Post by Annabelle Devonshire on May 22, 2020 3:47:20 GMT -5
Answer:
Here is a short catalogue of the drugs and substances (both pharmaceutical and otherwise) Garou are most likely (or less likely) to encounter, the effects they have, the forms they come in, their availability and, most importantly, whether Resist Toxin or similar Gifts will have any effect on it.
Medicinal Drugs
Pain Relievers
This is a catch-all classification for a large number of commercially-available and prescription drugs designed to relive mild to moderately severe levels of pain. The most common low-level pain relievers are ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and aspirin; the best-known mid-range is codeine. Mild pain relievers work by reducing the build-up of chemicals associated with pain and inflammation. Stronger ones have various neurological and physical effects depending on their chemical composition.
Effects: Light pain relievers remove the dice pool penalty for the Hurt health level. They have no game effect on more severe forms of injury, but may have roleplaying effects. Stronger prescription pain relievers reduce dice pool penalties for wounds by two, but decrease the subject’s Perception and Wits by one dot each while they are in his system. The strongest legal pain relievers are only given to hospitalised patients who aren’t expected to be moving for a while. These remove all dice pool penalties from injuries and pain, but reduce the subject’s Dexterity and Mental Attributes by two dots each.
Form: Light pain relievers are almost always solid tablets or capsules; stronger ones are found in solid or liquid (oral or injected) forms.
Availability: Light pain relievers can be obtained anywhere that over-the-counter drugs are sold, for nominal cost. Stronger ones are legally available under doctor’s orders only, but are easy to find on the street.
Resist Toxin: No effect, as pain relievers cause no damage and are not recognised by the spirits as threatening.
Anaesthetics (local)
More specific than pain relievers, local anaesthetics act by blocking the transmission of all sensory impulses from the affected area to the brain. This prevents the patient from feeling any pain from an injury, but also keeps her from feeling pressure or temperature - the only way she can tell what’s happening to that part of her body is to look.
Effects: The effects of a local aesthetic are up to the player’s discretion, but the suggested benefit is the removal of all dice pool penalties from one specific wound (bullet in the thigh, shattered forearm), which will generally be a 1-3-die penalty that’s eliminated. However, the character is at half his normal Dexterity (round down) when using the affected body part - it’s hard to shoot or drive when your hand feels like a chunk of warm meat on the end of your arm.
Form: Manufactured local anaesthetics are almost always injected liquid. Very rarely (mostly in dental applications or local herbal remedies) they’re a paste that’s smeared on the appropriate area.
Availability: Local anaesthetics are used for specific medical procedures and are only legally available through a doctor. They can be found on the street with moderate ease: it’s not that it’s hard to get them, but there’s not much demand.
Resist Toxin: No effect, unless the character consciously uses the Gift to neutralise the anaesthetic; this requires three turns to take effect.
Decongestants/Antihistamines
These substances relieve the symptoms of minor allergies and other respiratory discomfort. They suppress the body’s reaction to foreign matter such as pollen and restrict blood flow into the sinuses, thus preventing the secretion of mucus and internal swelling that leads to congestion.
Effects: Decongestants have no effect on werewolves, as the Garou immune system prevents allergic reactions from any trivial substances (though it does not block allergic reactions that cause actual damage). However, Kinfolk and other humans may use decongestants to relieve the effects of allergies if the allergy is to an inhaled or airborne substance. Human characters may experience drowsiness.
Form: Usually solid tablets or capsules, though liquid nasal sprays are also common.
Availability: Anywhere that over-the-counter drugs are sold, for nominal cost.
Resist Toxin: No additional effects. The shape shifter metabolism prevents any negative side-effects such as sleepiness.
Antidepressants
There’s a certain social stigma attached to the use of antidepressants in some cultures, who feel that it’s bad form to admit that you can’t control your emotions without chemical help. However, in the past decade, these drugs have become more commonly known - thanks in part to aggressive marketing and pro-acceptance campaigns. Antidepressants take various chemical routes to making their user more upbeat and less aggressive. The most common, SRIs (serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors), work by controlling the brain’s ability to utilise serotonin, a neurotransmitter that suppresses the “fight” portion of the fight-flight behaviour set.
Effects: The effects of antidepressants on humans are mainly roleplaying-based; they may cause a change of Demeanor (though not Nature) and can suppress various Mental and Psychological Flaws.
On Garou, however, antidepressants have a different effect. They do not cause behavioural or personality changes, but instead affect the subject’s Rage. A werewolf who takes regular doses of antidepressants has his maximum Rage reduced by 1 after one week of use. After a full month of use, Rage drops by 2. While the character is on antidepressants, they may not raise Rage. If the character goes off drugs, his lost Rage returns after three days, and he gains an extra point of Rage for the next week, after which his Rage returns to its normal value.
The effects of antidepressants on Garou who have not yet Changed are particularly unpleasant, and the werewolves are only beginning to realise how many lost cubs may be permanently lost to them. While an unChanged shapeshifter is on antidepressants, he will not undergo the Change except in the most extreme of circumstances. If he remains on antidepressants through his entire young adulthood (from puberty to age 20 or so), his Rage is permanently lost to him and he may never Change. He is considered Garou for genetic purposes, and is not subject to the Delirium, but he will never be fully Garou.
