Addiction and Side Effects

Despite theirlong-term downsides and strict control in many settlements, chems, drugs and stimulants are a big part of the trade that goes on in the wasteland. Drugs and chems frequently give a short term boost, but at the risk of addiction, withdrawal, or other nasty side effects.

A listing of most major drugs, chems, stimulants or addictive substances floating around in the wasteland is below. To qualify, an item must have a chance of either causing their user to become addicted or of resulting in one or more nasty side effects. Whenever a character takes a substance on this list, have them roll twice – first Endurance, MFD 1, and then Intelligence, MFD 1 with the addiction chance listed as a penalty to both rolls. If they succeed on at least one of these rolls they’re fine, but if they fail both they’re addicted. D. A. R. E. ing Do modifies the addiction chance and chance the penalty to both rolls, in some cases completely eliminating the penalty and even providing a net bonus. Characters with the Addictive Personality hindrance automatically fail the intelligence roll.

As an optional rule, frequent use of a drug increases the chance a character will become addicted to it. The addiction chance penalty to both rolls for a given drug category is multiplied by the number of times the character has taken that drug in the last 72 hours. In this case, a character who has just taken their third dose of Filly’s Fennel Absinthe in the past 3 days would be rolling with a 30% penalty. Use the addiction chance penalty for the most recently imbibed substance (so if they’d had two doses of a less addictive substance in the same category --say, Hard Apple Cider-- their second roll to resist addiction would have been a 10%. If they then went on to immediately have a dose of absinthe, the third roll would still be at 30%).

If addicted, a character not under the influence of the drug, stimulant, or other substance of their addiction suffers a penalty as listed. There is no limit to how many types of substances a character can be addicted to, but certain substances can be grouped together, such as alcohols, where addiction to one item in the group is the same as or very similar to addiction to any other item in the group. Substances in such groups will have the group name in parentheses after the substance name, and taking any substance in the group will temporarily alleviate the withdrawal penalties. All drugs and chems can be assumed to have a weight of ½ unless specifically stated otherwise. Alcohols are the major exception to this rule, and have a weight of 1. Similarly, all non-alcoholic chems are neither hydrating nor significantly dehydrating, excepting again Alcohol which is dehydrating.

There are no drugs or chems that provide sustenance. That fact does not stop characters from insisting otherwise, but you really can’t live off beer alone.
Table XVII: Addictive Drugs and Substances

The listed penalties are the results of short-term addiction; long term effects (those that won’t usually manifest until more than a month spent addicted) may be more severe, possibly even resulting in permanent injury, deformation, or death.

Also not listed here are drug interactions. Characters that are under the effects of multiple stimulants, drugs, or other substances on this list at the same time can suffer adverse effects in excess of those listed, and taking one drug while already under the influence of others increases the addiction chance by 10% per drug a character is already on.

A common example of combined the combination of Dash and any type of alcohol, commonly referred to as “ghoul’s blood.” Mixing these two frequently results in death via a heart attack due to the interaction of the chemicals within your wastelander’s system (Endurance MFD ½ or die without immediate medical attention). Many other drug combinations can produce short term increases in benefits but may increase, decrease, or have no effect on the long-term downsides. GM discretion as to what works poorly with what, but looking online for negative drug interactions may be a good idea if you’re looking for inspiration.

Finally, and most importantly, addictions can be removed. Zebra purge and cleanse potions and the Cleanse- Poison spells are both capable of removing the physical side effects of an addiction. This is not 100% effective at removing an addiction - some addictions have a strong mental component and may stick with the character indefinitely. Spending two charges from a healing talisman or one charge from a rejuvenation or restoration talisman (at the same TNs listed for normal use) can also remove a physical addiction. More on this is discussed on the next page.

Before we leave this section, have some good news: there are some drugs that are non-addictive. They’ve been listed in the adjacent table, with their effects.

*Radaway removes up to twice the user’s medicine skill rank in rads per dose (minimum 50, maximum 200) over a period of a few minutes. Its taste has been described by many, ponies especially, as “rancid oranges put through a blender.” Noteworthy adverse side effects include stomach pain, hair loss, and headaches. Rad Purge is said to taste slightly better and is faster-acting, and is hypoallergenic.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 859