Well in the old CP2020 Corebook there was a full Chapter dedicated to Drugs. I guess it should be a part of the Game. Indeed Alchemy in Witcher Serie worked well hence I see somehting could be done for Drugs too in CP2077. However I guess it could be redudant: we will have cyberwear do you think there will be still place for something like drugs?
I remember a big list of drugs
Acetylated Neocorticine
Alcohol
Angel
Asperquaint
Benetridin
Black Lace
Blood Of Christ
Blue Glass
Boost
Butaqualide HC1
Char
Cockroach
CPS-23
Gelgernine
Love Potion #9
MeStAg
Mr. Ex
Paxium
Rabbit
Rezzin
Ribopropylmethionine
Rolactin
Sandallathon
Smash
Sonniene
Speedheal
Stigmata
Stim
Syncomp 15
Synthcoke
Synthetic Endorphins
Taz
Tobacco
Triphetamine
Vanitol
Venus M&F
Visomorpain
Xanitrick
Zoki's Sleeping Pills
what are the rules? You buy them and then you get a power up?
In short, exactly. A dose of a drug costs X eb, and gives you an effect (often for Yd6+Z time units.) For an example, Chromebook 3 has "Prime", 500eb/dose:
"This drug narrows the user's concentration down to a highly focused point and eliminates extraneous emotion, making the user extremely cold and rational (+2 to COOL, +3 to Awareness, +2 to Stun Saves). An Average COOL test should be made when the drug wears off. Failure indicates that the user has not made a successful transition to an unprimed state. The user is distracted and finds it difficult to concentrate (-3 to all skill use, -2 to COOL for 1D6/2 hours). Duration 1D6+1 hours."
There are different drugs in a few of the sourcebooks as well as the core book.
thanks for explaining! Cyberpunk 2020 is an awesome game and the perfect model for a modern rpg
I think there should be a full spectrum of drugs at all different points of the harm/benefits balance.
Illegal drugs could be something like a treasure chest in a Diablo game: maybe it'll improve your actions/experience if you're lucky, but like a treasure chest it might explode: maybe you'll take something that will screw you up or leave you with unbearable cravings.
Addiction can be a fun gameplay feature if handled right... being a Vampire in a many games is essentially having a strong addiction to blood.
The trouble with addiction in the real world though is that you aren't totally incapacitated if you don't have the thing you're addicted to (unless you're very addicted, or are addicted to something with strong physical withdrawal symptoms like alcohol or heroin). So if you have strong cravings for cocaine or nicotine, you won't necessarily have physical withdrawal symptoms if you abstain. You'll just be thinking about it ALL THE TIME and feel a really strong motivation to seek more. You'll just imagine how good it will make you feel. I don't know how that can be represented in a video game.
I guess what I'm trying to say is: addiction is often driven by cravings/reward seeking behaviour rather than fear of not having it. There's a danger in video games to handle addiction as something where you are punished for not taking the thing you're addicted to.
Illegal drugs could be something like a treasure chest in a Diablo game: maybe it'll improve your actions/experience if you're lucky, but like a treasure chest it might explode: maybe you'll take something that will screw you up or leave you with unbearable cravings.
Addiction can be a fun gameplay feature if handled right... being a Vampire in a many games is essentially having a strong addiction to blood.
The trouble with addiction in the real world though is that you aren't totally incapacitated if you don't have the thing you're addicted to (unless you're very addicted, or are addicted to something with strong physical withdrawal symptoms like alcohol or heroin). So if you have strong cravings for cocaine or nicotine, you won't necessarily have physical withdrawal symptoms if you abstain. You'll just be thinking about it ALL THE TIME and feel a really strong motivation to seek more. You'll just imagine how good it will make you feel. I don't know how that can be represented in a video game.
I guess what I'm trying to say is: addiction is often driven by cravings/reward seeking behaviour rather than fear of not having it. There's a danger in video games to handle addiction as something where you are punished for not taking the thing you're addicted to.
I think Deathntaxes nailed the idea on the previous page.
I agree; trying to motivate the player into roleplaying "addiction" in a CRPG is difficult, if the player isn't interested in playing that out. However, presenting certain social opportunities where it would benefit the player to "party it up" to pass certain social skill checks / dialogues is a fantastic mechanic. Persuading the player into making questionable choices, rather than railroading them into decisions.
I want to be able to gather ingredients and make drugs myself and if I can make drugs, I can make poisons.
I'd say that drugs in cyberpunk are a must, I even expect visual distortion and sound effects when my character uses one.
Exploring into the "magical healing" we could have nanites that will stop bleeding, others that will regrow tissue like skin, organs and even bones... So you can stabilize yourself with a shot of BleedStop. Or use the good old medkit but with things from the cyberpunk canon like stich stripes that will close and clamp all cuts, plus a shot of growth hormone in the affected areas to help the healing...
