Drugs

[Sensuki]

Marijuana is the cure for cancer guys, it's the evil pharmaceutical companies for preventing it's finding!

 

(No I don't smoke it)

[Krios]

We are not doing Fallout, and I hope to see PE escape the censors unscathed.

We are doing mature themes (lol), we don't do drugs

[Ywerion]

I just wish there was more point to drinking in game than just to get a drunk icon and stat effects (or even addiction).

 

I've longed for a game that would force me - if I was searching for information, quests, whatever - to actually go and drink and talk to people, buy others drinks, etc. Give real meaning to those pubs. Then you end up with a reason to drink (beyond getting drunk) and if properly applied some areas of choice and consequences (because hopefully drinking past your limit would have some real in-game meaning).

Agreed.

In Risen2, there was a quest where you had to outdrink someone in the pub in order to get a map ... or something like that, I don't remember the quest details. But it was amusing/cool to have to sit down at a table and have drinking/going

 

Let us not forget drinking game quest in Gothic 2, where our hero could undergo this quest to help a guy who got broke from playing drinking contest, with some other fella, who turned out to be a cheater who is mixing in his opponent's beer some booze or gin if I recall correctly (who ever mixed some hard liquor with beer surely knows how fast it works hehe) And to succeed in that quest you had to lockpick that guy's chest and swap the booze with water, nice touch and pretty funny aswell.

Edited October 9, 2012 by Ywerion

[nikolokolus]

I feel like there's an awful lot of modern thinking going on in here when it comes to mind altering subsstances and restricting/endorsing their use. Who's to say that drugs are even illegal ior taboo n the world of PE?

 

Prohibitions against alcohol use are very old. It's not completely unreasonable to expect some societies will have prohibitions against specific mind-affecting substances. But yes, some societies will allow and even encourage the use of certain mind altering substances, particularly for religious purposes.

 

I completely agree that societies have long had prohibitions and social mores concerning the consumption and/or abuse of alcohol and narcotics. My only point is that rigid enforcement of drug laws and having a black market is a somewhat modern conceit, mostly arising in post-industrial societies. Also, in a world with the accepted use of magical elixirs that make you stronger, heal your wounds, make you invisible, etc. How would one even know what a narcotic looks like? Would the concept of illicit drugs be something a society would even think about? I don't know the answer of course, but it's something to think about.

[sollus]

Drugs is one thing, I would like it if they included something broader such as addiction, which may or may not be inclusive of drugs.

 

If you are going to have drugs, you have to have druggies though, they make some entertaining conversations and interactions!

[Ywerion]

I always loved how various enemies in Fallout 2 first buffed themseves with Jet and then rushed to attack like mad, thats and example of good implementation of drugs. Also on Gothic 2 note, there was a quest in Gothic 1 where you had to run an errand and offer swamp weed to various miners and mercenaries, you could also smoke a swamp weed anytime you wanted and if memory serves me well first time smoking that stuff caused some graphic effect and few EXP gain, later there was some guy who was selling weed with buffing effects. I have a rather foggy memory about Quest for Glory 3 where you could smoke an opium pipe repeatedly, resultting in game over describing your fate as a ragged muddy addict, begging in alleys for a coins for another puff, and dying as such. These were all nice ideas. If developing team find a way how to implement some sort of drugs and corresponding issues then I say why not, after all history speak out clearly that people from far past liked to get high on spirits, no? But if it should cost unecessary amount of budget, then I will not mourn the absence of this stuff. They can for example pull it in sequel instead who knows?

[Monte Carlo]

Narcotics are a fairly big part of many vanilla settings (i.e. the Forgotten Realms, where the Red Wizards knock out Black Lotus on street corners) and tie in with the idea of magical potions and alchemy and suchlike.

 

So I'm fairly cool about it.

 

And as Jaesun points out, booze is mandatory, I loved all the odd names of drinks you could buy in BG1 whilst trying to attempt to garner rumours (then you'd get drunk based on your intelligence score).

[Gyor]

I used stuff like jet and psycho to become a pornstar in fallout 2. Kind of hope they have stuff like pornstar, boxer, mobster, married, pimp like they did in fallout 2.

 

 

[jethro]

I voted no. I don't see a reason to specifically include drugs, apart from as part of a quest or if it makes sense for plot points.

 

The usual way drugs are used in RPGs are as buffs similar to spells. But what it then comes down to is either you drink them before every fight (which is a boring repetitive task) or they just fill up your inventory and you drag them around anyway because you just possibly could need them in the next fight.

 

Or the drugs are for special cases like "Cure poison". Then you keep them around cluttering your inventory just for the one time you really need them. And often you forget to use them at that moment when it would have really been beneficial and instead got by by using a few more healing spells instead.

 

They just don't add to the fun of fighting, they are a clunky substitute for low level priest and cleric spells.

 

The other idea mentioned was that you could be drug dealer (of forbidden substances) and grow a few addicts. So do you really want more clunky minigames in your RPG, especially ones that sound more like sim city? Remember, this is a project on a tight budget, you can't expect them to produce a whole sand box environment alongside a fully fleshed out story.

 

That (legal and illegal) drugs could be used in quests on the other hand is really not a question. We could as well ask "Should there be shovels in PE or not?"

[Jojobobo]

Well they're already in the game, fortunately/unfortunately depending on your stance:

 

svef - Svef is the Aedyran name for a potent narcotic produced from the berries of small shrub that grows in the dry, distant mountains of Tal Kness. Svef produces hallucinations and, according to some, allows users to actually see their own soul. The narcotic was introduced to the Aedyr long ago, but it is used more frequently in the Dyrwood due to its heavy trafficking by Vailian merchants.