Antidepressants affect the brain’s chemical balance, and they have various side effects. The most common ones include sleep deprivation, heightened physical sensitivity, and nervousness. They may have more unsettling side effects on Garou (or other users).
Form: Almost always a solid pill, capsule, or tablet.
Availability: Antidepressants are prescription drugs, though they can be found on the street with sufficient funding and savvy.
Resist Toxin: The character loses no Rage from long-term antidepressant use and is not subject to side effects, but is constantly down one temporary point of Gnosis due to the Gift’s constant low-level activity. This does not serve to counter other toxins; the Gift must be fully activated to deal with those, at the normal Gnosis cost.
Stimulants
Stimulants work chemically in various ways. Physiologically, they dispel fatigue and marginally heighten senses. However, their effects on the nervous system tend to give the use too much nervous energy: his fingers tremble slightly and he is unable to sit still. In large doses, they can induce insomnia or diarrhoea. This entry covers commercially available stimulants that most governments deem safe; stronger ones are given individual entries below.
Effects: The character’s Stamina is raised by one for the purposes of staying away or resisting mild depressants or sedatives. However, her Dexterity is decreased by one for the purpose of fine manipulation (surgery or lock picking). Gross motor skills (including those used in combat) are unaffected.
Form: Several stimulants are available in over-the-counter pill forms. Some soft drinks and coffee brands boast enhanced caffeine levels that achieve much the same effect. Many tribal cultures have discovered equivalents, frequently these are chewed leaves.
Availability: Damn near everywhere.
Resist Toxin: If the character consciously activates the Gift to nullify the stimulant, the Dexterity penalty is eliminated.
Sedatives (depressants)
A variety of substances act as sedatives, though their mechanical effects are the same for game purposes. In general, sedatives block the release of the neurochemicals that cause anxiety and other related emotions and interfere with the transmission of certain nerve impulses. In low doses, sedatives calm the recipient and induce a sense of peace (and sometimes mild euphoria). In higher doses, they induce sleep. Although they are often used for medicinal purposes, most often to control seizures and to keep surgical patients calm, they are heavily abused on the street and in high society due to their euphoric effects. Overdoses of sedatives can cause brain damage, coma, or death, especially when the user is also drinking alcohol.
Effects: Low doses halve the character’s Wits, reduce shapeshifters’ Rage by one, and increase Willpower by one for purposes of determining Delirium reactions. Moderate doses halve all Mental Attributes, reduce Rage by two, and increase Willpower by two for Delirium response. High doses cause unconsciousness. What consists of a “low,” “moderate,” or “high” dose is left to the player’s discretion.
Form: Mild sedatives are usually in pill form. Stronger ones are almost always injected liquids or inhaled gases.
Availability: Mild sedatives are prescribed; stronger ones aren’t (legally) used outside of directly supervised medical treatment. They’re all available on the street; expense and difficulty of acquisition rise with potency.
Resist Toxin: All effects are countered with use of this Gift.
Antibiotics
A wide variety of antibiotics exists today, from broad-spectrum ones used as preventive measures to those which are used to treat one specific type of bacterium. Most antibiotics work on the same basic principle: they interfere with the ability of bacteria to reproduce, or kill them outright, by breaking down bacterial cell walls. Many antibiotics can cause allergic reactions if misused, or can cause dangerous reactions with other drugs. They also have a wide variety of potential side effects, ranging from nausea to impaired vision to seizures to liver failure (though the latter are extreme and rare.)
Effects: Broad-spectrum antibiotics add to the character’s resistance of all bacterial infections. Specific antibiotics resist a specific type of bacterial infection (sinus, urinary tract, etc.). If applied to an open wound within an hour of its infliction, the chances of infection are greatly reduced (such unpleasantness as gangrene is much less likely to set in - and this should be of particular importance for unhealed aggravated wounds such as those inflicted by unwashed Black Spiral claws). Note that antibiotics do not help at all against viral infections, only bacterial ones.
Most adults in developed countries know if they’re allergic to specific antibiotics (such as penicillin derivatives or sulfa drugs), and many who are wear a small medical information tag that carries such information.
Form: Solid pills are the most common, followed by injected liquids. Some of the first widely-used antibiotics were powders that were sprinkled on open wounds, and these are still in use by many military forces as first aid measures for troops who may not have a hospital immediately available to them.
Availability: These are usually prescribed in developed nations, and rarely found on the street due to low demand. The black market availability of antibiotics actually goes up in places without public health - there’s not much profit in selling these in Los Angeles, but South American villagers who’ve never seen a hospital are a lot more willing to meet a seller’s price.
Resist Toxin: No effect, unless the character specifically activates the Gift to neutralise the antibiotic’s effect, in which case it’s fully nullified. Garou do not suffer from antibiotic side effects thanks to their supernatural metabolism.
Tranquilizers
Fast-acting tranquilizers are a subset of sedatives. They’re primarily used to animal research to restrain experimental subjects, though some formulas are intended for hospital use on human patients who need to be restrained for their own safety and that of their doctors. These are the sedatives that player characters are most likely to encounter in a hostile situation.
