Drugs In Your Campaign World

[Lwaxy]

I do use them but sparsely - except that there's almost always someone drunk who oversleeps or gets his purse stolen by the hooker he went with and other stuff. I do make a point to have them have negative effects even when they have to be used in rituals, including hampering with a PC's magic use. They also have some positive effects at times, though.

 

[Loonook]

Wow, How appropriate

In my Article Series Posted Here I'm actually going to be doing an article on drugs, medication, potions, and the like across the board. In the most recent (posted about 15 minutes before this post ) I mentioned Qishi, a substance which causes a euphoric effect with an analogue similar to MDMA which also makes concentration (especially for spellcasters) highly difficult.

In my Modern setting there's a drug known as Star (for the aftertaste left in the system which is similar to Star Anise ) that causes hallucinations which gradually become so powerful as to manifest themselves in the physical world. Once you have taken enough Star, you develop the Stargazer flaw (imagine a negative form of the Alertness feat) and may gain a modified form of the Animism tradition (presented in EoM: Mythic Earth which removes the -2 penalty to casting checks for one chosen magic type when you do a dose. Over time, the addictive nature of Star causes individuals to develop drug-seeking behaviors and become weaker and weaker, finally succumbing to the drug and becoming a Stargazer. There's another form of the drug, used by individuals who deal with enchanters and psychics, which actually grants a mild spell resistance effect; however, the resistance may not be lowered by any means, even if the spell is harmless, during the duration of its use.

I honestly think that drugs and alcohol have their place in a properly handled mature setting. A lot of games cannot take the stress of their use, as all the players will want to be 'cool' and use them to their advantage, only to give in to the effects after awhile. However, one of the better Modern characters my current real-life group has is a recovering Star addict, who kicked the habit and has made it his crusade to get the drug off the streets whenever possible. While I don't agree with the idea of every elf being high, or every gnome being a pusher (that's a mythical drugsploitation movie in the making... Drider Madness!) I think that properly handled, with a serious group, they can be an effective RPing device.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I wouldn't have real drugs in a fantasy campaign. Maybe fake ones, though, so I don't need to realistically describe the symptoms.

I don't think there would be much of a market, however. Transporting the drugs would be difficult (they didn't have highways or airplanes in those days) and sharing of knowledge would be much poorer. Purifying the product wouldn't likely work well (little knowledge of chemistry). People could become addicted to some local drugs, I suppose, but there wouldn't be anything "hard" like high-grade heroin.

They came up as plot devices in some Modern campaigns I've run. The PCs never used it (phew), they didn't run into NPCs who used it, and I didn't have to come up with stats for them.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I had one memorable drug incident in a PbEM game I was running once.

RttToEE has a drug called Tanbrosh which gives a temporary alchemical bonus to Con, from memory. I can't remember the side effects - might be a Wisdom penalty?

Anyway, I had two PCs who become important in this story. One was a cleric (of Pelor, from memory) whose backstory included a boyfriend who had been dragged through a portal by a demon. One of her goals was to try and find out if he was still alive and, if possible, rescue him.

And one was a rogue whose backstory had him as an agent for a drug cartel in Verbobonc. He was in Hommlett investigating a missing shipment, and had some samples of Tanbrosh on him.

In the fight with Utreshimon, a couple of PCs ended up unconscious and bleeding - among them, the cleric of Pelor. The party's only healer. She was only barely out, but one of the others was near death - they needed her conscious again to keep him alive.

So while the other PCs were hunting through backpacks to find out if any of the dying characters carried healing potions, the rogue popped a Tanbrosh pill surreptitiously down the cleric's throat. Alchemical bonus to Con raised her hit points above 0, she came conscious, and cast some healing spells. Problem solved!

... except that Tanbrosh is addictive. Now, it would be simple enough for her to get the addiction cured back in town, but where's the fun in that?

And that's where I decided that one of the other side effects of Tanbrosh is mild hallucinations. So the cleric started receiving telepathic communications from her demon-enslaved boyfriend on another plane. Telling her that it seems the drug puts her in a mental state that makes her sensitive enough that he can speak with her mind-to-mind.

The rogue had informed her secretly what had occurred, since he felt responsible for the addiction and was the only source she had for the drug. And she was aware that there was the potential for hallucinations as a side effect, and that there was a possibility that the voice in her head was exactly that. But... what if it were real?

It was really great to see the player decide that the cleric was voluntarily keeping herself addicted to a narcotic in order to talk to a figment of her imagination (taking a Wisdom penalty in the process!)... and because it was a PbEM, none of the other players save the rogue knew about the drug, and none of the other players at all knew about the voice in her head, and so all they knew was that occasionally, the cleric would have one side of a conversation for no apparent reason...

Marvellous performance from the player. It was great.

-Hyp.

 

[Rallek]

There are drugs in my campaigns as well, a few are "real-world", mostly things that are grown like marijuana, opium, coca, peyote, and the like (alcohol included, of course). The rest are "fantasy" drugs like Howard's Black Lotus. At the far end of the scale are alchemically and/or magically treated or processed drugs.


