Why aren't there good alcohol rules for D&D?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I feel sort of burned by my last "Dragon" purchase. In addition to the watery content (the kraken, a few water damage spells) and the Arabian monsters (which were fabulous and another screaming example of why we need a 3.5 Arabian Adventures, even one without the Zakhara setting info), I specifically picked up the issue because of the alcohol in D&D article. I have long thought that, for a game where probably half of adventures start with the party in a tavern somewhere, the absence of alcohol rules in the core books was a strange oversight, to put it mildly. (In my version of 4E, they get added even before racial/paragon levels do.)

So the article, instead, turns out to be about new alchemy recipes and new booze potions, with Craft (Brewer) giving synergy bonuses instead of being the primary way to make alcohol, since normal alcohol, after a (to me) needlessly long history of normal alcohol isn't given stats or rules. Gah! I'm not sure whether this was a wacky idea by the writer, wacky changes requested by the editor, or what, but I can't see who this article is meant to satisfy. People, like me, wanting alcohol rules, since characters spend so much time around it, won't get them. People who want magical/semi-magical alcohol get only a few examples and a long write-up about normal alcohol. Maybe people who always wanted to know the history of booze so they can create their own rules are the target audience. Who knows?

Anyway, where the heck should I be looking for good rules on booze in D&D? I know there are several PDFs out there that cover this material, and maybe one or two hard copy books as well. Unfortunately, these seem to all be lightly reviewed; has anyone read enough of these competing rulesets to be able to recommend one or the other?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=164&

Edit: submitted too soon. That's ENWorld's Tournoments Fairs and Taverns. good book.

 

[Morrus]

I recommend Tournaments, Fairs & Taverns, but then I would - I wrote the alcohol rules in it! I think they're pretty good.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=164&

 

[Henry]

There have been for about three years now.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=164&

EN Publishing's Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns; NOT ONLY does it have examples of tourneys and fairs to drop into your campaign, NOT ONLY does it have competition rules, NOT ONLY does it have "bear-wrasslin" as a game, but it has some very simple and neat-effect alcohol rules. I love that book.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

If the printed stuff doesn't live up to expectations, then larping could be good.

 

[Dav]

Wizards of the Coast did write up alcohol rules of their own in their Arms & Equipment Guide.

Another possibility is to treat alcohol as a poison.

 

[atom crash]

Alcohol affects different people in different ways. I'd like to see some hard rules on drinking about as much I'd like to see rules on sex. Which is to say, I wouldn't. I can't imagine a situation in which I would actually need such rules.

The only rules on drinking I need are how much it costs.

player of dwarf PC: "I get drunk."

me: "At 2 cp per mug, it costs you 12 gp to get drunk. Then you pass out and someone steals your wallet."

All that said, the book mentioned thrice above is pretty nifty.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Alcohol affects different people in different ways.

If that were the case, there'd be no laws against driving drunk. People might behave differently while under the effects of alcohol, but there are absolutely standard physiological effects that alcohol will have on a drinker.

I can't imagine a situation in which I would actually need such rules.

You can't imagine a scenario where the players get into a barroom brawl, with some (or all) of the combatants impaired and want to know how badly they're impaired? You can't imagine a scenario where, in the midst of a celebratory banquet, the party spellcaster must cast a difficult spell to deal with a surprise encounter, where the cost of failure is incredibly high? You can't imagine someone playing an alcoholic dwarven barbarian, who gets himself good and drunk before raging? You can't imagine novice heroes looking for a potion hidden among alcohol, with the young heroes getting drunker and drunker, as they give each drink "just a sip" to see if it's alcoholic or not? You can't imagine that alcoholic dwarf from before, now adventuring in a "dry" culture, and wrestling with his addiction and risking imprisonment, or worse, as he tries to brew his own alcohol?

Especially in a city campaign, where taverns are usually nearby, I think this would be tremendously useful rules. D&D is more than kicking in doors, killing stuff and looting the bodies.

 

[Henry]

Man, Whizbang, you're like a man in a bar who just said he's outta whiskey, and he's got three bartenders handing him the same drink...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Wizards of the Coast did write up alcohol rules of their own in their Arms & Equipment Guide.

What a staggeringly strange place to shoehorn it in. Heck, it'd make more sense in "Races of Stone" than in a collection of weapons and vehicles.

There have been for about three years now.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=164&

EN Publishing's Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns; NOT ONLY does it have examples of tourneys and fairs to drop into your campaign, NOT ONLY does it have competition rules, NOT ONLY does it have "bear-wrasslin" as a game, but it has some very simple and neat-effect alcohol rules. I love that book.

How does it compare to "The Taverner's Trusty Tome" (also from EN Publishing), anyone know?

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1942&