The Super drugs

[CoreBrute]

Just wondering, who has involved the idea of a super drug in their campaign or been involved in such a campaign.

 

I'm referring, not to the super solider serums Captain America uses but the times when a drug reaches the public and while it grants them super powers, it also has horrible, maybe fatal, side effects (Whether the two are mutually exclusive might be interresting).

 

How did the players take it? How much impact did it have on the campaign? Any important NPCs lost, or new villains made?

 

I myself attempted to do this for my first game as a GM. I introduced the PCs to a drug trafficking scam in Germany, where they learnt that the drug could give people temporary powers similar to one of the PCs (super strength, flight, and cosmic energy control), which led them to America.

 

They discovered several drug bosses at a rave, and had a fight with them. The bad guys are defeated, and there is a chemical lab underneath, which helps make the drug.

 

The players eagerly destroy all samples of the drug, especially the one whose power was copied (he has a bit of a god complex).

 

Then they discover that the drug is permanent on children, turning them into some kind of energy vampire. Before they can get any farther in the story, the game was cancelled before we could get to the good part, because I had difficulty retaining their interest.

 

I've gotten better...I think.

[Grimble]

Re: The Super drugs

 

haven't used it yet, but I have a nasty little drug I plan on incorporating into my Champs campaign. It will have a street name of "death" and will be a potent narcotic/halucinogen that is very psychologically addictive. The thing that makes it a super-drug is that it is created and distributed by an ancient Aztec Vampire/Sorcerer. Those who take the drug are VERY susceptible to the Vampires mind control.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: The Super drugs

 

Way back when, I used the Shadowfire drug from the 4e Devil's Advocates, or at least something like it. Using it let Shadowfire drain off the target's life-energy, which he gathered in a crystal ball.

 

The PCs found their way to him, and he posed with the crystal ball, starting to rant and gloat about how the crystal was the source of his ultimate power. Cue hot-headed PC who blasts the crystal ball ... which releases the energy into Shadowfire. He'd been intending to break it himself to start the fracas. If someone had simply *taken* it from him, the fight would have been a curbstomp.

[Certified]

Re: The Super drugs

 

The rise of the Metahuman population in my current setting revolves around an initial outbreak of a modified Mustard Gas called KB and KB2. That is not to say this is the sole source only that the chemical is reactionary causing mutations. It was discovered that multiple governments were conducting fatal experiments using modified strains of KB2 until it was outlawed.

 

In the current campaign, the opening story centered around an new chemical called Quintessence a group of anti-Metahumans planned to release the chemical under the city of Arlington causing people to mutate and prove that the Metahuman population cannot be controlled. This was assuming they didn't get caught plating the stuff...

 

Later in the campaign it was revealed that Quintessence was in fact perfected KB2 designed and developed by a company working in hand with the US government. Public record shows that the last canister and records we re destroyed in an attack on the lab. This in light of a revelation that one scientist has learned how to administer the chemical agent and modify the subject to their own designs.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: The Super drugs

 

I've used "Crayola" a few times. In some it gives powers, one of the side effects is bright color changes especially for eyes and hair.

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=621844&highlight=crayola#post621844

[Vulcan]

Re: The Super drugs

 

In our game the GM intorduced a drug called 'boost' that would temporarily give a normal super powers. The side effects were psychological addiction and a pretty good change of terminal physiological overload (say, super STR without the PD to withstand using it...).

 

However, on a few people, it triggered latent 'mutant' powers, and is the origin of two of the PC's who were exposed accidentally when one of the labs was blown up by terrorrists... (it's a long story).

[mwiggins]

Re: The Super drugs

 

I was thinking of doing something like this. Do I have to write up the details of the drug? Or just leave it to the story telling?

[jtelson]

Re: The Super drugs

 

When I ran this arc in my Heracles' Children campaign it was an Alchemical Preperation created by and for Ochia (Viper precursor) that used Heroes' Blood and I roughed it out as Multiform in case the approximate value became relevant. Which as it turns out it did, when Lydos decided to devote time and experience to developing a cure (His Alchemy Multipower has ranged out a bit since then.)

[Vulcan]

Re: The Super drugs

 

I'm not certain if there were ever any hard-and-fast rules for it, I think the GM just handwaved it. Certainly none of the PC's ever deliberately took the drug...

