of solid precipitation resulting from the harsher mana storms that someone's after - maybe that'll lead somewhere.

M.

[Stryker25B]

Might nab some myself; I actually read your thread just afterwards.  Glossed over it at the time (can only internet at work) but maybe I'll derive something from your results.  I reflexively mentioned some kind of solid precipitation resulting from the harsher mana storms that someone's after - maybe that'll lead somewhere.

The precipitation from the mana storms is an interesting idea and could be the driving force behind why anyone would be silly enough to go anywhere near a yellow or red zone. Giving the players enough background information to cause them to want to search out this substance would likely work out better than forcing them into it by <insert random plot device here>.

I've switched from my Game Elements thread to working on the actual Homebrew thread and wiki entries. I'm filling in the maps with towns and such at the moment, which is why there's a lack of any real content; though I did start on the history of runectar.