 July 1, 2009 - 11:58am | I'm toying with an idea that occurred to me for gaming out drug use. (maybe it already exists) I was thinking along the lines of the S/T & S/D of diseases and toxins in the rules. D would obviously be duration- how long in hours one dose of the drug lasts yet in most addictive drugs resistence builds up in habitual users so Duration is really D x R where R equals the resistence of the user- a new user has a resistence of 1 but a long time users will have built a R of .5 or .3 there by only getting the effect for 1/2 or 1/3 of the time of a new user. RF is Resistence Factor which is the mechanic for determining a user's R. A RF would be expressed as a period of time day/week/month/year or even as: per dose (all in standard frontier time) with a negative number to subtract from the users Resistence once for every time period that has past since drug use began. An RF of 1month -.1 would mean that every month the user's R goes down by .1 It also seems to me that there should also be a Floor or point past which the Resistence cannot go. Example imagine a mild plant based analog to pot the R number for a long time user probably wouldn't go all the way down to 0.1 but may bottom out at say .5 or .4 So that a RF for this drug might be 1year -.1 (.5) where it takes a year for resistence to build and your resistence bottums out at .5 in five years. E is the effect and can be expressed as -5 LOG & +5 STR for a combat drug or as euphoria & +10PER or as no penalties for 1/2 STA or as a host of other possible effects SE are side effect an can be a facial twitch, rash, scratching, flatulence for drals, +10 Battlerage for yazerians and must test in all stressfull situations, a side effect may be immediate or have a time delay like 2 hours. Example SE: 2hours facial twitch meaning that a facial twitch shows up 2 hours after taking it. Most SEs would wear off when the drug's duration expires (that would be the official D not the D modified by the user's Resistence). Cost: would simply be cost per dose but could have a + or - % for changes in supply and demand. could even have Long Term Side Effects: which would kick in after years of use or months if the GM wanted so they would be expressed as LTSE: 1year -5 INT or LTSE: 2years -5 exp due to memory loss. Long Term Side Effects dont wear off without rehab but they should only apply to long term heavy use; GM decides. Finally it seems that a mechanic to cover the addiction end of this is needed A would be for addiction and would represent the effects the user sufferes when not on the drug thereby forcing them to find a dose. it could be expressed as A:edginess or A: -5% STR&STA or as A: every hour -1 INT or as A: every hour +2 Battle Rage and attack nearest being for battle rage/10 turns (for yazerians and every hour off the drug would add 2 to battle rage score and force them to test for battle rage and attack someone for a number of turns equal to their current battle rage score divided by 10) I suppose you could even specify different E, SE, LTSE, & A and I guess even different D for each race if you wanted the extra complexity. though I would keep it to 1 race has one area of the drug that effects them differently from the other races to keep it from getting too confusing. Example (not neccessarily proposed as a serious example but made up to demonstrate how these mechanics could work): SynthCorp's new injectible combat drug called Bounce. D 10 hours; RF: per dose -.01(.4); E +5 RS/DEX all penalties for 1/2 STA only kick in at 1/4 STA; SE: mild figdeting (can't sit still), LTSE when R equals .4 user is permanently at -5 RS/STA due to damage to nervous system; A: -5INT due to headaches for 1 week; COST: drug is experimental but has an estimated street value of 25cr. This drug last for 10 hours but for every 10 doses taken the Resistence of the user drops by .1 (1hour of D) and will bottom out around .4 (4hours of D) Its effects are to boost RS/DEX by +5 for the duration of the drug. People on the drug tend to fidget and find it hard to sit still. Once a user reaches a Resistence of .4 for this drug they lose 5% on both RS and STA due to nervous system damage causing long term users to keep using to just stay on par. Its addictive effects are -5 INt because of a week long headache or until a new dose is taken. The drug is officially only available for limited military testing but has an estimated street value of 25 cr per dose. Thus a long term user with a R of 0.4 would need to spend about 75cr/day to "stay frosty" during their waking hours. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 1, 2009 - 12:21pm | Obviously I'm not trying to promote or glamourize drug use here just trying to create some discussion or get some feed back for a game mechanic to handle illegal drugs and drug use in the setting for a game project I'm working on. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 1, 2009 - 2:57pm | I would use "W" for "withdrawal" instead of "A" for "Addiction" to regard the effects of suffering. Addiction should reflect the level of need. A drug can have a low level of need but have horrific morning after effects. (Alcohol for instance.) Conversely, a drug can have little morning after effects, but exercise an unrelenting control over the individual. (Crank for instance [Personal experience 15 years back]) I would make them W/A. EDIt: Come to think of it, morning after could be considered a side-effect. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
 July 2, 2009 - 5:11am | I have been playing alot of Fallout lately so some of this is on my mind there as the character became addicted to a drug in the middle of combat. Fortunately it was a combat drug. What sucked is I was in the middle of nowhere and couldnt get to a doctor to get rid of the addiction for awhile. In Fallout almost evey drug/med/chem has an addiction rating. This is the chance that the character can become hooked on it each use. When the effects of the chem wear off then the withdrawl effects kick in and those can hamper you pretty good in the game. You can decide to take another hit to ward off the penalties, find a doc to cure you, or wait it out for several weeks. Now while you are addicted to a chem, the benificial effects stay the same (80% certain) but the duration drops by 1/3-1/2. The withdrawl effect usually amount to several Stat penalties, which will effect skills. But since it is a FPS, the screen will blur and a double vision effect will happen for a few seconds; usually in the middle of a fight. Jedion, you have a good idea going here I think its a bit complex. At least for me. But I really like where this is going. Time flies when your having rum. Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time. |
 July 2, 2009 - 5:25am | There's a SF-website out there with such details. When I get back onto my other PC I'll try to find it... |
July 2, 2009 - 8:53am | @ Ascent: I like W for withdrawl as that better describes what I was trying to get at @Rum Rogue your right I did over think this: part of just sitting and typing out loud- you just keep going sometimes. I'll wait to see what shadow has and take a stab at simplifying it. Part of my original comment about "maybe it already exist" was to draw out anyone else's work on this to avoid reinventing the wheel so to speak. I cant see doing without Duration, Effect, cost, withdrawl, and a chance to become addicted maybe the resistence factor stuff can be reduced to a flat across the board reduction of drug performance for everyone once they're a dict I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 2, 2009 - 4:41pm | Okay my bad, the site I was thinking of only dealt with alcohol: http://thehound.tripod.com/drinking.html But there are a small handful of toxins listed on the main page. |
July 2, 2009 - 9:07pm | Okay my bad, the site I was thinking of only dealt with alcohol: http://thehound.tripod.com/drinking.html But there are a small handful of toxins listed on the main page. no no no thanks for that as I had read it quite a while back and forgot about it. I need to make a word doc of that and print it out and have it added to my sf2000 rule book. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 1, 2009 - 4:19pm | Okay my bad, the site I was thinking of only dealt with alcohol: http://thehound.tripod.com/drinking.html But there are a small handful of toxins listed on the main page. You can just as easily aplly the mechanics to other drugs, Shadow. And, it's a pretty simple, straightforward system as well. As for gaming out withdrawal, why not simply base it on both a daily PER check and/or a STA check, both at penalties varying with the drug. "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
