I was wondering how people interpreted the drug gland implant, particularly with regards to the cost.
Going by the description, the most evident interpretation seems to be that you get the implant, pick a drug from the list and just release it into your body whenever you want, as many times as you want. The odd thing is, though, that it's a [Low] cost implant, and at least one drug that I remember has a [Moderate] cost per dose. Seems fair to at least up the cost of the implant to the drug's cost, but it still seems really cheap for it. Off the top of my head, increasing the cost of the gland to the next category above the chosen drug seems like a nice solution, but I haven't really considered the numbers as such.
As a side-note, I noted that endocrine control provides conscious control over the adrenal boost augmentation. Since that provides a +10 to REF, it's tempting to just walk around with it active all the time, and there's no text that suggests that it can't be done rules-wise. However, walking around while pumped up on adrenalin *constantly* can't be good for you. Anyone have any quirky houserules about having the biomorph's heart explode or something? As a tie-in with the aforementioned drug gland, drugs like MRDR lower your aptitudes permanently if you use them too much (what constitutes "long-term use" is up to the GM, I suppose), but there's no such deterrent to using the adrenal boost.
Thoughts?
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Drug glands and adrenal boosters and endocrine control! Oh my!
Thu, 2009-09-24 16:53
#1
Emo_Duck
Drug glands and adrenal boosters and endocrine control! Oh my!
Thu, 2009-09-24 17:02
#2
danvolodar
Re: Drug glands and adrenal boosters and endocrine control! ...
Well, in what comes to the adrenalin boost - you have physical tests like Freerunning and things, why not just make a heart attack one of the critical failure results for them, warning players in advance?
Thu, 2009-09-24 18:21
#3
Decivre
Re: Drug glands and adrenal boosters and endocrine control! ...
Remember, the cost of an item does is not necessarily related to its rarity. Cost is primarily based on demand and the ability to produce something. In that sense this is pretty logical... drug addicts probably don't have access to the surgery necessary to buy a gland, but they can definitely suck a few... whatever... in order to get the money for a fix of their favorite pastime. It works fine. The gland, however, is simply a small organ that produces the drug. In that same vein, a cornucopia device can potentially produce things far more expensive than the cost you might have paid to get it.
As for the last part, note that endocrine control gives you [i]fine[/i] control over hormone output, meaning you can increase and decrease your hormone production (including adrenaline) at will. It's far less likely for someone's heart to burn out when their adrenaline only goes up a the moment they begin exerting their reflexes, and immediately drops when they are done. The endocrine control gland is about efficiency.
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Thu, 2009-09-24 18:52
#4
Emo_Duck
Re: Drug glands and adrenal boosters and endocrine control! ...
Yeah, I get that one of the features of endocrine control is to activate the effects of the adrenal boost at will, but I was thinking in terms of having it active constantly, so that you'd benefit from the increased reflexes in surprise situations, for example. A derived issue may be just how long you can keep going on adrenaline without fatigue, as some implants and morphs allow you to stay awake and active for ~48 hours continuously.
Thu, 2009-09-24 19:20
#5
Decivre
Re: Drug glands and adrenal boosters and endocrine control! ...
Yeah, but having it on constantly is rather idiotic, and no one would likely do that. It'd be like keeping your eyes open at all times without blinking, or breathing in and never breathing out. Triggering it whenever you make a REF-based test, or whenever you are injured is a more sensible idea, and probably something that someone with endocrine control would do instinctively. The same is true with most hormones.
That said, one of the implants you are talking about that allow you to stay awake and active so long is the endocrine control implant. However, it probably wouldn't be based on adrenaline (as that is a reactive hormone, not a cyclic hormone), but rather serotonin.
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Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age.
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Thu, 2009-09-24 20:41
#6
Emo_Duck
Re: Drug glands and adrenal boosters and endocrine control! ...
Exactly my point, which is why I was asking if anyone had come up with appropriate penalties, like there are with prolonged use of some drugs. There's always the solution of 'let the GM decide' to fall back on, of course.
Thu, 2009-09-24 21:58
#7
Decivre
Re: Drug glands and adrenal boosters and endocrine control! ...
Hormones are significantly different from drugs. You can't become chemically dependent, and you can't overdose on them. Your cells self-regulate hormone usage. Even in the case of adrenaline, it will cause your heart rate and blood pressure to jump, but prolonged exposure largely runs the risk of causing you to faint or have a long-lasting hard-on.
I would rule that if the character is in a flat with a heart condition, this might be a risk; but in most other cases (and especially with any other body except for flats), there is no real risk at all. This is especially true with the endocrine control implant, which probably enhances your body's hormonal regulation by a huge amount.
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Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age.
[url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]
Thu, 2009-10-08 19:56
#8
HappyDaze
Re: Drug glands and adrenal boosters and endocrine control! ...
I have another set of questions on the Drug Glands, and this seems as good a place as any for them.
1a) Is the substance produced by Drug Glands limited to any particular application methods (see page 317)? If the substance produced by Drug Glands is limited to only Injected application, that eliminates more than 80% of the drug choices given in the book.
1b) If I select a substance with an application method other than Injected, does that substance's application method become Injected when administered by Drug Glands? It seems silly that Drug Glanfds would produce substances using any application method other than Injected since the bloodstream is where most of the other methods (Oral, Inhaled, most Dermal) try to deliver the substance. It would be a bad design if your gland somehow produces a mist that you then have to inhale, squirts a liquid down your esophagus, or exudes a substanceonto your skin which then ahs to be absorbed.
2) Why do the onset times not take the application method into account? Oral drugs should take longer to take effect than Inhaled and Injected drugs? Looking at Juice, it seems appropriate for an Oral does to have an onset of 20 minutes, but that seems silly for an Inhaled dose.
3) Why are so many of the drugs restriced to only a single application method. IRL, many drugs have multple application methods depending on how the drug is prepared. Almost anything that can be taken orally can be prepared as an injection.
Wed, 2010-07-14 22:06
#9
UpliftedOctopi
Re: Drug glands and adrenal boosters and endocrine control! ...
@HappyDaze
1a) You answer your own question. It would be possible to choose which application method a character uses. I would suggest that you make your character wishing to do so take the appropriate skills to "cook up" these alternatives. I think it would be an asset if the major drug producer only made the glands. Think of the glorious merger between drug and organ black markets. Then your chemist character could cook up alternatives, get a couple organ thieves and you have yourself a campaign built on business models of horizontal and vertical integration... but with crime (actually sounds like a pretty fun game). The point is that if the drug can be made, someone is making it. If people will buy it, there's always someone willing to sell it. It's up to the area to decide on which side of the law they will be doing it. I would guess that with the varying habitats and subcultures in EP they just rely on the GM having a good feel for what kind of place their setting is, and adjust these things accordingly.
1b) I'm sure it would just alter the dose accordingly, to facilitate an injection that is.
2)Thats a good question, I'm a little uncomfortable with how versed you are on the topic. Adjust it accordingly for homebrew.
3)see question 1a.
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