Rules for Intoxication (or, "It's Tipsy Fun Time!")

[flankspeed]

NOTE: This set of rules has been revised and posted under a new title that I thought might be more descriptive and more likely to show up in searches.

Please refer to the new thread for the most up-to-date version of these rules. Thank you, and sorry for the re-direct! Here is the link:

Tavern Fun Time: Alcohol, Drinking, Intoxication, and After Effects

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=159492



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This is an attempt to implement game mechanics for intoxication, borrowing some inspiration from those who have already posted here on the forums. There are details about saving throws, penalties, extra strong drinks, spiked drinks, vomiting, hangovers, and addiction.

I know this looks intimidatingly long, but the core mechanics are simple, escalating D6 saves and one-step-at-a-time attribute penalties. I have tried to explain in enough detail to anticipate questions and situations that may arise.

After this introduction, I will immediately post the text rules for intoxication followed by a separate list of the mechanical bits.

I hope you like the rules and will find them useful. Permission granted to Steve Jackson Games to use them with The Fantasy Trip.

Enjoy responsibly! Or not, hehe.

[flankspeed]

ALCOHOL & INTOXICATION
or, "Don't Split the Party, It Just Got Started!"

Adventurers often congregate in taverns seeking information, relaxation, or celebration. But while the wise taverngoer will pace her drinking to avoid overindulging, those who show less restraint risk getting tipsy or worse.

Anyone consuming only one drink (approximately one ounce of alcohol or one mug/glass of a typical brew) per hour rolls 1D6 vs ST to avoid the onset of intoxication. This is an automatic success so long as there is one hour between drinks and the drinker does not have Low Alcohol Tolerance. For each additional drink per hour, add 1D6 and roll again. Note that the Carousing Talent and High Alcohol Tolerance both subtract 1D6 from the difficulty, while Low Alcohol Tolerance adds 1D6. See the “Saving Throws Against Intoxication” section below.

The GM may rule that certain alcoholic drinks count as more than one drink per hour, and would add as many D6 to the roll as the number of equivalent normal drinks. Spiked drinks may be given to a character, and if undetected, the character must make Intoxication rolls as per normal (perhaps rolled by the GM). Spiked drinks can be detected as shown below in the “Detecting Spiked Drinks” section.


INTOXICATION SAVING THROWS
or "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Getting Bombed"
(It's just a Dr. Strangelove reference and not an endorsement of alcoholism, okay?)

Any intoxication roll vs ST that is reduced to 1D6 difficulty is an automatic success with no roll necessary. A 2D6 roll automatically succeeds on a 2 and automatically fails on a 12. Any roll of 3D6 or more follows the standard rules for automatic success and failure.

A critical success subtracts 1D6 from the difficulty of the next intoxication roll if drinking continues and lessens attribute penalties by +1 DX and +1 IQ. A critical failure increases the next roll for continued drinking by an extra 1D6 in addition to the normal 1D6, increases the attribute penalties by an extra -1 DX and -1 IQ, and causes the drinker to vomit on their next turn.

The practical effect of a critical failure for combat would be that the character may take no other action than vomiting on their next turn. However, the GM may rule that some other misfortune happens to the drinker instead of vomiting, such as falling off a chair, stumbling and falling to the ground, dropping whatever they were holding, etc., or may allow the player to make appropriate adjDX rolls to try moving to a better place before vomiting.

A normal failure on the roll means that intoxication has begun or gotten worse. See the “Failed Intoxication Roll Results” section below. When a character passes out after five failed rolls, they will remain unconscious for a number of hours equal to the amount by which they failed their save.

Success on the intoxication roll means no additional ill effects from drinking while still enjoying the revelry, though any accumulated penalties for intoxication remain in effect. If drinking continues within that hour, the difficulty of the intoxication roll increases by 1D6 for each drink beyond the first. Roll separately for each drink consumed. If an hour passes between drinks, then the first drink during the next hour starts at 1D6 less than the previous hour’s last intoxication roll.

For example: three drinks last hour at 3D6 carry over a base difficulty of 2D6, and the first drink of the next hour would add its 1D6 to again become a total saving throw of 3D6 vs ST. If two hours had passed with no drinking, then only 1D6 of difficulty would carry over to become 2D6 total, and three hours later is long enough that the first drink would be back to a 1D6 automatic success. Remember, a successful roll only means that no additional penalties accrue. It takes four hours of non-drinking to actually decrease penalties by one level of failure, as detailed in the following paragraphs.


SOBERING UP
or, "How to Get Shaken AND Stirred"

If the character remains awake and conscious, then for every four hours that pass without drinking, decrease the level of intoxication by one failure amount. Thus if currently suffering from three failed rolls for -3DX, etc., and four hours pass without drinking, reduce the penalties to -2 DX, etc.

