Drugs In Your Campaign World

[Panamon Creel]

Fantasy drugs are prevalent in my current urban campaign. I've used several of the drugs from the BOVD and Ptolus. The main drug is dragonblood mixed with dreamlily leaves which is smoked. Most of the PCs are too scared of the addiction and withdrawal to take it, but the gnomish bard often smokes it before performing on stage. One of the PC's main patrons is a psionic "hippie" that is constantly high on various drugs. He says it boosts his psionic powers. (I actually modeled this NPC after the shirpa character played by Val Kilmer on an Entourage episode.)

That being said, I think drugs are evil. They are illegal in my campaign world, and in the long run the influence of drugs and the people who use them will betray and hurt the PCs if they continue to dabble with them.

 

[the Jester]

I have drugs in my game, including alcohol and most "natural" drugs (mushrooms, marijuana- called hempflower in the game world, several other smoking herbs like damiana and tobacco, etc). I also have a number of fantasy drugs- everything from crystals that dwarves smoke called "dzur" (kinda like crack) to psychedelic grubs that you can eat to super-alcohol type stuff (tiley).

Drugs have been prominent plot points at several points in my campaign, including when it started; there was an island enslaved via addicting the populace to blackroot grass involved that time.

I actually even have a Cydra wiki page on the campaign's drugs.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

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.

A little guy with a wild look in his eye comes up to you. He stares up at you and declares, "Please, sir, I want some cheese!"

I'd start calling halflings "mice."

Anyway, in my campaign, there's a pink crystal that is made from boiled-down Elixirs of Love. Ingesting some of the crystal (it melts like rock candy) will make you fall completely in love with the first person you see for the rest of the day--not just romantic love, but filial, maternal, deific, you name it. Although it gets more use as something unsavory types dose others with, it also has its fans. After all, when you're in love, everything feels so much better. You have your lover, your guardian, your protege, your god. However, the next day, you feel like falling completely out of love--imagine that you break up, get turned out of the house, and have a spiritual crisis, all at the same time, and you recognize that this is the way it really was after all. The stuff is incredibly dangerous.