For a pulp-fantasy-inspired setting:
Black Lotus
A potent and deadly hallucinogen. When you huff black lotus, you fall into a deep slumber. Roll+CON. On a 10+, you recover half your max HP and pick one. On a 7-9, the GM picks one, and you wake from a fugue hours or days later with no memory of the missing time. On a miss, take your Last Breath.
– The GM reveals a Grim Portent and how you can avoid or counter it.
– Your vision shows you something from the past or future, but you can’t remember what. You gain 1 hold. Any time you Discern Realities or Spout Lore, you can spend 1 hold to succeed as if you had rolled 12+.
– You catch a glimpse of your own death. Gain 1 hold. Any time you take damage, you can spend 1 hold to declare that the person, monster, or weapon that hit you won’t be the means of your demise.
– You have a rendezvous with Death. Tell us where you met. Take +1 forward the next time you take your Last Breath (+3 max).
If you survive, mark XP every time you willingly consume black lotus. When black lotus is available, you must Defy Danger to abstain. When you successfully abstain 3 consecutive times, you overcome the addiction—for now.
Thoughts?
My main problem is the 7-9 effect. It works solo, but in the default state of multiple players it’s kind of a “John, you can’t play for a while” situation. Which is rough, especially when it’s not even a miss.
Good point. I’ll mull it over.
“You can’t play for a while” is the consequence of any result, actually. If there’s action afoot, a lotus-slumbering character isn’t going to be in on it—even on a 10+.
Oh right, somehow I missed that bit on the 10+. Though if you know you’re going to fall asleep every time you use it, maybe it’s more of a campsite thing, which changes the expectations a bit? Shrugs, I’ll leave you to your mulling and see what you come up with!
Make Camp/Carouse/Recover were definitely more the settings I had in mind than right in the middle of the action time. Players already know this is dangerous stuff, and if they wanted to try it in the dungeon, I’d tell them the requirements or consequences and ask.
But I just got maybe a better idea for the partial success. How about this?
On a 7-9, the GM picks one, and after you wake, you suffer from insomnia until you get another dose of black lotus.
If I did that, I could get rid of the “Mark XP/Defy Danger” addiction mechanics: The addiction would be built in to the main move.