A character who has not passed out or fallen asleep may try to sober up more quickly through home remedies or some other technique. The success of such remedies is up to the GM. One possibility the GM might allow is for the character to drink stimulant beverages that grant +1 DX and +1 IQ, but these modifiers apply only when cancelling out penalties, such as from exhaustion, lack of sleep, or intoxication.

These stimulant beverages can never grant positive bonuses beyond a character's maximum DX or IQ since they only bring the character closer to being fully awake. If, however, the character takes actual drugs that are performance enhancers, then penalites can be negated and actual positive bonuses applied, but the GM may decide a saving throw is needed to avoid overdosing or becoming addicted.


HANGOVERS
or, "If You Have Some of the Hair of the Dog that Bit You, You Better Hope His Bark Is Worse than His Bite!"

If a character either goes to sleep or becomes unconscious due to passing out, they are better able to recover. Their level of intoxication still decreases by one failure amount for every four hours without drinking, but the only effects of intoxication that remain after waking up — the “hangover” — are the penalties to DX and IQ (no movement penalties, no numbness, and no Reaction roll adjustment).

The lingering DX and IQ penalties for a hangover slowly wear off over time in four-hour increments. A character who fails five saves and passes out could wake up after 8 hours (perhaps partly forced unconsciousness and partly trying to sleep it off) and still be at -3 DX and -3 IQ. They have a doozy of a hangover that will slowly wear off every four hours of the next day. If they had woken up after only 4 hours, their hangover would have begun at -4 DX and -4 IQ!

If a character with a hangover is desperate to succeed at some dextrous or intellecutal task the next day, such as fighting a duel or working a job, the character may try folk remedies to cure the hangover. It’s up to the GM to determine how effective folk remedies are, but trying the “hair of the dog that bit you” is a risky proposition.

Drinking more alcohol the following morning would only help if the character rolled a critical success after consuming a drink of 3D6 strength or higher. As previously stated, a critical success reduces DX and IQ penalties by +1. Of course, if such a strong intoxication roll fails, the character starts to get drunk again and only makes things worse!

[flankspeed]

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SAVING THROWS AGAINST INTOXICATION
(Rated by Drinks Per Hour)

1st Drink Per Hour: 1D6 vs ST for an automatic success unless character has Low Alcohol Tolerance (see note below)

2nd Drink Per Hour: 2D6 vs ST

3rd Drink Per Hour: 3D6 vs ST

4th Drink Per Hour: 4D6 vs ST

For every additional drink per hour, add +1D6 to the difficulty. Extremely strong characters are able to drink more alcohol per hour but will eventually face challenging saving throws.

NOTE:

All modifiers are cumulative.

-- Carousing Talent: Roll -1D6

-- High Alcohol Tolerance (may be a racial trait, e.g., dwarf): Roll -1D6

-- Low Alcohol Tolerance (may be a racial trait, e.g., elf): Roll +1D6

-- Extra Strong Drink: Roll +1D6 or more


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DETECTING SPIKED DRINKS

Standard +1D6 drink: 3D6 vs IQ

— Roll +1D6 if prepared by a person skilled with alcohol, poisons, Alchemy, or Carousing

— Roll -1D6 if drinker is familiar with alcoholic beverages due to Carousing Talent or working with liquor, poisons, or Alchemy

— Roll -1D6 for each drink strength beyond standard (if the drink is twice as strong adding 2D6 to the Intoxication saving throw, then the detection roll is 1D6 easier)

NOTE: A detection roll reduced to 1D6 is an automatic success.


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FAILED INTOXICATION ROLL RESULTS


1st Failure
"Buzzed": -1 DX, -1 IQ


2nd Failure
"Tipsy": -2 DX, -2 IQ

— Balance is affected. To avoid falling prone when moving more than four hexes per turn, roll 2D6 vs adjDX before entering each hex over four, failure means falling prone in the current hex.

— Reaction rolls are -1 or +1 based on circumstances and the preferences of the other person, and the drinker's speech is slightly slurred.


3rd Failure
"Drunk": -3 DX, -3 IQ

— Staggering begins. To avoid falling prone when moving more than two hexes per turn, roll 3D6 vs adjDX before entering each hex over two, failure means falling prone in the current hex.

— Reaction rolls are -2 or +2 based on circumstances and the preferences of the other person, and the drinker's speech is slurred.

— Physical damage taken is -1 Hit due to numbness.


4th Failure
"Smashed": -4 DX, -4 IQ

-- Character may pass out if unable to shake it off. Take note of how many dice were rolled when the 4th failure occurred. To see if the character passes out, re-roll that number of dice vs ST before the character's movement phase on the turn after the 4th failure. If the roll fails, treat the character as having failed their 5th saving throw (see below). If the roll succeeds, the character remains conscious for another turn.

