Spice Alternative

[Green Kank]

Spice is really expensive.
You can buy at least a couple meals for the price of just one hit of spice.
On the upside, the high that spice gives you does last a long time.
But, on Earth, there are cheaper drugs... take Marijuana, for instance. A joint is, on average, around 5 bucks.
So I was thinking, maybe there should be a cheaper drug, with less potent effects, as an alternative to spice?
That way, poor, desperate sneakies could still get high now and then with a cheaper, more available drug, at the cost of a less satisfying high (and perhaps harsher side effects?)

[Cuusardo]

There are ways to get them for free.

[adrien]

spice is cheap just got to know where to get it. spice is sorta the arma weed.

[jstorrie]

I agree that spice is prohibitively expensive, to the degree that it doesn't seem like many people in Zalanthas would do it. I live in a comfortable middle-class existence and even I will not consider forking out for anything more expensive than pot or lsd more than once or twice a year. I don't think the intention with Zalanthans is to have them only splurge on methelinoc once every three months, either.

[Djarjak]

I can see it now... some enterprising rinther is going to start selling powdered Fale...

[bloodfromstone]

It would be nice to see more common, grainy, just plain bad spice. I know it exists, but it would be good to see more of it.

[Synthesis]

I've never really thought of spice as a recreational drug for anyone except the filthy rich.  Some spice variants do seem primarily recreational, but most of them have effects that are useful.  Since spice is expensive and useful, it seems more like something you'd carry around in case of emergencies, rather than something you'd just sit around and use on a regular basis (again, unless you were wealthy enough to afford using it on a regular basis).

As a modern analogy, compare spice to amphetamines.  College students and truck drivers use amphetamines to stay awake during last-minute cramming for finals or on those long hauls through the Arizona-New Mexico desert, but most people don't sit around tweaking constantly, because it kinda sucks, and it's pretty expensive.

[bloodfromstone]

But the spice addiction in Allanak is, from my understanding, supposed to be something of a widespread epidemic. I may be wrong on this, but I had thought it gripped a pretty substantial portion of the population, most of whom are pretty broke.

[John]

So I was thinking, maybe there should be a cheaper drug, with less potent effects, as an alternative to spice?

Spice isn't one drug only. Spice is a type of drug. There are many different types of spice. There is cheap spice and expensive spice. Although cheap is relative, and it could still be too expensive for the average grey water drinking, travel cake eating player.

As a player I'd personally be more concerned about laying down 500 'sid a month to rent an apartment (and I personally think owning apartments is more widespread then being a spice junkie) before I feel my character is at an economic state where they can afford spice.

[Beux]

You should be able to make spice cakes.  :oops:

[Yokunama]

Spice is really expensive.

Like many pleasures in the world today, you have to spend money to enjoy them.

[Delirium]

You should be able to make spice cakes.  :oops:

Ask your friendly local Kuraci about edible spices.

[mansa]

Strange, to think that you can be murdered outright in the street for having spice, that people think it's too expensive...

[rishenko]

Hmm, would be interesting if there was a way to craft a crappy drug from various household components in Zalanthas.  It would take some effort to make (sucking up stun in the process), and when used would take away hp, stun, strength, but make you feel sickly sweet nice.

Code Select Expand


>put silver window
You cover the window in reflective, silver silk.

>open pot
A few hundred irrig bugs fly out of the pot, lighting the room in a gentle glow.

>inv
You are carrying:
a large, worn bowl
a xxx-colored gland
a couple packets of mul mix
a sprig of green leaves
a keg of drinkanddie soap

>brew bowl gland mix leaves soap
You begin mixing together the the concoction in a bowl.

>
Fumes from the mixture makes you light-headed.

>
You finish making a thick paste in the bowl.

>get paste bowl
You get a thick mass of paste from a large, worn bowl.

>craft paste into purplish-gray powder
You begin drying out the powder.

>
The paste finishes drying and you grind it into a powder.

>inv
You are carrying:
a large, worn bowl
a keg of drinkanddie soap
a faintly purplish-gray powder

>sniff powder
You sniff the powder and suddenly feel a rush of excitement.

>
Your nose begins to bleed.

>
You feel weaker.

>
Your arms twitch as a flood of ecstasy runs through you.

>
You suddenly feel ethereal and little lightheaded.

[Bebop]

I have always thought that spice was to pricy.  You find it cheaper in some places than others but it is still not that cheap like 20 coins a pinch.  That is pricy considering you do one pinch everyday in five days you've spent 100 coins.  I know it IS supposed to drain your pockets but I would think that someone would be able to get their high for cheap.   Most commoners wouldn't be able to afford it to get addicted.  I would like to see some dirt cheap spice at like 10, 5 sid a pinch so that people can RP being hardcore addicts, lighting up every few hours, or at least twice a day.  As it is right now, you can maybe smoke one pinch and it will last a few hours in a game day.

I think the good spice should be expensive and sort of a status thing to the rich but there should also be some dirt poor spice for the commoner addicts.

(As far as where it is legal anyway, smuggling spice and it's prices in Allanak should be left mostly to the PC's there I think.)

[flaran]

This is where I see middle-class Peasant Zalanthans seeing their monthly pay as not enough to feed their addiction and turning to less legal ways or, if not an option, manual labor, etc., to get their fix.

[Jherlen]

As a player I'd personally be more concerned about laying down 500 'sid a month to rent an apartment (and I personally think owning apartments is more widespread then being a spice junkie) before I feel my character is at an economic state where they can afford spice.

I think this is an interesting statement, because when I think in IC terms, I imagine the number of commoners that rent and live in their own apartments would be much smaller than the number of spice-users. Using spice is something that everybody from low-class 'rinth junkies to nobles can do, at least ICly.

