Some drugs, ranging from the absolutely normal to the surreal. Narcoalgorithms Analogics Analogics are narcoalgorithm drugs that mimic “classic” drugs. Sometimes they are improved versions with few side effects, sometimes crude and straightforward ports. Synthehol A very basic alcohol analog, usually delivered via a barcode or RFID tag at the bottom of a shot glass. Exists in a multitude of versions, but all are based on simulating subtype specific GABA-A receptor partial agonists, sometimes with a touch of NMDA receptor antagonism thrown in. The effects are similar to alcohol without any hangover (unless a version with a hangover patch is ingested). Usually synthehol comes with a little XP patch to give a sensation of drinking. Under the influence it gives -10 (mild intoxication) to -30 (dead drunk) to all tests. [Trivial] Type: Algorithm, App: run, Onset: 30 minutes, Duration: 6 hours, Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: Mental Revintages There exists an amazing array of reconstructions and recreations of wines and liquors, a testament to infugee ingenuity, boredom and nostalgia. They allow infomorphs and simspace users to enjoy drinks that are no longer physically available. Some are based on straightforward gas spectrograms and elaborate sensory dynamics simulations. Others are impressionistic versions, reconstructed from memories and old XPs. There are endless debates and taste-offs about which version is better, with connoisseurs pooh-poohing mere open source vintages and outer system oenophiles claiming the expensive for/pay vintages taste well only due to the placebo effect. Under the influence it gives -10 (mild intoxication) to -30 (dead drunk) to all tests. [Trivial to High] Type: Algorithm, App: run, Onset: 30 minutes, Duration: 6 hours (depends on strength), Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: Mental LDS A hallucinogen narcoalgorithm loosely based on LSD. It completely lacks the physical effects of LSD, although it does turn the eyes of the simspace body of the user into trippy patterns for the duration. The effect is basically identical to LSD, highly individual trips with visual and time distortions, hallucinations, dissolution of the ego and occasional mystical states. [Low] Type: Algorithm, App: run, Onset: instant, Duration: 6h, Addiction modifier: -10, Addiction type: Mental Black lightening A basic caffeine/stimulant narcoalgorithm somebody had the brilliant idea of combining with a time sense hack. Besides giving a sense of energy the user also feels as if they are running faster on their hardware. +1 Speed, user must succeed a WIL x 3 test in order to remain passive or wait. [Low] Type: Algorithm, App: run, Onset: instant, Duration: 3 hours, Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: Mental Jumble, Aura A truly simple narcoalgorithm, literally a few lines of neurosim code. It merely introduces a brief burst of random noise into the cortex model, giving a brief buzz somewhere in between an epileptic aura, an instant of daydream and an alcohol shot. It tends to clear short/term memory, making the user start a new conversation topic or task. It is an acquired taste; most people prefer more sophisticated narcoalgorithms. Users claim it is good for creative thinking and makes boring evenings go faster. [Trivial] Type: Algorithm, App: run, Onset: instant, Duration: 1 second, Addiction modifier: -20, Addiction type: Mental Isomers The psychonaut community has developed endless analogics of old hallucinogens as well as new ones. The Isomer series of narcoalgorithms are ultra-specific algorithms affecting single receptors or even single receptors in particular brain areas. A series of Isomers can be combined to produce imitations of existing drugs or entirely new states. For example, combining Isomer 1A, 1D, 2A, 2C, 5A,5B and 6 produces a LSD like experience while other combinations can produce other drugs. Mesh sites collect reports about interesting combinations and their effects. [Low] Type: Algorithm, App: run, Onset: instant, Duration: 6h, Addiction modifier: -10 to +10 depending on combination, usually 0, Addiction type: Mental Mist, Heal-All, Taika A popular tranquilizer algorithm. The most well-known form is Valerian Mist™ from Cognite, which is an herb-inspired algorithm popular for treating stress, insomnia and anxiety. Multiple copies, rip-offs and analogs exist. Like Comfurt it allows ignoring 1 mental trauma, gives +5 to Lucidity and stress under the influence is taken from the bonus Lucidity first. [Low] Type: Algorithm, App: run, Onset: instant, Duration: 12h, Addiction modifier: +10, Addiction type: Mental Script Kiddie AGI narcoalgorithm that “hacks” internal compartmentalization and inhibitions. The effect is wild associations, sudden fleeting insights, self-reflection and often a profound sense of freedom and release (as well as outwardly erratic, drunk behaviour). It is not well suited for humans (which has not stopped experience-seekers from trying it, sometimes with bad results). -20 on all tasks except for INT-based ones. [Low] Type: Algorithm, App: run, Onset: instant, Duration: 4h, Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: Mental Resezine™ Popular anti-addiction algorithm from Noostyle. It blocks some of the neural pathways involved in drug cravings using sophisticated packaged pattern-recognition algorithms. It gives +10 help to the WILx3 test for cleaning up mental addictions. It has a reputation for being able to clear up not just drug addictions but other forms of attachments like excessive religiosity, love or shopping. Ironically some people develop an addiction to Resezine, and long-term use may turn them into “resezombies”, bland people who seem to have very few interests or strong passions. [Moderate] Type: Algorithm, App: run, Onset: instant, Duration: 24h, Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: Mental Chemicals Martian Gold, Martian Red, Green Tea Essentially Orbital Hash, but grown hydroponically on Mars. While not more or less psychoactive or tasty than the orbital drug, it maintains a high reputation elsewhere in the solar system due to the cost of transporting it from the gravity well. [Low on Mars, Moderate elsewhere] Type: Chem, App: Inhalation, Onset: 3 min, Duration: 3h, Addiction modifier: -, Addiction type: Mental Zigzag, Conus Chemical stimulant reputedly based on an exotic cone-shell toxin (or, according to other versions, an alien plant on Echo IV). It is often delivered in the form of a little cone snail that stings the user when pressed against the arm. It is stimulating, a painkiller and causes typical zigzag visual patterns. While it is sometimes used as a cheap combat drug it is mainly used recreationally. Users can ignore the -10 modifiers from 1 wound, gains +10 REF, -10 on Perception tests for the duration of the drug due to visual effects. Long term use tends to make the zigzag patterns permanent. [Low] Type: Chem, App: Inh,O,Inj, Onset: 3 min, Duration: 3h, Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: Mental Fetish While custom paraphilias designed with psychosurgery are “in” this year in Elysium, this drug produces the second best thing. When taken it temporarily makes a person or object (which has to be concentrated on for about fifteen minutes) erotic to the user. Care has to be taken not to let concentration slip too much, or unexpected effects can occur. Comes in the form of small inhalers shaped like African fetishes. [Moderate] Type: Chem, App: Inh, Onset: 15 min, Duration: 12h, Addiction modifier: -20, Addiction type: Mental Sceptic, Lifewest, Solipsist A combination of calmative and delusion-inducer: the user does not believe in the existence of anything they do not directly see. The result is often profoundly relaxing for people in the post-Fall world, as the sphere of concerns shrinks to a totally manageable size. People and situations outside the vicinity do not matter, past memories and future worries are merely annoying delusions, it is hard even to imagine what is going on elsewhere. +30 to resist stress from outside sources, can ignore traumas not directly related to the present, -20 to any task related to thinking outside the here-and-now. Long-term use tends to make the delusion permanent. [Moderate] Type: Chem, App: Inh, O, Onset: 30 min, Duration: 6h, Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: Mental Kensho A drug inhibiting parietal cortex to mimic meditative mystical experiences, producing experiences of connection with the world and dissolution of the sense of self. Users tend to have a hard time to move and handle space, preferring to meditate on the illuminating emptiness that is reality. Gives +10 to handling stress, and +30 to handling stress related to threats to the self. [Low] Type: Chem, App: O, Onset: 1 hour, Duration: 4h, Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: Mental Anorexics Appetite suppressants, drugs that reduce feelings of hunger. Most modern anorexics have cut-offs that prevent self-starvation at least in theory, but in practice it is entirely possible to starve ones morph to death by taking regular doses. Narcoalgorithm versions are popular among infomorphs and people sleeved in synthmorphs to avoid psychological hunger while being unable to really eat. [Low] Type: Chem, App: O, Onset: 1 hour, Duration: 24h, Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: Mental Truth Hallucinogen that overlays metaphorical images on reality. Users tend to see things “as they really are” (that is, how they subconsciously think they are): a beloved might become an angel, a slightly disliked gun will be covered with Satanist graffiti, a file the subconscious thinks is important will be surrounded by a mystical halo etc. Gives a +10 bonus to INT occasionally (GM rolls secretly or decides). [Low] Type: Chem, App: O, Onset: 1 hour, Duration: 4h, Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: Mental Biologicals Laitiers de L’esprit Nutriceutical company headquartered in New Shanghai. While drug and enhancement probiotics have been around for ages, the company has made their brand of yoghurts a standard of quality, safety and style in the inner system. Yoghurt Grandeur™ A probiotic youghurt containing modified lactobacteria producing a euphoric. Users become cheerful, energetic with a touch of narcissism. [Trivial] Type: Biological, App: O, Onset: 1 hour, Duration: 24h, Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: Mental Yoghurt Calme™ A probiotic youghurt containing modified lactobacteria producing a downer. Users become relaxed, slow and pleasantly lazy. [Trivial Type: Biological, App: O, Onset: 1 hour, Duration: 24h, Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: Mental Yoghurt Savant™ A probiotic youghurt containing modified lactobacteria producing a nootropic. Users become calmly stimulated and focused. [Trivial Type: Biological, App: O, Onset: 1 hour, Duration: 24h, Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: Mental Soma Lassi, Triptrap, Vegeta Hallucinogenic yoghurt, where lactobacteria produce a library of hallucinogens. As the dose is digested and bacteria react to the stomach flora the effects change in complex slow ways. He first hours of the trip are the most intense, with major distortions of reality and self, gradually levelling off to a “journey of discovery” where reality changes in less dramatic ways about every for hours or so. [Low] Type: Biological, App: O, Onset: 1 hour, Duration: 48h, Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: Mental EIEIO An infectious interactive novel written by Aleister