Roll vs ST again before next turn's movement phase, but reduce the throw by 1D6 compared to the previous one. Keep rolling every turn until the roll fails or becomes 1D6, which is an automatic success. At this point, the character is free to remain conscious while suffering all penalties associated with the 4th failure, but deciding to sleep it off is probably a good idea.

— Character is now falling-down drunk. Roll 3D6 vs adjDX to avoid falling prone on any turn when standing without some support, failure means falling prone in the current hex. The character either needs to sit down, lay down, lean heavily on something solid, or have someone put an arm around them.

— Roll 3D6 vs adjDX to stand up again if prone (no other action allowed while attempting to stand up).

— Roll 3D6 vs adjDX before every hex of unsupported movement, failure means falling prone in the current hex, but if able to lean heavily on something solid, such as a wall, then roll only 2D6 per hex for the first two hexes and 3D6 for each additional hex per turn. If someone puts an arm around the character to assist walking, the pair may move up to half the slowest person’s Movement Allowance per turn without any danger of falling prone.

The character rolls 3D6 vs adjDX at the end of the movement to see if they would now fall prone without the other person's support. If the roll succeeds, the character stays standing, but if it fails AND the other person lets go for any reason (such as to defend against an attack), the character will fall prone.

— Reaction rolls are -2 or +2 based on circumstances and the preferences of the other person, and the drinker’s speech is very slurred.

— Physical damage taken is -2 Hits due to extremely dulled senses (as when putting a person into a drunken stupor before performing primitive surgery).


5th Failure
"Passed Out": Unconscious

— Character passes out immediately and will remain unconsciousness for as many hours as the roll was failed by (rolling a 14 vs ST=10 results in 4 hours of unconsciousness).

— If the roll is a critical failure, the drinker will vomit and remain unconscious as stated previously while suffering fatal alcohol poisoning. The drinker will die at the end of their hours of unconsciousness unless they receive medical attention before the hours expire (Physicker or Master Physicker at 3D6 vs IQ).


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ALCOHOLISM

Subject to GM ruling, the first time a character tastes alcohol and every time a character passes out due to intoxication, roll 2D6 vs IQ to avoid alcohol addiction. (On 2D6 a 2 automatically succeeds and 12 automatically fails, add +1D6 to the roll if the person has alcoholic relatives or some innate tendency toward alcoholism.)

An alcoholic must roll 3D6 vs adjusted IQ to not drink every day, to stop drinking once started, and to turn down an opportunity to drink. The GM may rule that the severity increases over time to 4D6 or higher.

To kick the habit requires some triggering event that brings about a desire to recover, whether a tragedy of some sort or an intervention by loved ones. Roll 5D6 vs adjusted IQ per week to kick the habit alone cold turkey. Decrease the difficulty to 4D6 per week if helped by someone else skilled in medicine, psychology, or spirituality, and to 3D6 per month if helped by skilled individuals in a prolonged treatment program.


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[flankspeed]

Since I started this thread, I will only bump it this one time and then let it go. It's just that I wanted some feedback from others to see if these rules could really work for TFT.

Even if I don't actually edit the rules, people could at least read the replies and get other ideas than just mine. I hope some tavern-going adventurers will stop by and have a round on me as they enjoy some Tipsy Fun Time!

Thank you!

[CardDiceian]

Originally Posted by flankspeed

Since I started this thread, I will only bump it this one time and then let it go. It's just that I wanted some feedback from others to see if these rules could really work for TFT.

Thank you!

I have printed out this rule set and intend to use them with an encounter with a group of unruly orcs - (they are already well oiled), and aggressively insisting that our party drink with them.

It may be a while before I get to play them properly as my son had a bad cycling accident on Monday, and only just regaining consciousness (slowly) last night and today. So he won't be able to engage his brain in anything taxing for a few weeks at least. :(

I have put your profile name on the page though, and will pass you any playtest feedback as I do it. Don't hold your breath though.

[flankspeed]

Originally Posted by CardDiceian

.... It may be a while before I get to play them properly as my son had a bad cycling accident on Monday, and only just regaining consciousness (slowly) last night and today....

I am very sad to hear the bad news about your son. I hope he gets well quickly and recovers as completely as possible.

I'm just glad the rules seem usable enough. I may not be able to edit the rules myself for a while anyway, so please don't feel any pressure about playtesting them.

Any feedback you eventually have could still be posted here for people to consider if they also want to try the rules.

So thank you, and all the best wishes for your son!

P.S. The rules in this thread are the most up-to-date version. You can tell by the added subheads and a few edits here and there. Just letting you know for sure these are the current rules listed in this thread.