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[Gabriel]

We are arguing this point in circles. So let's change the subject.

Did Elena ever get to play her bounty-hunter?

Gabriel

[kv]

Actually, yeah. She made a physad bounty hunter named Seth...
(a chick named Seth, which was funny to me. She wanted to amidexterious edge (the biggest one), so I gave her racist and borrowed time. So now she's trying to earn enough karma to survive by getting rid of the flaw. She only has 8 months left to live at this point, I think)

But I'll let her tell you about the rest of it.

  -kv

[Gabriel]

How is the Borrowed Time flaw being used? Brain tumor? Kink Bomb? Mad Cow Desease???

Gabriel

[kv]

I told her that she had lung cancer (she wanted her character to be a bad-ass smoker- kicking people's asses and then lighting up afterwards), and she has 11 months before it becomes inoperable.

She kinda threw a fit about it, but I told her I was going to balance out the benefit of the max ambidexterity edge, and I did. She's gotten over it, though, and is hoping to earn enough karma to find out that she's dying of lung cancer, so they can grow her some replacement lungs in a vat somewhere- I already told her she could have a cyber replacement or some generic store-bought bioware, but she opted to keep her magic rating.

  -kv

[Zone]

If she's a physad, sooner or later she's going to tumble to the fact that the temple ain't pure.   A  physad's whole being is body based, you should start giving her in game hints about her condition, then if she plays them well give her the karma she's going to need.
Seth must be one for the books if she's a chain smoking physad  
I have a physad bodyguard who does hangs out with a chain smoker but doesn't smoke or drink himself.  But he still ripped the fingers right off a much bigger bouncer who got in his face  

[kv]

She's never read any of the books- I usually even breif her on even the most basic rules- although she did pick up a book or two the other weekend when we played.

  -kv

[Gabriel]

You know, I didn't catch onto it until Zone said something, but yeah, I'd like to see  a cahin-smoking physad. Kind of like a virgin nymphomaniac.

Gabriel

[kv]

Wouldn't that just be someone who masterbated a lot?

Anyway, physads can have the same bad habits that the rest of us mundanes do- they just pay a greater price. But if you've been smoking for years, and then suddenly unlock the talent that allows you greater speed and the use of magic to enhance your paltry temple, you would use it, right?

Of course, that doesn't mean that smoking is any easier to give up in 2060 or 2070 than it is now- in fact, I think cigarettes would have to get worse to keep up with other recreational drugs. So heroin-laced cigarettes and worse would be around; ("Op-ettes, named for the opium lacing the makers give that satisfying tobacco flavor!") and since cigarettes are already hard to quit, life would only get tougher.

  -kv

[Retread]

There's two chains of logic here, rules-wise. Either smoking is considered drug-use or it is not. If it is drug use, then technically simply smoking can cause Magic Loss in the same manner as Drug Addiction provided she is addicted (which I presume she is, being a chain-smoker) Drug addiction has several other penalties such as reduced Body rating, permanently reduced essence, and loss of Condition Monitor boxes.

Of course, one could change what a "dose" is considered or raise the Edge rating of tobacco as a drug (provided you write your own drug description as such) In the very least, smoking should confer some kind of range reduction penalty (steady hands) at the expense of having to resist a light stun wound. But again, this is at your own discretion.

[Gabriel]

Honestly, I can't really see using cigarettes as a drug at all, but that is my take. I would think it would be more of an image thing, after all, you could say one shot of tequila is a does of a drug and therby have to make addiction rolls and the whole nine yards. ANd yes, you COULD do that, but why would you want to add that much more paperwork to the SR world? Of course, someone who is an alchaholic may be forced to make those rolls, but again, I would just let it play out a "flavor."

Gabriel

[kv]

Yeah, I'm going to stick with Gabe on this one- I'm not going to have her roll for addiction until she tries to stop smoking- that way she doesn't start picking up on the penalties for it until she tries to stop. (Wasn't it Shaw who said that smoking is the easiest thing to quit in the world- because he did it every day?)

I'm going to give her enough karma to get rid of the flaw, but I am going to make her spend a crapload of money to buy new lungs, and then make her life difficult afterward when she tries to go back to life as usual.

But that's just my way of doing it. I like to use more flavor than rules, so if someone wants a girlfriend (in game), I laugh and let them get one, and then have her want him to spend as much money as possible on her.

One player I had wanted a super-hot girlfriend, so I had her demand that he put her in a luxury lifestyle, which tapped his bank account severely. After a few months, she left him to pursue a sim career, and he happily downgraded to a low lifestyle again, so he could start saving up for a car.

  -kv

[Gabriel]

You know, I was going to do something similar to my Wolf shamman. At character creation, he looked at the knowledge skills and decided that if someone could have drek like Elven Wines, and Seattle Grunge Rock, he was going to take a skill called Sex Stud at a 6. So I let him. I mean why now? So anyway, he uses his studliness on and off through his games, more as flavor than anything else, and I decide that I am going to get him hooked up with this really hot, tough, smart indian chica and see what happens. What I WASN'T going to tell him is that she was a Master Shedim covering her hoop by living a "normal" life. Alas, I never had the chance to get the subplot going before the group disbanded.

Gabriel

[Retread]

Well, the fact of the matter is that nicotine IS a drug and it has an effect. The trick is in the Edge rating. A nicotine could have an Edge rating of 60 pre-addiction and an edge rating of 1500 post addiction. So you could break the doses into packs so the initial edge is 4/100 packs pre and post and the roll occurs when the character's cigarettes run out. *shakes empty pack* "Damnitall! I need s'more smokes!" Make the roll then and there eventually the tolerance rating goes up so the character has to smoke another half a pack a day or whatever.

[Gabriel]

Isn't EVERYTHING a drug that goes into your body. By defenition I mean. No Edge Rating for Ho-Ho's or Twinkies.

Gabriel

[kv]

Well, I wanted to reflect that it's easier to start than to quit.

And I already have other drug users in this group- there's one player who's a drugged out ex-kiddy tv-star (I picture Paul Ruebens), who now spends his days strung out and sleeping with supermodels.

Him I penalize for constant drug use.

Her, I wanted to reflect the somewhat pathetic tale of one of my 'winner' ex-girlfriends, who started smoking just because she was bored and everyone else was smoking, and couldn't stop. The very definition of 'dumb slitch,' I know, but it showed me how easy it was to get hooked.

  -kv