But there is no disadvantage whatsoever to being addicted to Betel (and it is supposed to be a disadvantage, remember?). With alcohol, marijuana, deepweed, or any other drug, there are downsides, and the risk of increasing addiction. You can't ever become more addicted to Betel.

Legal RAW? Sure. Cheesy as hell? Yup.

If he's paranoid, choose a mild addiction to any of the other perception boosting drugs, such as novacoke, nitro, or even long haul.

Or, you know, he could play his character and use Betel.

An If I choosed to use Betel has a replacement drug ? To recover from a harder drug ?

Good point.

It's your character, in any event. If your DM allows it, go for it. I was just expressing my opinion on the matter.

Then your character uses Betal but doesn't get free BP for it?

And your logic in that ? Is there a place in the rules where the addiction mild must be from something that can go deeper. My GM can just say, that negative quality is not removable and the character must always have a fresh one in mouth after the effect are off.

To quote the rules:

A character with the Addiction quality is addicted to alcohol,
drugs, BTL chips, or a similar substance with a detrimental effect on the
character’s health (note that nicotine, caffeine, and sugar do not count).

I highlighted the important part. Betal is similar to nicotine, caffeine and sugar in this instance.

Besides - you don't need a quality (positive or negative) to highlight every aspect of your character's personality. That's what roleplay is for.

my GM accepted it ...

And that's fine. Not trying to dictate what your gaming group should or should not do. Just pointing out that there is indeed a paragraph in the rules to prevent it without having the GM necessarily having to defend it through house ruling.

Ok thanks ...

Since we're quoting rules...


So, in its description Betel says that it can have a mild addiction. Also...



So yeah, maybe it doesn't have any negatives on its own, but taking that means you're more likely to experiment and become addicted to more serious stuff. Also keep in mind that addiction itself has downsides. If our merc here is ever without it for an extended period of time (In a foreign country and can't find the brand that has the same kick (and gets addicted to a couple other brands in the process), in jail, hiding out, whenever) he stars suffering withdraw. That withdraw is just as bad with betel as it is with any other drug.

I never got this kind of thinking. Sure, if you're designing something for a military campaign, dropping pistols could work. But for mirror shades work, often you can't get away with lugging a machine pistol around. So you're going to go unarmed instead? Getting semi-auto pistols at 3 costs just 6 BP or 4 for 10 BP, that's a bargain, gives you a ton of options for concealed carry, legal carry (only limited fake ID backgrounds justify automatic licenses), and if you have to go somewhere unarmed and things turn south chances are the first gun you liberate will be a pistol.

Still not possible to take it as a negative quality on character creation as far as I'm concerned, since it doesn't fulfill the requirements listed. Where is that from though? Haven't seen Betel in the core rules.

Betel is from Arsenal pg.74.

Cheers, don't have that book - is it worth getting?

Does seem a little odd they would include something like Betel as an actual drug.

..Addiction to Betel Legal RAW and cheesy?? yes but Addiction to G3 (Arsenal pg. 74) takes cheesyness to it's own level.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

IMOO..yes it is worth it, new weapons,new armors,new electronic toys..

Heck, I'd practically get it just for the weapon and vehicle mod stuff, and the new vehicles and drones. Tripling the number of weapons available, doubling the armor, and introducing alot of cool things like survival gear for everything from toxic areas to space to deserts, and spy toys is just even more bonus. It's one of the three books that I always have open when making a character.

They also include an improved version of chocolate, some gingko extract food supplement and a form of artificial blood plasma in the drug section.
The chemistry chapter spans the full range from legal highs that hardly do anything to an improved and deadlier version of Kamikaze, weaponized hallucinogens, and everything in between.

It doesn't include the really fundamental stuff that will make half of the group want to stat out a new character, such as Runner's Companion or Street Magic- but it has a lot of nice gadgets that can be brought into the campaign at any point.
And it's not limited to stuff for combat oriented characters or riggers, everyone will find some new pieces of gear in there.

It's not a must-have, but a really nice add-on.

Except maybe awakened, though even they might like some of the gun options, and there are a couple toys here and there for them. Think it introduces some extra manatech stuff, not to mention awakened drugs... okay, guess even awakened have a use for the book.

Actually hackers/technomancers might have the least use for it.

Well, if they are into drones, they absolutely need it.

Awakened would like the new armor options best, i think.
And some of the drugs, of course.
eX is probably the best choice for Charisma-boosting drugs in the game (unless you're from a LOG-based tradition, of course).
Speaking of drugs, there's a lot of compounds useful for hackers and mancers, too.

Combining Paranoia and significant levels of Influence Group is a little weird. Not wrong, but weird and terribly unhelpful. Paranoia, as the negative quality, gives you a -3 modifier to any interaction with everyone except Contacts with a loyalty rating over 4. That basically negates your entire Influence Group lvl 3 since you're horribly put off by everyone you meet. Also, if you're getting the Black Market Weapons Pipeline for anything besides RP purposes, it's kind of a waste. Weapons are cheap unless you're dealing with large quantities. Better to choose a Wares Pipeline for a cyber guy.

Awakened drugs ...



I'll look that up. Thanks.

Blackmarket Pipeline (wares) will only save you 19,000 nuyen at startup, but, if you're planing to keep this guy around, it will save you lots of money on a Sam's biggest money sink, Deltaware. Also, you can have a ready and willing contact to buy up the used cyber from all the prime runners your gm sends at you. Without a pipeline, it can be hard to find a guy to buy up generic bioware before it spoils. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smokin.gif)

It allowed me to pass from a scooter to a Horizon-Doble Revolution. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)