This would require insulin as medication, and will give 2 penalties to strength, dexterity and perception if insulin isn’t administered twice per day ( or maybe 3 times). Or maybe -1 to those stats after 1 shot is missed, and further -1s for each missed shot. Make insulin just as rare as Thorazine, the starting char have 6 doses on him and we’ll have a true disability (unlike schizo that can be safely ignored and gives 5 mostly free points - worst thing i had from it was falling asleep when driving and almost crashing into the forest, which was cool though)
Most insulin medications need to be kept refrigerated if I recall, and a diabetic can live without out it if they eat carefully and manage their blood sugars well.
Cool idea though.
Well diabetes isn’t that bad that no insulin = death.
A more realistic approach would be without insulin then thirst increases (as you urinate more to try and lower blood sugar level) as well as increased hunger.
You could also introduce blood sugar level as a trackable stat (might as well do blood alcohol as well then) so then you can make a person hypo or hyperglycaemic, a non diabetic will regulate level fairly well in a similar way that the health stat is regulated to a certain level but won’t rise as much to an average but will fall though slower when low and raise slower when high while a diabetic will lower blood sugar level very slowly and rise very quickly and insulin will make blood sugar level decrease quickly.
Hypo (low blood sugar) can cause unhappiness, fatigue, shakes, seizues, brain damage, death.
Hyper (high blood sugar) can cause increased appetite, increased thirst, fatigue, shakes, seizures, coma (can wake up once blood sugar level decreases).
Sorry to hijack your suggestion but diabetes is still manageable without insulin (but not very easily)
Insulin can be a complex thing. Too complex. Wouldn’t really bring anything to the game, I feel.
take the diabetic trait with the vegetarian one: Free points! 
Nah, but I guess bars of chocolate and sugar cane could fuck you up something bad.
Also how the hell would we have comas and brain damage as a mechanic ingame? dear lord.
There’s two types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2.
We seem to be confusing them a lot here.
Type 1: Usually genetic, perhaps caused by some deficiency in the immune system, which destroys pancreatic insulin-producing cells. Type 1 diabetics do not produce their own insulin (at least not in sufficient quantities). As such, they cannot process glucose into glycogen, and will eventually suffer from hyperglycemia and die without administering insulin to regulate their blood sugar levels.
This cannot be managed through diet or exercise, to my knowledge.
Type 2: Usually happens as a result of diet and/or old age. Type 2 diabetics produce insulin normally, but are resistant to it, and thus may need to take extra insulin to control their blood sugar levels in some cases. They should also regulate their diet and exercise to avoid over-reliance on insulin injections, and the condition can be controlled entirely without administering extra insulin, in many cases.
In-game, this means that a Type 1 diabetic would be screwed. No two ways about it. Without refrigeration, there would simply not be sufficient quantities of usable insulin around after the apocalypse to keep them going.
As for a Type 2 diabetic, I guess it depends on how carefully we want to simulate the condition. I think a trait requiring the player to avoid excessive blood-sugar levels (i.e. avoid chocolate and sweets, and perhaps avoid getting sated too often) would be reasonable, perhaps with a termporary hyperglycemic condition associated with failing to control diet.
If we wanted to ignore the refrigeration of insulin, then I guess we could have both types, but they are very very different, and a Type 1 diabetic would require far more insulin than a Type 2 diabetic, not to mention a blood-sugar monitor and a supply of clean needle-heads.
Speaking of different types of blood sugar diseases: it might be worth considering chronic/recurrent hypoglycemia, as well as full-blown diabetes. I have two different friends from university who start having issues if they don’t eat something every 3-6 hours (including, sometimes, while asleep). Grumpiness, loss of ability to function properly, occasional risk of passing out for a while, until their bodies digest enough of themselves to continue again. And neither is on insulin at present. I don’t know the full details (and am not a medical expert), but it could be an interesting alternative - especially because it wouldn’t require another hard-to-obtain drug, and could (theoretically) be managed well with a reliable food supply.
Interesting. Insulin would presumably make that worse (i.e. it lowers your current blood sugar levels), and I can’t remember what the name of the enzyme that breaks up glycogen into glucose is.
I know that you can get dextrose tablets, though, which are basically just fast release, high-sugar cubes, in easily measurable quantities, which you can take to moderate your blood sugar without needing to wait ages for your digestion to kick in. Might be a good alternative to the dietary method (and a solution for players who accidentally take too much insulin and get a hypo)
Do note that you need to store insulin in a refrigerated environment. Plus it expires in a year or so.
Blood sugar is a bitch in real life, especially if you’re into computers. Diabetic nerds, assemble.
Yeah, one of my chronically hypoglycemic friends carries around glucose tablets with him, just in case his blood sugar gets too low.
There was a thread somewhere else about adding some complexity to cooking/nutrition, which discussed the complexity involved. Semi-realistically implementing diabetes would require complex nutrition to be implemented first, to actually get a mechanical framework down that the disability could call on.
hmmm, you got lost in details, looks like. As a diabetic IRL, i know all this stuff you talk about, but i was thinking of a more simplistic approach. Insulin can be stored long term at 2 -> -8C, used for a month or more at room temperature ( that is under 30C), and from what i know is definitely usable up to more than 6 months after it’s inscribed expiry term.(and it has a 2y validity term)
What i had in mind was another to do thing in game, like hunting for insulin, just like the inhalers for asthmatics, only with different penalties. There is no need to simulate RL insulin comas :)). And i’m quite sure that inhalers have an expiration term too 
[quote=“Ferodaktyl, post:12, topic:1122”]hmmm, you got lost in details, looks like. As a diabetic IRL, i know all this stuff you talk about, but i was thinking of a more simplistic approach. Insulin can be stored long term at 2 -> -8C, used for a month or more at room temperature ( that is under 30C), and from what i know is definitely usable up to more than 6 months after it’s inscribed expiry term.(and it has a 2y validity term)
What i had in mind was another to do thing in game, like hunting for insulin, just like the inhalers for asthmatics, only with different penalties. There is no need to simulate RL insulin comas :)). And i’m quite sure that inhalers have an expiration term too :P[/quote]
Most drugs have an expiration date, but, unless removed from its packaging, it generally doesn’t mean too terribly much unless you go way beyond it.
3 year out of date sudafed, still works during the 2 weeks every year when I need it.
[quote=“drake1storm, post:13, topic:1122”]…
3 year out of date sudafed, still works during the 2 weeks every year when I need it.[/quote]
Hope you have some purifier at hand, in case you develop mutations
I have low blood sugar.
Also low BOLs.
Combined my life is hell. I’m either shaking uncontrollably and falling unconscious or getting tunnel vision and going numb/unconscious.
What’s the end disease where you randomly fall asleep? That would be a good one.
[quote=“Ferodaktyl, post:14, topic:1122”][quote=“drake1storm, post:13, topic:1122”]…
3 year out of date sudafed, still works during the 2 weeks every year when I need it.[/quote]
Hope you have some purifier at hand, in case you develop mutations :D[/quote]
I hope I get bat wings.