Zion. Users hallucinate that they are a character in the story, acting out their version of the events. Since the drug/virus is infectious people they interact with also become dragged into the novel. The storyline is a post-postmodern mess centred around Tiffany Protagonist (the first infected person), a mystic courtesan racing to deliver a message to the right person in order to prevent/hasten the apocalypse. As the infection spreads other people become involved like the unlucky inventor Cowboy (who may or may not be responsible for triggering the apocalypse), the hard-bitten road warrior Takeshi, a sinister meteorologist that appears to lead the opposition to Tiffany, a Buddhist game designer that might be the author himself, a telepathic assassin/corporate executive and an entity whose face is the universe. Infected people gain some of the personality, goals and mannerisms of the characters, but retain their normal skills. Somewhat unsurprisingly the novel-virus is quite disruptive when it plays itself out, leading to sex, murders and acts of terrorism. [Moderate] Type: Biological, App: body contact, Onset: 2 hours, Duration: 72h, Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: Mental Nanodrugs Minard, Dìtú Information visualization nanodrug. Delivered in the form of small blotters that contain the data itself, either eaten or inserted under the skin. The nanobots link up to the visual and parietal cortex to provide somewhat interactive data visualization hallucinations. While the quality might be lower than using endos Minards have the advantage of avoiding any form of Mesh communication (even the blotter-brain link is encrypted). The most advanced versions have “gnostic overlays”, making the user “know” the particular information they point to [Low to Moderate, depending on complexity] Type: Nano, App: O,Inj, Onset: 1 hour, Duration: 1 day, Addiction modifier: NA, Addiction type: NA Caesar’s Word Salad An encryption nanodrug. The nanobots insert themselves in the reading and hearing neural pathways, decoding messages with the right keys. To outsiders the text may appear as a jumble of broken letters, random words or barcode patterns, and voice information as a birdlike twittering. The user will instead get a sense of the words directly. [Moderate] Type: Nano, App: Inj, Onset: 1 hour, Duration: 1 week, Addiction modifier: NA, Addiction type: NA Zhuǎnxíng, Psychotuzai, Actualizer, Phoenix A radical nanodrug that transforms the Ego in biomorphs and pods. The nanobots spread out through the brain and increase neural plasticity enormously while preventing the simple feedback loops that would otherwise cause epileptic kindling. Over the next hours personality, motivations, mood and modes of thinking are up for grabs. They may change randomly or become affected by experience – some users deliberately take other drugs in the duration to “give the transformation something to work with”. The end result is a noticeably changed person, sometimes so radically changed that they have little in common with the original. Most people opting for the nanodrug have given up on their past life and select it as an alternative to suicide. Rather than die they seek to become a new person. Usage is surprisingly/worryingly common. When used, the user rolls WILx2 Test to maintain their sanity. If it fails they will pick up some form of neural damage, and on a critical failure a mental disorder. A critical success on the other hand allows one mental disorder, mental trauma or neural damage to disappear (select randomly; if none are applicable reduce stress by 1d10). Experiences during the critical period affect things strongly: taking drugs or having bad experiences can give up to a -10 each on the roll, while a supportive environment might give +10. Causes 1d10/2d10 stress (depending on the success). Long term changes: roll a d10 for each of the following backgrounds; on a roll of 1 or 2 they will change to something else: faction, gender identity, each motivation, each positive or negative mental trait (exchanged for some other trait(s) with the same cost; e.g. a character may lose Hyper Linguist and gain Fast Learner, switch Combat Paralysis for Edited Memories (i.e. amnesia) and Incompetent (secretly chosen skill)). [Moderate] Type: Nano, App: Inj, Onset: 1 hour, Duration: 24 hours, Addiction modifier: 0, Addiction type: mental. Serene Surge Stripes Nanodrug that makes electric shocks pleasurable. Originally invented for preventing high voltage accidents, the pleasure side effects soon made it a favourite among people seeking to spice up their sensory life. The nanobots spread out in the muscles and nerves (it only works in biomorphs). Shock effects of electricity are still the same (p. 204) but they no longer cause (much) pain, but instead bring pleasure and relaxation (the nanobots immediately unlock the cramps caused by the shock, inducing profound muscle relaxation). Eelware becomes erotic, zap bullets a masochistic joy. [Moderate] Type: Nano, App: Dermal, Onset: 20 min, Duration: 10 hours, Addiction modifier: 0 (if careful electric stimulation is applied, +10), Addiction type: mental Key23 A case where a fictional drug has been engineered into reality (by the Ceres Cerebronaut Collective). Key23 causes the user to experience written words as the real thing: seeing a sign saying ‘Fire’ they will see it as fire, seeing a ‘World’s best dad mug’ they will meet their ideal father, and so on. Users become significantly suggestible (a WIL x 3 test to resist the text suggestion if they know they have been drugged with the key, WIL if they are unknowing), but given the amount of random text in most environments this might be unreliable. [Moderate] Type: Nano, App: Inj, Onset: 10 min, Duration: 3 hours, Addiction modifier: -10, Addiction type: mental