On Friday afternoon I went to a particular bar and got 2 darth vaders for 6 dollars. Since I'd been drinking before hand this caused me to get really drunk. I have vague memories on the way back home of buying unnecessary fast food and pausing by some people playing chess on the street while making comments like "BRUTAL!" and "OWNED!". Although nothing bad happened, I was sort of upset by how easily I ended up buying superfluous fast food while heavily under the influence. I mean, with superfluous fast food there's no telling how much % of RDA of fat and cholesterol you ate while on autopilot.

In celebration of this event I decided to write up an Advanced Alcoholism flaw for SR3. I also figure it's a good idea to create an Advanced Alcoholism flaw since we'll all become alcoholics when SR4 comes out. The reason that I think it's worthwhile to specifically make an Advanced Alcoholism flaw rather than just rely on the rules in Man and Machine is twofold.

1.) By making a specific flaw, we can work on making alcoholism funnier than it would be if it were part of a large mechanic rather than just a stand alone thing.
2.) I was talking to a psychiatrist the other day who told me that advanced alcoholics get cool side effects like frightening hallucinations during withdrawl, and just off the top of my head I don't think that M&M has rules for alcohol and frightening hallucinations.

Advanced Alcoholism (-5 points)
A character who takes the Advanced Alcoholism flaw can proudly consider themselves the member of an elite corps of alcoholics. They have gone beyond simple inability to stop drinking at the point of nausea and drinking to relieve constant feelings of psychological stress and gotten to the point where they have a pretty serious chemical dependency on the good old brew. It has gotten to the point where not drinking becomes extremely dangerous.

As a role play note, alcoholism tends to make you physically weak as well as mentally weak for a variety of reasons, including cirrosis of the liver and malnutrition. Therefore, if you make a character with Advanced Alcoholism you might consider giving him or her really abysmal Body and Strength scores depending on how washed up you want to be.

The normal state of a character with Advanced Alcoholism is intoxicated. So long as the character is paying for a lifestyle he or she is assumed to have alcohol to drink; the character spends less money on food and more money on alcohol and dosen't care as much about hunger due to an intoxicated state so it all works out. At any given time during the game the character will always have a +2 TN to all TNs except for damage resistance tests to represent staggering drunkenness. This even hits social TNs, since most people who are unable to stop their alcoholism tend to get depressed and feel inwardly disgusted with themselves, and this would probably show itself when talking to others.

Additionally, since the character is always drinking, whenever the character goes to sleep he or she must resist 6 S stun upon waking up to represent being hung over; this can be done with unaugmented Body or unaugmented Willpower, whichever is higher. It dosen't matter if the character specifically wasn't drinking right before sleeping since the assumption is that the character was drinking all day anyway. While this isn't really realistic per se, I think it's incredibly funny.

Lastly, if the character wants to not be drunk (i.e. have a +2 TN) at any given time, he or she may stop drinking in order to do so, although unassisted cessation of a drunken state should probably take an hour or two. The problem is that since this is *advanced* alcoholism it is actually dangerous to stop drinking. An advanced alcoholic who goes without alcohol can suffer from potentially fatal convulsions, hallucinations, mental confusion, and partial paralysis. Therefore, whenever the alcoholic tries to be alcohol-free for a while, the GM should roll a d6 to find out what happens.

A roll of 1 or 2 means that convulsions and/or paralysis sets in. The character must make an unaugmented Body test to resist 6D damage. A deadly wound means that the convulsions and paralysis have caused cardiac arrest.

A roll of 3 or 4 means that frightening alcoholic withdrawal hallucinations have set in. For example, when I discussed the issue of alcoholic hallucinations with the psychiatrist I mentioned earlier she told me that one of her patients who was recovering from alcoholism once thought that a giant spider was chasing him. The character must make an unaugmented Willpower test against TN 6. If the character gets 0 successes, he or she enters a catatonic state of terror that can only be cured by getting drunk again. If the character gets 1 success, the GM will see a PC or NPC as a giant scary monster and consequently probably should either flee or open fire. If the character gets 2 successes, he or she will experience only neutral hallucinations which while they prevent the character from interacting intelligently with the rest of the world probably won't cause an impromptu shootout. 3 successes are required for the character to overcome the hallucinations and be sober without incident.

A roll of 5 or 6 means that the alcoholic feels extremely confused. Temporarily divide the character's intelligence score in half, and for all INT-linked skilltests apply a +2 TN penalty.