Effects: A fast-acting tranquilizers has a “stun rating” between 1 and 30 (this is not a real world term, but a game mechanic that represents a lot of painfully complex chemistry). A low stun rating represents something used on lab animals; a high one might be something intended for elephants. When a character is injected with a tranq, one of two things may happen. If the tranquilizer is not strong enough, the shot will have no effect. If the tranq is strong enough, the character will undergo gradual loss of muscle control and eventual lapse into unconsciousness.
If a character is tranquilized too heavily, he may suffer permanent neurological damage. Note that a shapeshifter who’s knocked unconscious reverts to breed form, so this damage won’t be regenerated until the character wakes up… if he wakes up.
Form: Injected liquid.
Availability: Legal to animal handling specialists (game wardens, zookeepers) and medical personnel. Street acquisition is possible, but iffy due to low demand and thus low supply.
Resist Toxin: The tranquiliser is negated completely.
Chemical Weapons
Chemical weapons are chemicals that are specifically intended to incapacitate, injure, or kill human targets on a large scale. Each substance listed in this category has one additional entry; Protection. This describes the measures that can be taken to prevent exposure to the chemical.
Pepper Spray
This is not a chemical weapon in the military sense of the word, but many civilians and police officers use it for non-lethal self defence. Pepper spray is also known as oleoresin capsicum; it’s a concentrated natural substance that’s extracted from chilli peppers. It acts by irritating the eyes and sinuses, resulting in impaired vision within moments of contact, as well as intense pain in the affected areas. This incapacitation theoretically allows the user to escape or to subdue the affected individual.
Effects: Pepper spray is usually fired from a small pressurised canister. Once the victim is hit, her Perception drops to 1 for purposes of vision and to 0 for scent and taste. She is down four dice on all rolls that rely on sight and endurance, and down two dice on all others. These penalties are halved after ten minutes and disappear entirely after another half an hour.
If the character is using Heightened Senses or is in Lupus form when she is hit, the penalties and effect duration are doubled.
Some humans may experience potentially fatal allergic reactions to pepper spray. Treat such a situation as if the victim has been exposed to a blood agent, or use whatever narrative method seems most appropriate.
Form: Pepper spray is a red-orange liquid that’s usually dispersed with a pressurised air spray.
Availability: Canisters of pepper spray can be found in most hardware stores, department stores, or gun shops for less than $20. Pepper spray is legal to carry, and is both legally and socially acceptable for self defence.
Resist Toxin: This Gift has no effect on pepper spray, as the compound is completely organic and non-toxic to Garou.
Protection: The best defence against this substance is not to get hit with the spray. Barring that, a gas mask (or a wet cloth tied over the mouth and nose and a pair of swimming goggles) provides full protection.
Tear Gas
This category includes various chemical compounds (CS, CN, CR) that are, like pepper spray, intended for non-lethal incapacitation of aggressors. Tear gas is commonly used by police in crowd control, hostage rescue, and barricade situations. Like pepper spray, it acts by inflaming the eyes and sinuses, impairing vision and breathing. Unlike, pepper spray, tear gas also causes skin irritation, dizziness, incapacitating coughing, and nausea.
Effects: Tear gas takes effect on the turn after initial exposure. The victim is down three dice on vision and endurance. All effects persist for around ten minutes after exposure, and the victim is down on endurance for another hour.
If the character is using Heightened Senses or is in Lupus form when she is hit, the penalties and effect duration are doubled.
Form: In its natural form, tear gas is actually a crystalline powder with little to no radius of effect - some pest control specialists advocate sprinkling it in attics and crawlspaces to get rid of rodent infestations. When tear gas is used by police, this powder is suspended in a liquid medium and sprayed as an aerosol (usually from a grenade, but occasionally from a handheld container).
Availability: Tear gas is legally available to most law enforcement officials (though they must justify its use after the fact). Tear gas grenades of both the thrown and launched varieties are easy to find on the street; most dealers in illicit firearms can get gas grenades too.
Resist Toxin: This Gift nullifies all effects of tear gas. However, the gas clouds are usually opaque and may impair vision as smoke would.
Protection: A gas mask provides complete protection in the short term, though clothing tends to soak up some residue and may continue to give off fumes for days after exposure. A wet cloth placed over the nose and mouth removes all penalties except those related to vision; this is a common expedient used by rioters.
Riot Gas
Also known as adamsite, this is a tear gas variant primarily employed by police forces and troops in the former Soviet Union and its client nations, where “humane” crowd control solutions take a back seat to effective measures. Its effects are similar to those of tear gas, but more intense and with added effects of incapacitating abdominal cramps and loss of control over all gastrointestinal processes.
Effects: As per tear gas, but with the effects of being overcome by violent projectile vomiting and loss of bladder and bowel control.
Form: As per tear gas.
Availability: Adamsite is very difficult to obtain outside the former Soviet Union or Eastern Europe, simply because it’s in such high demand there that it doesn’t travel much. Quantities available in the western world are limited, and prices are painfully high.
Resist Toxin: As per tear gas, and the character automatically resists purgative effects.
Protection: As per tear gas.
Blister Agents
Blister agents (mustard gas, lewisite, CX) were among they first chemical weapon used in World War I. In theory, they incapacitate rather than kill, but their effect are severe enough to be fatal in many cases of exposure. Blister agents are slow-acting, with their effects gradually manifesting over a period of one to ten hours after a victim is exposed. They cause blistering and long-term scarring on all exposed body surfaces. If the gas is inhaled, this effects extends to the lungs. If it comes in contact with the eyes, the gas can cause permanent blindness.