Like somebody else said, there are many types of spice at varying costs... the cheapest is still fairly cheap, even if you're on the clan recruit budget. (Independents making far more shouldn't have trouble at all.) You don't need to smoke an entire pinch as soon as you buy it... it can last a decent while if you don't. If the habit is getting expensive over time... well, cigarette smoking in real life gets expensive over time too. At least spice can give you some other perks and there's no coded way to die of lung cancer.

It definitely can be just a recreational drug, even though many kinds have other affects too.

There's another option of sifting the spice yourself from the applicable places, then smoking it raw (as opposed to the refined spices sold by Kurac). Grains and pinches of 'raw' spice are probably the closest you could get to a cheap drug.

I think spice addiction is definitely prevailent in the 'rinth, Tuluk, Red Storm, and Luir's... but in Allanak proper perhaps so much. In Allanak, the spice ban is always going to make spice more expensive, and only available to people with money and the right connections.

[Briarfox]

Spice is not -that- expensive, really. Just be smart about where you buy it or hell, go find your own out in the world. Have a self-sustaining addiction! Every druggy's dream and every dealer's nightmare.

I would like to see maybe a few alternatives to spice put out, like some herb or tainted spice for half-lings, something truly nasty for gith and hell, maybe a magick-touched drug that seriously messes you up with... something.  

[Nao]

Want an equivalent to mushrooms? Eat those nice green pills!  :twisted:

[Kalden]

Thumbs up for shitty, cheap spice. Maybe even spice that's been cut with stuff.

[SpyGuy]

I'd strongly support lowering the price of spice across the board to make it a far more attainable habit for the cheaper varieties.

[Delirium]

I'd strongly support lowering the price of spice across the board to make it a far more attainable habit for the cheaper varieties.

There was talk of this once upon a time.  I know some of the warspices got some echo updates, too.

I'm not sure if the pricing project got decided against or just postponed.

[Adhira]

Revamping spice is one of those things on my 'todo' list, it got derailed because I decided it was more fun to build a northern noble estate  :twisted:   Part of the revamp is considering costs, spice mixes, availability etc.

Spice has already had a slight revamp and as Delirium said the war spices have had their result messages improved.

I'm now looking at making some additions to the more recreational types and expect that I'll be able to pay some attention to the spice project over the next little while.

[Angela Christine]

In the mean time you can always play an alcoholic instead.  Depending on where you live booze may be much cheaper than spice.  Then if you do find a cheaper source of spice in the future you can always use spiced ale as a gateway drug.

[Rindan]

At the end of the day though, spice is expensive.  If you are selling only to poor folks, you are going to have a rough time.  It is do-able, but it is hard.  Most PC "spice dealers" quickly realize that selling spice to poor people is a waste of time and promptly strike a deal with organizations that have money to throw around.  Selling spice to unwashed masses is a good way to get killed and a poor way to turn a profit.

Speaking as someone who has played a spice dealer, I won't say it is impossible, but it is very hard.  I managed to get a city elf that sold spice exclusively to poor 'rinthers and who also managed to support a spice habit of his own that involved smoking up the second one high wore off. I slashed my prices as low as a human (or elf) can take them and bought from the absolute cheapest of sources in Red Storm possible.  I used every trick in the book to keep my prices dirt cheap.  I am pretty sure the way I was operating there is no way I could have sold any cheaper short of having my city elf sift it, break into a Kurac compound, and refine it himself.  

The profit on each knot was a handful of 'sid if I wanted to keep it available to 'rinthers and the risk was absolutely insane.  Hell, I was at best breaking even in terms of selling after I took my share for my own personal needs.  The only reason why dealing made any sense was that buying in bulk resulted in lower prices to support my own needs and opened up avenues to collect and sell information (which was the real money maker).  I never really felt like anyone else was playing an addict and that most people were more trying to humor me by buying spice on rare occasion when their 'sid supply was plentiful.

Personally, I would have KILLED for the ability to add some silt or some grated roots to spice.  Hell, you could make a little minny game out of it.  

-If you add silt, it has no ill effects other then that the spice might get so weak that the customer notices.  Add too much silt and the spice has no effect at all.  

-A certain common root once grated on the other hand gives a spice like high, but if you take too much off the root it makes you sick or even kills you.  

So, a spice dealer would add a little bit of silt and a little bit of the root to his spice and be able to drag out his supply much longer.  Silt stretches the spice out allowing for one knot to make more pinches, while the root helps hide that the silt is diminishing the effectiveness of the spice.  The perfect combination might give you four times as much spice to sell with customers barely being able to tell the difference.  A poor mix on the other hand might not give a high or make the user sick or dead.  Throw in a little variability such that there is no "true" formula, just sort of a ball park, and you have something interesting.

Rich folks would buy their pure Kuraci spice at sick prices.  The common folk would go to their local drug dealer who would sell spice cheaply, but almost certainly be cutting it with other things.  Shady drug dealers would push the limits of their stock and potentially make users sick or dead.  Trusted drug dealers might still stretch their stash, but do it in a manner that offers only minor risk to users.

So, if a spice dealer adds four pinches of silt to a knot, the result would be spice that is noticeably weaker then normal, but makes twice as many pinches.  If on the other hand you add four pinches of silt, and two of the root, the spice would be only slightly noticeably weaker, you would still get double the pinches, but there would be a chance that sniffing the spice would make you sick.  Finally, if you added 12 pinches of silt and 6 pinches of root, you would get 4 times as many pinches of spice from that knot then normal, and the spice would seem to be have been not tampered with, but there would be a substantial risk of getting sick or dying from it.  Shady drug dealers would push the limits, drug dealers looking for repeat clients would error on the side of caution.