Poisons

[Lady Kyrah 1110]

Here are a few ideas for poison, because nothing better than some potassium cyanide to try those friendships:

Cyanide pills: (extremely rare) can be used as a roleplay suicide method, makes you collapse almost immediately and die in the next minutes. Can also be mixed with water canteens to create a letal drink.

rat poison (strychnine):

1. rare/uncommon
   
2. Can be mixed with cooked meat and water canteens, can be used to coat crossbow bolts.
   
3. Cause death in 2 to 4 hours, tremors start after 15 to 20 minutes followed by exhaustion and death from asphyxia or exhaustion.
   
4. Can be cured by poison hemlock
   

poison hemlock:

1. rare
   
2. Grow in the forest, can be mixed with canteens, can be used to coat crossbow bolts.
   
3. Cause death in 15 to 20 minutes through asphyxia.
   
4. Can be used as an antidote to rat poison.
   

Now this is a draft idea, my idea isn't to make everyone poison everything, but to give always this little risk, when accepting uncanned food and drinks from strangers.

I thought a suicide option could be interesting and the ability to poison unsealed food and drinks could make trust inside a group quite tense. The poisoned bolts obviously do not affect zombies.

This would make the crossbow a little more interesting, considering the player that was hit is going to go in panic mode immediately.

A poisoned bolt would need to be re coated each time it's fired so with the way our equipments work you can't simply carry around enough poison to fire poisoned bolts all the time.

Also each poison being the antidote of the other make things interesting; did this zombie really hurt you or have was this last crossbow bolt poisoned? And if you are sure you are poisoned, which symptoms? Because one of the poisons will cure you and the other will kill you.

[Leechman 8]

I definitely like the suicide suggestion.

As for the poisons, a few suggestions of my own.

I think it would be better, and simpler (at least for testing) to have 1 type of poison that spawns at a reasonably rare rate. (Add more later if the concept works and they can be balanced with each other)

I feel like all poisons (if multiple were to be implemented) should have a mid-length timer before they cause death (Nothing shorter than 30mins or longer than 90mins) and that symptoms should show early (as in a couple of minutes, no more than 10)

Antidotes should be available, but in dangerous, or out of the way locations and acquiring it in time should be a challenge. I'm not sure about different poisons curing each other, and would prefer it if the antidote was a new specific item.

Your suggested methods of poisoning someone are perfect. I'd love to see poisoned meat or canteens being left out in a well-travelled location only to be picked up and consumed by some starving survivor. And that's when the quest for the antidote begins. :D

[Lady Kyrah 1110]

Glad you like it!

I thought rat poison would be a town type of loot while the hemlock would be a forest plant so it would give a reason to sometimes go in forest (not just for traveling).

Plus it adds to the feeling that life in this new world isn't worth much.

Other idea i had, you could loot zombie meat from dead zombies, however it would make you seriously ill if eaten, a little wink at those players that put everything that say "edible" to their mouth :D

Also hm, i noticed there are a lot of little ponds scattered around the map but they always look very ... muddy and a bit swampy. Like the zombie meat, i think you should be able to bottle it but drinking it would make you quite ill too.

Ohhh that's a good one, you could boil any water canteen over a camp fire to kill bacteria or neutralise the poison in it if you aren't certain of what's inside.

[samjwbrowne@gmail.com 15]

This idea really intrigues me and sounds great.

I think the biggest problem would be finding a level of rarity which meant that it was still used (capable of being found, and enough to make it a reasonable risk) but not common enough to be a new tool for people who kill for fun (just carry around poisoned water and add it to random loot piles for the lulz). Humanity would also have to drop whenever you applied poison to anything, because who would do that with good intentions?