4th time rewriting this entire post since every time I change WiFi locations or go back to my phone it deletes itself which is definitely NOT improving my Attitude!!!!!
#1 There's missing Text to accompany the Table provided on pg 192. The Table has * under Addiction Threshold & Addiction Rating but nothing to explain the *. This is easily fixed with an Errata about it. I thought I had figured out what the Modifiers were from the Example provided but after a closer reexamination now I'm less certain. The Availability Modifiers which are provided don't conform to the Table, so I'm not sure what is supposed to be there. The Table lists them by Blocks (per level) but then doesn't incorporate the levels into the Availability. In the Example provided the Availability is stated as 10R but if using it on a (per level) basis than the Availability should be 15R not 10R. So I might have the right numbers but they wouldn't conform to the Table either since they'd be a flat modifier based on Level not per level as the Table says. All in all very confusing... here are the number I deduced for a sense of completeness.
Blocks AR. AT
Level 1 +0 +0
Level 2 +1 +1
Level 3 +2 +2
But that's treating all Blocks the same which the Table clearly doesn't for Availability Modifiers between Blocks 1-8 & Blocks 9-13. So who knows.... I surely dont.
#1a This is also an easy enough issue to fix with an Errata... it doesn't say if the Grade of Drugs is already factored into the Addiction Threshold. If so then they started the Foundation at 3, which is what Kamikaze & Cram are. I can get Kamikaze at Pharmaceutical Grade with an Addiction Threshold of 2 which is easy as anything to hit since any character taking it would be throwing a minimum of 8 dice at it, Cram is the same. So definitely a vastly superior option since making a custom drug would be LETHAL to achieve the same effect.
1#b another easy Errata issue... Are these Drugs Psychological, Physiological, or Both??? It doesn't say.
#1c The base vector is Ingestion but one of the Enhancers is Ingestion Ingestion. Errata this to figure out what the Base Vector is.
#2 This is the real issue... Did whoever designed these Custom Drug Rules even READ the Addiction Rules??? Cause I can't believe that they did & still thought this was acceptable! The Addiction Threshold is 8 & Addiction Rating is 10 in the Example given, That's LETHAL!!!!! Who can throw enough dice to consistently hit a minimum Threshold of 7 using Attributes every other week? Taking this Drug once is all it takes and even fighting it will still have Wrecker Burned Out in 2 months & Dead inside 6 months after burning Attributes to 0. That is not usable gear when it kills you within 6 months, especially since it is presented as a poor man's alternative to 'ware. These drugs are supposed to be used on runs all the time.
This requires a complete overhaul of either these Rules or the Addiction Rules or Both before they become playable. I'd like Both to be the option since the base Addiction Rules are already kinda wonky & confusing. So instead of clarification we just got Lethality added under these rules.
3# more Lethality added here as well.... the Drug Interaction Table is no ones friend! Before it was that you couldn't use the same drug twice or any drugs that boosted the same Attributes without taking Stun Damage. Seems fair, now it's 1d6 for every Drug past the first. Which means just using Stimm & Trauma Patches can get not nice, taking any drugs & then using a Stimm/Trauma Patch in combat can quickly become Lethal as well. So this makes using a Cram/Psyche cocktail iffy but then adding a Stimm patch makes it terrifying since that can straight out kill you or knock you unconscious immediately which would require another Stimm Patch to wake up from with another +1d6 that almost killed you the first time. So much Fail is happening here I have no idea how it got out of Play testing... if the goal is make people not do drugs, just don't include them don't make them Lethal to use. This Drug Interaction Table needs to just be deleted and go back to the Core Rules.
