Post/Author/DateTime	Post
stephen_gryphon 08-23-05, 08:22 AM	Getting Drunk Alcohol Type: Ingested DC (5 + drink tally) Price: varies (typically 1 cp to 10 gp) Alchemy DC: Alcohol is created using the normal Craft skill. Addiction: Negligible (DC 4) When drinking alcohol characters should keep a drink tally. Each standard drink (mug of ale, glass of wine or shot of spirits) adds 1 to the drink tally, or 2 (or more) for proportionally larger or stronger drinks. Each hour the drink tally is reduced by 1. Remember, if the character voluntarily fails their saving throw against the effects, then it applies to both initial and secondary (you cannot choose to voluntarily fail only one of them). Addiction checks only need to be made once per bout of drinking, not per drink. Initial Effect: -2 alchemical penalty Reflex saves and Balance checks. Secondary Effect: +2 alchemical bonus to saves vs fear, gain 1 temporary hit point. Side Effects: Feel relaxed, warmth, and lowers inhibitions. Overdose: Excessive drinking requires a Fortitude saving throw vs DC (5+ drink tally) for each drink. The result of a failed save is determined by comparing the drink tally to the drinkers Constitution. The effect lasts until the drink tally falls below the threshold for each condition (not necessarily where they were affected by it). Note that a character can only be affected by a condition once, so if a save is failed there is no need to check again until they reach the next stage. Tally Condition Exceed 1/4 Con Sickened Exceed 1/2 Con As above, plus Staggered Exceed Con As above, plus Unconscious If the character is affected by any overdose conditions then the next morning they may have a hangover and must make a Fortitude saving throw vs DC (5 + total drinks) or be Fatigued. Alcohol is affected by Delay Poison and Neutralize Poison, however the character must still check for a hangover if they were affected by any conditions, and in the case of Neutralize Poison the check must be made immediately. Example: Jo the commoner, with a Con of 10, starts drinking. After the third drink in the initial hour (their threshold based on 1/4 Con is exceeding 2 drinks) they must make a Fortitude save DC 8 of become Sickened. Assuming they pass the check and keep drinking they must then make checks as DC 9 and DC 10 for their 4th and 5th drinks. Their drink tally is now 5. Once the first hour is up the effect of the first drink has worn off and the tally reduces to 4; another drink at this point will push the tally back to 5 and, if not already affected will require a DC 10 check again. For the 7th drink straight after their drink tally increases to the next level (exceeding half their Con) and they must make a Fortitude save vs DC 11 or become Staggered (they also become Sickened if they weren't already). Waiting another hour will reduce the tally back to 5, below the threshold, and remove the Staggered condition (if affected), however any Sickened condition will not go away until the drink tally reduces to 2. Jo had better be careful about a hangover the next day and may have to make a DC 12 save. Note on design -- The choice of initial, secondary, and side effects has been chosen to have a neutral impact on the game. In particular, alcoholic drinks already exist and imbibing usually has no material game effect apart from a player's choice to act; hence the side effect -- in these cases the character is assumed to succeed the saving throw. The GM can then introduce explicit saving throws for alcohol into the game, where the players can either choose to automatically fail both, or take their chances and roll them both. Similar to other drugs (see Book of Vile Darkness), the initial effective is negative, whilst the secondary gives the "dutch courage" benefit. A better arrangement could be to swap the Initial and Side Effects, so the side effect always occurs, but this would not be consistent with existing situations where drinking has no game effect. (It also means that there is no reason to try to avoid failing the saving throw). Game rules around the "reduced inhibition" would be nice, but I'm not sure what would be appropriate (susceptability to Diplomacy or something??); it's more of a characterisation thing. Originally bonus hit points was 1d8, but I was worried that was a bit too generous; I don't really want players using alcohol as a combat aid and 1d8 seemed a bit high for a simple commoner (or 1st level character). Maybe just gain 1 temporary hitpoint is better? The overdose system is kept intentionally simple, tracking only standard drinks (with a drinks tally, which can also be used for friendly competition) and only 3 levels of penalty, based on standard conditions and easily related to Con. In the real world, a standard drink can add between 0.02% - 0.05% to a persons blood alcohol level, with unconciousness usually resulting somewhere between 0.30% - 0.40%. The system above approximates this with 10+ drinks for an average commoner (Con 10), which is somewhere in the middle of this range (depending on when they fail the DC 15+ check). Metabolising drinks is simplified to 1 per hour (roughly similar to the real world). A tough (high Con) character could be looking at 20+ drinks before they start risking unconciousness (at which point the DC is 25); if they want to get there fast they need to drink double shots (increases drink tally by 2 or more). Whilst it may not be realistic to use a Fortitude save instead of a straight ability check, it is in line with the rest of the poison and drug system (high level characters should not necessarily be more resistant to poison either). The system is supposed to be simple enough to fit inside a side bar in an adventure. P.S. I have also found some OGL D20 rules for getting drunk (from Natural 20 press), but I found them overly complicated. (6 levels of drunkeness, detailed rating of drinks, works very differently than other poisons/drugs)
Lord Welkerfan 08-23-05, 09:46 AM	I like them very much. Good job.
