Naughty Narcotics (Drugs Guide)

[Hal]

Drugs are a big part of the world in real life and a big part of the World of Darkness. Anarch Sorcerers use drugs to enhance their skills with blood sorcery, mages use drugs to reach enlightenment, Garou can awaken drugs and much more. This is a guide to explain how drugs work in our setting, opening up more than the script offers in terms of gameplay mechanics and the drugs you can get. This guide might be tweaked in the future to better fit our game but for now it will follow what's found within the books merged with what the script offers. Have fun with all the new drugs that can be spawned in-game as roleplay items. In the case of vampires they're able to receive effects through blood from people who are under the effects of narcotics.

Pot, Hashish, one of the most common drugs on the planet. Pot can alter your sense of time, give you the munchies or turn you into a downright idiot for a few hours. It can also induce feelings of paranoia, nausea and potentially panic attacks. Despite what the Internet says cannabis is addictive and withdrawal can lead to mood swings, feeling sick and a loss of appetite to name a few.

System: A character under the influence of cannabinoids gains one die to all Mental rolls. Heavy use of the drug can potentially lead to losing a die from Dexterity based rolls.

Vampires; The vampire experiences a slightly altered perception of time, as well as a one-die reduction to Perception dice pools. Difficulties of frenzy rolls are decreased by one, due to the calming effect of the drug. The effects last for about an hour.

Werewolves; Subtract one from Perception-based dice pools and increase the difficulties of all Rage rolls by one. The effects last for about half an hour.

Game wise Cannabis lasts for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Cocaine, Crack, Meth, Speed; Characters under the influence of stimulants receive 1 die to Strength and Dexerity while under the effects but they also lose a die from Willpower based rolls on judgment, restraint, or common sense. Each dose also inflicts two bashing damage on the character once the effects have worn off, the character can put off this damage by taking more but this just doubles the damage once the character eventually crashes. A dose of coke lasts about two hours, crack lasts roughly half that long, and crank lasts between four to six hours per dose. Every time a character consumes stimulants they must roll Stamina (Difficulty 6), a failure leads to the character having irrational behaviour (recklessness, flash temper, violent mood swings, etc.) Prolonged use leads to addiction.

Vampires; Vampires with the Celerity Discipline gain an extra level of the Discipline for (10 minus Stamina) minutes after drinking. Difficulties to resist or control frenzy are increased by one.

Werewolf; The werewolf immediately gains a point of temporary Rage. For the rest of the scene, the character only needs three successes on a Rage roll to frenzy. Every time a Werewolf ingests cocaine after the second time they must roll Rage (Difficulty 6) for frenzy if they take within 30 minutes of each other.

Ecstasy and mood-altering drugs; Ecstasy or MDMA alters the brain to flood you with serotonin and make you happier. Gameplay wise Ecstasy allows you to have an extra die of Willpower and an extra die of Dexterity at the expense of taking one Bashing. When on Ecstasy a character must roll Stamina (Difficulty 6) or risk the negative side-effects, tooth grinding, dehydration, etc. A botch indicates the character takes a number of bashing die equal to the 1s rolled. On the plus side Ecstasy can add one die to Perception rolls once taken. Ecstasy lasts for three hours.

LSD, DMT, mind-bending substances; Mind-bending substances are found across the entire planet across all of history as gateways into the spiritual, with many ancient cultures using psychedelics as the tools to access these gateways. A dose of psychedelics reduce a character's dicepool for any roll by one. LSD trips last between nine to twelve hours in total.

Mages; Mages can opt in to receive -1 difficulty for the correlating spheres while tripping Correspondence, Mind, Spirit, and Time-based magick rolls while receiving a -2 dicepool penalty.

Vampires; The vampire lowers all dice pools by one to three (inability to concentrate). He suffers effects similar to the Level Two Dementation power The Haunting. Depending on the precise nature of the “trip,” he may gain extra dice in one particular Ability (such as Awareness) or find his Auspex Discipline raised by a dot or more. The effects last for (8 minus Stamina) hours.

Werewolves; All dice pools are reduced by 2 dice, as the character is unable to concentrate. The character’s perceptions of the world are altered, and his reactions will depend on what he believes to be happening. A character who takes hallucinogens before meditating to regain Gnosis can regain up to two points per hour of meditation, rather than one. The effects last for (8 minus Stamina) hours.

Opiates (Heroin, Morphine, Opium, etc.) and Sedatives (Valium, Quaaludes, etc.): Mostly all downers supress pain and leave a person unable to function while experience true bliss. Gameplay wise a dose of Opiates or Sedatives reduce pain-based dicepool penalties by one per dose and increase Stamina die by two. Meanwhile, the character’s Dexterity- and Social-Trait dice pools drop by one die per dose. Each dose inflicts one automatic bashing. These drugs are highly addictive and appropriate flaws must be taken after extended use.

Mages; Mages can decrease the difficulty of vision-based Mind or Spirit spellcasting rolls by one while on any of these drugs.

Vampires; The vampire subtracts two from Dexterity and all Ability dice pools for (10 minus Stamina) minutes, and experiences a dreamlike state for (12 minus Stamina) hours. Difficulties of frenzy rolls are decreased by one.

Werewolves; Subtract two from Dexterity and all Ability dice pools for (10 minus Stamina) minutes. The character experiences a dreamlike state for (12 minus Stamina) hours, during which the difficulties of Rage rolls are increased by one.

[Nastas]

certified drug tutorials by hal

[DeadManLoke]

10/10 honestly, good read

[Nevo]

hal, you fucking degenerate

[Jeffrey Gain]

this is great

[Mephisto]

Lovely. Add more effects that players should know about such as what the character feels if you may.

But anyway, a lovely guide.

[Shmoits]

boycott management, nerfing mage for no reason. Every race gets a buff from stimulants that results in extra actions except Mages seemingly have their extra action missing :thonk: