Drugs

Drugs

To keep things simple, all drugs are available as an injection, or in tablet form ( you won't always have a choice.. All drugs may be purchased at a higher tech lvl and at tech 14 or high they are no longer addictive.

Only 1d6 of any type of Drug are available on a planet and a person may only search once per visit to an A, B or C starport.

(M) drugs are Military and (P) drugs are illegal on most planets. Military drugs are considered Very Rare and illegal for anyone not in the Military or a Mercenary Company.

Drugs do not take effect immediately, even injected drugs taking a few seconds to circulate in the operative’s bloodstream. The time a drug takes to become effective depends on the delivery method, as follows:

Ingested: 10 rounds

Smoked: 5 rounds

Injected: 1 round

These are full round delays.

Some drugs are addictive. Every time a drug with an addiction level is used the character must make a Vigour Roll apply the penaty. If the roll is unsuccessfull the character gains the Minor Habit Hindrance. Refer to the rules for the effect of this. This may be brought off in the usual way or through advanced and expensive medical treatment.

Every time a Psi drug is used the character must make a Spirit Roll -2. Failure will result in character becoming shaken and a temporary loss of 1D6-2 power points ( 24 hours). Anyone within 2 meters of the character may notice that he/she has used a drug (skin colour change, vague look etc). A Raise is required to identify the drug as a Psi drug and of course that the user has Psi powers

MedMonitor: (TL10+) $1000 x TL above 10. Software is separate and same price. Uncommon

(Advanced) personal medical monitor that will record the patient condition and suggest treats in real time in response to changes. Used in conjuction with a Jabber or StimStick applicator this can save your life. MedMonitor can be set to auto-applicate (using a Jabber) or to consult.

If set to auto treat then you must override its treatment or it takes effect (AG-2 roll, assuming you can), this can be crucial when the medMonitor makes an error. If set to Consult then an action must be taken to activate the treatment. Treatment can be triggered manually.

Adds +1 to any Healing (First Aid) attempt.

TL10 monitors are usually backpack or chest mounted, about the size of a lunchbox (6x4x2 inches), they will shrink in size by 1 inch for each extra TL, so TL10-5x4x2, TL11-4x4x2, TL12-3x4x2, TL13-3x3x2, TL14-3x2x2.

The software (diagnostic) will be similarly linked to TL, TL10 d4, TL11 d6, TL12 d8, TL13 d10, TL14 d12. Software is one level backward compatible, so TL 12 software could be used in TL11 MedMon.

Basic MedMon will hold 4 injections, each TL above 12 increases this by 1.

Jabber: (TL10) $200 U

(Advanced) Jabbers are attached to the customer and linked to their MedMonitor to allow the immediate delivery of the appropriate treatments, or on command delivery of drugs.

Drugs (SLA Version)(TL8-13)

Many operatives make use of the drugs SLA manufactures, gambling on avoiding addiction for the rewards of increased combat effectiveness or just being able to blot out the things they see and do during the course of their employment. SLA drugs come in three types: combat, soft and medical. Combat drugs provide the most dramatic results but are highly addictive. Soft drugs are designed largely for relaxation or, at least, not to be used in the field, and it’s rare to become addicted to them unless use is very heavy. Finally, medical drugs are barely addictive at all and are the only type of drug allowed to civilians.

The Hit

Drugs do not take effect immediately, even injected drugs taking a few seconds to circulate in the operative’s bloodstream. The time a drug takes to become effective depends on the delivery method, as follows:

Ingested: 10 rounds

Smoked: 5 rounds

Injected: 1 round

These are full round delays. After injecting Elixir, for example, a character must wait until their next action before feeling the effects. Needless to say, waiting for your Elixir to kick in while taking punishment from a Thresher powersuit or mob of carriens can be a terrifying experience.

It is not possible to take cocktails of similar drugs or to increase the effects by taking multiple doses.

Any time a character takes a new drug of the same category (combat, soft or medical) while still under the effects of another drug of that category, the previous drug is immediately neutralised (ignore Latency effects). The only exception to this rule is Kick- Start/Elixir, which works in addition to existing drugs and where multiple doses allow multiple Vigour rolls to heal wounds when it kicks in.

Addiction

Every time a dose of a drug is taken, the player should make a Vigour roll for their character with a bonus that depends on the type of drug being taken.

Combat: 0

Soft: +1

Medical: +2

If the Vigour roll is failed, the user has become addicted. Once addicted, one or more doses of the drug must be taken every day or the character is plunged into Withdrawal (see below). How many doses depends on the drug and is listed on the addiction line of the drug’s description (first value).

Withdrawal

Upon entering into Withdrawal, a character immediately becomes Fatigued, receiving a single level of ‘Withdrawal fatigue’ for soft or medical drugs, or two levels for combat drugs. Fatigue caused by Withdrawal may only be removed in one of two ways. Either the character takes the drug again, in which case all Withdrawal fatigue from that drug is immediately removed, or they manage to ride out their cold turkey by removing their Withdrawal fatigue levels with Vigour checks.

