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Old 12-31-2017, 04:47 AM   #1
Alonsua
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Default Limitless drug

Hi there, if anyone has ever seen the film, how may I get the NZT-48 represented in our system? What would be its cost and its difficulty level for invention? Thanks.
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Old 12-31-2017, 05:43 AM   #2
Anaraxes
 
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For those that haven't seen the film (like me), the description of the NZT-48 drug in the Limitless Wiki.

To match that description, the drug would grant a truly superhuman pile of Advantages, including (using wiki subsections; see those for more description):


Hypermind: IQ bonus, Lightning Calculator
Perfect recall: Eidetic Memory (Photographic)

Instant learning: Wild Talent (see "Hypercompetence" below). The 3e experience with Eidetic Memory suggests not adding a multipler on the rate at which CP buys skill points. Waive any study time.

Instant analysis: Intuition
Omnilingualism: Omnilingual
Superhuman Charisma: Charisma levels
Superhuman dexterity: DX bonus, Mimicry, Voice

Multitasking: Compartmentalized Mind (choose some number of levels)
Superhuman sensory absorption: ETS, Per bonus
Superhuman instincts: Intuition
Hypercompetence: Wild Talent (more levels for more uses per session). Maybe also Racial Memory, treating all humans as "ancestors".

Obviously you (and your GM) will have to decide how wild you want the effects to be. You could probably tuck any remotely mentally related Advantage in there somewhere, maybe some skill bonuses along with the Wild Talent (though a super enough IQ will tend to make the actual skill level irrelevant)

The wiki says it has post-use "crash and side effects which are commensurately bad", but doesn't list any specifics. You can try to find corresponding disads, or pile on some mental ones; also probably some social ones (Overconfidence, Megalomania, Selfish, Intolerance, etc).

As described in the wiki, I think it would be just too powerful to make for an interesting game. It might be a research goal or a MacGuffin, maybe used once at the climax of the campaign to counter the equally-empowered boss. But not the sort of thing you pop before every combat or breakin, or even "just the important ones". The original fictional drug sounds to me like it's a plot device, limited solely by Author Control, which doesn't translate well to RPG game mechanics.

For the invention rules, I'd start with inventing a level beyond merely "Amazing"... You'd probably need someone hopped up on NZT-48 to invent the stuff in the first place.

Last edited by Anaraxes; 12-31-2017 at 09:41 AM.
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Old 12-31-2017, 07:06 AM   #3
malloyd
 
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Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
For the invention rules, I'd start with inventing a level beyond merely "Amazing"... You'd probably need someone hopped up on NZT-48 to invent the stuff in the first place.
I'd be inclined to say it couldn't be invented *at all* in most settings. It seems to be built around allowing you to tap external information storage (which wouldn't exist in most settings) by changing your brain chemistry. In most settings where a supernatural information resource like that did exist, I'd expect using it to involve spiritual exercises (or maybe physical rewiring of your brain, for cyberpunk versions) not a drug.

Though honestly anything that radically alters something about you and somehow instantly lets you use it properly, as opposed to requiring months of therapy and training to adjust, is pretty implausible.
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Old 12-31-2017, 09:11 AM   #4
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Being that it radically rewires a brain to be something that it is not....

For inventing look at bio-tech; this is basically a metamorphosis virus that is granting a huge number of bonus traits.
So it's
TL12
Amazing invention
Cost ~500,000,000 (or more, I did not do the math for all of those advantages, but it will be significant) -- Don't forget the 'high TL' multiplier for cost if your doing this at TL < 12.

To create it at TL8 would be at such a staggering penalty that a roll is not even possible (less than 3 skill for an inventor with skill 25), so I guess we'd need to know more about your setting, the TL, etc.

I think I would need to hear more about the campaign, the TL, and the proposed inventor to say anything else about the concept.
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Old 12-31-2017, 11:16 AM   #5
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Default Re: Limitless drug

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
For those that haven't seen the film (like me), the description of the NZT-48 drug in the Limitless Wiki.
I've watched the movie and the entire TV series, and I think you're over-estimating the effects of NZT-48. It gave a lot of advantages, and it's really powerful, but it doesn't really affect your mental disadvantages (except maybe disabling Laziness) but users often needed to study to really get the best effects from it.

