The primary issue I see with this change is you can have people game the system by only taking a drug once a week every other week (or so) and therefore never have to make any tests whatsoever. Assuming you use a static week, that could mean just waiting until after midnight on Sunday/Monday, or even if you use a rolling week, wait 8 days between each use.
You should also probably clarify if you need to make a test each time you take the drug (if you've hit that cap of X times for the week), of if you make one test at the end of the week if you've exceeded the cap. For example, an Addiction Rating 8 drug is "clear" to be used once during a week, if you took the drug 4 times that week is that 1 test, or 3?
A character must roll an Addiction Resistant test every time they use a substance more than (9 – Addiction Rating) times a week. If this is a negative number, that number is applied as a penalty to the Addiction Resistance test.made that clear? Of course, I'm biased because it is absolutely clear in my mind. Did I fail in that regard?
Under the current rules... Or I should say the current consensus of how to run the rules, that is true as well.Yeah, but in a different way, under these rules some drugs can be used almost daily without any penalty.
I thought:A character must roll an Addiction Resistant test every time they use a substance more than (9 – Addiction Rating) times a week. If this is a negative number, that number is applied as a penalty to the Addiction Resistance test.made that clear? Of course, I'm biased because it is absolutely clear in my mind. Did I fail in that regard?
There are currently two problems (not counting the horrible wording) with the core rules.
- A character can totally abuse a drug with little, to no consequences. Let's take Kamikaze, for example. A character can take a dose 1000 times a week, for 3 weeks in a row and stop. They then have to make 1 test at full threshold followed by 1 test the week after at Threshold -1, then followed by 1 test the following week at Threshold -2. The next week, the Threshold is 0 and no test is needed.
Or, in a more realistic example, let's use Overdrive (Addiction Rating 5, Threshold 3). A character can use that once a day for three weeks in a row then stop for three weeks, and never have to make a test.- The player has to to keep a running calendar of which drug is taken on which day so they can track when the Addiction Resistance test will be required in the future, not to mention track actual Threshold rating. At best this leaves a huge chance at human error screwing this up. At worst it is just too much of a hassle and will get ignored.
Well I stated two ways it can be interpreted, so yes? Is it one test at the end of the week if you've used too much? Or is it one test for each drug use above the cap?
Is it at the end of the week make a check, or each time you take it check to see how many times you've already taken it this week.
Seriously, which way do you mean?
"A character must roll an Addition Resistance test every time they have used a substance in excess of (9-Addiction Rating) times in a given week."
Seriously, which way do you mean?
If I told you, that would influence your reading of it. I needed you to decipher it for yourself so that I would increase my chances of it being intuitive for others.
Thank you for your help.