I'm only part way through this thread, so I apologize if someone has asked this. But I'm struck wondering if this aversion to alcohol penetrates to within the game itself? Does in game drinking bother you? Curious (because the whole anti-drinking this is 100% bizarre to me)
I'm in a Shadowrun game where characters get drunk/high all the time.
My own character is a shaman with high Body and Will scores (for some reason, Will applies to some poisons/drugs, including alcohol) who never does anything if he can help it.
Alas, how often does he have a choice? In the last two sessions, he got drunk, exposed to pixie dust and got high on peyote. In the first session, he and another PC (there were just two of us) went to a bar for some reason (I think to hide out for a bit) and a couple of orcs started hustling us, trying to get us drunk so they could get in our pants (or so I thought at first) but it turned us they were trying to kill us "in private". My character had such a high tolerance that he was virtually unaffected... but his lame social skills made it hard to talk his way out of the situation. (He has no spells that inflict nonlethal damage.) The other character tranqued himself into unconsciousness.
Later that session, the two PCs stole some pixie dust which affects memories. Alas, the bag ripped and we both got exposed... also, the bad guys killed an air spirit my shaman had summoned.
In the second session, we had a gunslinger (physical adept) and soldier join us. We were supposed to capture some soldiers who were high on some new military drugs. My character had to do a penance for losing an air spirit last session, and (after dealing with two very angry spirits) was told to smoke six pounds of sanctified tobacco. He needed it fast, so had to pay an extra 50%, and it was laced with ... peyote. Not being familiar with peyote, I couldn't really play being high properly, but I kept making the checks to not really be affected. Still, he couldn't go astral, so there was some metagame effect. The tranquing PC got mad at my character for "doing drugs" ... pot, meet kettle...
Said other PC has a bad tranq patch habit, and another PC (the soldier) has a "betameth" habit (some sort of stimulant). And we use stim patches a lot, as the game system makes non-lethal damage worse than lethal damage. Generally, drug use has been disruptive to the game, although it seems the soldier's drug habit has little to no metagame impact.
Generally I don't play characters who drink or do drugs. I like having my character's faculties being clear, and not having to deal with drug habits. I did play a weird Exalted/D20 Mutants crossover in which I was a martial artist who liked getting drunk all the time (no effect that I saw in-game). In a medieval setting (like Warhammer) realistically avoiding alcohol is just not an option, but presumably characters would avoid drinking to excess. In Warhammer healing potions include lots of alcohol (there are confusing but detailed rules on getting drunk) and my character there did once drink a few people under the table in order to impress them. (Fortunately he only had to fight wimps that day!)
Apologies if I didn't read between the lines well enough. I'm sure plenty of people have bad life experiences with drinking. I really, truly, just wasn't sure how prevalent drinking/gaming bad experiences were.
I've rarely seen it cause problems, although I have little experience in that area. I just think it
could be detrimental, and having no drinking as an unwritten rule just makes things easier.
Curious.. what does everyone using the word "drinking" actually mean? For me and my group, it equates to having 3-4 beers, 1-2 mix drinks or 2-3 glasses of wine (max) over the course of a 5-6 hour session. Very, very rarely has anyone gotten "drunk" - where they couldn't read the dice, speak clearly, walk, drive, etc.
I'm a non-drinker, so that sounds like a lot to me. However, as far as I can tell, alcohol has an effect on you before you can't read the dice, speak clearly, walk, drive, etc.
Another note; I don't go to bars or stuff and have rarely seen any of my friends drunk at any time. I wouldn't hang out with them if I didn't enjoy playing with them, but I have no idea what some of them are like drunk... or buzzed... or slightly impaired.
Gaming is serious business and I don't want anyone to have a beer while playing in my game - uh, no thanks.
For people who don't get to game as much as they like, I think this attitude makes sense.
