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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Cartographist" data-source="post: 4919677" data-attributes="member: 57114">My rules for drugs are different--although also loosely inspired by the Book of Vile Darkness. Basically, drugs are low-powered potions that, when you ingest them, have a certain small but positive effect on you. Unlike BoVD, there is no need to make a save against them taking effect--you want them to have that effect so why force you to save against it. [My logic is that if you are drinking a potion, for instance, it will work as intended, no save required. A drug is merely a 'nonmagical' potion, so no save either.] Now, the save comes into account after you've taken the drug X times, where X is different for each drug. Thereafter, each time you take the drug, you must save or become addicted. There are several negative effects from being addicted: If you take a single dose of that drug enough times, it will eventually stop having that effect, UNLESS you take more and more of it as your body builds up a tolerance to it. When you stop taking the drug, you experience some penalty that was the opposite of the positive effect. The penalties grow steeper and steeper the more addicted you are, which is tracked by the DM on an addiction chart. The only way to overcome the penalties is time (as your body slowly loses its addiction over the course of days or weeks) or by ingesting more of the drug. I like my system, because the player himself gets 'addicted' to the benefits of having his character take the substance. The character over time is forced to purchase more and more of the drug to achieve the same bonuses or experience an ever increasing penalty when he tries to stop. I also like this system, because the 'drugs' are never presented as such.  They are just small potions that, after some number of times being used, stop providing the positive.  Of course, the person supplying the potion will advise the character to "just try two or three" and the bonus will return.  I'll have the player roll saves without telling him what they're for, so he won't know that the character is addicted or even in danger of becoming addicted.  Then, when he grows frustrated with having to purchase more and more and decides to stop taking them, he is hit with some penalty.  THEN he'll have to suffer the consequences, or purchase more. The roleplaying possibilities are limitless. As you can imagine, those who favor heroic, high fantasy might not like this system. I tend to enjoy grittier, dark fantasy. Even in my 4E.</blockquote>

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