Café de Nuit

Perhaps a bit to far tech wise for the gothic/victorian feel of ravenloft, but I feel theirs alot of untapped potential when it comes the to wonders and horror of radiation, and the radiation craze of the late 1800s. From the visceral horror of the slow rotting of the famous Radium Girls, to the growing obsession with x-rays, and the horrors of nuclear weapons. Such things have been done before, such as Ghost Rock from Deadlands.

Perhaps it comes out of the sky in a meteor show, or unearthed in some out of the way cave. A rock of wonder, that emits its own power, yet does not appear to be magical in nature! The civilized domains are in a rush for the wondrous new substance, putting it in everything, and mages wondering at the potential in such a thing as a focus or material.
But slowly, the horror begins. People begin to rot away and die, yet their is no plague. Other find themselves slowly changing into something inhuman, mutating into monsters. And out their somewhere, a mad alchemist discovers in the miracle rock a power which could bring the Core to its kness, a weapon that dwarfs the evil might of the Doomsday Device!

I always like the story about a German company stockpiling thorium near the end of WWII. The Allies were worried that weapons were going to be made, but the company just wanted to be ready to sell lots of thorium toothpaste.

Of course, there was also the Demon Core kept at Los Alamos; a 14 pound plutonium sphere just under critical mass. It could be brought to criticality by encasing it in neutron reflectors, and this happened on accident on two separate occasions, claiming a life each time. The second time, the scientist was keeping the reflectors apart with a screwdriver, and he had been warned by Enrico Fermi that he would be "dead within a year" if he kept testing the core that way. Richard Feynman likened the danger of the experiments to "tickling the tail of a sleeping dragon."

Some divination spells are blocked by various thicknesses of dense substances, such as lead.
That might be a kind of 'radiation' at work.


Some perhaps the 'ghost rock' or weird glowing meteorites interferes with divination in some way? Or aids in it? A shewstone that reveals secrets but slowly irradiates and poisons the user?

IIRC, I believe that the old Dungeon adventure ‘Horror’s Harvest’ had a radioactive meteor in it and a table of effects.

De Montour wrote:IIRC, I believe that the old Dungeon adventure ‘Horror’s Harvest’ had a radioactive meteor in it and a table of effects.

Indeed, there is.

It was too strange for my taste, so I did not use it in my game, but it's a good start for anyone looking to add random radiations effects to his game.

Joël of the FoS wrote:

De Montour wrote:IIRC, I believe that the old Dungeon adventure ‘Horror’s Harvest’ had a radioactive meteor in it and a table of effects.

Indeed, there is.

It was too strange for my taste, so I did not use it in my game, but it's a good start for anyone looking to add random radiations effects to his game.

I think there's also a portion of...one of the elemental planes (I want to say Ooze?) that has radioactive rocks and associated exposure conditions talked about in...The Inner Planes book I believe it was.

You know what, I'm just going to dig it out now to save myself embarrassment. Turns out its Magma, as one heads on the diagonal towards Radiance you can find the Glowing Dunes. Turns out the effects there are pretty much a one and done: you make saves against the radiation (save vs. death once per day) and if you fail, you get radiation poisoning and its almost incurable. Its something to (maybe) work with for, like, massive exposure (like, spending a few days in a uranium ore hot-spot). Basically, once contracted, the character has 3d20 days during which they undergo the progression of radiation sickness just as in real life, unless a cure is found.

If not in Ravenloft proper, theirs plenty of potential with x rays in Masque of the Red Death. When x rays where first discovered, the public claimed they could do everything from purify the skin to dissolve gall stones. And the inventor of the Crooke's Tube from which x rays where discovered was a known spiritualist, and many spiritualists had latched onto x rays when they were first discovered.
You could actually have a ghostbusters campaign in set in 1897, with x rays making ghosts visible/catchible.

I wrote a sketch up for "Nuke" as a type of energy damage for 5e in general, but if you would like to adapt it for your game, here's the draft.

Nuke damage type (Mischief, May 1, 2018)

┄┅━━ Summary ━━┅┄
The material complement to mental psychic energy, "nuke" is the magical force of physicality. Its energies are associated with vital force and the decomposition and reassembly of matter. Different than realistic radioactivity, nuke energy is the nuclear that creates superheroes and giant mutant monsters. Nuke is an unpredictable, two-faced force. Warriors can surpass their physical limits by tapping nuke energy in moderation, but the power easily surges out of control. It can detonate violently, mutate or slay those overwhelmed by its radiation, and leave a corrupted wasteland in its wake. Those wielding nuclear powers use exploding damage dice for their nuke attacks.