If the character remains sober for a long time, the GM must make them take this test again every 5 hours for a new alcoholic withdrawal side effect. Any negative impacts from alcoholic withdrawal, except for the damage caused by convulsions and paralysis, will go away as soon as the character re-enters a drunken state.

In this way, it is possible for a character with a low Willpower score to literally drink him or herself into a perpetual state of psychosis, which is somewhat realistic.

In keeping with the distopian nature of Shadowrun, Advanced Alcoholism can never be overcome. Once you're hooked you're hooked forever.

And obviously, this flaw puts fun over realism.

Great flaw
Shouldn't it be -6points though, it's a pretty horrible flaw.

No, they're sci-fi villains with a strange tendency to be the father of heroes. They also tend to have breathing problems and like to dress in black and cover their faces, and somehow it has passed them by that cloaks are not fashionable anymore.

Oho, Darth Vader is my favorite mixed drink!

Mix vodka, light rum, dark rum, tequila, jaegermeister, and sourmix in a pint glass filled with ice. The drink should have a pleasant sweet and sour taste when you've mixed it. Delicious, tangy, and strong!

Some bartender's guides say to "garnish with action figure", but not a single bar I've visited has actually had Darth Vader action figures.

I work in a detox center, maybe this info can help: (It looks like you have done some research already, so I hope some of it at least is new to you.)

1) DT's (an acronym for archaic words that essentially means the tremors and hallucinations that occur when a long time heavy drinker stops) can last days.

2) Heavy drinking includes blackouts, periods of time when the drinker is completely concious and can even seem sober, but will retain no memory of what's occured or what he's done. Blackouts can last hours or days.

3) Alcohol weakens the kidneys and liver, which makes a person very vulnerable to the effects of common medications.

4) Alcoholics usually spend all the money they can on their addiction, it is more likely to destroy lifestyle than be a part of it.

5) Alcoholics tend to destroy their close relationships. Their addiction makes them unreliable and unable to control themselves.

6) Something in the vicinity of 60% of addicts also have mental health problems. Most alcoholics tend to have anxiety disorders and/or bipolar tendencies. It's up in the air which contributes more to which.

7) Long term alcohol abuse leads to nerve fibre degeneration. Alcoholics end up losing control of their bladder, eye hand coordination and walk with a permanent stagger.

8 ) Alcohol has a lot of calories, but no nutrition. Alcoholics tend to become obese (if they remember to continue to eat) or waste away (if they do not.)

9) Alcoholics spend all of their time drinking or planning to drink. They will subconciously plan their schedules, budgets, etc. around drinking.

10) Most alcoholics do not want to quit. The recovery rate is atrocious. Those who do usually have lost everything in their lives first: family, friends, money, home, sanity.

Those are some basic facts that I thought could maybe be put into play. I kind of had a dillemma about helping you create alcoholics as "fun", but what the hell, Shakespear did it, and some of the stuff I see at work is pretty funny.

Hope that helps.

Wow, I really appreciate the expert pointers. I just have to think of a relatively simple mechanic to represent them in game terms...

Only one way to find out....

The other day I was bored and was reading a neurology textbook from 10 years ago. I found out that alcoholic hallucinations are associated with withdrawal, and that they are accompanied by paranoia. So, for example, for the withdrawing alcoholic, voices in the hall may be interpreted as hostile or mocking voices. A phone cord may take on the appearance of a threatening snake, and so on. These sorts of effects were first widely seen in newly industrialized London as a result of a new abundance of cheap gin. Yay gin!

These tidbits, combined with Dog's post, mean that you could have a lot of fun with the alcoholic character. Just imagine:

Player 1: Since Samurai Randolph is an alcoholic who plans all his expenses around alcohol, everything he earned on the last job which isn't spent on ammunition and maintenance is actually going for synthahol.

GM: Uhhh, that was a pretty big score. You realize that means that your character is going through 20,000 nuyen worth of synthahol this month, right?

Player 1: That's correct. Otherwise he'll become delusional and blow away the next person who knocks on his door.

GM: I see. *rolls dice*

Player 2: Oh, c'mon! Why don't you pitch in for the new team Citymaster?

GM: Because he just died of alcohol poisoning.

beer goggle flaw when any woman looks hot, and you must make a willpower check lest you go up and hit on her regardless of circumstances

Reminds me of the Wolf Shaman I GM who decided to take a compulsive (flirting) flaw.

Oh man that is hilarious. He is lucky he has a willpower of six to make those rolls against 50% of all characters.