Effects: When a character is first exposed to a blister agent, the character has a number of hours before the chemical begins to inflict injury. If the character washes completely (a simple quick shower won’t be enough; decontamination requires a minimum of 30 minutes of scrubbing) before this time has elapsed, further effects are eliminated. Otherwise, the victim slowly takes aggravated damage over a period of 6 hours. The character may experience temporary or permanent eye damage or blindness, or a permanent drop in appearance or stamina (scarring on the skin or in the lungs).
Form: Blister agents are gaseous in form. Depending on the precise chemical compound used, they have either no odour or a strong, caustic scent. These chemicals are only manufactured in military warheads (artillery shells, air-dropped bombs, and missile warheads) - small containers are not created, though various terrorist organisations have the capacity to improvise man-portable (suitcase- or thermos-sized) ones.
Availability: Blister agents are restricted by international treaty. They can only be created with a fully-equipped specialised laboratory, and the creator will probably die horribly if he doesn’t use proper safety precautions. Several terrorist organisations are suspected to have the capability to produce blister agents, and most large chemical or pharmaceutical companies have the necessary laboratories and knowledge. Magadon manufactures various blister agents in small quantities for certain customers, but Pentex does not normally use them against Garou because of their delayed effects.
Resist Toxin: The character’s Gnosis is added to the soak roll and the character only suffers additional effects if he takes more than three levels of damage.
Protection: Sealed goggles or a gas mask protects a victim’s eyes (though if the skin is contaminated, later contact with the face can contaminate the eyes anyway), eliminating the potential for eye damage. A respirator or gas mask keeps a blister agent from entering the lungs, eliminating potential internal damage and adding 3 dice to the soak roll. A fully-sealed chemical warfare suit or other self-contained garment prevents all contact, which negates all effects of the blister agent - though anyone touching the outside of the protective suit before it’s decontaminated risks low-level exposure.
Blood Agents
Also dating back to World War I, blood agents (AC, CK< prussic acid, phosgene) were some of the first chemical weapons that were specifically designed to kill. Their effects manifest within a few minutes of exposure and they kill within half an hour. Blood agents work by keeping the victim’s lungs from bringing oxygen into the bloodstream - in other words, rapid suffocation.
Effects: Character who inhale blood agent receive aggravated damage. If the character survives but takes four or more health levels of damage, he permanently loses a point of Stamina due to damage to his lungs.
Form: As blister agents, above.
Availability: As blister agents, above. Pentex has been experimenting with blood agents as potential anti-vampire weapons, but has not yet been able to conduct enough “live” tests to be certain how effective these substances will be against Leeches.
Resist Toxin: The character’s Gnosis is added to the soak roll and the character will not lose Stamina regardless of how much damage he takes - assuming he survives.
Protection: A gas mask or respirator keeps a blood agent from entering the user’s lungs, thus preventing all damage. An exposed character without a mask can try to hold his breath.
Nerve Agents
Nerve agents are the fastest acting, most lethal, and most feared chemical weapons in production today. They include such infamous names as sarin (GB), soman (GD), tabun (GA), and VX, and were initially developed during World War II. Nerve agents kill by blocking the neurochemical that stops transmission of nerve impulses - the victim loses all muscular control and eventually suffocates from his inability to breathe properly. However, before he dies, he goes through blurred vision, tightness in the chest, breathing difficulties, and a runny nose, then moves on to processes like involuntary drooling, urination, and defecation, muscle spasms over the entire body, and a short-lived coma. This all happens in five minutes or less. Nerve agents are skin-absorbed and can be fatal in amounts as low as 1/1000,000,000 of the subject’s body weight. Pound for pound, these substances are even more deadly than strategic nuclear weapons.
Effects: A nerve agent inflicts aggravated damage. Survivors usually sustain permanent neurological damage.
Nerve agents can be counteracted with a rapid injection of atropine, a poison whose effects directly counter those of the nerve agent. If a character has been exposed, atropine halts all further damage starting with the turn after it was injected.
Nerve agents register as being Wyrm-tainted simply by virtue of the philosophy behind their design and creation.
Form: Nerve agents are liquid at room temperature, an are usually deployed as aerosols. However, an open container of liquid nerve agent will evaporate enough particles to kill everyone in the room in a minute or less.
Availability: Don’t even think about acquiring it for personal use. Nerve gas is the stuff of nightmares are made of; there are multiple international treaties devoted to eliminating it. Pentex Special Projects doesn’t manufacture nerve agents on its own; it simply gives client government and organisations the knowledge to do it themselves and stands back in case someone screws up. To date, Pentex has only used nerve agents in four operations, three of which took place in the Amazon against suspected caern sites.
Resist Toxin: The character’s Gnosis is added to the soak roll and damage is applied at the rate of one health level per two turns.
Protection: The best protection from nerve gas is a military-grade vehicle or bunker with full NBC (Nuclear/Biological/Chemical) sealing. A full protective suit with an internal air supply will also protect, though its exterior must be decontaminated before the wearer can safely take it off. In theory, a room in a civilian dwelling can be sealed against gas attacks with adequate construction materials and a few hours of work, but this has never been tested.
