Some admittedly controversial GURPS questions.

[sir_pudding]

Yeah I was expecting another hiking or dodge thread or maybe something about preventing character death by GM fudging. That's controversy in these here parts. Although now I am a little curious what game the OP normally plays that is so much more complicated and realistic.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Yeah I was expecting another hiking or dodge thread or maybe something about preventing character death by GM fudging. That's controversy in these here parts. Although now I am a little curious what game the OP normally plays that is so much more complicated and realistic.

The game of life, duh. ;)

[vicky_molokh]

This not an official statement on forum policy (for that, contact Kromm and the others higher-ups), but the questions of Addictions and drugs have come up before, and I don't remember any locks/deletions. It is, however, important to avoid political issues (such as arguments for changing drug laws in either direction), because they often end in flames.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

This not an official statement on forum policy (for that, contact Kromm and the others higher-ups), but the questions of Addictions and drugs have come up before, and I don't remember any locks/deletions. It is, however, important to avoid political issues (such as arguments for changing drug laws in either direction), because they often end in flames.

People get addicted to legal things all the time. But what should be done in the real world isn't on topic for gurps forums anyway.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

This not an official statement on forum policy (for that, contact Kromm and the others higher-ups), but the questions of Addictions and drugs have come up before, and I don't remember any locks/deletions.

As long as the discussion stays close to GURPS, we will not lock or delete anything. It's a perfectly valid subject . . . After all, we spend thousands of words per day discussing the combat rules, and we don't lock or delete those topics on the grounds that violence is a real-life social problem (and a far bigger one than drugs!). The key thing is to stay away from real-world hot-button issues.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

It is, however, important to avoid political issues (such as arguments for changing drug laws in either direction), because they often end in flames.

Exactly!

—

My $0.02 is that this is an area where you probably want to stick to the rules as written: Addiction (p. B122) and Addictive Drug (pp. B440-441) . . . and yes, I know that the wording is misleading, as both encompass hallucinogens (not addictive) and omit alcohol (very addictive). The rules are good enough. Digging deeper might not be healthy for people who are at risk (the line between "I'm finding out more" and "I found out too much" is invisible in some places), and, beyond that, is liable to raise the sorts of hot-button issues that sidetrack otherwise-good discussion. I'm with the people saying that if you want to make drug use and withdrawal more interesting in a game, you might want to tack on more afflictions and mental disadvantages. Beyond that, just make the adventures interesting: instead of portraying all drug dealers and users as Hollywood bad guys, and having addictions and overdoses lead to boring dice rolls, toss in scenes like Physician rolls to save ODing people, or using the heroes' social skills and Wealth to combat the addiction environment.

[Refplace]

I am thinking the corruption mechanic for some hallucinagens could be interesting to add in.
Or a variant on that for drug dealers who get a penalty when selling and eventually start using.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Kromm

My $0.02 is that this is an area where you probably want to stick to the rules as written: Addiction (p. B122) and Addictive Drug (pp. B440-441) . . . and yes, I know that the wording is misleading, as both encompass hallucinogens (not addictive) and omit alcohol (very addictive). The rules are good enough. Digging deeper might not be healthy for people who are at risk (the line between "I'm finding out more" and "I found out too much" is invisible in some places), and, beyond that, is liable to raise the sorts of hot-button issues that sidetrack otherwise-good discussion. I'm with the people saying that if you want to make drug use and withdrawal more interesting in a game, you might want to tack on more afflictions and mental disadvantages. Beyond that, just make the adventures interesting: instead of portraying all drug dealers and users as Hollywood bad guys, and having addictions and overdoses lead to boring dice rolls, toss in scenes like Physician rolls to save ODing people, or using the heroes' social skills and Wealth to combat the addiction environment.

For the addiction/withdrawal themselves, these are the things I'm interested in:

• More precise rule for becoming addicted than 'run Withdrawal in reverse'.
• Addictiveness values (HT/Will penalties/bonuses) for various drugs.
• Modifiers to number of successful rolls required for withdrawal (or accumulated failures for addiction) for various drugs, where a change from the default value is appropriate.

And for the record, one of the current characters (NOT players) in a game I GM is addicted to stimulants, so the topic is of some interest.

[Titanium man]

I'm pleasantly surprised this thread's still here. I was expecting to be eliminated because of the questions re drugs in the real world and people worrying about the topic being too controversial.

Dealing with the situation I'm in it comes as a surprise not to have to dance around every little issue for various reasons. Couldn't use D&D due to the controversy of it being 'occult' or 'satannic', have to avoid this because it's offensive to some. Can't say that because some people consider it to be a violation of their religion, ad infinitum.

Anyway I knew asking here was a long shot, but I appreciate every reply. The project was to teach troubled kids some sort of psychological things to help them. Personally I would teach them some real martial arts and even offered to put them in touch with my Sambo master but no, that was too controversial.

There is a backup plan, so don't worry. Plan b is to have the psych types put me in touch with real current and former junkies for me, the RPG expert, to learn from and make up rules and effects for the drugs.

Want to hear something funny? My cousin refused to take on any gamers for this project as she didn't want anyone directly working with the kids to see gaming as fun or a hobby.

Yeah, yeah. I know, I groaned and rolled my eyes too.

They wanted to avoid going to junkies for info for fear of someone claiming we were teaching kids to be addicts.

So thanks for not blitting this thread and for all the replies. As of now my plan might be to use the rules mostly and have the psychs use the info they have from personal dealing with junkies as descriptive context.

BTW, it was ok to have people with experience relating to drugs involved but not anyone with RPG experience. Sigh.

[Titanium man]

To give something back after asking for help here, may I present a general aid to GM's everywhere: The world's easiest plot hook. NSFW, does have a bad word, but is the easiest way to get a character into a plot.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...91415006_n.jpg

I just saw this on another board and may use it in a game soon.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Titanium man

Want to hear something funny? My cousin refused to take on any gamers for this project as she didn't want anyone directly working with the kids to see gaming as fun or a hobby.

Okay, I am a little disturbed by this. Gaming is a hobby. Therefore it must also be fun for us hobbyists. Why don't they want the kids to see gaming as a fun hobby?