Do recreational drugs feature in your campaign?

[painandgreed]

I said "No, not considered" but that's probbly because half our current party is immune to poison which would include such drugs. Even alcohol doesn't play a part unless trickign somebody into a drinking contest with one of our immune characters. Even then, being high in character just doesn't have that much appeal to it.

 

[Blue_Kryptonite]

Not at all, no discussion. They simply don't exist beyond alcohol. There is no mention of tobacco in my games. Not even the modern ones. We don't deal in these things in our personal lives, so they never come up.

 

[Desdichado]

I do have a question though, what do people use for rules or even house rules concerning drugs of anyform?

Book of Vile Darkness, mainly, for addiction rules and some samples. Other than that, I'll make up some rules on the fly--basically any effect like a mild poison, coupled with a minor boost, and then a secondary effect once that wears off that's similar again to a mild poison. In games where I've used Sanity, I've also occasionally ruled the drugs force a temporary Sanity loss, and when that wears off, a much milder permanent Sanity loss.

Anyway, it hasn't come up too much; even in campaigns where drugs are important to the setting in some way, it's not like the PCs were using them much, if at all.

 

[Rev. Jesse]

I find it interesting that nearily all of the drug rules (esp the BoVD for D&D) have a net-negitive effect on the drug taker. Some of these negitive effects seems significantly over powered.

 

[diaglo]

I do have a question though, what do people use for rules or even house rules concerning drugs of anyform?

"official" rules can be found in Dungeon and Dragon magazine...

yeah, the Dungeon with the Gladiator on it.#96

PANDEMONIUM IN THE VEINS
Life as a gladiator is deadly enough inside the arena. So it’s just unfair when something starts killing the prize fighters outside their matches. It’s up to the PCs to go undercover as gladiators themselves and solve the mysterious deaths. “Pandemonium in the Veins” can be used with “Campaign Components: Gladiators” in DRAGON Magazine #303 for extensive gladiatorial mayhem, or played alone. A D&D adventure for 5th-level characters.
By Frank Brunner

 

[Desdichado]

I find it interesting that nearily all of the drug rules (esp the BoVD for D&D) have a net-negitive effect on the drug taker. Some of these negitive effects seems significantly over powered.

Some would say that that makes the rules more realistic.

 

[fusangite]

They have no mechanical reality in my games nor do they take up much time in descriptions. I can't really conceive of adventurers who are not binge drinkers unless they are on a specifically mandated holy quest. Otherwise, I just assume that binge drinking is the lynchpin of the whole lifestyle.

If by "recreational drugs" you mean "drugs that are illegal in the United States right now," it really depends on my particular setting. But I tend not to see a whole lot of difference between drugs depending on their legality in the 20th and 21st centuries; that seems like a weird way to categorize drugs in a fantasy or historical setting.

As for performance-enhancing or mystical drugs that aid in divination and the like, they feature too but tend to be treated as special, exceptional and sacramental in the way that halucinogens generally have been.

 

[Sejs]

A note to all you "hobbit weed" folks: You do know that in Tolkein's works, the "hobbit leaf" is explicitly tobacco, not marijuana, right? (despite the humor of imagining the hobbitish appetite is a result of their pot munchies...)

See part of that just doesn't click for me. I have a hard time seeing hobbits going into a nic fit and getting all bitchy. On the other hand, their propensity for taking it easy, staying at home, having five meals a day, and being generally laid back and lacking in broad ambition seems to be right in line with low-grade pot use.

 

[Desdichado]

If by "recreational drugs" you mean "drugs that are illegal in the United States right now," it really depends on my particular setting. But I tend not to see a whole lot of difference between drugs depending on their legality in the 20th and 21st centuries; that seems like a weird way to categorize drugs in a fantasy or historical setting.

That's true too--I don't really think of drugs in my setting as "recreational" although maybe that term would be appropriate after all; I'm not sure. They either are "ceremonial drugs" or they hold the same kind of role as opium in the Victorian timeframe. I suppose maybe that would be considered recreational, but "recreational drugs" is very much a modern--and semantically loaded, IMO--term to use.

 

[devilbat]

Yes.

I'm running a Waterdeep campaign, and illegal narcotics play a role. But one the Urban Druid will soon be putting a stop to.