I'd put it at
* Removes Laziness
* IQ +2 (including Will and Perception)
* DX +1
* Compartmentalized Mind 4 (Non-combat only, no separation)
* Eidetic Memory (Photographic)
* Empathy
* Intuition
* Luck
* Modular Abilities (Super Memorization 6, Languages and Mental Skills Only)
* Single-Minded
* Visualization
* Wild Talent (2-3 uses per session)
* Perk: Can use multiple mind compartments to visualize quickly
* Perk: Speed Reading

On the drug, you can read through the entirety of your brother's medical textbooks in a night, teaching yourself enough medicine to diagnose your father's rare condition, but you're still pretty vulnerable to getting punched in the face or surprised by thugs busting down a door. Given a couple of seconds to analyze a situation, you can perform improbable physical feats ( DX +1 and Visualization and Wild Talent give you an effective Acrobatics-12 with Luck to help with any bad die rolls) but you're generally limited by your physical abilities.

A dose normally lasts for 12 hours, and you're at -1 IQ and -5 FP for 12 hours afterwards (unless you take a fresh dose). Long term use causes schizophrenia and brain cancer. You can take up to HT doses safely; after that, roll HT on each subsequent dose or get Terminally Ill (death in a year). Subsequent failures on the HT check give you Split Personality and other mental disadvantages of the GM's choice.

Habitual users of NZT are highly motivated to find a cure for the fatal side-effects and will generally manage to do so if given time and access to enough doses of the drug.
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Old 12-31-2017, 04:10 PM   #6
Anaraxes
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mlangsdorf View Post
I've watched the movie and the entire TV series, and I think you're over-estimating the effects of NZT-48.
Quite possibly. All I had to go on was that wiki description. And while it was fairly nicely detailed from the gaming point of view, it also seemed pretty over the top, even by Hollywood standards. A toned-down version would likely work better in most games.
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Old 12-31-2017, 08:14 PM   #7
Fred Brackin
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
Quite possibly. All I had to go on was that wiki description. And while it was fairly nicely detailed from the gaming point of view, it also seemed pretty over the top, even by Hollywood standards. A toned-down version would likely work better in most games.
<shrug> I only watched the series but mlangsdorf was probably underestimating the raw IW bonus.

Brian (the hero of the series) was absolutely no more than IQ12 with some sort of underachiever Disad before NZT. On NZT he was the smartest person in the room even with some very smart "normal" people. His FBI "partner" was likely IQ 14+ even allowing for overachiever traits.

I'd go for at least IQ +5 for a probable IQ17 which is were I put a lot of TV hypersmarts.
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Old 12-31-2017, 08:34 PM   #8
Flyndaran
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Default Re: Limitless drug

Your disagreement could be more about what Gurps stats mean rather than just difference of drug effects.
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Old 01-01-2018, 01:10 AM   #9
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Default Re: Limitless drug

I've statted GURPS nootropic drugs as pretty much allowing GURPS learning rules for the people who used them years ago.

Most realistic people will not achieve the theoretical maximum they could every second, every month. The ability to be a GURPS character is worth a whole lot of awesome, as witness the ability to act normally every turn, every week, every month.
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Old 01-01-2018, 06:44 AM   #10
AlexanderHowl
 
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Given the effortless way that the character solved every problem encountered (including relationship problems for random people on the bus), I would suggest that the drug grants 200 points of IQ and/or mental advantages (with IQ not being allowed to exceed 20). So Brian, with a base IQ 12, gains IQ+6 [120] plus Eidetic Memory [10], Intuition [15], Modular Abilities (Supermemorization, 3 slots, 10 points) [45], and loses Laziness [10]. The effects are different for each person, and the side effects are quite severe (each time that the person uses the unmodified drug, they gain one character point of mental disadvantages and one character point of physical disadvantages).
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