Six Drugs for Use with Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0.
Section 9 of the Core Rulebook introduces a number of different drugs that characters could use or encounter. Here are another six drugs to add extra mayhem and problems to a game. Some may have originated from medical or military drugs, but have had unfortunate consequences for users, even before they were brewed on the street. See Section 9 in the Core Rulebook for details on any listed side-effects.
Death’s Door
Type: Healing Drug
Strength: +3
Difficulty: 12
Cost: 800
Duration: 1D6+1 minutes
A street knock-off version of a medical drug that is intended to stabilise a person on the verge of death. Due to its less than stringent testing and quality control, though Death’s Door can keep an individual alive, it has an unfortunate side-effect of sometimes killing the patient. It can be administered to an individual when they are in a Mortal wound state and will make Death Saves 2 points easier for the duration. However, if the patient is still in a Mortal Wound state, when the drug’s effect ends, they will need to make an immediate Death Save that is 3 points harder, due to the strain the drug put on their system.
Hulk
Type: REF Booster
Strength: +4
Difficulty: 7
Cost: 500
Duration: 1D10+1 turns
The military has had a long interest in drugs intended to boost soldiers’ performance, but MilSpec drugs are out of reach for the average character. The same does not apply to knock-off drugs based on military designs, in this case a combat drug that was considered too dangerous to use. The drug Hulk was based on was intended to boost the strength and physical abilities of the user, and it did, but the side-effects were considered too dangerous to put the drug into production. This didn’t stop an enterprising chemist from brewing a street version of it, which increases REF by Hulk’s Strength. Like the original, Hulk causes psychotic rage and paranoia, a combination that often results in a user “Hulking out” and attacking everyone in sight.
Knock-Out
Type: Soporific
Strength: +3
Difficulty: 8
Cost: 200
Duration: 1D6+1 minutes
Knock-Out is a sedative that has some similarities to the drugs used by medical professionals to render a patient unconscious. However, this is a knock-ff street version that is not as safe to use as the proper drug, though easier to obtain. The Strength of the drug is deducted from a Save vs. Sleep roll, but 1D10 must be rolled as well; on a 1-3, the recipient also takes 2 points of damage.
Smart Pill
Type: INT Booster
Strength: +2
Difficulty: 7
Cost: 300
Duration: 1D6+1 hours
Smart Pill increases INT by the strength of the drug for the duration. However, once the drug’s effects wear off, INT is reduced by -3 for the same length of time as the increase lasted. In addition, Smart Pill is highly addictive and once a user becomes addicted, they no longer gain the increase of INT for taking the drug, but still suffer the INT decrease, which now lasts from taking the drug for the double the length of time that the increase would have lasted.
Sweet Dreams
Type: Euphoric
Strength: +2
Difficulty: 8
Cost: 200
Duration: 1D6+1 minutes
Sweet Dreams is a dangerous drug. It’s a recreational drug that gives a feeling of intense euphoria when taken, and rapidly proves to be both psychologically and physiologically addictive. These, despite their dangers, are not the worst side effects that users experience, though. Anyone who takes a dose of Sweet Dreams also experiences hallucinations, and these last for 1D6+1 turns. The hallucinations vary from the clearly unreal to the almost real; more users have died from hallucinating something being there, or not there, than have died of anything else. Blundering into traffic on a street that appeared empty or using a fire escape that wasn’t there are the sorts of things users die from.
Zombifier
Type: Soporific
Strength: +3
Difficulty: 10
Cost: 800
Duration: 1D6+1 hours
Zombifier does not turn the living into the walking dead; what it does do is decrease the ability for those dosed with it to make decisions of their own and also make them more compliant to outside instruction. Its main uses are for questioning people who are reluctant to talk and to kidnap people who might otherwise resist such activities. As such, it is rarely legal and usually, outside the hands of governments, considered to be evidence of criminal intent. When a dose is administered, the recipient’s INT decreases by the strength of the drug for the duration. In addition, whenever they are told to do something or asked a question, they must make a Difficult INT check in order to resist doing it or responding. Instructions to kill themselves or others do not need a check.
Want some more items for a cyberpunk setting? 100 Cyberpunk Items of Dubious Provenance to Find for Sale has 100 items that characters could find.
Six Pack: Cyberpunk Drugs is unofficial content provided under the Homebrew Content Policy of R. Talsorian Games and is not approved or endorsed by RTG. This content references materials that are the property of R. Talsorian Games and its licensees.