Insidior - a drug developed for Guardsmen waiting in ambush, Insidior forms a shortcut to the meditative abilities of the Vindicare Temple. While affected by the drug, the subject experiences a profound state of patience and readiness. At the same time, all of their bodily functions slow to a nearly dead stop, from their breathing, heart rate, body temperature, and even their brain functions. A single dose of Insidior affects the character for 4+D6 turns. In that time, all attempts to detect the character are at a -40% penalty. However, the character acts at Speed 1. To come out of the Insidior trance ahead of time, the character must roll against their Wp at -30. Inhaler, Injector
So, what do people think? I thought of it as similar to the drugs used by various hunting tribes to help them remain stealthy, but even more effective.
I'd like to see it have some longer term side effects - maybe after use, the character loses D10 from their Initiative per dose taken (or turn used) as their system takes a while to fully recover (between games they'll have time to rest and their Initiative will be restored).
Just a thought...
Seems to have a fatal flaw, severe enough to make it un-usable. Probably needs another drug to counter act its effects.
That being the difficulty of moving before it wears off? I didn't want it to be "now you can't see me... now I've killed you!", but more a tactical drug, trying to guess how soon the enemy will pass by, a very huntery drug. I also thought the "breaking the drug's spell with willpower" idea was cool - I... must... FIGHT! sort of thing.
Not sure about the long term - but maybe. If so, definitely per dose, were it per turn, then after one dose, the maximum I loss would be between 50 and 100.
I just can't see an American GI or an Inquisitorial killtrooper taking a drug that potentially renders them defenceless if they don't dose themselves perfectly.
If they have intelligence that they can be sure is so accurate as to know an enemy will pass by their location in exactly 80 minutes from now, then they have a massive tactical advantage, so why introduce the potential to have things go horribly wrong?
I think it would work better if the drawback came from the potential effects of an antidote. A chance of over-stimulating their metabolism for example.
I can see an application for the drug as a tool for evasion, ie the need to hide outweighs the potential paralysis, but not as an offensive tool used for ambush.
The only possibility I see for using this drug for ambushes is giving another character the possibility to somehow neutralise it, most likely with a drug, that increases the speed of the character again. It would still reduce the chances of beeing spotted, if only one in a handfull of persons does act normally, but I'm quite sure, that the reaction to quickly increasing heartbeats for example would not be something anyone would do out of his or her own free will. But I'll need to re-read something on the heartrythem and resulting affects, so up to this point, I'd guess there would be a much higher bloodpressure until the body adapts after a couple of rounds.
could be represented by more bloodloss(i.e. higher damage) if a character is bleeding.
Getting out of the trance on your own should be somewhat slower, at least in my opinion, raising the speed-value by one(1d3-1 etc.) per turn or something like that. This would also be based on the fact, that the body would need time to re-adapt and the drug would need time to be reduced to a non-working form of it.
If something doesn't make sence, I'm sorry, it's early in the morning for me combined with lack of sleep :D
Hmmm... how about something like
Insidior - a drug developed for Guardsmen waiting in ambush, Insidior forms a shortcut to the meditative abilities of the Vindicare Temple. While affected by the drug, the subject experiences a profound state of patience and readiness. At the same time, all of their bodily functions slow to a nearly dead stop, from their breathing, heart rate, body temperature, and even their brain functions. A single dose of Insidior affects the character for 2+D6 turns. In that time, all attempts to detect the character are at a -40% penalty. However, the character acts at Speed 1. To come out of the Insidior trance ahead of time, the character must roll against their Wp. When coming out of the trance, whether at the natural end or ahead of time, the character does not immediately return to full Speed, but instead increases their speed by D3-1 points a turn until they reach their original speed. Further, all Bleeding damage is +1 for the rest of the game (so after one dose, bleeding damage would be D3+1, after two +2, etc) Inhaler, Injector
I'm ok with it being risky - -40% on detection is good, and its very characterful for the character I created it for, a Death Cultist who grew up ambushing psykers and mutants.
I'd use it, or be happy to play someone who used it. I think it is risky enough, D6+2 turns can be a long time and one failed Wp test at the wrong time could leave you in deep trouble.
I'm all right with it :D and it's risky, but for the chance of outflanking someone, I don't think it's to risky
I could also imagine it beeing used in a servitor, some kind of observing creature, that just doesn't need much speed on a normal basis and can absolutely use the stealth, to bad I havn't started a magos-related group
That's a good enough drug I think I may *yoink* it for my current game of preference, Dark Heresy. Good stuff!
Although that's a cool idea and all, it's largely been done with Kashrack the Alien Bounty Hunter. He's got something almost identical in his profile.