I guess that's only one drug so that might be the extent of it, but at least one drug is definitely in the game. I guess for me taking buffing drugs in a game is no more boring or repetitive than using buff spells, though svef doesn't sound like it has a buffing capacity anyway. I don't really see how becoming a drug dealer is anything like a mini-game as it focuses on PC-NPC interactions, and I like rpgs where you have other revenue streams apart from crafting/finding items to sell and rewards from quests, but each to their own.

[OldRPG'sAreGood]

Svef sounds like something that people that are 'looking for themselves' might use, due to the "see your own soul" part. So...... Monks that are high in another way than status, maybe?

[seaban]

As long as it's not a main theme, I could care less.

[MichaelStuart]

I don't mind having Drugs in the game, as long it is done well.

[jivex5k]

It's always been my fantasy to smoke a joint in a fantasy rpg game.

[jethro]

Well they're already in the game, fortunately/unfortunately depending on your stance:

 

svef - Svef is the Aedyran name for a potent narcotic ...

I guess that's only one drug so that might be the extent of it, but at least one drug is definitely in the game. I guess for me taking buffing drugs in a game is no more boring or repetitive than using buff spells, though svef doesn't sound like it has a buffing capacity anyway. I don't really see how becoming a drug dealer is anything like a mini-game as it focuses on PC-NPC interactions, and I like rpgs where you have other revenue streams apart from crafting/finding items to sell and rewards from quests, but each to their own.

 

As I said I have no problems with quests (and that includes main quests) with drugs. It seems svef will be used to enable some "magic" change that doesn't depend on you having a special class with you, excellent use for a drug in the game.

 

My comparision with sim city or a mini game is because if you are a drug dealer (or any kind of dealer really) and the game doesn't just want to put up a text "You now have 100 addicts" and add some money to your bank account, then NPCs have to be programmed to either come to your castle or search you out in the streets. That would mean they either have to simulate lots of NPCs and their daily movement ala Sim City, or one or two token NPCs randomly pop out of nothing when you are in the city to stand as proxies for your 100 addicts. The first would break their budget, the second break your immersion. Sure, if there is a cool quest idea for that it could work somehow, but just for you to feel like a drug peddler? Its the wrong game.

[kabaliero]

I want lots of drugs, just to flush them in the waste, to show my attitude, like i did with jet and other addictive stuff in fallout.

[Jojobobo]

I didn't realise that unusual comment about a shovel was refering to the fact you thought drugs were fine in the game, I guess you meant that you're completely ambivalent about shovels being in the game so the same applies to drugs. And hey it was just an idea, I'm not advocating they should put things in the game just so I could feel like a drug dealer - that's plainly ridiculous. The point I was driving for is using drugs in the game in a way that was thinking outside the box and had never been done before, something fresh and exciting not GTA: The Fantasy Edition.

[jethro]

I didn't realise that unusual comment about a shovel was refering to the fact you thought drugs were fine in the game, I guess you meant that you're completely ambivalent about shovels being in the game so the same applies to drugs. And hey it was just an idea, I'm not advocating they should put things in the game just so I could feel like a drug dealer - that's plainly ridiculous. The point I was driving for is using drugs in the game in a way that was thinking outside the box and had never been done before, something fresh and exciting not GTA: The Fantasy Edition.

 

Something fresh and exiting sounds good. Not to say that something fresh and exiting with a shovel doesn't sound good as well ;-). But something not GTA sounds even better, we are on the same page here.

Maybe just the "with visits from regular clients" in your first post was too much GTA or Sim City for me.

[mcmanusaur]

Hooray, drugs! I support this notion!

[SinoSamba]

Isn't booze considered a drug by some? So it's already in

[SunBroSolaire]

I want to trip svef with my companions and go vision questing in a hallucinatory dungeon.

[mcmanusaur]

Isn't booze considered a drug by some? So it's already in

Alcohol is considered a drug by anyone who know what the definition of a drug is. Irrelevant tidbit: I'm in the middle of writing a thesis on alcohol use in the eighteenth century British Navy.

Edited November 4, 2012 by mcmanusaur

[Thangorodrim]

Unless it serves some purpose in the game it probably isn't needed.

 

- Alcohol serves a distinct purpose since the taverns were the social and news centers of the day, and the tradition of taverns in RPGs is well established. Most RPGs also give you distinct penalties (as in real life) for over indulging (lowered dexterity and sometimes an inability to fully control actions).

 

- Stims were well represented in Fallout and they also had distince uses and penalties for overuse.

 

- skooma was used in Elder Scrolls for several quests and the player had the option to use with very distinct penalties (and a few minor advantages, depending on your gaming style)

 

- the Black Lotus was well represented in Conan literature, also with distinct disadvantages and penalties for usage

 

If they design some plot points where drugs can be used effectively (and with accurate penalties for abuse) then I have no problem with their inclusion, but if they are just window dressing they are best left out. Alcohol will give plenty of abuse potential

[Nanakamado]

I think there should be drugs in game. It doesn't metter if they are everywhere, or only in very hidden places.

And if there are drugs, there should also the most intensive healing potions have drug-like efect.

[Atreides]

I think if it fits, sure. Not sure it's touchy to explore making a profit off drug manufacturing from high alchemy. Brewing alcohol on the other hand...

 

A hypochondriac NPC addicted to health potions could be interesting.