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Message: <blockquote data-quote="coyote6" data-source="post: 166610" data-attributes="member: 1225">Drugs in gamesPart of the evil GM in me likes drugs with positive effects and massive eventual bad side effects. That way, I can load evil NPC goons down with 'em, taking up 'treasure' for 'em while being cheaper than actual magical booster items, and making said goons challenging for the PCs to fight. Yet when the PCs defeat them, and capture said drugs, they aren't likely to use them, due to the bad aftereffects. And if they do use them -- well, <insert evil GM laughter>.I used Shadowrun's combat drugs that way, too. Crazed gang members hopped up on drugs provided something approaching a challenge, without requiring magic or hundreds of thousands of nuyen worth of cyberware. (IME, in SR, Speed Rules, and unenhanced goons are just fodder for the wired and magical.)Note that one can probably "blame" SR & cyberpunk games in general for the "drugs that give benefits". They almost certainly got the idea from actual cyberpunk fiction. In the fiction, some stories had military-designed combat boosters, to make soldiers stronger, faster, etc. The nasty side effects & addictive bits were unintentional (and maybe not universal; ISTR some fiction where drugs without terrible long-term side effects were available).(Of course, if one is worried about giving a 'drugs are good' message, I wonder what one does about potions? They can sure look a lot like drugs with a different name . . . <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> )</blockquote>

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