At the end of each week of Withdrawal, the character makes a Vigour check (modified by the drugs addictiveness modifier and any fatigue or wound penalties) to remove a level of Withdrawal fatigue, only breaking their addiction when the last fatigue level has been successfully removed. Spending a long time in Withdrawal can affect a character permanently. A natural 1 on the Vigour dice when rolling to remove Withdrawal fatigue gives the recovering addict the Habit hindrance, lowering their Charisma by 1. ‘Snake eyes’ instead gives them the Mean (Haggard) hindrance, lowering their Charisma by 2.

Afteraffects

When a drug wears off a VG is made, with modifiers, if failed the user will suffer +1 FAT.

Drugs with Nanotech (TL14+)

With the introduction of nanotech a new world of bodily abuse was opened, not only could drugs be made more specific, but even if they damaged you it could be treated (as long as you had the credits). Addiction could be removed, or added in if you wanted it.

In TMHM drugs come in three types: Hard, Soft and Medical.

Combat drugs (Hard) provide the most dramatic results but are highly addictive. Soft drugs are designed largely for relaxation or, at least, not to be used in the field, and it’s rare to become addicted to them unless use is very heavy. Finally, medical drugs are barely addictive at all and are the only type of drug allowed to civilians.

The Hit

Drugs do not take effect immediately, even injected drugs taking a few seconds to circulate in the bloodstream. Because of this drugs that require considerable effort to administer and get operating will be placed in Pre- & Post- event time slots, which is to say you take them before or after an event when you have the time to administer them. Fast acting drugs, injected into the blood, will take one round to become effective (start of the round after you inject).

It is possible to have multiple drugs running at the same time, but there will be draw backs that often make this an unwise option (see Latency).

When drugs are combined the addiction target (normally 4) will be increased +1 for each extra drug taken, and the worst modifier will be used. If you become addicted then the combination of drugs that are present at that time will be what you need to take every day to avoid withdrawal. An addiction roll is still made as each drug is taken, resulting in multiple rolls of growing risk.

The withdrawal effects of the drugs are also combined.

Latency

Many drugs will have latent penalties that do not manifest on normal usage, combined with other drugs however these latent penalties will become active. See the description of the drugs listed below. Where latency overlaps only use the worst modifier.

Addiction

All modern drugs can be made to be completely non-addictive, it merely requires the correct nanites to be added to the mix. Of course such an addition costs money, and some people (drug pushers) want to have addiction, and often ADD addiction to their drugs. So the addiction properties of your drugs will often depend on your source. Medical drugs will normally be addiction free, but Soft and Hard drugs will depend on the supplier.

Addiction now comes in two forms, Native and Formal. Native addiction is the normal addictive properties of the drug, what it does to you in its natural form before nanites are added to adjust this. Formal addiction is what is added to the drug by the maker. When a drug has both forms they will complement each other, simply add the two values together to make a stronger addiction factor. The addiction factor is used to modify the VG roll used, as is explained below.

Addiction can be cured of course, simply another injection of purging nanites will do the trick, usually! Unscrupulous dealers have discovered ways to counter this, building in nanites to make sure the addiction remains. In such cases the nanites will battle it out for victory based on how strong they are. The factor of the two nanites will be converted into dice (1=d4, 2=d6, 3=d8), they will have one contest roll each week. Generic purge nanites will be at -2 against specific addiction nanites. Dealers will often offer their own purge nanites for their own addiction nanites, a dollar is a dollar after all.

If a drug has an addictive form then every time the user takes a dose they must make a VG roll (less the addiction factor) to see if they become addicted. If the Vigour roll is failed, the user has become addicted. Once addicted, one or more doses of the drug must be taken every day or the character is plunged into Withdrawal (see below).

Withdrawal

Upon entering into Withdrawal, a character immediately becomes Fatigued, receiving a single level of ‘Withdrawal fatigue’ for an addiction factor of 3 or less, and two levels of FAT for higher. Fatigue caused by Withdrawal may only be removed in one of two ways. Either the character takes the drug again, in which case all Withdrawal fatigue from that drug is immediately removed, or they manage to ride out their withdrawal period by removing their Withdrawal fatigue levels with Vigour checks.

At the end of each week of Withdrawal, the character makes a Vigour check (modified by the drugs addictiveness factor and any fatigue or wound penalties) to remove a level of Withdrawal fatigue, only breaking their addiction when the last fatigue level has been successfully removed.

Spending a long time in Withdrawal can affect a character permanently. A natural 1 on the Vigour dice when rolling to remove Withdrawal fatigue gives the recovering addict the Habit hindrance, lowering their Charisma by 1. ‘Snake eyes’ instead gives them the Mean (Haggard) hindrance, lowering their Charisma by 2.

Afteraffects

When a drug wears off a VG is made, with modifiers, if failed the user will suffer +1 FAT.

Optional Rule: Building Up Resistance

Once a character is addicted, GMs may wish there to be a chance they grow resistant to the drug they’re taking. At the end of each session, the character should make a Vigour roll for each drug they’re addicted to. On a failure, the number of doses they need to take for it to have an effect (and to count as satisfying their addiction) increases by one, rising to 2 on the First failure, then 3, and so on.