Arsenal's Drugs..., ...Power and Speed? Options

[Draco18s]

All of the drugs in Arsenal have no listed power or activation speed.

We just tried to use slab on a couple of body guards, but the GM didn't like the fact that it was an instant, 100% guaranteed knockout drug (because if it was, we'd do it all the time).

Just how strong are these things?

[CanRay]

No strength is given, just duration and effect. Bit of an oversight, methinks.

"OK, we got away clean, and those guards will wake up and..."

"In the news today, fifteen members of the Jaguar Junior Guard were found poisoned to death by the drug known as Slab. Due to it's illegal and unrestricted nature, no testing has been performed on it to see if it was safe for use on Metahumans, nor what dosages would cause the wanted effects, and how much more could cause certain death. The corner's office has determined that the amount used was believed to be ten times the lethal amount. Aztechnology has branded the people responsible as 'Terrorists of the worst caliber' and has posted a quarter of a million Peso reward for any information leading to the arrest of each individual..."

"How much is a quarter of a million Pesos in real money?"

"Um... Let me bring that up, a hundred thousand nuyen."

"HOW MUCH OF THAT DREK DID YOU USE?"

"Just what the drug dealer told me. After he said my head looked like a toaster."

[Summerstorm]

Yeah, that idea to use slab as a cheap alternative to gamma-scopolamine was going around.

But let's say: Slab is pretty much standard anasthetic. Like canray i see sthe overdose problem: One dose should be enough to keep a medium human under for a standard short procedure. But give it ALL at once, and he might shock. Give too few and he can still rund and shoot in your face. Dosage is very important.

Also with speed: DMSO should be around near injection... a tad slower. When i was having surgery they prepped me with some valium and then gassed me down. And i had a few seconds. Now a Body 10 Troll or something... i guess can really keep going for quite a while, when you try to pump him full of Slab.

In short: It might be a cheap alternative... but surely feel like it too. Make it 7S/1 CT or something. With quick (say added) way to overdose.

[Hida Tsuzua]

Drugs unless listed have a suggested power of 6 (Arsenal 73). As for speed, instant is my likely guess (remember that instant means end of combat turn not on your pass). The GM is quite free to change these as they wish. I could see Slab and a few others being slower than instant. I'll make it a minute myself.

[CanRay]

Arsenal, Page 73, "But I Wanna Get High!", does indeed state that your average "Street Drug" has a strength of 6. OK, so there we go, the dosage at the price given is Strength 6.

You then get purer or cut the strength as you'd like depending on what you want it to do. BTW: I'd say that Dwarf/Troll doses would be Strength 9 and cost 150% listed price, but that's just me.

Because, let's face it, a doobie rolled by an Elf is going to be one hit for a Troll. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Draco18s]

Drugs unless listed have a suggested power of 6 (Arsenal 73).

I was looking around for that number and didn't find it (admittedly, playing the game and arguing with the GM at the same time).

[CanRay]

I was looking around for that number and didn't find it (admittedly, playing the game and arguing with the GM at the same time).

The gamemaster determines the drug’s Power, as appropriate to its nature and effects. As a standard rule of them, most street drugs have a Power of 6. If the Power is not reduced to 0, the drug still affects the character as normal. Alternately, the drug’s modified Power must still exceed the character’s Body for the drug to take effect.

"But I Wanna Get High!", upper-right hand corner of the page.

[Draco18s]

"But I Wanna Get High!", upper-right hand corner of the page.

Yes. I saw the section, the problem was I didn't manage to read far enough into it to get to the "suggested power of 6" down near the bottom of that paragraph.

I was looking around for that number and didn't find it (admittedly, playing the game and arguing with the GM at the same time).

[Blade]

6 is still a decent power and some drugs have unresisted side effects that can be more powerful than many weapons.

But generally speaking there's a problem with the chemicals rules. Poison that should outright kill a victim won't do it and there's no mention on how many "doses" you can fit in one shot. And don't mention the absurdly high prices of acid and bases.

[CanRay]

One dose per shot. If you need more doses, apply more shots.

[Method]

The problem with Slab is that "breathing and heartrate are lowered to almost imperceptible levels" which would result in actual (not simulated) death unless it also included some kind of powerful metabolism (aka oxygen demand) lowering drug. If such a drug existed (I can't think of one with that kind of global effect) it would take a very long time (in the context of SR combat terms) to work.

As usual, this is one of those "don't think too hard about it" situations.

Edit: also as a general rule drugs with rapid onset also have ripid offset (which is largely an effect of their volume of distribution). That means that any drug fast enough to be of use in SR combat probably only lasts a few minutes.

[Draco18s]

The problem with Slab is that "breathing and heartrate are lowered to almost imperceptible levels" which would result in actual (not simulated) death unless it also included some kind of powerful metabolism (aka oxygen demand) lowering drug. If such a drug existed (I can't think of one with that kind of global effect) it would take a very long time (in the context of SR combat terms) to work.

Oh certainly. We were trying to use it in the context of "inject the target with the drug to avoid combat" such that we didn't start a gunfight on a commuter subway train.

[CanRay]

Oh certainly. We were trying to use it in the context of "inject the target with the drug to avoid combat" such that we didn't start a gunfight on a commuter subway train.

You mean like the train this guy was on?

[Draco18s]

You mean like the train this guy was on?

Relevance not understood.

[Method]

I believe that is the gentleman who picked a fight on a train with like 40 dudes who were harassing a young girl and then proceeded to stomp ass all over them.

[CanRay]

I believe that is the gentleman who picked a fight on a train with like 40 dudes who were harassing a young girl and then proceeded to stomp ass all over them.

"Her Ass" is more like it. They, apparently, were about to rape the girl whose sister was sitting next to a retired Gurkha, who begged him to help.

Which means that all those bandits on the train who died won Darwin Awards, BTW.

[Kliko]

Yeah, that man is as badass as they get.

[CanRay]

So, back to drugs and not ODing the target...

[Kliko]

We OD-ed our target with two darts of Narcoject in the Evolutions game here at the WitS forum...

From memory we thought Narcojet was only 6S... instead of 6D...