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View Full Version : [3.5/P E6] Drugs and Addiction (My Players: DO NOT ENTER!)



Lonely Tylenol
2013-03-24, 09:08 AM
So, I'm passing over control of my long-running E6 game to a member of the current party, who will be DMing for the immediate (and possibly extended) future. Effectively, the group has decided to end this campaign and begin a new one in the same world.

I have decided on the character that I want to play, and the character itself is built and I am satisfied with its capabilities. Nothing on the sheet I would change. I did, however, have an idea for my character that I wanted to explore as an existing element of his character: he has, at the start of the adventure, an ongoing drug addiction.

The character suffers from anhedonia, which is basically an inability to feel pleasure from things that he used to enjoy; what exactly caused this loss of pleasure (or if he ever really felt pleasure normally) is not alluded to, and will probably come up later as part of ongoing character development. As a result, the character, in fits of emotional weakness, lack of resolve, whatever, pursues whatever extreme high they are capable of acquiring, be it pleasure or pain, just so that they may feel something, to know that they can still feel that pleasure and pain. As such, the character sort of shies away from hallucinogens, and tends towards... Well, the D&D equivalent of opiates. Problem is, aside from the two or three pages in Book of Vile Darkness (p. 41 on), I can't think of any drugs that exist in any capacity in any D&D 3.5 books (and I have little knowledge of Pathfinder-specific content here), or even Dragon Magazine. If nothing else exists, I will probably be using Agony ("Liquid Pain") as my drug of choice, but for an E6 game that gold point cost AND addiction severity is quite steep, but I'd like to know everything there is to know about drug addiction in D&D in order to best flush this aspect of my character out.

All first-party books are available, including any first-party content on d20pfsrd.com, and all Dragon Magazine content (if cited). I have already spoken to my DM about this, explained to him that I intend for this to be a matter both of conflict and character development, but I intend to play this maturely and not utterly derail the game with irrational behaviors as a result of "lulz addiction". The new DM is OK with it, and I'm OK with it, so this is NOT a topic about whether drugs are a good thing to do; this is a topic about what options are available for somebody who is taking them (for story!) anyway.

rockdeworld
2013-03-24, 09:56 AM
Dunno about drugs in D&D, I just want to warn you that the DM may not be the only one to ask: it seems to me like a good idea to make sure the other players are ok with it too, and none have trauma associated with drugs.

Keneth
2013-03-24, 10:04 AM
Well, Pathfinder has some reasonable thought out rules on drugs and addiction (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/afflictions/drugs), but nothing too elaborate. You'd probably need some DM fiat and a few new drugs to expand the system, but it shouldn't be too hard.

Lonely Tylenol
2013-03-24, 05:33 PM
Dunno about drugs in D&D, I just want to warn you that the DM may not be the only one to ask: it seems to me like a good idea to make sure the other players are ok with it too, and none have trauma associated with drugs.

This won't be the first time the group has had a character with a drug addiction, although last time, it was handled a little differently: the character was openly using drugs, hallucinogens mainly, and simply took a devil-may-care approach to the whole thing (the character was unapologetically evil and was able to hide the drawbacks of his addiction, but made no effort to conceal the benefits). This didn't cause any problems with any members of the group out-of-character, and most of the group has never used drugs (and none of them hards, or had severe experiences with them), so I'm hoping they will be fine with my character as well.


Well, Pathfinder has some reasonable thought out rules on drugs and addiction (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/afflictions/drugs), but nothing too elaborate. You'd probably need some DM fiat and a few new drugs to expand the system, but it shouldn't be too hard.

Reading up on it now. Thanks. :smallsmile:

I don't suppose if anybody knows if some Dragon Magazine provided expanded rules for drugs, or actual content, or anything of the sort?