People use. It’s a fact of life on the streets of the Sixth
World: People use substances to escape reality, and
more often than they want to admit, they abuse those
substances. Sometimes it’s for recreational escapism,
sometimes it’s to get an edge on the competition.
When people abuse substances, they run the risk of becoming
addicted.
Substance abuse and addiction should be handled in
terms of role-playing. Part of a character’s portrayal and
actions should be influenced by his choices, his temptations,
and his struggle to overcome (or succumb to) those
temptations. While the player should ultimately be allowed
to decide his character’s choices and fate, the gamemaster
should be ready to take advantage of opportunities for
drama during the game. If the game they’re playing leans
that way, dealing with addictions can provide tremendous
drama. A long-sober character can be pushed to her limits
by events around her, or she may discover a stash of her intoxicant
of choice, which she had long thought destroyed.
An active addict can find herself in jail, unable to get a fix
and forced to go cold turkey.
Characters can start the game with the
Addiction Negative quality (p. 77), or they can get it at the gamemaster’s
discretion during the game. This gives the gamemaster the ability to determine how common substance
abuse is in his own game, including whether or
not it’s a part of the game they’re comfortable including.
Addiction Tests
When you starts using drugs (or chips, or foci, or hot-sim,
or anything else in this spirits-forsaken world that’s addictive),
you might need to make an Addiction Test when
you do too much of it. Each substance that can hook you
has an Addiction rating and an Addiction Threshold, listed
on the Addiction Table (at right).
Addiction can be physiological, psychological, or
both. Psychological dependence usually stems from the
emotional gratification, euphoria, and escapism derived
from use of a drug. Physiological addiction results from
the body’s dependence on the substance for its continued
“survival.” Some drugs can confer both types of addiction,
making them among the most difficult to kick.
Every time you use an addictive substance during (11
— Addiction Rating) weeks in a row, you need to make an
Addiction Test. The clock on this keeps ticking even if you
skip a week, but every week you go without indulging
reduces the Addiction Threshold by 1 (it returns to normal
when you use again). If the threshold hits 0, you’re off the
hook until you use the substance again. This means that
substances with high Addiction ratings (like kamikaze)
could get you hooked in a single dose.
When it’s time for an Addiction Test, check to see if
the addiction type is psychological, physiological, or
both—that will tell you what you’ll be adding to your dice
pool for the test. If it’s psychological, use Logic + Willpower;
if it’s physiological use Body + Willpower. If it’s
both, you need to make two tests: one psychological and
one physiological. The threshold for the test is given on
the Addiction Table (at right). If you’re using more than
one addictive substance, you need to make tests for each
of them every time an Addiction Test comes up.
If you fail the Addiction Test, you gain the Addiction
quality for the substance you’ve been using (without
picking up any bonus Karma for it). If you already have the
Addiction quality for the substance, it gets more severe
by one step (Mild to Moderate to Severe to Burnout). If
you’re already at Burnout … well, it’s not good.
If you fail an Addiction Test when you’re already burnt
out, your Body or Willpower—whichever is higher—is permanently
reduced by 1, along with your maximum Rating
for that attribute. If they’re tied, reduce Body for a physiological
addiction or Willpower for a psychological addiction
(if it’s both, flip a coin). If either attribute drops to 0,
you fall into a coma. Fill your Stun and Physical Condition
Monitors and then start taking one box of overflow damage
(Exceeding the Condition Monitor, p. 170).
Role-Playing Addiction
Everyone handles addiction differently. In game terms,
this is based on their Addiction level (p. 77).
Mild addiction indicates more social use of the drug.
They’ll feel a craving “every now and then” and don’t see
any kind of problem with indulging their habit. There’s
no reason not to, as they see it. Most don’t realize that
they have a problem, even when they notice problems
with their attempts to cut back on their use. Mild addictions
are as close to manageable as addictions get.
Moderate addiction indicates that the character
has developed a tolerance for his drug of choice, and
displays stronger cravings. They begin to use more frequently,
up their dosages, or move on to something
harder. Others have begun to notice the problem, in
spite of attempts to conceal it. Repercussions from his
habit begin to increase; these generally include mood
swings, a drop in reliability, and the beginnings of financial
problems as he begins spending more on his habit.
Severe addictions are typical of stereotypical junkies.
Their lives are out of control, they’re constantly strung
out and need their fix, and every shred of income goes
to feed their habit. They’ll steal, borrow from loan sharks,
prostitute themselves, and just about anything else to finance
their next fix. It’s up to the gamemaster and the
player to figure out where the bottom is. One thing to
keep in mind is that when someone hits rock bottom, he
could die … or he could be inspired to climb out of the pit.
Burnout addictions are what happen when someone
bottoms out and then proceeds to go lower. They’re longterm
addicts who now display physiological and psychological
side effects from continual substance abuse.
Characters who continue in this state usually have life
expectancies measured in weeks, if not days, and they
suffer deteriorating health effects along the way.
Once a character has reached the Burnout stage,
things start getting bad very quickly. They begin to show
physiological health problems and slurred speech. As
the downward spiral progresses, they might also develop
abscesses, infections, incontinence, and other unpleasant
side effects. In addition to the physical effects,
the addict suffers psychological effects including blackouts,
flashbacks, drastic mood swings, schizophrenia,
and paranoia, among many others.
Getting a Fix
Once addicted, users need a dosage, or fix, on a regular
basis, as appropriate to the severity of their Addiction
quality (p. 77). To resist the craving, make a Withdrawal
Test (use rules for Addiction Test), applying modifiers
appropriate to the addiction level. If you don’t resist,
you need your fix or you’ll go into withdrawal.
Withdrawal and Staying Clean
Withdrawal is a bitch, whether it’s voluntary or forced.
Depending on the drug and the degree of addiction,
withdrawal may take a while. When you go too long
without using what you’re addicted to, you enter withdrawal,
with the effects listed under the Addiction quality
description (p. 77). If you can stay off the stuff for a
number of weeks equal to the Addiction rating, you can
make an Addiction Test for the substance—if you succeed,
you can buy off your Addiction quality with the
appropriate amount of Karma. If you fail or can’t afford
to buy off the quality, you’re still in withdrawal and the
process starts again.
Overdosing
Too much of anything can hurt you, or even kill you.
Whenever you take a substance while you’re already
on that substance or one that has a shared effect (like
the way cram and novacoke both affect Reaction), you
take Stun damage with a DV equal to the sum of the
Addiction Ratings of the overlapping drugs, resisted
with Body + Willpower.
