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Chemical Gland

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Jayde Moon

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« Reply #15 on: <08-27-18/1807:18> »
Come on, ISP, you can't say "I think it is pretty clear it was intended to be a Toxin Gland, or Venom Gland.  With it being Bioware (no technological parts what-so-ever) that would tell me that it can only create substances that are biologically generated.  Such as Venoms and some Toxins" and then balk when I infer your meaning to be that it should only be used for Toxins and Venoms.  That's wholly unfair!!!

But even so, SR5 defines 'drugs' as 'toxins you take on purpose' (Core 410).  So even if it's intended to be a toxin gland, drugs still fit.

And to add to the Kyoto Kid's post, your body also naturally produces the most powerful hallucinogenic chemical known to man, right in the pituitary gland.

We're dealing with a fictional world where radically crazy and improbable shit could happen.  I don't know why, in the land of magic and cyberzombies, we can squirt windex out of the gland and wash windows with it.

But, I agree that the game says 'naturally occuring' and not 'synthesized'.

So, let's go through each of the drugs on the list and make your case for allowed and disallowed.

For example, if, from the description "an extremely popular stimulant. When this drug wears off, users crash... Cram users appear hyper-alert, almost to the point of paranoia... prone to irrational outbursts... common side effects are jitteriness and fidgeting..." 
you can make the case that Cram is 100% super obviously not either a naturally occurring substance or made by mixing naturally occuring substances together, then I'll pull Cram from the list.

And this isn't some versus thing where I am aligned with leaving them all and you have an uphill battle to fight.  Some of them are quite plainly, in my opinion, not meant to be allowed... but they aren't outright disallowed for the purposes of our current FAQ ruling.

And let's ignore Awakened, we'll pull those by the next FAQ anyway.
That's just like... your opinion, man.

Hobbes

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« Reply #16 on: <08-27-18/2120:10> »

And let's ignore Awakened, we'll pull those by the next FAQ anyway.

Totally ruined my Toxic Avenger concept....    :'(   ;D   ;)   :P 


Izork95

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« Reply #17 on: <08-28-18/0206:56> »
On the note of “naturally occurring” it wouldn’t be too crazy to think that people with chemical glands supplement their diet with prodrug additives that are metabolized and stored within the gland till needed: (seriously this would fix so many problems in pharmacology in the real world). Most psychoactive drugs just activate or inhibit already existing parts of the nervous system (cocain effectively pushes you into a manic state).
TL:DR = any attempt to argue natural vs unnatural is kinda moot when you have magic, Nanites, and 50 years of biochemical/genetics breakthroughs
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Stainless Steel Devil Rat

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« Reply #18 on: <08-28-18/1429:07> »
Ok so Jayde Moon asked a couple times for opinions in a case by case breakdown.  Here's mine.  Starting with some basic facts about nature of the drugs from SR5 and CF:

Bliss- opiate from poppy plants
Cram-unspecified stimulant
Deepweed-awakened
Jazz-unspecified stimulant
Kamikaze-“tailored combat stimulant”
Long Haul-“hormones and other brain-regulating chemicals”
Nitro-unspecified but powerful stimulant
Novacoke-derived from coca/cocaine
Psyche-“designer stimulant”
Zen-unspecified hallucinogen
AEXD- biomedical TLE-X drug
Everyday Pharma (CF 176) - all cases unspecified
Aisa- unspecified “party drug”
Betameth-a "pseudomethamphetamine"
Betel-betel tree
Cereprax-nootropic
Dopadrine-anti-psychotic
eX-“party drug”
Forget-me-not-unspecified
G3-ginseng, guarana, gingko + vitamins & additives
Guts-unspecified
Hurlg-160-180 proof alcohol w hallucinogenic quantities of nutmeg
K-10- “kamikaze times 10”
Memory Fog-Awakened
Nightwatch- eyedrops “inspired” by eyes of deep sea fish
NoPaint- topical novocaine gel
Oxygenated Flourocarbons-oxygenated fluorocarbon compound
Push-theobromine (cacao seeds) and cathinone (khat)
Red Mescaline-unspecified but compared to peyote
Ripper-synthetic steroids, pseudolipids, sugars, and amphetamines
Slab-unspecified (Reaper-awakened)
Snuff-ancient formula.  THC, nicotine, salicin.
Sober Time-unspecified
Soothsayer-“mixes several different plants”
Woad-synthetic hallucinogen
Zero-unspecified immunosuppressant
Zone-unspecified


So what's in and out is going to begin with categorical questions.  1) I'm going to presume that everything starts "in" and has to be eliminated.  And furthermore: 2) everything awakened is excluded.  3) The description for Chemical Glands (CF 112) states explicitly that nothing synthetic is applicable.  4) It further says the chemical must be naturally occurring but doesn't specify whether stuff grown by plants counts as "naturally occurring" in a metahuman context.

So if I use all of the above and interpret #4 as meaning "gotta not be said to have a non-metahuman origin" the list of acceptable drugs appears to be:

Cram, Jazz, Kamikaze, Long Haul, Nitro, (Psyche), Zen, AEXD, Everyday Pharma, Aisa, Cereprax, Dopadrine, eX, Forget-Me-Not, Guts, (K-10), {Nightwatch}, (NoPaint), (Oxygenated Flourocarbons/P4MO), {Red Mescaline}, Slab, Sober Time,  Zero, Zone.

Stuff (in parenthesis) means it's questionable on passing #3: not being synthesized.  Stuff {in braces} are debatable about whether they pass a no-foreign-to-metahuman-dna interpretation of #4, but on my list anyway as there's no explicit grounds for elimination.

Adding to this list if #4 is instead interpreted to include naturally occurring compounds from outside metahuman biology:

Bliss, Novacoke, Betel, (G3), Hurlg (if you can take Hurlg, not sure you wouldn't rather just drink it instead, but hey whatever), Push, Snuff, (Soothsayer)

Again, stuff (in parenthesis) is on my list but only dubiously satisfying tenet #3 for inclusion.  They're in because they're not explicitly eliminated (tenet #1)

« Last Edit: <08-28-18/1432:51> by Stainless Steel Devil Rat »
RPG mechanics exist to give structure and consistency to the game world, true, but at the end of the day, you’re fighting dragons with algebra and random number generators.