Quote:
Originally Posted by Maximum7
The second one.
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And what exactly are you looking for?
The game effects?
The actual physiological method it works by?
Subjective experience of the user?
With better pharmacological and neurochemical knowledge than we have, meddling with brain chemistry such as dopamine or seratonin levels is probably trivial. It may be possible to directly stimulate areas of the nervous system to induce feelings of wellness, security, trust, joy or sexual orgasm, each lasting for hours.
Aside from the social and legal stigmatization of recreational chemistry, I suspect modern medical technology is fully capable of perfecting drugs that keep people blissfully satisfied without much in the way of side effects. I mean, we can directly stimulate the pleasure center of the brain, at least in lab rats, so I figure we wouldn't need a long time to come up with some really effective and mostly side-effect free euphoria drugs if that were suddenly a legal avenue of research for huge drug companies. Sure, it would probably be
psychologically addictive, but really, that's just because humans really value feeling pleasure.
If I were running a Star Wars game, I'd assume that any decent pharmacist could whip up synthetic heroin that was without any major side effects and did not lead to chemical dependency. I'd also assume that this wasn't particularly expensive or difficult, but something that exists in the background of the world, like how I assume they have super good reclycling technologies so the Death Star isn't just filling up with sewage.
But it's also not likely to be the focus of adventures, either, not unless there is something more exotic going on. To me, a Star Wars drug that is plot significant probably doesn't do anything scientific, like work in any way the way real drugs work, because Star Wars is a fantasy setting and the science-fiction trappings are just unimportant window dressing.
So, make it a magic drug, if it's supposed to be plot-significant in any way. Exact magical effects depend on what it's meant to do in your plot.