Nootropics

The stuff isn't addictive, per se, but I promise you'll never go back. Because my stuff works. Genius in a pill, take one a day.

Suddenly the world is simple. Everything is obvious. You'll have so many ideas.

Don't go off it. You'll remember being smart, remember enough, that, when you quit, you'll feel pitiful, slow, damaged. The thoughts will come slow and arrive half-formed. You'll know you can be better. You'll know it, but its just not coming together. Not without my help.

Or maybe you've been taking it for years. You've built a career. An identity. You won't be able to keep up without it. You'll be drowning in your own life.Your coworkers will wonder what happened, why you can't get anything right anymore. Your dreams of inventions, discoveries, or artistic masterpieces? Impossible now. Unless you take another dose.

First time's free.

303. Timey-Wimey

Timey-Wimey is a chemical drug designed to interfere with a users sense of time. While on the drug, users have no direct sense of time passing, and can only guess based on external cues. For this reason, they can easily find themselves entranced by any rhythmic, looping patterns, often stopping to stare until the drug runs its course.

There have been experiments using the drug as a short-term version of deja-vu, but without success, as the drug destroys the focus of its users.

Mechanics

Timey-Wimey is a chemical drug [Low]

Type: Chem Application: O Duration: 6 hours Addiction Modifier: - Addiction Type: Mental

290. Rise and Shine

Rise and Shine! is a consumer brand of designer amphetamine. The drug locks the brain into a state of awake alertness, with a small secondary effect of easy focus. The drug has been carefully designed to have minimal side-effects, but sustained use will inevitably disrupt sleep patterns. Time spent awake can be lengthened by taking doses in sequence, but the mental effects of sleep deprivation will begin to appear even if the user does not feel tired, up to and including dream-like hallucinations.

Operating heavy equipment while on Rise and Shine! is discourage as users usually fall asleep within seconds of the drug wearing off.

Mechanics

Rise and Shine! is a chemical drug [Trivial]

Type: Chem Application: O Duration: (72 - SOM) hours Addiction Modifier: +10 Addiction Type: Mental

230. Hyper-Allergens

Tools of precisely targeted chemical warfare, often even more feared and hated than disassembler swarms, hyper-allergens turn one's morph suddenly against itself. Carefully crafted molecules exploit flaws in the biochemistry of a morph, causing trauma, and usually death, by anaphylactic shock. Each type of morph requires its own allergen: an allergen that might kill a menton would cause no reaction in a remade, and vice-versa.

Mechanic

Hyper-allergens are toxins [Moderate]

Type: Chem Application: D, Inj, O Onset Time: Immediate Duration: 10 action turns

Effected characters must make a SOM x 2 test (+30 with medichines) or take

Each hyper-allergen is targeted at a specific type of morph (bio or pod), and has minimal effect on others.

226. Lemonberries

Lemonberries were once a popular snack. As the name suggests, they are lemon-lime flavored berries, resembling yellow blueberries. They fell dramatically in popularity when an unknown party released a version designed for assassination. When combined with saliva, the juice of this variety of the berry becomes a powerful acid. Deaths have occurred both from being tricked into eating the acidic variety and from being spat on.

Mechanics

Assassination variety lemonberries are treated as a chemical [Medium]

If spat on someone, they do 1d10-1 DV per turn for 5 turns, or 1d10+1 DV per turn for 5 turns if ingested.

213. Mute

Mute, also called "babble" or "cat", is a nanodrug that induces a total aphasia, with a temporary but complete loss of any ability to speak, write, or understand language in any way. Artists often use mute as way of unhooking themselves from the cognitive bias that can come with language, others as part of a cocktail designed to focus them into an intuitive, visual state. Some scientists have also experimented with mute as a means of approaching pure logic, but with minimal proven results.

Mechanics

Mute is a nanodrug [Trivial]

Type: Nano Application: INJ Duration: 3 hours Addiction Modifier: +10 Addiction Type: Mental

207. Blood Capsules

Blood capsules are the most common name for a nanotech design containing individual molecules within a simple nanite. The nanites have no means of moving themselves or doing any action except to open themselves and release the molecule they contain. The most basic versions are decades old, but since the patents expired the open source community has been refining the designs and opening up new uses, allowing the nanites to be opened upon receiving a mesh signal or upon contact with certain chemicals.

The paranoid often inject capsules containing antidotes, programmed to open upon contact with their poison, rendering them effectively immune. As a tool of assassination, blood capsules can be quite dramatic, as when a Pax Familae agent was able to inject capsules containing the necrosis nanotoxin, causing a horrific death by sudden, whole-body internal bleeding as his vessels were dissolved.

Capsules are commonly combined with DMSO for ease of application, especially if they are being applied against the subjects will.

Mechanics

Blood capsules are treated as chemicals [Low]

Blood capsules contain one dose of a drug, chemical or toxin, set to be released upon a pre-programmed condition, usually a signal by radio or mesh, contact with a specific chemical, or a simple timer.

