Opium, whiskey, insanity

[Darren Grey]

Uh, well, I have less experience with that, and haven't already made a game based on opium mechanics already.

But in general opium is meant to make you useless and drowsy.  The British traded heavily in opium with China in the 17th century with the specifically aim of keeping the "sleeping giant" quelled.  I can't imagine it's use in the game being anything positive for the player.....

... unless you feck around with things a bit.  How about having the story / theme of the game include elements about opium gangs and cultists that use opium.  Perhaps the drug lets you get in touch with the other side more easily.  It's dangerous to use, but can unlock the secrets of spells and improve their power manifold.  It would be a way of introducing a glass cannon wizard build, based around opium abuse, but with the drawbacks of slower movement, withdrawal and frequent hallucinations.

[kraflab]

Uh, well, I have less experience with that, and haven't already made a game based on opium mechanics already.

But in general opium is meant to make you useless and drowsy.  The British traded heavily in opium with China in the 17th century with the specifically aim of keeping the "sleeping giant" quelled.  I can't imagine it's use in the game being anything positive for the player.....

... unless you feck around with things a bit.  How about having the story / theme of the game include elements about opium gangs and cultists that use opium.  Perhaps the drug lets you get in touch with the other side more easily.  It's dangerous to use, but can unlock the secrets of spells and improve their power manifold.  It would be a way of introducing a glass cannon wizard build, based around opium abuse, but with the drawbacks of slower movement, withdrawal and frequent hallucinations.

So when can we expect "Pulverized Poppy"?

It would be an interesting mechanic if cultists would ignore you while you are high on opium.  I mean they probably wouldn't see someone completely drugged out as a real threat.

[Darren Grey]

"Plucked Poppy", a new roguelike about a young girl losing her innocence whilst becoming addicted to drugs in a dystopian future.  Coming soon... 

[guest509]

  Lol Darren I could just see you doing something like that.

[Chex Warrior]

Alright some other ideas:

Alcohol, like suggested before, could lower insanity and maybe reduce damage at the cost of lower intelligence (i.e. learning spells and the like).

Cocaine could increase dodge but lower a players aim (maybe just for ranged attacks) to simulate the jitters.

You could also include cigarettes, cigars and the like which have a minimal, but useful effect on insanity with little downside except maybe having the highest addiction rate.

Finally, all drugs have a chance of making the person addicted which would have various negative effects.

[NON]

Hahaha, I love the cigarettes idea

There could be something like 30% chance to start with 8 + 1d8 cigarettes in the inventory.

"Using" one lowers the shock/stress level, but has no immediate negative effects, only high addiction chance.

I'm also a bit amused by the idea of quaffing a potion of toughness to get rid of nicotine addiction. I'm guessing there's many people who wish a thing like that existed

[Legend]

I'm also a bit amused by the idea of quaffing a potion of toughness to get rid of nicotine addiction. I'm guessing there's many people who wish a thing like that existed

I know I do!

If you have smokes, would you have a lighter/matches too? (edit: I guess it's already implied that you do since you have the ability to light tnt and cocktails. )

Whiskey is not that flammable, but other alcohol is. Like 151 proof rum.

[NON]

Yeah exactly. A lighter or matches is already an implied possession. Would be redundant to make it an actual item.

[Skeletor]

I really liked Madness approach to insanity.
You slowly start seeing things in the dark which aren't real.. but what is real after all.

Roguebasin page:
http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php/Madness

Main page:
http://students.mimuw.edu.pl/~pm262952/madness/

Expansion (Feature Creeper) page (I recommend you to play this version):
http://code.google.com/p/featurecreeper/

[NON]

Thanks, I'll have a look!

[AgingMinotaur]

Don't know if your latest update (cheers, by the way) already includes this, as I haven't gotten around to try it, but here's my instinctive thoughts:

If alcohol can be used to restore sanity without restrictions, there's the potential of scummy/boring tactics where the player finds a "safe place" to get drunk every now and then. Perhaps it would be more challenging if drunkenness only makes you more resistant to losing sanity and/or just restores sanity that was lost up until a few rounds ago. So you'd have to drink just before or during encounters with nasties to get the sanity benefit. This way, penalties to combat etc. would be more interesting.

I've no personal experience with opium as such, but my rule of thumb would be that getting high in creepy catacombs writhing with nameless horrors isn't necessarily good for your mental health. I know opiates are great pain killers, but at least one person I spoke to who got it administered in the hospital got "weird dreams", which the nurse said was not uncommon.

I do like the idea of opium raising magic awareness, though. One adverse effect (reflecting addiction) could be that you get less apt at magic when you're sober: If you rely too much on drugs to get "in touch", you might start losing the ability to access that side of yourself when your blood is clean. Anyway, I'd probably poke around here for info about opium: http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/opiates/opiates.shtml

As always,
Minotauros

[AgingMinotaur]

Ho, ho. I just started to browse around the site linked to in my last post, and came across this essay by Thomas de Quincey. Just the first sentence is hilarious, it could come straight out of a Lovecraft novella:

"It is so long since I first took opium, that if it had been a trifling incident in my life, I might have forgotten its date: but cardinal events are not to be forgotten; and from circumstances connected with it, I remember that it must be referred to the autumn of 1804."

As always,
Minotauros

[NON]

Nice input AgingMinotaur

No I've not added these things yet.

"getting high in creepy catacombs writhing with nameless horrors isn't necessarily good for your mental health."
Agreed. I'm not sure getting drunk would help either actually...

I like the idea about opium helping with magic in the short term but harming it in the long term (making you more dependent).
Could be something simple like influenced by opium gives +20% temporary bonus chance to cast, but 2% permanent penalty.