Sleeping Agent - homebrew

[Clovis]

No problem with the necro-posting. Gosh, I had forgotten all about this thread! Takes me back!

Your suggested rule for a fast-acting poison seems adequate. Of course, it is hard to say in theory; running a few tests and putting it into practice would be required to find a nice balance between "Ineffective" and "Overpowered."

As things are, I wonder if the poison is not too powerful, as it would knock out pretty much any character in a matter of rounds, what's with the damage being so brutal and the Difficulty of the Stamina checks being so high... But then again, that's what such a poison is made for!

Again, logic dictates that such a substance would be hard to find and expensive, since only assassins and the like would use it. Probably several azure daols for a simple dose!

[StripelessTiger]

Yeah, I intend on it being hard to come by, only acquirable in tight inner circles, or to someone with high Herbalism or perhaps even a Knowledge of Poisons to even craft the thing.

The numbers and balancing aren't too big of a deal, but I guess I'm wondering how to treat Unconscious or Paralyzed characters. Suffering Disease/Poison Points on the HP track definitely will add penalties in its own right, but maybe that doesn't explain the outcome of the poisons the best.

In fact, just unconsciousness in general isn't covered much in the books. I frequently have players trying to grapple or non-lethally take someone down. Hand-to-hand fighting I'm sure is covered on this forum somewhere.

I remember a rule in Deadlands from years ago that used the weapon damage type to indicate sustained blunt damage, resulting in winding them and falling unconscious. I could apply some kind of Stamina check to being punched or poisoned that adds Non-Lethal Damage (fatigue) to the HP Track using a different kind of symbol.

I usually tell my players:
Black filled in circle = permanent
Slash mark = temporary
D = Disease points
P = Poison points
C = Cold points

...and maybe F or something for Fatigue?

[Clovis]

That could work, yes. Another solution could simply be to have the character make Stamina checks whenever they are subjected to something whose purpose is to knock them out, be it a sleeping poison or a chokehold.

It all depends on how accurate and rules-heavy you want your game to be!