Addiction and Drug Addiction

By Nafoulinard, in Game Mechanics

Been looking at the book a lot and there isn't much about addiction in them….

I'm made a Twi'lek and she's addicted (obligation) to drugs… How can i play this exactly, how do you play this (skill related).
How is the addiction affecting your sences, dice pool and everything.
In the long term, how do you "cure it".


a lot of questions, not a single answer about that in the book so far so i'm turning to the community to see how they would see this.

Thanks guys!

Hohum. There is something about drugs in the equipment chapter, under black market goods. Although not the specifics you're looking for.

I would think resilience checks, perhaps discipline and the GM being good with drug selling NPCs on your travels. Also, I would say its a roleplaying opportunity too… setback dice added to stuff when intoxicated, setback dice when drugs are offered and such might be a good mechanic tool, but I think the roleplaying is key here for the player (ie you), the GM to play off and the other players to have to handle.

A lot here depends on how you and the GM wants to handle hit. I'm assuming for now that you are both a bit unsure. I also get the impression from the first post that the character is still using, and isn't in rehab.

Suggestion - most of the time your character is perfectly functional - the cost of their addiction is low and they have a regular supply.

If your character takes strain as a result of having their obligation triggered, this could represent withdrawal/lack of supply, or minor side effects.

If your obligation comes up as a double, then something more serious has happened. Maybe you get a nasty adverse reaction requiring specialist medical help, or the last batch of drugs you bought went bad (which might mean that you now have a score to settle with your supplier.) Or maybe you just get busted.

Where it gets more interesting is when/if you decide you want to break the habit - as well as the stress of giving up an addiction, there are going to be people with an interest in making sure that you don't give it up… lots of opportunities here.

I think better than a series of ho hum skill challenges it would be better to roleplay an addict. Lie about your drug use, steal cash to get more drugs, use them inaproprately or whenever things get tense. For inspiration I recomend finding a few episodes of Intervention. At higher levels of obligation you might start dealing in order to get funds.

Addiction is like any other obligation.

If the character is unfortunate enough to have the obligation be a big part of a session, she would suffer strain if the roll indicated the focus was on her obligation.

"Curing" the addiction would be handled like removing any other obligation.

I don't know that it would require a specific roll to overcome it. A session of getting over the addiction or even getting a lifetime supply to remove the obligation would end the addiction.

But since obligation ebbs and flows throughout a character's career, addictions could resurface, as they do.

If you check out the Real Gamers podcast, one of the characters has an Aspect (borrowed from FATE) that indicates said character has a major addiction problem, to the point that the player pretty much (by his own volition) sat out an entire encounter because his PC was trippin' balls.

I think the Addiction Obligation doesn't need any special rules beyond those already given for Obligation, as it should be used more as a role-playing hook than anything else. And when the junkie's Obligation comes up, perhaps it's a case of the character's need for whatever they're addicted to diverting them from the main adventure, for reasons such as they come across a prime opportunity to score a metric ton of their substance of choice, or they've run out and are obsessed with getting their next hit, or perhaps they run into someone from their past which demonstrates a very strained relationship due to the junkie's habit. The reduced Strain Threshold can be roleplayed as a blend of withdrawel symptoms and mental anxiety rather than creating a separate sub-set of rules for it.

The one thing our group is stuck on is how to pay down this obligation. Aside from going to rehab...

Any Ideas on working the obligation off? Does it makes sense that if the pc takes spice during a session that their obligation should go down a little bit? Then slowly creep back up or in the case of their obligation triggering it jumps back up. That way the obligation can flow up and down.