199. Nostalgia

Nostalgia offers its users exactly what it says on the tin, a strong feeling of nostalgia. This designer drug takes the form of a cigarette, usually in an old-fashioned style. The drug is most popular among the ennui-heavy circles of hyperelite, although habitual mind-expanders often enjoy it as a down-tempo alternative to their usual cocktails.

Mechanics

Nostalgia is a drug [Trivial]

Type: Chem Application: INH Duration: 4 hours Addiction Modifier: -10 Addiction Type: Mental

At the GM's discretion, nostalgia may give +10 to art checks.

198. Bubblewrap

Bubblewrap is one of the most successful brands of designer drug. Presented as domes of translucent material, bubblewrap is chewed like gum, slowly releasing the active chemicals. The drug is carefully designed to begin pleasant although subtle feedback loops within the brain, inducing a calm, meditative state.

Mechanics

Bubblewrap is a drug [Trivial]

Type: Chem Application: O Duration: 4 hours Addiction Modifier: - Addiction Type: Mental

At the GM's discretion, a character may lose 1 SV at the end of the duration.

190. Kaiju Therapy

One of the first petals created, kaiju therapy dates back to the days before petals established themselves as hardcore drugs and were explored as a means of harmless entertainment or psychological regimens. Kaiju therapy, as the name suggests, was designed as a a form of, or supplement to, normal therapy, designed to make users feel powerful and give them an outlet for stress.

Users of kaiju therapy find that, although no physical change actually occurs, they sense their bodies as becoming much larger. At the same time their bodies mutate into monstrous forms suggested by their subconscious. They hallucinate that their surroundings have become a cityscape; one which they are free to stomp through and destroy.

As therapy, kaiju therapy was not successful, as likely to aggravate as alleviate. These days kaiju therapy is used primarily for entertainment.

Mechanics

Kaiju therapy is a petal [Moderate]

Type: Nano Application: O Duration: 4 hours Addiction Modifier: - Addiction Type: Mental

Sweets

Destroy a monumental building and the petal will pick out an open source book on architecture, interior design, or construction for you to read.

Defeat another monster in a wrestling match and you will receive blueprints for a small action figure of your kaiju self.

Take a nap instead of any of that and you will receive notice that the petal has purchased a coffee for you at the nearest convenient location.

188. Assassins

One of the more common petals, and apparently based upon a popular AR game with the same name, Assassins is unusual in that is was seemingly identify to be purely fun, but is at the same time one of the most dangerous of petals. As in the AR game, each user is given a target, as well as becoming the target of another user. Users die when they are "killed" by another user, using special AR weapons.

The danger of use comes from the psychological effects of the petal. Although it sounds like a harmless game, to the users it becomes entirely real. They become very genuinely afraid for their lives, willing to take great risks to flee their assassin. Many users do not even have the resolve to pursue their targets, and simply hole up as best they can. Those tracked down by their assassin will fight for their lives, and although the AR weapons are not real, injuries are not uncommon. Those who are killed take 1d10 stress from what seems like a real death and the rapid end of the trip.

Mechanics

Assassins is a petal [Moderate]

Type: Nano Application: O Duration: 24 hours Addiction Modifier: - Addiction Type: Mental

Sweets

Successfully kill one of your targets and you will receive blueprints for a unique patch.

Be the last one standing and you will receive the blueprints for biter smart ammo.

Kill every other users (no other user can make a kill) and you will receive blueprints for a unique wasp knife.

170. Eye of the Beholder

Eye of the beholder (usually just called "eye") is a designer drug with a single specific effect: everything the user sees becomes indescribably beautiful. From art to litter and even the horrible aftermath of combat, everything seems absurdly perfect.

It was not long until someone decided to engineer a drug gland and live under eye's effects 24/7. The first recipient was simulspace artist Excel, who hoped it would inspire him, but instead, his work has become entirely tasteless. What's worse, the drug has proven to be extremely psychologically addictive, as those in withdraw are thrust back into a world that seems filled with ugliness and fall into a depression.

Mechanics

Eye is a drug [Low]

Type: Chem Application: O Duration: 12 hours Addiction Modifier: -30 Addiction Type: Mental

169. Knockout

Knockout is the market name for a designer drug with some unsettling applications. The drug suppresses higher brain functions, turning users into high-functioning zombies.

Freed from the burdens of conscious thought, zombies have rapid reaction times and are powerful in combat. Knockout users are no different, but most polities have shied away from its use as a combat drug, feeling that unconscious soldiers are even less trustworthy than than those filled with adrenaline and amphetamines. It doesn't help that the drug can have strong interactions with other drugs and augmentations: experiments with knockout/MRDR cocktails produced confused berserkers, unsure of what to do except follow the urges of their synthetic bloodlust.

In contrast to its potential as a combat drug, some have been using it as a way to avoid drudgery and routine work. As long as a task does not require much in the way of higher brain functions, a user can dose themselves and come to hours later, with their work completed. Knockout is characterized by a total lack of experience, and so is otherwise unpopular.

Mechanics

Knockout is a nanodrug [Moderate]

Type: Nano Application: Inj, O Duration: 1 day Addiction Modifier: - Addiction Type: Mental

Users are effected as if by the unconscious lead sleight for the drug's duration. They receive (1d10/2) - X SV upon using it, where X equals the number of times the user has previously used the drug.