As per Arthur C. Clarke's 3rd law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Exploring into the "magical healing" we could have nanites that will stop bleeding, others that will regrow tissue like skin, organs and even bones... So you can stabilize yourself with a shot of BleedStop. Or use the good old medkit but with things from the cyberpunk canon like stich stripes that will close and clamp all cuts, plus a shot of growth hormone in the affected areas to help the healing...
As per Arthur C. Clarke's 3rd law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Oops apologies, I hadn't read the previous pages when I posted.
You're right, Deathntaxes' suggestion is excellent! I like the idea of a drug improving your social skills in the game and making the people you do it with like you more, with the caveat of having it affect you too much/for too long and making certain people like you less.
To expand on/repeat what you guys have said already: the drugs could make certain dialogue choices inaccessible and other accessible? And if you're addicted, the effects of the drug could last a very long time and restrict your behaviour more.
For example:
-You're addicted to synth coke because you chose to use it to gain an advantage too many times.
-You're talking to an attractive NPC, she could be really helpful to achieve something if she's cooperative.
-She offers you a line/pill/smoke.
-If you take it you will gain rep with her, but certain dialogue options won't be clickeable anymore (eg answers which involve modesty)
Since you're addicted, your one line turns into a bender, and you're still being influenced a while later.
-You encounter a character between whom there is a mutual dislike, but you need something from them.
-It would be better to approach things diplomatically.
-The drug, however, makes diplomatic options unavailable in response to taunts made by the NPC, so you can only click aggressive/egotistical responses.
-You end up in a fight, in a situation you otherwise wouldn't have wanted to be in one.
I like it. To me, this makes perfect sense. The only thing I'd suggest as an implemetation would be to just outright hide certain dialogue choices. Greying out dialogue choices / making them unclickable might make the player feel like they're being railroaded.
(Yes; logically, I know that just hiding the alternate dialogue options is functionally the same, but I feel it's a presentation issue. How the player *perceives* the options available to them, even if they've painted themselves in to a corner.)
I like this build!
Yes, this works again because arguably you can't *see* the dialogue choice because the drug and addiction are affecting your perception ability to socially cope. Perhaps a bit raw in terms of a developed gameplay system, but I think one that would be really *blinking* cool.
Much as I hate to drag things back to the reality outside the game, I have to wonder what ramifications a full blown drug use mechanic is likely to have with the ESRB. Incidental, suggested, or even mild drug or alcohol use is usually enough to bump a game up to an M rating. Tweek it too much and have it suggested that the game is encouraging drug use and they could slap the project with the dreaded AO rating. (At least here in the States. I haven't read up on how PEGI rates games. I assume there's a similar rating.)
Which doesn't really bother me, I'll play it regardless, but the availablility and success of such a title would be questionable.
One could argue that tacking on massively inconvenient penalties for drug use could be a deterrant, but you know how the media takes these things and runs with them. If Fox News was to be believed, Mass Effect was only about blue alien side boob, and Grand Theft Auto was supposed to be called Lady Of the Evening Extreme Beatdown.
Which doesn't really bother me, I'll play it regardless, but the availablility and success of such a title would be questionable.
One could argue that tacking on massively inconvenient penalties for drug use could be a deterrant, but you know how the media takes these things and runs with them. If Fox News was to be believed, Mass Effect was only about blue alien side boob, and Grand Theft Auto was supposed to be called Lady Of the Evening Extreme Beatdown.
Just do what Fallout did and use real life drugs and their effects but just change the names.
Med-X is morphine, Psycho is nazi super drug D-IX, etc. etc.
Drugs are important to the underworld, so it has to be there. Along with manufacturing, trafficking, to distribution. It has to be in there for the future is addiction itself.
Also, Hitman: Absolution has a level with a full field of marijuana. It got an "M" rating. The World is cool with marijuana so plz let us grow it in our homes.
Med-X is morphine, Psycho is nazi super drug D-IX, etc. etc.
Drugs are important to the underworld, so it has to be there. Along with manufacturing, trafficking, to distribution. It has to be in there for the future is addiction itself.
Also, Hitman: Absolution has a level with a full field of marijuana. It got an "M" rating. The World is cool with marijuana so plz let us grow it in our homes.
it would be awesome to have mrijuana plants in the home of our characters, and let them grow
i smoke it and its good....
it would be awesome to have mrijuana plants in the home of our characters, and let them grow
i smoke it and its good....
I just hope the scientists in 2077 can successfully cloned plant life from the past. Nothing I'd love more than to eat some psilocybin shrooms and walk through the streets under neon words that say sex and girls.
Also, with that in mind. I play video games high all the time, little things in video games always blow my mind. So this game when it comes out will be nothing different to my routine. I just hope the devs have that in mind. Lots of people play video games stoned, so making those big moments or even the little moments should have that in mind. Style over substance after all, even though this shit has tons of substance.