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Old 10-04-2017, 03:10 PM   #5
Kelly Pedersen
 
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Addiction and Alcoholism

Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
I will admit that I usually prefer compulsive behavior over addiction. Its less finicky to price, requires less tracking of the last time you used it, and so forth. Compulsive behavior also tends to be more flexible.
Actually, I've long thought that properly modeling the behavior of addicts really should involve both Addiction and Compulsive Behavior. With just Addiction, there's no urge to indulge whenever you get the opportunity - someone can technically use it the one time per day to stave off withdrawal, and then say "no thanks, I'm good" every other time someone puts it in front of them. While someone who has just Compulsive Behavior (use Drug X) will want to indulge as often as they can, but has no consequences for stopping using it, aside from feeling miserable and being angry at everyone.

To balance this sort of thing, since Addiction already has mechanics to cover how legal and expensive your drug of choice is, I would only ever give an extra -5 (modified for self-control) for Compulsive Behavior (use a drug). So someone could take Addiction (Tobacco) and Compulsive Behavior (Smoking, -12) for a total of -10 points, or they could be a pack-a-day person and take Compulsive Behavior (Smoking, -9) for a total of -13, or be a literal chain-smoker with Compulsive Behavior (Smoking, -6), for a total of -15. That seems about right to me.
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