168. Training Under the Influence

The transhuman battlefield is a source of new and strange forms of stress. TITAN weaponry targets the ego almost as often as the body, and soldiers must often use augmentations and combat drugs that create strange states of mind.

A soldier who can field-strip their weapon, run an obstacle course, and relay technical information not only while sober, but while drunk, stoned, hallucinating, numb to the world, or filled with synthetic bloodlust can be trusted to keep their heads while in any of the strange situations they might encounter in the post-Fall world.

Ultimates will dose initiates with inhibition suppressants in order to gauge their personalities. Scum militia often use drugs for fun, but some have also been experimenting with hallucinogens to teach themselves to ignore their senses when necessary. Direct Action sends recruits through normal training, then runs them through the same drills, but this time while they are nearly out of their minds on a cocktail of combat drugs.

167. Tipsy!

Tipsy! is one of Extropia's most popular game shows, combining psychoactive drugs with obstacle courses and contests of skill. The show takes place in simulspace, to minimize insurance premiums, allow the use of inexpensive open-source narco-algorithms, and unrealistic environments. Contestants might run a freerunning course while on buzz, take part in a combat simulation while on hither and juice, have a dance contest while on MRDR, solve a murder-mystery while on LSD, be quizzed on trivia while on a low dose of schizo, and the perennial favorite, very drunken boxing.

148. Medicinal Probiotics

Everyone is familiar with the concept of probiotic foods. Medicinal probiotics are an old tradition, dating back to the early days of genetic engineering. Engineered strains of bacteria, viruses, and yeast can do excellent things for ones health, and their potential is still being explored. One of the oldest types of medicinal probitoics are those engineered simply to rid the body of certain unwanted foreign agents: each strain, when ingested or injected, breaks down a drug, sequesters a toxin, or hunts a pathogen.

Medicinal probiotic strains made their way off-Earth one strain at a time. Pre-Fall, there were many, many strains, and no-one felt any great need to preserve them. Families, scientists, refugees and colonists took what strains they thought might be useful with them, while many off-Earth servers containing their genomes were destroyed or suborned by TITANs. Even today, particular strains are the jealously guarded treasure of refugee families, criminal outfits, or brinker communities.

Mechanics

Probiotics counter a specific type of toxin, drug, or pathogen, like an antidote [One cost category higher than their toxin, drug, or pathogen]

98. Vitiate

The left-handed and right-handed ecosystems of Chimeran life are, most often, so different as to be irrelevant to each other. Left-handed organisms generally cannot feed on right-handed, and vice-versa. There has been enough evolutionary time, however, that some specialists exist who cross these boundaries. Some right-handed insect-equivalents have developed prions as a defense against left-handed prey.

The vitiate prion interferes with red blood cells, bonding with them and prevents them from carrying oxygen, as well as infiltrating the production of new blood cells, causing all new blood cells to be made with bonded prions. Infected animals slowly experience blood-loss, eventually dying of oxygen deprivation.

Mechanics

Vitiate is a toxin affecting biomorphs. [High]

Characters that have ingested vitiate prions appear healthy for ~36 hours. From that point forward, they will lose one point of SOM per hour as their blood degrades. If their SOM reaches 0, they die.

Characters with medichines will receive an immediate warning of infection, and double time spans (they are healthy for 72 hours, and lose 1 point of SOM every 2 hours). Morphs with respirocytes are immune.

Plot Hook: So far the fact that vitiate must be ingested has prevented infection of the researchers and explorers of Chimera. Recently, however, a Triad boss was poisoned, with symptoms most consistent with vitiate ingestion. He hires the players to confirm that he was killed by vitiate, and then determine how the prions were transported from Chimera, and why.

30. Lycanthropy

The first iteration of the Lycanthropy nanotoxin was a medichine hack. A group of radical mercurial uplifts infected the medichines of the families of Cognite executives. Any hack of medichines is met with rapid and thorough security updates, which rendered that first form unusable, but the mercurials were able to cultivate a nanotoxin out of a sample of infected medichines. This nanotoxin form of the Lycanthropy condition is what is known to transhumanity today.

The nanotoxin causes keratin build-ups in feet and hands as the body attempts to grow hooves, in fingers and toes as the body attempts to grow claws, in lips as the body attempts to grow a beak, and in skin as the body attempts to grow feathers. By most accounts the growth of feathers is the worst, causing steady pain as they attempt to puncture through skin. The condition has never proved fatal, and is kept in check by medichines, but its slow burn brand of body-horror gives it an over-sized infamy. The toxin has even become endemic in some poor districts of Jovian habs, providing fuel for anti-nano and anti-uplift attitudes.

Mechanics

Lycanthropy is a nanotoxin [Moderate]

Type: Nano Application: Inj Onset Time: Immediate Duration: Indefinite

Those infected by Lycanthropy take 1 SV per day of infection due to chronic pain and body dysmorphia. Medichines prevent progression, but nanophages are required for total immunity.