addictions Options

[fool]

I opened a can of worms with my character when I had him have an addiction to gambling. Now we have a character in another campaign who is mildly addicted to alcohol, and gambling and meoderately addiccted to sex. I know the rules specifically say you can't be addicted to sugar or cigarretes (unrealistic esp since source books have made bug about sugar addiction being a big deal in the trans'aluet area and cig's are incredibly addictive and harmful.) what do people think opf these types of addictions? (BTW we were each running 2 characters last night and the player running the addicted character was also running a seductress shaman... quite the combo since I was running a munchkin face.)

[TinkerGnome]

In my view, an addiction should have two key aspects:

1. It should be something that is legitimately possible to become mentally or physically dependant on.
2. Indulging in the activity should have immediate or near immediate negative consequences.

Gambling works since people actually crave it mentally. You could also work up a homebrew conversion of the Compulsion disadvantage to cover it if it's more of a "doesn't refuse a chance to place a bet" thing and less of a "craves the high he gets from gambling" thing. There's an obvious loss there (the cash).

Alcohol is another good one. So are BTLs and most street drugs. The items all have immediate effects (being drunk, being in simworld, various other things... and they all cost cash).

The only one that I'd be leery of is the sex one. Maybe if he were addicted to hookers, but just any sex... doesn't seem like it'd be as bad.

[Guest_MK Ultra_*]

Imagin some sex burn out, who actually managed to lose 1 point of essence, by having too much sex (then again, you could argue it was some sexual disease). :grinbig:

[neko128]

[TinkerGnome]

There's a difference between an addiction and a compulsion, though. Anyway, I might allow it if the character really knew how to play it as a disadvantage.

[Ravor]

[TinkerGnome]

Addiction always makes me think of this line from Last Man Standing:

[neko128]

[TinkerGnome]

I consider addiction and compulsion to be two seperate mechanics, though. The Seductress mentor spirit disadvantage is what I'd call a compulsion (character is presented with an opportunity and has to roll to avoid acting on it). Addictions are different from that because as long as you keep your "beast" fed, you don't have to worry about it.

The difference between a compulsive gambler and a person addicted to gambling, mechanically, would be that the compulsive would have a hard time resisting a bet, even if there were thirty bets offered in a row while the addict has to gamble regularly but can pass up other opportunities with ease as long as he's had his fix.

Addicts only have to roll when they are trying to resist their weekly/daily/constant cravings. Compulsives would have to roll every time they were presented with the chance, but they wouldn't have to worry about frequency of occurance.

[neko128]

[mdynna]

I don't think the mechanics for being Addicted to any Vice are a problem. They would work identically for any Substance Addiction. If Mild, then the person has to get their "fix" about once a week. So the character would need to make sure they performed that Vice to get their fix.

Now, as GM would set up circumstances that put the character in bad positions. For example, if the PC was Addicted to Sex but simply said "He has a girlfriend and I do her when I need to." Then take the PC out of town for extended jobs, away from the easy outlet for the Vice. Then the PC would have to start "propositioning" women (hitting local clubs) or go to the prostitution solution. Either way I think it works just as well as a Mild BTL Addiction.

[stevebugge]

As and addiction example I have a character who is addicted to Kamikaze, it's a mild addiction. It manifests as a serious lack of confidence GM's discretion on -1 penalty to actions where a lack of confidence could be a problem, but generally his more timid choice of actions makes this extra penalty unnecessary) when he is "on the job" if he isn't up on Kamikaze. Of course Kamikaze has it's own built in downside in that after it wears off you immediately suffer 6 boxes of stun damage (which I play as a nasty hangover, he usually wants to go sleep it off as soon as possible, which may mean during the get away drive).

As for the sex addiction, I would be leary of allowing it in one of my games, though the player would probably be taken in to account, some of my players would be better at making it a harmful trait than others. If it leads to lecherous behavior, or the character getting distracted easily and making bad decisions (hey that LS chick is kind of cute, I'm gonna go hit on her) I'd probably let it in, if it's the GF scenario mdynna described, I'd probably just say no to it.