┄┅━━ Why add Nuke to your game? ━━┅┄
In crunch terms, it lets martials use their might to unlock magic. Traditionally, magic is the domain of the mind, and mental stats determine magical strength and resistance. Nuke increases with physical strength and physical fighters benefit the most. Nuke's lore is designed to enable plotlines and complement tropes associated with martial arts, superheroes, mutant monsters, mad science, and post-apocalyptic scenarios. Nuke is suitable for lower magic settings or magic-abstaining character concepts because it behaves more like a force, radiation, or inner strength. It also better integrates the monk's "ki", which has never really fit into DnD's grecowestern elemental scheme, as manifestation of the nuke force which flows within living things.

And who wouldn't want to play a character who can flex a gate open to the plane of pure power?

┄┅━━ Lore ━━┅┄
Nuke energy channelers become more powerful: stronger, quicker, nimbler, and tougher. Control over the nuke force is easiest for physical fighters and agile sneaks in tune with their bodies. Beginners first learn to manipulate naturally existing nuke energy in their muscles, nerves, and bloodstream. Adepts can channel bursts of power through their strikes and weapons and even compose ranged blasts. Physically powerful warriors radiate nuke energy proportional to their fighting spirit. Skilled nuke users can detect the power levels of other fighters. Nuke energy can also be drawn from the environment, but is far less stable.

Nuke energy is notorious for running rampant and spectacularly backfiring when channeled in quantity. Mixed with other energies –like the classic four elements– nuke energy becomes more versatile and more unstable in equal measure. Strong nuke energy is unpredictably mutagenic. A human exposed to more nuke radiation than their body can handle may gain unusual physical powers, waste away, explode into ludicrous gibs, or transform into a horrific monstrosity. Mad scientists sometimes attempt to harness its power for superweapons, unique monsters, and enhanced soldiers. Most famously, nuke tends to explode, destroying laboratories and unleashing radiation-filled shockwaves on the surrounding land. Concentrated nuke pollution creates tainted wastelands crawling with corrupted creatures.

Ancient civilizations used to tap the elemental plane of nuke to power artifacts. If they can be recharged with nuke energies some of these forgotten devices may be restarted ... or they may detonate.

┄┅━━ Mechanics ━━┅┄

To represent its unpredictability, nuke damage uses exploding damage dice. When you roll an exploding damage die's maximum face value, roll another die of the same size and add it to the total. These bonus dice may also explode. Keep rolling and adding dice until they stop exploding. Exploding dice are indicated by a !bang. (An exploding d6 is !d6)

☢ Any situation that would cause a !d1 roll is replaced by a !d2 roll.
☢ Rules, features, feats, etc. that allow you to choose the best or worst of two damage rolls work as normal. You choose after rolling to completion.
☢ Rules, features, feats, etc. that let you reroll dice (e.g. reroll 1s) are not applied to bonus dice caused by explosions and rerolled dice don't explode. (Example: A feat to reroll 1s is applied to a 2!d4 roll. The initial roll is 1 and 4. The 4 explodes and the bonus 1d4 is a 1. Only the first natural 1 is rerolled thanks to the feat, and it does not explode even if a 4 is rolled.)

Here's some stats.

For any N-sided die numbered 1 to N with all sides equally likely, the exploding modifier will increase the die’s expected value (the mean) by a factor of {N}/{N-1}.
The following are some approximations
d3 --> No good approx.
d4 --> 1!d2 (A bit overpowered)
d6 --> 1!d4
d8 --> 1!d6 (A bit underpowered)
d10 --> 2!d2 or 2!d3 (A bit overpowered)
d12 --> 2!d4

┄┅━━ Creature Weaknesses and Vulnerabilities ━━┅┄
The specifics depend on the creature, but here are some guidelines.

☢ Nuke the Aliens! Aberrations are vulnerable to or at least don't resist nuke damage.
☢ Mutants and Monstrosities resist, are immune to, or absorb nuke damage.
☢ Machines No-Sell. Inorganic constructs resist or are outright immune to nuke damage.