 

Call it a Transform with a 14< side effect (Addiction) and an 8< side effect (horrible death). Permanent powers would be more of an origin story than an effect.

[Clonus]

Re: The Super drugs

 

I ran Dr. Drugs, although I changed his name to Candy Man.

[wcw43921]

Re: The Super drugs

 

Then they discover that the drug is permanent on children, turning them into some kind of energy vampire. Before they can get any farther in the story, the game was cancelled before we could get to the good part, because I had difficulty retaining their interest.

 

 

Heck, I got interested just reading that bit. Sounds like you needed new players there.

 

Villany Amok has an entire chapter devoted to this plotline "Ask Your Doctor If Metatron Is Right For You!" (pg. 50) Just the thing to inflict upon your players' DNPCs--

 

"Look, honey! I've got superpowers too! We can fight crime together!"

 

"Uhh--that's nice--dear--"

[CoreBrute]

Re: The Super drugs

 

I was thinking of doing something like this. Do I have to write up the details of the drug? Or just leave it to the story telling?

 

Whichever you want. Depends on the players. Some want it in concrete information on what the drug does (+ 10 Str, Enraged 8 etc). But most of the time, you will have to write up the character sheets for any opponents that have been infected.

 

Heck' date=' I got interested just reading that bit. Sounds like you needed new players there.[/quote']

 

It wasn't completely there fault. I was new, and I wasn't very good at preparing the plot. It didn't help the plays were experts in the art of munchkining, and so they easily beat my villains. Since that day I've hated both wealthy characters and Teleporting ninjas.

 

If we could continue now, there would be so many ways to improve it. I would have led them to Miami, where they would have met a telepathic CIA agent (a new PC who didn't get much play time) who would have helped them discover the source of the super powers.

 

They would find out that the source of the powers came from soil that had been iridated by radiation the PC (AKU) had made when he landed on earth (he wasn't a baby, he was an alien fully grown, made of a cosmic like energy). However they were running low on the stuff and so they needed the source. And look who comes through the door.

 

One problem. The PCs split up. One, an extra rich telekinetic guy, decided to start his own super villain creation process. He began kidnapping and hiring super villains to bring them to his base in Scotland. From there he would build his own army.

 

None of the other PCs knew what was going on, but boy would they have been surprised.

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

Re: The Super drugs

 

In the superheroes game 'Aberrant', several superpowered drugs are examined -- some stuff that acts as a long-term (6 hours) Drain on a character's powers, other stuff that, taken by a norm, boosts their strength up to superhuman levels... some pretty good stuff.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: The Super drugs

 

Yes, in the Champions of Vancouver campaign, but not so much.

 

Cheers

 

QM

[Sundog]

Re: The Super drugs

 

I introduced something like this into the early part of the Kingdom City Campaign. The stuff acted like a super steroid, making the user fast abd strong and overconfident, but it had the side effects of massive letdown afterwards and early versions commonly caused heart failure due to overexertion.

 

The drug was a co-development of VIPER and the War Machine - the latter to get a combat drug, the former because of it's addictive qualities. No one gained permanent superpowers from the drug, but Vitus came close to addicting himself to it, and Orca accidentally created the Psychobeast (an insane, six-meter tall monster that constantly projects a cone of psychic agony in front of him by throwing the administrator of the project into a bunch of burning barrels of highly toxic ingrdediants.

 

However, Vitus used the last of the drug to hold off Deadstroyer in the final battle long enough for the Deus Ex Machina to work.

[bubba smith]

Re: The Super drugs

 

sounds like it would've been a good campaign

[Sundog]

Re: The Super drugs

 

It certainly was. Wound up two weeks ago.

[CoreBrute]

Re: The Super drugs

 

Here I thought he was talking about me. But yeah, Kingdom City sounded like fun. I will miss the tales of Vitus.

[The Dude]

Re: The Super drugs

 

That's too bad about the game getting cancelled man.

 

It sounded like a cool game.

[Querysphinx]

Re: The Super drugs

 

The drug is called Warg. It's a meta-amphetamine. It gives the user superhuman strength and speed, while they're tweaking, but the downside is severe physical and mental erosion coupled with extreme addiction. Oh yes, it also makes the user very very hairy.

[Houston GM]

Re: The Super drugs

 

who has involved the idea of a super drug in their campaign or been involved in such a campaign.