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© Copyright White Wolf Publishing, Inc.
Here is a short catalogue of the drugs and substances (both pharmaceutical and otherwise) Garou are most likely (or less likely) to encounter, the effects they have, the forms they come in, their availability and, most importantly, whether Resist Toxin or similar Gifts will have any effect on it.
Medicinal Drugs
Pain Relievers
This is a catch-all classification for a large number of commercially-available and prescription drugs designed to relive mild to moderately severe levels of pain. The most common low-level pain relievers are ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and aspirin; the best-known mid-range is codeine. Mild pain relievers work by reducing the build-up of chemicals associated with pain and inflammation. Stronger ones have various neurological and physical effects depending on their chemical composition.
Effects: Light pain relievers remove the dice pool penalty for the Hurt health level. They have no game effect on more severe forms of injury, but may have roleplaying effects. Stronger prescription pain relievers reduce dice pool penalties for wounds by two, but decrease the subject’s Perception and Wits by one dot each while they are in his system. The strongest legal pain relievers are only given to hospitalised patients who aren’t expected to be moving for a while. These remove all dice pool penalties from injuries and pain, but reduce the subject’s Dexterity and Mental Attributes by two dots each.
Form: Light pain relievers are almost always solid tablets or capsules; stronger ones are found in solid or liquid (oral or injected) forms.
Availability: Light pain relievers can be obtained anywhere that over-the-counter drugs are sold, for nominal cost. Stronger ones are legally available under doctor’s orders only, but are easy to find on the street.
Resist Toxin: No effect, as pain relievers cause no damage and are not recognised by the spirits as threatening.
Anaesthetics (local)
More specific than pain relievers, local anaesthetics act by blocking the transmission of all sensory impulses from the affected area to the brain. This prevents the patient from feeling any pain from an injury, but also keeps her from feeling pressure or temperature - the only way she can tell what’s happening to that part of her body is to look.
Effects: The effects of a local aesthetic are up to the player’s discretion, but the suggested benefit is the removal of all dice pool penalties from one specific wound (bullet in the thigh, shattered forearm), which will generally be a 1-3-die penalty that’s eliminated. However, the character is at half his normal Dexterity (round down) when using the affected body part - it’s hard to shoot or drive when your hand feels like a chunk of warm meat on the end of your arm.
Form: Manufactured local anaesthetics are almost always injected liquid. Very rarely (mostly in dental applications or local herbal remedies) they’re a paste that’s smeared on the appropriate area.
Availability: Local anaesthetics are used for specific medical procedures and are only legally available through a doctor. They can be found on the street with moderate ease: it’s not that it’s hard to get them, but there’s not much demand.
Resist Toxin: No effect, unless the character consciously uses the Gift to neutralise the anaesthetic; this requires three turns to take effect.
Decongestants/Antihistamines
These substances relieve the symptoms of minor allergies and other respiratory discomfort. They suppress the body’s reaction to foreign matter such as pollen and restrict blood flow into the sinuses, thus preventing the secretion of mucus and internal swelling that leads to congestion.
Effects: Decongestants have no effect on werewolves, as the Garou immune system prevents allergic reactions from any trivial substances (though it does not block allergic reactions that cause actual damage). However, Kinfolk and other humans may use decongestants to relieve the effects of allergies if the allergy is to an inhaled or airborne substance. Human characters may experience drowsiness.
Form: Usually solid tablets or capsules, though liquid nasal sprays are also common.
Availability: Anywhere that over-the-counter drugs are sold, for nominal cost.
Resist Toxin: No additional effects. The shape shifter metabolism prevents any negative side-effects such as sleepiness.
Antidepressants
There’s a certain social stigma attached to the use of antidepressants in some cultures, who feel that it’s bad form to admit that you can’t control your emotions without chemical help. However, in the past decade, these drugs have become more commonly known - thanks in part to aggressive marketing and pro-acceptance campaigns. Antidepressants take various chemical routes to making their user more upbeat and less aggressive. The most common, SRIs (serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors), work by controlling the brain’s ability to utilise serotonin, a neurotransmitter that suppresses the “fight” portion of the fight-flight behaviour set.
Effects: The effects of antidepressants on humans are mainly roleplaying-based; they may cause a change of Demeanor (though not Nature) and can suppress various Mental and Psychological Flaws.
On Garou, however, antidepressants have a different effect. They do not cause behavioural or personality changes, but instead affect the subject’s Rage. A werewolf who takes regular doses of antidepressants has his maximum Rage reduced by 1 after one week of use. After a full month of use, Rage drops by 2. While the character is on antidepressants, they may not raise Rage. If the character goes off drugs, his lost Rage returns after three days, and he gains an extra point of Rage for the next week, after which his Rage returns to its normal value.
The effects of antidepressants on Garou who have not yet Changed are particularly unpleasant, and the werewolves are only beginning to realise how many lost cubs may be permanently lost to them. While an unChanged shapeshifter is on antidepressants, he will not undergo the Change except in the most extreme of circumstances. If he remains on antidepressants through his entire young adulthood (from puberty to age 20 or so), his Rage is permanently lost to him and he may never Change. He is considered Garou for genetic purposes, and is not subject to the Delirium, but he will never be fully Garou.
