Drinking and Intoxication

Drinking and Intoxication

If you drink too much alcohol in a short period of time, you may become intoxicated. Keep track of how many "drinks" you consume each hour. For simplicity, one drink is a full mug or can of beer (12 oz.), a full glass of wine (4-5 oz.), or a shot of spirits (1.5 oz.).

At the end of any hour during which you consume more than ST/4 drinks, roll against the higher of HT or Carousing. If you continue to drink, continue to roll once per hour.

Modifiers: -1 per drink over ST/4 that hour; -2 on an empty stomach, or +1 if you have recently eaten; +2 for the Alcohol Tolerance perk, or -2 for the Alcohol Intolerance quirk.

Each failure shifts you one level from sober to tipsy to drunk to unconscious (drunken stupor) to coma; see Afflictions for details. A critical failure drops you two levels: sober to drunk, tipsy to unconscious, or drunk to coma. If penalties reduce your roll to 2 or less, critical failure means you drop three levels!

Remember that any roll 10 or more above effective skill is a critical failure; e.g., a roll of 11+ against a modified HT of 1.

Pink Elephants: If you are drunk, make one additional HT+4 roll. On a failure, you are also hallucinating (see Incapacitating Conditions).

The Heaves: If you are drunk and keep drinking, your body will try to purge itself of the alcohol (which is a toxin, after all!). When a failed HT roll indicates that you would fall unconscious or into a coma, make a second, unmodified HT roll. On a success, you vomit up the alcohol instead of passing out; treat this as retching. On a critical failure, however, you pass out and then retch; treat this as choking.

Sobering Up: To sober up, you must first stop drinking. After half as many hours as the total number of drinks you consumed, roll vs. HT. Various remedies may give a bonus. On a success, you move one step toward sober. Continue to roll each time this many hours pass until you are sober. Exception: To recover from a coma, you need medical help!

Hangovers: If you are tipsy or worse, you must roll vs. HT when you stop drinking, at -2 if you're drunk or -4 if you’re unconscious. On a failure, you will suffer a hangover. This kicks in 1d hours after the end of the drinking session – or on awakening, if you pass out or fall asleep before this time – and lasts hours equal to your margin of failure. During this time, you will suffer from moderate pain (see Irritating Conditions) and acquire Low Pain Threshold (or lose High Pain Threshold, if you have it). The GM may decide that preventative treatment (including drinking plenty of water and possibly taking a mild analgesic) gives you a bonus to this roll.

Alcohol (TL5)

Ethanol is an alcohol distilled from various food crops. It's an advantageous choice for frontiersmen, survivalists, and other independent types – a farmer can raise something to eat and use some of it to distill fuel for his tractor. Ethanol is also a disinfectant, a painkiller, and a cleaning agent. Perhaps best of all, it has its traditional recreational use...George Washington's Mount Vernon distillery produced over 11,000 gallons of rye whiskey a year until it burned down in 1814.

Alcohol must be of at least 80% purity to burn as fuel. Of recreational alcohols, only a few hard liquors are useful as fuel: certain whiskey and rum, and pure grain alcohol (sometimes called "white lighting" or "moonshine"). Wine and beer, at less than 15% alcohol, won't burn. Fuel isn't always suitable for consumption, either; notably, commercial "denatured alcohol" is ethanol with chemicals added to make it poisonous so that people won't drink it!

The efficiency of alcohol production depends on the crop. A bushel of wheat (60 lbs.) or corn (56 lbs.) produces about 2.5 gallons of alcohol; a bushel of potatoes (60 lbs.), only 0.5 gallon.

Alcohol (TL5). Per gallon. $1.30, 6.8 lbs. LC4.

A bottle of wine (5 drinks) or liquor (16 drinks of rotgut, schnapps, vodka, etc.), or a couple of bottles of beer, ale, etc. (2 drinks). $5, 2.5 lbs.

Fermented Beverages (TL1). Wine, beer, and other primary products of alcoholic fermentation (fermented milk, rice wine, etc.). These may be filtered or lightly flavored according to the producer's preferences, but don't have concentrated alcohol content. $5/gallon.

Gengineered Alcohol (TL9)

Genjac (Finnish: Genjakki): Exactly like the finest, most expensive, cognac which has been matured for 50 years in oak barrels - except that Genjac is manufactured from water and carbohydrates by genengineered bacteria. True connoisseurs say it tastes like cheap brandy (such as Jaloviina ☆). Still, experts fail to differentiate in between real cognac and Genjac around 75 % of the time in blind test. Price varies, in EU it costs from $5 to $20 per bottle (typically 24 oz. / 0,7 l), most of the price being taxation.