lostone 08-24-05, 09:34 AM	Here's the rough method I use in my games: Each drink does temporary (1d4-con mod) wisdom and dexterity damage, minimum 1 per drink. If the characters wisdom drops to half or less, they will be sick, if their wisdom hits 0 they pass out. If their dexterity hits 0 but they are still concious they are the fall-down drunk that needs a lot of help to get to their bedroom to sleep it off. This temporary damage heals at the rate of 1 wisdom per hour after the character has had time to sleep. It does not begin healing until after the character has slept. If the characters wisdom was reduced to half or less they are hungover until the wisdom is healed back to normal.
Omega the Powerfull 08-25-05, 08:04 AM	Here's the rough method I use in my games: Each drink does temporary (1d4-con mod) wisdom and dexterity damage, minimum 1 per drink. If the characters wisdom drops to half or less, they will be sick, if their wisdom hits 0 they pass out. If their dexterity hits 0 but they are still concious they are the fall-down drunk that needs a lot of help to get to their bedroom to sleep it off. This temporary damage heals at the rate of 1 wisdom per hour after the character has had time to sleep. It does not begin healing until after the character has slept. If the characters wisdom was reduced to half or less they are hungover until the wisdom is healed back to normal. Your system is good, but a person with Con 16, and Con 30 have the same penalities, maybe a greater range like 1d8 would be better.
weasel fierce 08-25-05, 01:50 PM	This isnt meant to be snarky, so please bear with me. Why do you need rules for drinking booze ? What does it add ?
lostone 08-25-05, 02:20 PM	Omega the Powerfull: You're probably right about switching to the d8, we've simply used d4s in the past. It also will vary depending on what method you use to roll stats, 5d6 drop 2 or high point buy will result in higher con modifiers than 3d6 or low point buy. Weasel Fierce: Imagine you are trying to impress a tribe of barbarians. Drinking prowess is a must. :D Plus many groups find themselves in a bar at some point, drinking contests are an easy way to make friends and money. If you can handle your liquor it makes gathering information easier, you keep buying yourself and an informant drinks and the drunker he gets the more he talks. If you simply sip you drink instead of meeting him drink for drink, then some informants will notice you aren't drinking and become suspicious/guarded. These rules simply add a way for the DM and player to know how sober the character is.
Omega the Powerfull 08-25-05, 02:56 PM	If you can handle your liquor it makes gathering information easier, you keep buying yourself and an informant drinks and the drunker he gets the more he talks. If you simply sip you drink instead of meeting him drink for drink, then some informants will notice you aren't drinking and become suspicious/guarded. These rules simply add a way for the DM and player to know how sober the character is. You just gave me an idea. A character whose wis has droped to 8 or below due to drunkeness simple don't bother anymore about the things he is saying and will answer any simple and direct anwers - read Yes or No, to any question he is capable of understanding, whitout even get suspicious. What youn think?