Antidepressants affect the brain’s chemical balance, and they have various side effects. The most common ones include sleep deprivation, heightened physical sensitivity, and nervousness. They may have more unsettling side effects on Garou (or other users).
Form: Almost always a solid pill, capsule, or tablet.
Availability: Antidepressants are prescription drugs, though they can be found on the street with sufficient funding and savvy.
Resist Toxin: The character loses no Rage from long-term antidepressant use and is not subject to side effects, but is constantly down one temporary point of Gnosis due to the Gift’s constant low-level activity. This does not serve to counter other toxins; the Gift must be fully activated to deal with those, at the normal Gnosis cost.
Stimulants
Stimulants work chemically in various ways. Physiologically, they dispel fatigue and marginally heighten senses. However, their effects on the nervous system tend to give the use too much nervous energy: his fingers tremble slightly and he is unable to sit still. In large doses, they can induce insomnia or diarrhoea. This entry covers commercially available stimulants that most governments deem safe; stronger ones are given individual entries below.
Effects: The character’s Stamina is raised by one for the purposes of staying away or resisting mild depressants or sedatives. However, her Dexterity is decreased by one for the purpose of fine manipulation (surgery or lock picking). Gross motor skills (including those used in combat) are unaffected.
Form: Several stimulants are available in over-the-counter pill forms. Some soft drinks and coffee brands boast enhanced caffeine levels that achieve much the same effect. Many tribal cultures have discovered equivalents, frequently these are chewed leaves.
Availability: Damn near everywhere.
Resist Toxin: If the character consciously activates the Gift to nullify the stimulant, the Dexterity penalty is eliminated.
Sedatives (depressants)
A variety of substances act as sedatives, though their mechanical effects are the same for game purposes. In general, sedatives block the release of the neurochemicals that cause anxiety and other related emotions and interfere with the transmission of certain nerve impulses. In low doses, sedatives calm the recipient and induce a sense of peace (and sometimes mild euphoria). In higher doses, they induce sleep. Although they are often used for medicinal purposes, most often to control seizures and to keep surgical patients calm, they are heavily abused on the street and in high society due to their euphoric effects. Overdoses of sedatives can cause brain damage, coma, or death, especially when the user is also drinking alcohol.
Effects: Low doses halve the character’s Wits, reduce shapeshifters’ Rage by one, and increase Willpower by one for purposes of determining Delirium reactions. Moderate doses halve all Mental Attributes, reduce Rage by two, and increase Willpower by two for Delirium response. High doses cause unconsciousness. What consists of a “low,” “moderate,” or “high” dose is left to the player’s discretion.
Form: Mild sedatives are usually in pill form. Stronger ones are almost always injected liquids or inhaled gases.
Availability: Mild sedatives are prescribed; stronger ones aren’t (legally) used outside of directly supervised medical treatment. They’re all available on the street; expense and difficulty of acquisition rise with potency.
Resist Toxin: All effects are countered with use of this Gift.
Antibiotics
A wide variety of antibiotics exists today, from broad-spectrum ones used as preventive measures to those which are used to treat one specific type of bacterium. Most antibiotics work on the same basic principle: they interfere with the ability of bacteria to reproduce, or kill them outright, by breaking down bacterial cell walls. Many antibiotics can cause allergic reactions if misused, or can cause dangerous reactions with other drugs. They also have a wide variety of potential side effects, ranging from nausea to impaired vision to seizures to liver failure (though the latter are extreme and rare.)
Effects: Broad-spectrum antibiotics add to the character’s resistance of all bacterial infections. Specific antibiotics resist a specific type of bacterial infection (sinus, urinary tract, etc.). If applied to an open wound within an hour of its infliction, the chances of infection are greatly reduced (such unpleasantness as gangrene is much less likely to set in - and this should be of particular importance for unhealed aggravated wounds such as those inflicted by unwashed Black Spiral claws). Note that antibiotics do not help at all against viral infections, only bacterial ones.
Most adults in developed countries know if they’re allergic to specific antibiotics (such as penicillin derivatives or sulfa drugs), and many who are wear a small medical information tag that carries such information.
Form: Solid pills are the most common, followed by injected liquids. Some of the first widely-used antibiotics were powders that were sprinkled on open wounds, and these are still in use by many military forces as first aid measures for troops who may not have a hospital immediately available to them.
Availability: These are usually prescribed in developed nations, and rarely found on the street due to low demand. The black market availability of antibiotics actually goes up in places without public health - there’s not much profit in selling these in Los Angeles, but South American villagers who’ve never seen a hospital are a lot more willing to meet a seller’s price.
Resist Toxin: No effect, unless the character specifically activates the Gift to neutralise the antibiotic’s effect, in which case it’s fully nullified. Garou do not suffer from antibiotic side effects thanks to their supernatural metabolism.
Tranquilizers
Fast-acting tranquilizers are a subset of sedatives. They’re primarily used to animal research to restrain experimental subjects, though some formulas are intended for hospital use on human patients who need to be restrained for their own safety and that of their doctors. These are the sedatives that player characters are most likely to encounter in a hostile situation.
