I'm considering giving my character a "Doc Holliday" (from the movie Tombstone) sort of twist, giving him an addiction to alcohol.

I've found intoxication on the social modifiers table (-2) but can't see anything similair for combat modifiers, or other active skills.

Also how would you gauge the levels of "drunkeness"?

Say my character carrys around a hip-flask, gets into a bad situation and decides he needs a quick nip of "grandpa's cough medicine" for courage, how big a modifier would that be compared to say, failing a willpower test and drinking half a bottle of jack daniels just before the team is supposed to go on a run?

I just love this quote from the movie:

IMO alcohol wouldn't do much for skills in a positive way, it would only lower the modifier, giving you less dice, depending on how much you drank. But for stats, I go by a -* to reaction, agility, logic and intuition, while a +* to body, strength, willpower. Charisma would be modified positively or negativly according to how drunk the character is and the situation (it could loosen the character up in a meeting/contact/getting a date, while it could also make the character a beligerent(spelling?) idiot who drools over everyone, burps and tells vulgar jokes at a tupperware party....)

Also, another factor would be the type of alcohol, different alcohols would have different effects: wine would increase factors with ritzy areas; beer would increase factors with gangers or poorer areas; whisky and ale for scottish/irish .

You could also secretly detract from the successfully rolled dice from an action, making the player think their charcater is fine, when their actually just on this side of liking the gum off of a chair leg.

I wasn't sure if there were laid out rules somewhere or if it is something the GM decides, but yeah, thats basically what i was thinking, although i probably wouldnt add to str/body. You make think you're suddenly bigger and tougher than that troll bouncer at the door...but you're not
Probably add the effects of the adept power pain resistance, or the bioware pain editor too.
It's something to discuss with my GM, but probably too much extra effort to go to except on rare occasions.

First, you feel a warm, tingling feeling in your stomach and possibly your head.

Second, the room starts to turn slightly on its own axis.

Third, you wake up the next morning with vague memories of pissing on a neighbor's "War Solves Nothing" sign on your way home.

-Siege

I'd use the toxin Rules. Make a resistance check against the power of the alchohol (power determined by type of drink) Damage is stun, with the side effects of disorientation and nausea. Guidelines and rules for toxins are in the "Running the shadows" chapter.

Well, I'd definatley give penalties for doing anything requiring coordination, penalties depending on level of drunkeness...I suppose one could even make a 'Drunkometer'...

Buzzed: No Change
Tipsy: -1 to certain skills
Drunk: -2 to certain skills, and maybe initative
Wasted: -3 to certain skills, initative and some can't even be used
Obliterated: You're useless and staggering, halve all dice pools for skills that can even be used(id allow combat skills but not much else.)

Of course, you could do a -2/4/6 if you are feeling up to it.

Or you can just work the stun damage monitor, which might be a lot easier. Fill the monitor, pass out.

Perhaps you can use the above meter to gauge how you behave if you have to function with a hangover...


However, i'd also grant Pain Tolerance equal to the dice pool penalty. I can vouch for this one personally....I had a rather injured knee one night after a friends celebration of something or other at a bar...and i didn't even realize it til the next day. Oops.

If you really want to get technical, you can even make a chart determining how many drinks it takes. I assume for a decent rule of thumb is about 1 drink an hour per 50 kilos of weight keeps you safe...anything more requires a body roll, and start making a threshold for each drink after that, raising the bar each one.

So, a human with Body 4 who weighs about 80 kilo id say can pound a drink an hour safetly...if they do 2, make em make a body test(1 hit necessary). 3, Body test, threshold 2. And so on. a 200 kilo troll should be able to handle a lot more of this. Of course, Resistance to Toxins adds to this body roll(it IS a toxin, after all.)

Of course, if they have cyberlimbs...make it easier for them to get drunk. Less blood in the body-less booze you need to intoxicate it.

For humor purposes, perhaps grant Irish, Finnish, Germans or Russians a +2 to their dice pools (joking, guys.)

And i find it sad the first mechanical thing i could contribute to this game is a Drunkometer. Well, i do work in a bar...

I'm getting a funny mental image of a rigger drunkenly driving his drones around... and crying in the morning when he finds them all smashed to pieces.

Actually, Germans should have about +6 dice for beer. Tossing Italians in there with a +4 to wine, -2 beer would work, and Finnish should have +4 vodka, +6 Koskenkorva, and -3 to wine. Polish should have a bonus to vodka near the Russians. Japanese would have the +6 sake bonus, but a -3 to hard liquor.

Getting away from other countries, natives of the CAS should have +6 to redneck beer, -4 to any 'cultured high class' drink.

True, gonna stereotype...go it all the way.

Australians have to make a willpower test (4) to drink fosters (that stuff tastes terrible, thats why we export it and keep the good stuff here )

Actually, I kinda like Fosters...especially when I'm feeling self-abusive.

-Siege

My character possesses an alcoholism negative quality. Being a negative quality, I see no reason for it to provide any bonuses for using it. However, I do understand that all of the drugs in the book provide positive temporary changes. With my character, I find myself having to roleplay the action of drinking and undergoing the problems that it causes. In and out of game the other players refer to my character as a drunk. As far as combat goes, being a little buzzed or tipsy really shouldn't have much effect, but being completely smashed should cetainly effect you in some way. I would suggest a a modifier to dice rolls or it to be considered as stun damage. Also, a good deal of alcohol effects your reaction time, so I would suggest a modifier to initiative and initiative passes.

My character holds a flask in her inside coat pocket. If caught using it extensively, her boyfriend tries to take it away from her. That sometimes leads to a horrific outcome.