Hi Guys, New member to the forum but Ive played for a while. I've got thought which has been buggin' me for a while about combining Initiative boosters.

Now we all know that the Synaptic Accelerator and Wiredreflexes/MBW dont stack with any other Initiative enhancers.
However the Improved Reflexes Adept Power Specifically states that it

"..cannot be combined with technological or other magical increases to initiative" Page 188 SR4

To me this seems to leave open the door to the Chem Lab and all those tasty treats like Cram and Jazz.

What are you guy's thoughts on that?

And following on from that it would appear that you can only get one additional IP from a drug with no rules on how multiple doses work. It seems logical if you double the dose you would double the effect, and therefore be more likely to get addicted however I cant seem to find that info anybody seen it anywhere?

I quite like the idea of having a mundane character who avoids Implantation and gets his oomph with the old fashioned enhancers

I wouldn't allow a double dose to grant double effect. Generally there is a point of diminishing returns on things like this and if you could just double the dose to get double the desired effect that doubled dose would become the standard dose.

Now you might, for an expecially dark and nilistic campaign, allow multiple doses on such enhancing drugs but the extra doses should come with disproportionately harmful side-effects (over and above the normal side-effect for whatever drug you're considering) to remind the players that nature/God/the manufacturer of their custom bioware never intended them to be jamming that crap into thier bodies.

That's just my opinion of course, your mileage may vary.

I allow the adept in my group with Improve Reflexes 2 (therefore 3IP) to get a fourth using Jazz. I don't allow double-dosing to add double-effect.

I get your point on that, I'm thinking maybe a 3 for 2, 3doses would give a doubled effect with a MUCH higher addiction rating.

Nah, just increase the duration by a minimal ammount for extra doses. Keep all the nasty increases to addiction tests. That way, there's a reason to double up and it doesn't break the game.

The negative effect should go beyond the addiction- we're not talking coffee here folks! Jumping up the dose should present at least the possibility of physical damage and continued use should threaten to shut down some vital organs. The negative effects should be scary enough to disuade any more than infrequent use.

Agreed. At the very least, multiply the penalties by the number of doses speedballed. And yes, that does mean speedballing some things means instant death as soo n as they wear off.

Hmmm.... would taking two Viagra make you twice as ... physically affected by Viagra? Or would it last twice as long?

And more to the point, wouldn't twice the Cocaine likely kill you.

Neither, actually. It'd last about 1.5 times as long, if that, and have a more intense effect at the outset. It's all about half-lives.

Viagra and nitroglycerin. Additive fun as your blood pressure drops to fatally low...

Sure, whatever, if you think it's thematic. Just be CERTAIN to read P134 in the fifth printing.

'No character may act on more than four initiative passes, even if spending edge'. "THIS MEANS YOU, DAVE!"

well, aside from hackers and technomancers . . and because usually astral stuff happens on speed of thought and on metaplanes time is not permitted to enter at all . . . why do mages in full VR, ahem, Astral pursuit, not get the ability of a fifth inipass through initiation? and then to make all things equal again, move by wire and synaptic accelerators can be made compatible so samurai can get the 5th pass too . .


hmm, reading that at facelevel . . does that mean that even if TM's and hackers do actually get the 5th pas, they simply cannot act during that 5th pass? O.o