Vector: Ingested
Activation: A couple minutes
Addiction: Physiological and Psychological
A tranquilizing narcotic, bliss is an opiate synthesized from poppy plants. It was given its name due to the sensation its users feel. Some may describe it as floating on clouds, dulling senses to everything but happiness. Especially popular with those who live among chaos and wish to just escape it. In addition to the high, it provides a minor resistance to pain.
Vector: Inhaled
Activation: A couple minutes
Addiction: Physiological and Psychological
A number of pseudo-methamphetamine derivatives are sold as Buzz. This stimulant suppresses the appetite and speeds up the user’s metabolism and thought processes, making it a popular diet drug, especially among adolescents and teenagers. Characters on buzz are energetic and prone to jumpiness. When the
effect wears off, the user crashes. Buzz users tend to suffer from attention-deficit disorders and feel unable to properly focus when not on the drug, leading to extended binges. Habitual users are often gaunt from malnutrition, which renders them susceptible to infection, especially of the teeth, gums, and mouth.
Vector: Ingested
Activation: Immediate
Addiction: Psychological
EAV is an extremely popular party drug. It is usually taken by licking it off a patch of paper. Users will experience a feeling as if they are floating, and a giddiness which can sometimes be accompanied by some mild hallucinations that get worse with prolonged use. Everything becomes brighter and more vibrant. When it wears off, the user will become extremely fatigued. It is derived from a synthetic form of atropine and can be dangerous if overdosed.
Vector: Injected/Simulated
Activation: Immediate
Addiction: Psychological
A combination of digital and chemical stimulants, it could only be effectively taken by the augmented—those who had enough enhancements to feed simulations directly to their brain. Each person who consumed described it as a religious experience—connecting with others through some unseen network, all under the watchful eye of the electric goddess. Light, fire, life—personified in the digital space.
Vector: Injected
Speed: A couple minutes
Addiction: Physiological and Psychological
The red orchid is a Southeast Asian enchanted plant. Its distinctive red pollen, while not a narcotic itself, amplifies the narcotic properties of the poppy-derived opiates, such as bliss. In previous years, H-Red was the subject of vicious Triad wars but the dust has since settled, leaving it locally in the control of Di Ting Meng.
Vector: Ingested
Speed: Immediate
Addiction: Physiological
An ancient and widespread Asian practice of chewing the nuts and leaves of the betel tree with lime has led to the synthesis of ConLogi’s highly addictive and legal betel chewing gum. Jaw is a mild stimulant with cavity-fighting properties; users commonly feel awake and alert when using it. Because it is instantly addictive, jaw often serves as a gateway drug to more powerful stimulants.
Vector: Ingested
Speed: A couple minutes
Addiction: Physiological and Psychological
Distilled from an enchanted poppy plant, this drug puts the mind into an temporarily altered state. After the drug’s effects end, any attempt to remember what occurred while on the drug will require a memory roll (DC12). While under the influence of Memory Fog, any attempt to recall anything from outside the window of the drug’s influence will be required to roll for memory at a -3 modifier. The altered state is the same every time, so remembering events from any of the previous doses does not incur the penalty.
Vector: Ingested
Speed: A couple minutes
Addiction: Physiological and Psychological
NanoHi was designed for users seeking a quick, no-frills high. The active chemicals in the drug are theobromine and cathinone, and they combine to give nanoHi users a mild euphoric state that has been compared to eating large amounts of chocolate or the moment after sex. Excessive consumption of nanoHi over long periods of time can result in exacerbated hyperactivity leading to psychosis.
Vector: Inhaled
Speed: Immediate
Addiction: Physiological and Psychological
This drug suppresses the functions of the brain that govern fear, both innate and learned. For the duration of the drug’s effect, the character is resistant to fear. As a drawback, however, the character becomes reckless, incautious, and also less inhibited.
Vector: Contact
Speed: Immediate
Addiction: Physiological and Psychological
Popular with the coastal gangs, Numb is a medical-grade, water-resistant novocain gel that comes in a number of different colors. Numb is applied to the skin with a swab or a brush and users lose tactile perception in the areas covered in it. If injured, the user will be unable to assess exactly how damaged they are, so use wisely.
Vector: Digital
Speed: Immediate
Addiction: Physiological and Psychological
Simulated Experience, also known as SimEx, is a way to enhance virtual reality into something more real. To users with an installed Direct Neural Interface, they are able to experience both the feelings and emotion of the subject they are viewing in VR. When jacked in, it is meant to give the illusion of being right in the thick of it. Commercially, it is generally used in niche entertainment venues and advertisements. It can even be used as on the job training for new employees depending on profession. However, any easily accessible SimEx comes with a lot of restrictions and security to protect the users from experiencing… too much, in the form of peak controls. So the feelings never truly can overwhelm.
However, to those who deal in rooted, illegal versions of this, those guards and protections are overwritten. Unshackled SimExes are known for their lack of peak controls resulting in a more intense experience than commercially available simsense, and direct stimulation to the limbic area, or “pleasure center,” of the brain, wreaking havoc with brain biochemistry and leading to addictive behavior.
Unshacks typically are commercially available SimExes with their restrictions lifted for the full experience. But even more sinister is the market for highly illegal “pain reels.” Pain reels tend to be deliberately curated or stolen SimEx recordings of someone being attacked, tortured, beaten, or worse. All for the user to experience in full unrestricted bliss themselves. Extremely dangerous and more illegal than any drug on the street, these are the riskiest to seek out. But not impossible to find if you know where to look.
Vector: Inhaled
Speed: A couple minutes
Addiction: Physiological and Psychological
A paralytic neurotoxin secreted by an enchanted Latin American tree frog, trance is often erroneously sold as an opiate. Popular with hackers and other professions that don’t require excessive movement, trance causes paralysis and a speeding up of the higher brain functions. At the end of the duration, users remain paralyzed for an equivalent duration. This paralysis only affects voluntary muscle groups; breathing and other autonomous functions are not affected.
Vector: Ingested
Speed: Avg 15 minutes
Addiction: Physiological and Psychological
A potent alcoholic beverage developed by myrmidons for myrmidons, usquebaugh is a dark, thick ale the consistency of soup, swimming with hops and nutmeg. Myrmidons appreciate the blend of 160 to 180 proof alcohols. With the mildly hallucinogenic properties of large amounts of nutmeg, usquebaugh generates a terrific buzz. When this effect wears off, the user crashes.
Vector: Contact
Speed: Immediate
Addiction Type: Physiological and Psychological
A combination of antipsychotic medications and narcotics designed to cancel the rampant drug abuse by gangers, werden has become a popular narcotic as well. Werden heightens the apathy of users, making them feel disconnected from their concerns. It comes in patch form to best aid others in dosing a user who has become dangerous.
Vector: Ingested, Injected
Speed: 1hr average
Addiction: Physiological
Zero is the street name for a number of different immunosuppressant drugs used to help the body adjust to new cyberware or reduce the effects of allergic reactions. Street docs commonly use small quantities of the drug to suppress the body’s immune system for a period of time, reducing the chances that the body will reject implanted cyberware. Habitual drug users use zero to lower their tolerance to other drugs.