Greets,

I was looking through SR4A and Arsenal and I still can't get my head around what happens with recreational drugs. Could someone kindly explain say what happens when a group of people say take eX in a night club.

What about speedballing recreational drugs?

THIS IS NOT ABOUT COMBAT DRUGS! Grr.

I want to know what should happen. How long does it affect and generally more about the prevalent drugs habits from a crunch perspective.

I am also wondering if people have pharm parties? Can Mr Johnson sniff a line of novacoke during the interview and no-one blinks an eye?

I'm guessing you mean "what happens" as in "what does it feel like and what do I see" so I will answer accordingly. Most of the drugs in SR are based on real world drugs so learning about the real life counterparts will help you get an idea of what exactly they do. Erowid is a fantastic site for drug experiences both good and bad.

Speedballing is the act of combining drugs in order to remove unwanted effects ("coke makes me too geeked" or "xanax knocks me out"). In game mechanic terms, simply combine the effects of both drugs and enjoy the crash and addiction tests afterwards. So if Jenny the party girl likes the way bliss feels but hates the sedative qualities of it she might just take a little bump of novacoke to perk her up.
Bliss -1 reaction, +1 to all thresholds, pain resistance 3
Novacoke +1 reaction, +1 charisma, +1 perception, high pain tolerance 1
Speedball +0 reaction, +1 charisma, +1 perception, +1 to all thresholds, Pain resistance 3, High pain tolerance 1
As you can see Jenny is now numb and giddy but without the groggy feeling she hates so much. As an unintentional side effect Jenny can also take a few bullets to the chest without noticing.

A speedball is just stacking drugs, if the novacoke wears off before the bliss then alter the effects accordingly and make an addiction test for the novacoke.

People have drug parties now so I'd assume they still do in 2070.

Mr. J doing a line on the table is a sure sign that you do not want to work for him. It's like showing up at a job interview where your interviewer is drunk, only worse.

I disagree, novacoke is kid's stuff, it's when your J is a beetlehead that you have to worry.

hi
i think asfar as social reactions to your j doing a line at the meet it depends on setting and feel of the game... it may be just firn in LA were as in seattle it may be fround upon... also if your wanting to play a 70's influenced distopia insted of 80's it may be mainstream an ok like miame vice with elves and trolls so the normalpeeps are sad and the high rollers, movers and shakers, and such do drugs and are OK then you may not even have addiction tests because everyone does the recreational drugs anyway

Just a little correction, but Miami Vice sort of defined the 80's.

Starsky and Hutch was probably the go to cop show of the 70's.

Or maybe I misunderstood what decade you were placing Miami Vice.

Back to the original Q, an 80's feeling toward drugs inspired SR would have the J doing a line and offering it all around, and probably making any abstainers suspects.

i was trying to refer to the fuzzy time between like 76-82 ish when disko hadn't quite died but we all blaim the 70's for all the bad things that happened ... but yes i think it would be find giventhe game although the black shades "profeshinal" games with less pink mowhawk would have less blatent drug use i think

I think, crunch wise, if you're not doing combat/stat boosting drugs, just wave your hands. I understand the frustration with trying to stat out drugs not listed. heck, there's whole threads dedicated to stating out alchohol, and thats listed as an addictive drug in the negative qualities(i think).

also, a Line of Nova coke might turn a few heads at a meet, but it also gives mr. J a +1 charisma and perception, so I imagine it could be pretty common. I mean, we're talkin 80's style dystopian future, everyone should be doing coke. Even the good guys in the 80's did coke.