The Captain Trips superflu from 'The Stand'

Captain Trips (Project Blue)

The Project Blue virus, nicknamed Captain Trips, is a variation of the Spanish Influenza virus, weaponized as part of an army experiment. The Captain Trips virus is completely lethal to humanity with a .6% survivability rate. Death usually occurs within 1 - 3 days after the victim begins showing traditional (if not accelerated) flu symptoms. High fever, nausea, dehydration, and fatigue ensue, until the body simply begins to shut-down. Captain Trips remains capable of surviving in airborne environments for up to twelve hours, and is highly infectious from simply skin to skin contact.

.6% of the population is naturally immune to Captain Trips, and it is highly suggested (in the TV Mini-series at least) that most of the children born post-Trips are immune to the super virus. In the novel, it is not as clear that a natural immunity passes from parent to child, but it is suggested.

Game Mechanics
Upon exposure to the Captain Trips virus, a character must first make an percentile dice roll. A result of 99 - 100 naturally means the character is immune to the Captain Trips virus, as they are a member of the .6% population who are completely immune.

Once a character has come into contact with an infected person, they must make an immediate Endurance FEAT vs. Amazing (50) intensity. The FEAT roll determines the length of time between exposure and 1st stage of the virus and is used to determine how long a character has before they begin to show immediate symptoms of the virus:

• White: Signs of infection begin within 3 rounds of exposure, character suffers an immediate -2cs to all Endurance FEATs until death.
• Green: The character will begin to show signs anywhere between 10 - 15 hours
• Yellow: The character will begin to show signs anywhere between 24 and 48 hours
• Red: The character will show signs between 48 - 100 hours.

Once infection begins, the character must then make an additional Endurance FEAT vs. Am (50) intensity to determine the length of time between initial infection and death. The infection moves incredibly quickly, and those that cannot make the intensity FEAT will begin the dying process as if they had made a White Endurance FEAT.

• White: The character will begin the dying process between 1 - 100 rounds of 1st state infection.
• Green: The character will begin the dying process between 1 - 3 days of infection, and will be at a progressive penalty to Endurance checks (-2cs) as Captain Trips progresses.
• Yellow: The character will begin the dying process within 3 -6 days of infection, and will suffer from a -1cs to all Endurance Feats.
• Red: The character will begin the dying process between 6 - 10 days of contracting the infection. Character will not suffer additional penalties to their Endurance initially.

Characters with Resist: Disease
As Captain Trips has shown to be an adaptive virus which was specifically weaponized for its lethality, anyone with Resist: Disease will find their resistances at 50% effectiveness.

Surviving Captain Trips:

It is possible to survive Captain Trips amid a world of super-humans. Should a character have immunity to disease, they are simply not affected. In addition, any character with Mn (75) Endurance or better or greater than Am (50) Resistance to disease have greater resistances. In such cases, the roll made to see if natural immunity is decreased from 99 - 100 to 50 - 100. Should the character survive more than 12 days with the virus, they can begin to recover Endurance ranks as normal and regenerate damage. The side-effect is that such characters become 'carriers' of Captain Trips as it remains active in their systems. This is all speculation on my part, taken from notes about the book from the complete edition, the comic, and other sources.

Notes:

This is my 'best stab' at the Captain Trips Virus, and perhaps up there with Cthulu on contention for my part. I tried to keep the idea of how it would affect super-humans, but again, that's speculation on my part. The lethality of the virus however is as close as I could make it, as it did effectively destroy mankind as it stood at that point.