(Character) Degeneration & Dragons

[Avoraciopoctules]

I want to make a game about character degeneration. The PCs start off powerful, individually a match for a terrifying monster or band of soldiers. But their quest is to defeat a dragon of the underworld, whose bile causes corruption and amnesia. Characters will lose powers as they advance, and the big challenge is surviving to the final encounter with enough power to slay the dragon.

What's a good system? What sort of pitfalls should I be mindful of during design?

Right now, I'm thinking of dice pools as a base system, with TN 5 like in Shadowrun. Probably going for less stats than that or After Sundown, since this probably isn't going to be played for long periods. Players start with a pool of hit points, Power Points (better powers require you spend points to activate), and a dice pool of like 12 for stuff they are good at. One hit is adequate, two is good, three is impressive. You also have 6 powers, each with a number from one to six. Resting restores your hit points and power points, but exposes you to Corruption. Corruption can also come from falling in bile pools, using dark magics found in the dragon's lair, and getting hit by certain special attacks.

When affected by Corruption, you roll a d6, and then you lose the power that was linked to that number. You also lose a die from your dice pool. If you roll a power that was already lost, nothing happens, because you are slowly building up a resistance. If you have lost all your powers and are exposed to Corruption again, you lose your Name and become a zombie or a pawn of the Dragon.

[JonSetanta]

I had a dream about this very same subject, but it pertained to mutations, namely those similar to the ones found in Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup roguelike game.
A main character began powerful and competent but essentially became broken and weak as their allies became strong, pulling them along in a complete reversal of roles.

By drinking certain potions or exceeding a radiation limit by using magic you accrue sometimes debilitating mutations that can certainly make you lose the game, but the despairing effect of wandering around as you body warps was drastic enough.

A list of mutations would do nicely but I can't find a Dungeon Crawl list for example.

[Username17]

D&D already has a pretty effective ablative power system in the form of spell preparation, power points, spell slots, and durations. If you played D&D completely straight with no means of replenishing powers, you'd be weakened and degenerate later in the scenario.

-Username17

[JigokuBosatsu]

The Realms of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness book has a pretty wacky and wild system for chaos mutations and eventual dissolution/sublimation. It's tied strongly to the Ruinous Powers from that setting, but I'd bet you could hack it pretty easily to account for different sources of corruption.

[Longes]

I think the nWoD Mummy game does something like that.

[Grek]

A list of mutations would do nicely but I can't find a Dungeon Crawl list for example.

http://crawl.chaosforge.org/Bad_mutations

[JonSetanta]

A list of mutations would do nicely but I can't find a Dungeon Crawl list for example.

http://crawl.chaosforge.org/Bad_mutations

Thank you very much