In my campaign I had the "Purple Haze" story arcs (Parts I, II & III).

 

Purple Haze was not a super drug, per se. Purple Haze was a potent and highly addictive euphoric. As a side-effect, the brains of the users started creating a unique enzyme. This enzyme (when taken in sufficient quantities) would enhance the mental powers of a mentalist. The enzyme had some side-effects (nasty psychlims, etc).

 

Part I

The villain (Headmaster) was selling Purple Haze on the streets, killing junkies, harvesting the enzyme from their brains, and using it to boost his own powers. The story started as an investigation of the murders and ended with a climactic battle in a high-rise filled with mind-controlled drones.

 

Part II

Headmaster was keeping a lower profile. He had started his own insular cult, and the Purple Haze was given to his followers as part of the "sacraments". The PCs got involved when a new love interest disappeared. It ended with the capture of the Headmaster in his cult compound.

 

Part III

A faction of government agents (some members of the agency which is the equivalent of PRIMUS in my world) were using the Purple Haze enzyme to boost their own powers. They would capture homeless who wouldn't be missed, use IVs to pump them full of Purple Haze, and drain the enzyme from their brains over time. The PCs got involved when a whistle-blower from a rival faction tipped them off to the enzyme "farm".

 

How did the players take it? How much impact did it have on the campaign? Any important NPCs lost' date=' or new villains made?[/quote']

Excerpts of the story (from Parts I & II) are still talked about by my players. It had enough impact to generate Part III as a natural consequence. I could have carried it further, but I felt it was time to wrap up that story, so I let the team and their allies completely remove Purple Haze from the game world.

 

Part III illustrated how the lust for more power could turn people into the kind of villains they were fighting.

[bigbywolfe]

Re: The Super drugs

 

The drug was a co-development of VIPER and the War Machine - the latter to get a combat drug, the former because of it's addictive qualities. No one gained permanent superpowers from the drug, but Vitus came close to addicting himself to it, and Orca accidentally created the Psychobeast (an insane, six-meter tall monster that constantly projects a cone of psychic agony in front of him by throwing the administrator of the project into a bunch of burning barrels of highly toxic ingrdediants.

 

Maybe I'm just over tired, but the lack of a closing parentheses made me read the sentence about Psychobeast as such: [He is] an insane, six-meter tall monster that, by throwing the administrator of the project into a bunch of burning barrels of highly toxic ingredients, constantly projects a cone of psychic agony in front of him. I read it as Psychobeast throwing the administrator (constantly throwing him?) provided him with the cone of agony.

 

Sorry if no one else finds that funny, but that’s how I read it at five in the morning at work, and cracked up when I finally figured out what it actually said after about three readings. I’ve been working nightshift too long…

[Sundog]

Re: The Super drugs

 

Yeah, sorta missed the closing bracket, didn't I...

[Graviton]

Re: The Super drugs

 

I did something similar several years ago, in a Dark Champions street-level supers campaign. A hematologist was working with a high-level super who'd been put into a coma. He used samples of her blood to concoct a serum that gave him super powers. He then tweaked that formula to create a lower powered drug that he could mass produce. He called it Heat, it served to greatly speed up the metabolism of the subject, in addition to giving them increased combat abilities and strength. But it was highly addictive, and easy to OD on.

 

I've also unleashed super weapons on the streets. Several street gangs got ahold of some high-powered laser rifles left behind in a high-level supers battle. I like to explore how the consequences of a superhero campaign affect things at the street level.

[Silbeg]

Re: The Super drugs

 

In my "FPCA/North Force" game, the characters had run into a street drug by the name of "Loco", which was based on some of the drugs listed in Villainy Amok (not quite Metatron, but had a side-effect of berserker rage). This had been distributed to local street gangs by VIPER, though an agent known as "Jose Cuervo" (he is a friend of mine!).

 

Eventually, the North Force was able to follow the trail back to VIPER's secret nest on the river front. With the help of Grond (who had been held captive by VIPER there, there was some luck involved in freeing Grond), they defeated the VIPER villains, and agents. Grond escaped via the river, but became enamored with Flex (the team's strong man, who was also an action movie star), who was involved in freeing him.

 

This stated another set of adventures around Grond, who kept leaving Flex "presents".