Is there any mention of modifiers for drinking alcohol in any SR book? Just curious. I have my own modifiers based totaly on whim . I usually go with the body of the pc and how much they have indulged in the past and how much time is passing vs how much they state they are drinking. How about you?


Thanos

Oh gads....
there was some rule set released by these guys who also blamed SR for stealing their material for cyberpirates.
um...man...how long ago was that Thread?

I've always disliked rules for drinking and such, as they tend to promote immaturity from the players. If you can trust them, just tell them to provide their own modifiers based on how much their characters drank and how good they'd be at being able to absorb it (troll has larger body weight, even if he's got a low body score, etc)

That way you don't have to deal with it, and the players can't complain about "but I'm not that drunk!"

I'd go with something like characters can drink up to their Body in drinks (A drink is a 12oz beer, a shot of whiskey, aaaaand some amount of Wine. Honestly how often does Wine come up?) with no ill effects.

Beyond that up to 1.5 times their body they're at -1 all tasks.

From there to twice their body they're at -2.

Beyond that they're no longer in control of their actions. I'll tell the player that their character wakes up somewhere in a pool of his own dried vomit.

Hah, I can see that. Your character is captured by the yakuza. They tie him or her to a chair and strike you about the head with a baseball bat. (Lightly, so as not to accidentally kill you.)

Just when you're feeling really ill and nasty from the beating, they take a funnel, jam it in your mouth, pinch your nostrils shut, and pour down a few bottles of really cheap sake.

You wonder why they're doing this, since it would effectively numb the pain and discomfort from the baseball bat beating, but then to your horror they attach you to wheeled office chair and begin spinning it really really fast.

They spin it until you vomit and feel the acrid, alcoholic vomit burning your broken lips and the spots where you now have missing teeth. Then they ram the funnel back in, and do it again....


EDIT: If you're a drunken master, the alchohol should actually help your drunken boxing technique.

The 1st time this came up was during a run and that's when I started thinking about modifiers. In between runs I just let them roll play it if it gets that involved.

Thanos

Personally, I just use the damage code listed for alcohol ("Burn" in that silly runner language) in Man & Machine. Yes, M&M. It's a chemical. It deals 3D stun, but I'm guessing it's that high because it's a weird synthetic. Normal drinks should probably be dropped down to S, at most.

3L? Burn is right up there with hyper-morphine, so I don't think it is remotely comparable to real alcohol.

~J

If you insist on damage codes, 2M or 3M is a good choice because average joe (BOD 3) will accumulate 1 box per drink. If he paces himself at a drink per hour he should be just fine, as it is IRL.

I can consume more units of alcohol than I can take punches to the skull. A punch to the skull has an M damage code. Therefore, alcohol should probably have an L damage code.

The only problem then is that someone would need to have at least 10 units to pass out and have a terrible hangover (D stun) but some people are lightweights and might not really need 10 units.

Life is hard.

I'd say 2M is probably fair. A punch to the skull does not have an M damage code, as the skull is a fairly vulnerable area it would probably be either a successful called shot or a staged-up attack.

~J

I have an idea off the top of my head, but it involves more dice.

How about the damage starts at 2L, and the power increases +1 per drink. As for staging, you could even let the alcohol roll the number of dice equal to half of it's power.

Then, you could even have different starting damage codes for things like beer, wine, and liquor, depending on the strength of the alcohol.

Remember, this is kinda off the cuff, so don't flame me too hard. It's just an idea... Do with it what you will.

Alcohol should have rather high power but low damage code, something along 8-10 L (stun of course). This means average people will pass out after 10-12 doses. One dose would be a around 16 milliliters (0.5 oz if I calculated it right) of pure alcohol, which is the approximate amount in one pint of beer or a shot of spirits, atleast here in Finland. And use overdosing rules if the character really wants to get wasted...

Modyfied up or down depending on tolerance.
The hard core alcoholic who due to his drinking abuse is down to 4 or so wound boxes could probably throw back 30-50 beers before passing out.

The lil´ kid at 11 who tries to drink for the first time will get pissed by 1 or 2 beers.

So without even talking about allergy or something like that, Alcohol could have an effect somewhere between 2L for the serious alcoholic and all the way up to a highpowered serious stun effect for the first-timer.

Lets say we give Alcohol an unmodyfied damage code at 8S for first time exposure.

Pretty quickly the damage code falls to 8L, due to a "normal" level of tolerance being built up. Most people would treat alcohol something like this.

If you get into addiction, the power starts to fall, ending at 2L, shortly before you do as well.

Edit: Oh and another thing. Addiction effects should probably be applied directly to wound boxes instead of removing body first. Maybe with the 3 first boxes lost being reversible (eventually and costing Karma) by kicking the habit.