Hungover

Hungover I, II, III

We've all been there: you finished a job, partied a bit harder than you should have, and in the morning, you wake up half-naked in a shopping cart, with a splitting headache and no idea why you're holding a poodle. Just me? Okay.

Effects

Being hungover affects the whole body, and has several effects on characters with this status:

• Headache: the character has 1 point of Stun Damage for each level of this status. This damage cannot be healed separately of the hangover itself, but will automatically heal when the Hungover level decreases.
• Light Sensitivity: in Full Light and Bright Light, the character is Blinded with the same level as their Hungover status. This means that at the first two levels, they take a -3 penalty per level to all tests involving visibility, and at the third level, they automatically fail any tests involving visibility.
• Fatigued: At the second level, the character takes a -2 penalty to all dice pools besides Damage Resistance tests. At the third level, this penalty increases to -4. This effect does not stack with the Light Sensitivity penalty.
• Sound Sensitivity: At the second and third level, the character cannot gain or spend Edge on Social tests that involve sound that's louder than a whisper. Sound coming from their surroundings counts for this as well.

Treatment

Many treatments and folk cures exist for hangovers; unfortunately, most of them are ineffective. That said, there are several ways to get rid of a hangover:

• Even if no effort is made to treat the hangover, its level will automatically decrease by one every two hours.
• If the character eats something and makes sure to stay hydrated, they will recover faster, at a rate of one level every hour.
• A Medkit (core rulebook, page 119) can be used to treat the hangover as if it were damage. Make a Biotech + Logic test, or a medkit rating + Logic test, against a threshold of 5 - target's Essence (if the character has more than 5 Essence, the healer gets an automatic hit added to their roll). Every hit above the threshold will reduce the hangover by 1 level. This treatment takes one minute to start and one minute per Hungover level that is cured, and consumes one batch of medkit supplies.
• The Antidote spell (core rulebook, page 135) can be used to treat hangovers: every hit on the Sorcery + Magic test reduces the Hungover level by one.

Mitigation

If you don't have a spellcaster to help out, medkit supplies are too expensive for you, and you can't afford to wait for the hangover to go away on its own, a number of methods exist to counter the effects of a hangover:

• Consumer-strength painkillers can be purchased pretty much anywhere (Availability n/a). They cost 5¥ per dose, or 10¥ per dose for trolls.
  The painkillers will take 10 minutes to take effect, after which the Headache, Fatigued, and Sound Sensitivity effects will be as if the hangover's level is 1 lower than it actually is, for the duration of the hangover.
• Both sunglasses and the Flare Compensation visual enhancement (core rulebook, page 275) will negate the Light Sensitivity effect.
• Noise-canceling headphones will negate the Sound Sensitivity effect for sound coming from the character's surroundings while worn - but the sound coming out of the headphones themselves may still trigger this.
  The Select Sound Filter audio enhancement (core rulebook, page 276) can be used for the same purpose, while still allowing you to hear the person you're talking to.

Type

Physiological