Effects: A fast-acting tranquilizers has a “stun rating” between 1 and 30 (this is not a real world term, but a game mechanic that represents a lot of painfully complex chemistry). A low stun rating represents something used on lab animals; a high one might be something intended for elephants. When a character is injected with a tranq, one of two things may happen. If the tranquilizer is not strong enough, the shot will have no effect. If the tranq is strong enough, the character will undergo gradual loss of muscle control and eventual lapse into unconsciousness.
If a character is tranquilized too heavily, he may suffer permanent neurological damage. Note that a shapeshifter who’s knocked unconscious reverts to breed form, so this damage won’t be regenerated until the character wakes up… if he wakes up.
Form: Injected liquid.
Availability: Legal to animal handling specialists (game wardens, zookeepers) and medical personnel. Street acquisition is possible, but iffy due to low demand and thus low supply.
Resist Toxin: The tranquiliser is negated completely.
Chemical Weapons
Chemical weapons are chemicals that are specifically intended to incapacitate, injure, or kill human targets on a large scale. Each substance listed in this category has one additional entry; Protection. This describes the measures that can be taken to prevent exposure to the chemical.
Pepper Spray
This is not a chemical weapon in the military sense of the word, but many civilians and police officers use it for non-lethal self defence. Pepper spray is also known as oleoresin capsicum; it’s a concentrated natural substance that’s extracted from chilli peppers. It acts by irritating the eyes and sinuses, resulting in impaired vision within moments of contact, as well as intense pain in the affected areas. This incapacitation theoretically allows the user to escape or to subdue the affected individual.
Effects: Pepper spray is usually fired from a small pressurised canister. Once the victim is hit, her Perception drops to 1 for purposes of vision and to 0 for scent and taste. She is down four dice on all rolls that rely on sight and endurance, and down two dice on all others. These penalties are halved after ten minutes and disappear entirely after another half an hour.
If the character is using Heightened Senses or is in Lupus form when she is hit, the penalties and effect duration are doubled.
Some humans may experience potentially fatal allergic reactions to pepper spray. Treat such a situation as if the victim has been exposed to a blood agent, or use whatever narrative method seems most appropriate.
Form: Pepper spray is a red-orange liquid that’s usually dispersed with a pressurised air spray.
Availability: Canisters of pepper spray can be found in most hardware stores, department stores, or gun shops for less than $20. Pepper spray is legal to carry, and is both legally and socially acceptable for self defence.
Resist Toxin: This Gift has no effect on pepper spray, as the compound is completely organic and non-toxic to Garou.
Protection: The best defence against this substance is not to get hit with the spray. Barring that, a gas mask (or a wet cloth tied over the mouth and nose and a pair of swimming goggles) provides full protection.
Tear Gas
This category includes various chemical compounds (CS, CN, CR) that are, like pepper spray, intended for non-lethal incapacitation of aggressors. Tear gas is commonly used by police in crowd control, hostage rescue, and barricade situations. Like pepper spray, it acts by inflaming the eyes and sinuses, impairing vision and breathing. Unlike, pepper spray, tear gas also causes skin irritation, dizziness, incapacitating coughing, and nausea.
Effects: Tear gas takes effect on the turn after initial exposure. The victim is down three dice on vision and endurance. All effects persist for around ten minutes after exposure, and the victim is down on endurance for another hour.
If the character is using Heightened Senses or is in Lupus form when she is hit, the penalties and effect duration are doubled.
Form: In its natural form, tear gas is actually a crystalline powder with little to no radius of effect - some pest control specialists advocate sprinkling it in attics and crawlspaces to get rid of rodent infestations. When tear gas is used by police, this powder is suspended in a liquid medium and sprayed as an aerosol (usually from a grenade, but occasionally from a handheld container).
Availability: Tear gas is legally available to most law enforcement officials (though they must justify its use after the fact). Tear gas grenades of both the thrown and launched varieties are easy to find on the street; most dealers in illicit firearms can get gas grenades too.
Resist Toxin: This Gift nullifies all effects of tear gas. However, the gas clouds are usually opaque and may impair vision as smoke would.
Protection: A gas mask provides complete protection in the short term, though clothing tends to soak up some residue and may continue to give off fumes for days after exposure. A wet cloth placed over the nose and mouth removes all penalties except those related to vision; this is a common expedient used by rioters.
Riot Gas
Also known as adamsite, this is a tear gas variant primarily employed by police forces and troops in the former Soviet Union and its client nations, where “humane” crowd control solutions take a back seat to effective measures. Its effects are similar to those of tear gas, but more intense and with added effects of incapacitating abdominal cramps and loss of control over all gastrointestinal processes.
Effects: As per tear gas, but with the effects of being overcome by violent projectile vomiting and loss of bladder and bowel control.
Form: As per tear gas.
Availability: Adamsite is very difficult to obtain outside the former Soviet Union or Eastern Europe, simply because it’s in such high demand there that it doesn’t travel much. Quantities available in the western world are limited, and prices are painfully high.
Resist Toxin: As per tear gas, and the character automatically resists purgative effects.
Protection: As per tear gas.
Blister Agents
Blister agents (mustard gas, lewisite, CX) were among they first chemical weapon used in World War I. In theory, they incapacitate rather than kill, but their effect are severe enough to be fatal in many cases of exposure. Blister agents are slow-acting, with their effects gradually manifesting over a period of one to ten hours after a victim is exposed. They cause blistering and long-term scarring on all exposed body surfaces. If the gas is inhaled, this effects extends to the lungs. If it comes in contact with the eyes, the gas can cause permanent blindness.
