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> Alcoholism as a flaw!, How would you make that happen?
Topper28
post May 11 2004, 11:38 AM
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Hep!!

So one of my players actually had his old 2nd. edition character sheet (from 1996)at home, and has dicided to keep playing him. We have pretty much converted the whole sheet into 3rd. edition rules except the old flaw of Alcoholism. His character has to drink his daily bottle of malt whiskey, just to stop shaking. How would you guys make this flaw?

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dandy
post May 11 2004, 11:59 AM
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i'd do it this way:

flaw: alcoholism

2 point = need several beers a day (either TN+1 on all active skills or TN+1 all passive skills, if not drunk)
4 points = a bottle of hard liquer a day (either TN+2 on all active skills or TN+2 all passive skills, if not drunk)


drinking alcohol (either a beer or a bottle, depends on the flaw) will make the char stop shaking for 1d6 hours. doubling the alcohol (if he drinks 4 bottles a day) will have no effect on TN.

i.e. Joe Sam has alcoholism(4points) and starts shaking. he drinks a bottle of malt whiskey and stops shaking for "2" (1d6) hours. After 2 hours he starts shaking again and rolls another "1d6" and stops shaking for "5" (1d6) hours. if he starts shaking again, he CANNOT drink another bottle to reduce his TN. Joe Sam needs to wait a full 24 hours since his last alcohol-test (24 hours - 5 hours (last test)). After 19 hours he will be able to drink alcohol to reduce his TN.
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Ancient History
post May 11 2004, 12:00 PM
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Can't you just use the addiction flaw?
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Topper28
post May 11 2004, 12:06 PM
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Hmm!! I canīt seem to find an Addiction flaw in my Companion book. Where can I find the info on that, or do you know?

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TinkerGnome
post May 11 2004, 12:23 PM
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You could always model it after Matrix Addiction (in Matrix).
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Ancient History
post May 11 2004, 01:07 PM
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Showing my age again...it's in the SRII Companion.
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Firewall
post May 11 2004, 02:19 PM
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TN modifier if not drunk, okay. I can see how the shakes would be a problem but what about the logical TN modifier for being drunk? Or would you assume that the stats listed are the 'drunk' stats?
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kevyn668
post May 11 2004, 02:22 PM
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Could you use the "compulsion" flaw?

As for stats, I think there rules for alcohol in the M&M. Anyone check that for me?
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sidartha
post May 11 2004, 02:40 PM
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The rules for addiction are in M&M. A little tweaking between the matrix addiction and the rules should give you the effect you are looking for.
Side question, who in their right mind hires a drunk to do shadow-work? :eek:
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Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*
post May 11 2004, 02:50 PM
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Sometimes a bargain (or a warm body) is all you need or want or can afford.

(Just thinking about Man on Fire. Who hires an alcoholic bodyguard?)
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Siege
post May 11 2004, 04:31 PM
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And, of course, this is assuming he's obviously drunk.

Dark secret, anyone? :grinbig:

A fair number of alcoholics conceal their problem by establishing a relative amount of control -- although it may be as limited as "not drinking at work while sitting at my desk" or they become very, very sneaky.

-Siege
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KillaJ
post May 11 2004, 04:40 PM
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QUOTE
it may be as limited as "not drinking at work while sitting at my desk"

Dammit. Guess its not as effective a strategy as I thought. Back to the drawing board...
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Bearclaw
post May 11 2004, 05:04 PM
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Most alcoholics can go a period of time without drinking. Otherwise our military (and most others around the world) would be useless. The problem represents as
a: Not passing up an opportunity to drink, should it present itself, and
b: Drinking to win. Like it's some kind of competition. Alcoholics wouldn't really have a problem if they could drink a beer and be done. The problem is, each beer tastes good, and removes a little more of your will to say no to the next one. And once you get past 3 or 4, it's "See you in Kentucky" time.

These problems get worse as you go along, but anyone who's got enough of a problem to have DT's is not going to be hired by anyone but the truly desperate.
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TinkerGnome
post May 11 2004, 05:21 PM
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I have a coworker who managed to be one of the last men standing at an embassy party where he was seated with the Russian delegation (moonshine builds up a tolerance like none other) and the Russian attitude toward drinking was described to me as this:

They don't start drinking with the intention of getting drunk. They start drinking with the intention of running out of alcohol.

Not entirely relevant, but I found it humorous at the time.
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blakkie
post May 11 2004, 05:28 PM
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Alcoholism as a national pastime.
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Abstruse
post May 11 2004, 06:25 PM
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I'm speaking from both observed and personal experience here. Alcoholism is typified by a "need" to drink, not just a simple want or desire. People can drink regularly and still not be alcoholics. They simply want to drink. The problem with an alcoholic is they NEED to drink. They feel like crap when they don't drink, and will drink anytime they have the opportunity. They'll feel like a caged animal when they haven't had a drink, getting irritable and easily distracted. The slightest thing can set them off, throwing them into a rage. It's much like a smoker who hasn't had a cigarette in a few days.

However, they can control their drinking to a limited degree. Such things as "I don't drink at work" or "I don't go to work drunk" or "I don't drink on Sundays". It makes them feel as though they're in control of their drinking when, in reality, they're not. As soon as work ends, they hit the bar. As soon as it's 12:01 AM Monday morning, they pop a can open.

It also takes a lot to make an alcoholic admit they have a problem. The typical excuses aren't excuses to them ("I can quit whenever I want" "It's not a problem" etc.), they're the truth. They honestly believe those things, and have to be forced to realize they're wrong. Hopefully this happens through an intervention of some sort, but in most cases the person hits "rock bottom". They get kicked out of their home because their bar tab was taking up most of their check, they beat up a significant other in a drunken rage, they get fired for showing up to work drunk/hung over.

So (trying to bring this back to the topic), an alcoholic Shadowrunner may not drink until the run's done, but that doesn't mean the heat's off. They may get tanked sitting at the safehouse with the goods waiting for the drop, or at the meet with the Johnson.

The Abstruse One
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TinkerGnome
post May 11 2004, 06:35 PM
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"Look, Bob. The three of us need to talk about your alcohol problem."

"I don't have a problem and there are only two of us here..."

"You have a problem. You were drunk when the corp strike team showed up to get back the target, and you almost got us all killed. And there are three of us. You, me, and my Alpha. Now, if talking to me doesn't fix the problem, Mr. Alpha's going to have to discuss it with you. Now we don't want that, do we?"
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snowRaven
post May 11 2004, 10:06 PM
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Yeah, alcoholism only results in 'a bottle of malt to stop shaking' once you are very far gone. For this, I'd use the matrix addiction rules, but reverse the hours and make the character drink every so many hours or suffer TN modifiers.
For the alcoholism itself, I'd mke it a compulsion to drink. This is fairly easily ignored for awhile when you have to ignore it, but once you start drinking you won't be satisfied with 'just one' - Willpower to stop, and the test gets harder the more you drink.

In M&M you have 'Burn', which is a synthahol, so I'd also use those rules to simulate the effects of alcohol, but maybe adjust the stun damage depending on what the character drinks.
Also, while drunk the character should either be roleplayed quite well, or exhibit the effects of flaws like 'impulsive' and 'combat monster'.

Edit: To reflect the tolerance built up to alcohol by alcoholics, either try and use the M&M addiction rules, or simply give the character Natural Immunity(Alcohol) (can take one 'dose' every (30-Body)/2 hours, more than that means normal damage but recovery in (30-Body)/2 hours.
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tisoz
post May 13 2004, 10:31 PM
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You could model it after the Sea Legs flaw. Have the TN keep rising until you drink.
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