Adventuring Rules
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The rules and procedures on this page cover common situations faced while adventuring across the Novarion Sector. Where there are gaps in the rules, refer to Stars Without Number Revised Edition.
Combat
Vehicle and Mounted Combat
Major Injuries
Surface Travel
Tracking
Chases and Pursuits
Hazards
Addictions
Characters typically gain an addiction as a result of Hardening or indulging in substances too frequently. If a character indulges in a pharmaceutical once per week or more, they must make a Physical saving throw. On a failure, they develop an addiction. If they have indulged once per day, the save is at -4. If they have indulged seven times in one day, they automatically become addicted. Other substances have different, and potentially flexible addiction timelines. Some highly refined synthesized drugs might be so potent as to cause instant addictions.
Before the character develops an addiction, the GM will warn the player and they will discuss whether the player is comfortable with the character gaining an addiction.
An addicted character must spend at least one hour per day indulging in their vice using one dose of their drugs. Multiple addictions require multiple hours to satisfy. If their addiction requires a partner, they must make a Mental saving throw each day. On a failure the partner is no longer interesting and can no longer sate the addiction. A character indulging in an addiction can defend themselves (and is not helpless) but otherwise is useless.
An addicted character who goes a day without indulging cannot recover System Strain, hit points, or other resources requiring a night's rest. They gain one point of Stress that cannot be negated by Hardening or other Stress resistance.
Each addiction a character maintains decreases incoming Stress by 1 and removes 1d4 Stress per day after being indulged.
After each month of addiction, the character makes a Physical save. If they fail, they gain one System Strain that cannot be removed while addicted. If this takes them over a maximum, they must break the addiction within a month or die. To break an addiction, a character must go clean for at least a week, suffering any penalties for doing so. At the end of the week, they make a Physical or Mental saving throw (plus the Heal skill of any attending medics) to shake the addiction.