Effects: When a character is first exposed to a blister agent, the character has a number of hours before the chemical begins to inflict injury. If the character washes completely (a simple quick shower won’t be enough; decontamination requires a minimum of 30 minutes of scrubbing) before this time has elapsed, further effects are eliminated. Otherwise, the victim slowly takes aggravated damage over a period of 6 hours. The character may experience temporary or permanent eye damage or blindness, or a permanent drop in appearance or stamina (scarring on the skin or in the lungs).
Form: Blister agents are gaseous in form. Depending on the precise chemical compound used, they have either no odour or a strong, caustic scent. These chemicals are only manufactured in military warheads (artillery shells, air-dropped bombs, and missile warheads) - small containers are not created, though various terrorist organisations have the capacity to improvise man-portable (suitcase- or thermos-sized) ones.
Availability: Blister agents are restricted by international treaty. They can only be created with a fully-equipped specialised laboratory, and the creator will probably die horribly if he doesn’t use proper safety precautions. Several terrorist organisations are suspected to have the capability to produce blister agents, and most large chemical or pharmaceutical companies have the necessary laboratories and knowledge. Magadon manufactures various blister agents in small quantities for certain customers, but Pentex does not normally use them against Garou because of their delayed effects.
Resist Toxin: The character’s Gnosis is added to the soak roll and the character only suffers additional effects if he takes more than three levels of damage.
Protection: Sealed goggles or a gas mask protects a victim’s eyes (though if the skin is contaminated, later contact with the face can contaminate the eyes anyway), eliminating the potential for eye damage. A respirator or gas mask keeps a blister agent from entering the lungs, eliminating potential internal damage and adding 3 dice to the soak roll. A fully-sealed chemical warfare suit or other self-contained garment prevents all contact, which negates all effects of the blister agent - though anyone touching the outside of the protective suit before it’s decontaminated risks low-level exposure.
Blood Agents
Also dating back to World War I, blood agents (AC, CK< prussic acid, phosgene) were some of the first chemical weapons that were specifically designed to kill. Their effects manifest within a few minutes of exposure and they kill within half an hour. Blood agents work by keeping the victim’s lungs from bringing oxygen into the bloodstream - in other words, rapid suffocation.
Effects: Character who inhale blood agent receive aggravated damage. If the character survives but takes four or more health levels of damage, he permanently loses a point of Stamina due to damage to his lungs.
Form: As blister agents, above.
Availability: As blister agents, above. Pentex has been experimenting with blood agents as potential anti-vampire weapons, but has not yet been able to conduct enough “live” tests to be certain how effective these substances will be against Leeches.
Resist Toxin: The character’s Gnosis is added to the soak roll and the character will not lose Stamina regardless of how much damage he takes - assuming he survives.
Protection: A gas mask or respirator keeps a blood agent from entering the user’s lungs, thus preventing all damage. An exposed character without a mask can try to hold his breath.
Nerve Agents
Nerve agents are the fastest acting, most lethal, and most feared chemical weapons in production today. They include such infamous names as sarin (GB), soman (GD), tabun (GA), and VX, and were initially developed during World War II. Nerve agents kill by blocking the neurochemical that stops transmission of nerve impulses - the victim loses all muscular control and eventually suffocates from his inability to breathe properly. However, before he dies, he goes through blurred vision, tightness in the chest, breathing difficulties, and a runny nose, then moves on to processes like involuntary drooling, urination, and defecation, muscle spasms over the entire body, and a short-lived coma. This all happens in five minutes or less. Nerve agents are skin-absorbed and can be fatal in amounts as low as 1/1000,000,000 of the subject’s body weight. Pound for pound, these substances are even more deadly than strategic nuclear weapons.
Effects: A nerve agent inflicts aggravated damage. Survivors usually sustain permanent neurological damage.
Nerve agents can be counteracted with a rapid injection of atropine, a poison whose effects directly counter those of the nerve agent. If a character has been exposed, atropine halts all further damage starting with the turn after it was injected.
Nerve agents register as being Wyrm-tainted simply by virtue of the philosophy behind their design and creation.
Form: Nerve agents are liquid at room temperature, an are usually deployed as aerosols. However, an open container of liquid nerve agent will evaporate enough particles to kill everyone in the room in a minute or less.
Availability: Don’t even think about acquiring it for personal use. Nerve gas is the stuff of nightmares are made of; there are multiple international treaties devoted to eliminating it. Pentex Special Projects doesn’t manufacture nerve agents on its own; it simply gives client government and organisations the knowledge to do it themselves and stands back in case someone screws up. To date, Pentex has only used nerve agents in four operations, three of which took place in the Amazon against suspected caern sites.
Resist Toxin: The character’s Gnosis is added to the soak roll and damage is applied at the rate of one health level per two turns.
Protection: The best protection from nerve gas is a military-grade vehicle or bunker with full NBC (Nuclear/Biological/Chemical) sealing. A full protective suit with an internal air supply will also protect, though its exterior must be decontaminated before the wearer can safely take it off. In theory, a room in a civilian dwelling can be sealed against gas attacks with adequate construction materials and a few hours of work, but this has never been tested.
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