Drugs

Drugs. I want Veins of the Earth style starvation rules… for drugs! I’ve included links to bloggers whose rules I’m stealing pieces from. I’ve summarized what I intend to take from each of their respective systems to Frankenstein my own.

Goblin Punch Drugs - Arnold’s got four stages: Clean - Habituated - Addicted - Dependent. Those line up well with VotE: Before We Used VotE at the Table - Hungry - Starving - Dying.

Scrap Princess Drugs - Scrap’s got exploding d4s each time you do a drug. Each drug causes addiction at a different die: Non addictive, d6, d8. This works well with how I see drugs in real life. It’s a gamble. I’ve seen a child ( on the internet ) die the first time he tried heroin, but I also know people that have used it regularly and at least aren’t dead. So each time you do the drug, make a check to see if you become a habitual user, an addict, or dependent on the drug. I think each drug should have its own die progression/explosion threshold and its own overdose threshold.

Ten Foot Polemic Drugs - James has what feels like the most complicated rules, but I really, really like them. He’s got Upsides, Downsides, Duration, Drug Miscibility, Tolerance, and Withdrawal. It’s gold. All of these things exist in real life, it’s just more than I want at the table. I’m going to keep the concept of Upsides, Downsides, and Durations. I probably won’t mess with Drug Miscibility too much. If I do, it definitely won’t be in this first iteration. Regarding Tolerance. Each drug has its own die progression. Roll the die, if it explodes, you move up a stage. In VotE one day of rations for one person is 100 SP. When they run out, they need 300 SP, then 600 SP, then 1000SP worth of food to bump back down. So too shall it be with drugs and tolerance. If you move up a stage, you now need 3/6/10 times the amount of drugs to get the same effect. For now; do drugs, bump up a stage, need more drugs. You want to get off the junk? Take less drugs than normal, according to the 3/6/10 progression or no drugs at all if you’re a cold turkey hard ass. To move from Dependent to Addicted, roll the difference between the amount of drugs you need and the amount of drugs you’re taking exploding dice, minimum one. If nothing explodes, you go down a level. If something explodes, withdrawal. This is messy, I’m going to have to make a chart/table, and then clean it up. But “Done, not Perfect”.

Lawful Neutral Drugs - I love the drugs themselves, super unique and evocative. Will most likely port them to my finalized rules in the future.

So here’s mine all laid out:

Drug use has four stages: Clean - Habitual User - Dependent - Addict

Each time you do a drug, roll it’s drug die. If it explodes, you advance to the next stage of addiction. If it doesn’t explode, check the drug to see if you overdosed.

As you move from Clean to Habitual, you need three times as much drugs to achieve the same effects. From Habitual to Dependent takes an additional three doses, six times your original dose. Dependent to Addict takes an additional four doses, ten times your original dose.

To get off the drugs gradually. Do less drugs doses than your stage requires. Take the difference of what you need and what you’re doing, and add that many drug dice to your roll. If you roll with no exploding dice, and no overdose. You bump down to the next lowest stage. If you do explode, you go into withdrawal. You can immediately stop withdrawal by doing the amount of drugs you reduced your need by.

To get off the drugs cold turkey. Don’t do any drugs. Take the difference of the doses you need (3/6/10)  and the doses you’re actually doing (0). Add that many drug dice to your roll. If any dice explode, you’re in full withdrawal. If no dice explode, you’re clean!

Overdosing. Chance of overdosing increases at each level of addiction. If you’re clean, you overdose on a one. If you’re a habitual user, you overdose on a one and two. If you’re dependent, you overdose on a one, two or three. If you’re an addict, you overdose on a one, two, three or four.

Actual drugs to follow.

If you're seen awesome drug rules I missed, I wouldn't mind you dropping a link in the comments. I only included people whose stuff I was directly using, but I only saw two others, Noism and Last Gasp.