As far as "effects" go for most of the drugs there are no mechanical effects, just in-game descriptions. The nastier stuff has mechanical effects, as well as a chance for physical addiction and negative side-effects. Most of the PCs in campaigns I've run have avoided "hard" drugs, and the ones who did use only did so when they felt that they really "needed the edge" like for a difficult combat, or the like.


Humans have been producing and taking drugs for most of their history. In fact, there is a theory in sociology that states that we only began to settle because we found places where we could easily produce alcohol. In that light, cutting such a large part of human behavior out of the game would seem a bit severe. Besides, the BBEG who is slowly turning himself into an undead fiend due to his addiction to distilled vampire blood is kind of cool all by itself.

As always, YMMV.

 

[Nylanfs]

I use Alchemy & Herbalists & Pale Designs by Dragon Wing (formerly owned by Bastion Press) which details a lot of herbs and drugs (also poisons too).

 

[krissbeth]

I play in an Age of Worms campaign and Kalamanthis is widely used.

These are the effects the DM sent out to us:

Kalamanthis Sap:

extracted from the pulverized root and crushed in a mortar, kalamanthis root is a potent narcotic when injected into the bloodstream. It quickly metabolizes into a muscle stimulant while dulling pain sensations.

Initial Effects: 2 points of Constitution Damage
Secondary Effects: +2 alchemical bonus to Strength for 1d3 hours.

Side-Effect: User becomes numbed to pain for 1d4 hours, immune to pain-induced penalties (such as from symbol of pain).

Overdose: A user who injects more than two doses within a single 12-hour period will take 1d8 points of Constitution damage as muscles atrophy. The user does not feel this effect and is likely to continue on as if nothing is wrong. Each time a strength-based check (including melee attacks) is completed, the user takes an additional 1d4 points of Constitution damage. At 0 Constitution the user's heart ruptures and the fool dies.

Addiction: High, Fort DC18.




Kalamanthis Dried Leaf:

Crushed to a pepper-grain consistency and then snorted, Kalamanthis leaf used in this way heightens a user's senses and dazes them in an awestruck euphoria.

Initial Effects: speed reduced by half. Moving normal speed requires balance check or fall prone. 1d4 points of Dexterity damage.

Secondary Effects: +5 alchemical bonus to Spot, Listen, Search, Appraise, and Sense Motive checks for 1d3 hours. Vision clears, can see twice as well in areas of low light. Touch, taste, and smell are heightened during this time.

Side-effects: subject dazed: -1 to attacks and saves. Subject gullible: -4 penalty on saves vs. enchantment or illusion. An odd side effect is that divinations are enhanced. User is not subject to insanity when Contact Other Plane is used. Also grants a +5% chance of correct answer in any divination where there is a chance of failure.

Overdose: A user who snorts more than two doses within an 8 hour period starts to experience nightmarish hallucinations. This causes an immediate 1d6 points of Constitution and Wisdom damage, and the user takes 1d10 points of physical damage. Any further dose within the same time period cause an additional 1d6 points of damage to the user's CON and WIS and subjects him to an immediate Phantasmal Killer effect. (subject to all side effects, above)

Addiction: Medium, Fort DC14




Kalamanthis Rolled Leaf:

small strips of leaf rolled and wrapped in slow-burning paper, Kalamanthis Leaf is most popular when smoked. It stimulates the brain and relaxes the muscles, and is a common way for miners to wind down after release from their lightless tunnels.

Initial Effects: 1d4 points of wisdom damage. User relaxes inhibitions and loses sense of caution.

Secondary Effects: +2 alchemical bonus to Intelligence.

Side-effects: user's body tires. Any effect that would cause fatigue causes exhaustion instead. Saves vs. sleep effects are at -2. User makes decisions slower, -2 penalty on any initiative check.

Overdose: if two doses are smoked within the same 30-minute period, user starts to shake uncontrollably. He takes an immediate 1d6 points of Dexterity damage and has a 50% chance to drop any held items, or knock over nearby objects. This shaking subsides after an hour, but the Dexterity damage must be healed normally.

Addiction: Low, Fort DC10

 

[Tewligan]

Halflings are always smoking their "pipe weed", make moonshine, and will whore themselves to get cheese.

You must have some AWESOME dairy products in your setting!

 

[Fathead]

You must have some AWESOME dairy products in your setting!

The halflings have a fondness for Tillamook cheese, I hear.

A cheese log is an excellent bribe.

 

[Clavis]

You must have some AWESOME dairy products in your setting!

We use the idea that cheese is an intoxicant to Halflings. Especially aged or blue cheeses, like Stilton. There's a legend that eating certain cheeses, especially English Stilton, before bed will give you weird and vivid dreams. There's the real-world basis. The guy who plays the Halfling rogue thought it was a cool idea, so I incorporated it.