ROME'S PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY
The City Has Many Sacraments. Most of Them Are Illegal.
"Junk is the ideal product — the junky runs on junk time and the cell is junk and the veins are junk and the city is junk and the sacrament is junk and the confession booth is junk and the wrist chip is junk and the need is not junk. The need is the only thing left that is real." — recovered from a confiscated notebook, Termini Morta black market. Author not identified. Notebook not returned.
"The pharmaceutical industry is just religion with better quality control. And considerably worse quality control on the side effects."
Need is the city's primary currency. The lire is how you pay. Need is why you pay. Junk is the ideal product — no obsolescence, no fluctuations in demand, no advertising required beyond the product itself. The client will crawl through a sewer and arrive grateful. Rome understood this before it understood concrete, before it understood aqueducts, before it understood anything else it built that lasted. The Vatican has simply formalized the distribution network and given the product a sacramental name and a packaging rebrand every eighteen months. The formula does not change. The need does not change. This is the oldest business in the city and the most honest one, because it does not pretend to be anything other than what it is.
The city runs on four things: credit, feed, heat, and hunger. The first three are tracked and displayed. The fourth is what drives everything else. You will find it here.
The Drug Table — d20
| d20 | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | Grey. Vatican standard. PRE +1, pain threshold +1 for 2 hours. Withdrawal: PRE −1. Addictive on TOU DR 10 after 3 uses in 48 hours. The taste is industrial floral. The Vatican considers this a feature. |
| 2 | Sacrament Three (Communion). Social ease, mild euphoria. PRE +2 for 3 hours. No mechanical downside at standard dose. Push dose: PRE +3, TOU DR 12 or 2 hours of absolute sincerity — say exactly what you mean about everything. |
| 3 | Sacrament Five (Penitence). Lowers inhibitions toward self-disclosure. You tell the truth for d4 hours. All of it. About everything asked. Vatican-prescribed for "spiritual inventory." Also used for interrogation by people who understand the formula. |
| 4 | Sacrament Seven. Unknown ingredients. Unknown mechanism. PRE +3, STR +1, pain nonexistent for d4 hours. Push dose: TOU DR 14 or hallucinations that are indistinguishable from memory. Addictive on TOU DR 8. The Cardinal controls supply personally. |
| 5 | Blue. Street stimulant. AGI +2, need for sleep eliminated for 24 hours. Crash: AGI −2, TOU −1 for equal time. Addictive on TOU DR 10. Available everywhere. Costs 50 lire. SecCorp officially suppresses it. SecCorp officers use it. |
| 6 | Soma-7. Muscle relaxant with combat application. STR +2, pain reduction. Cannot feel fear — cannot feel anything fear-adjacent, including caution. PRE −2 on threat assessment. Push dose: STR +4, TOU DR 12 or fight everything in sight. |
| 7 | The Chemist's Mix. Custom batch, Street Chemist class only. Effect: choose two ability modifiers totaling +3. Duration: 2 hours. Push dose: choose three modifiers totaling +5, TOU DR 14 or addiction immediate regardless of history. |
| 8 | Fade. Dissociative. Perception of pain and consequence both reduced. TOU +2, PRE −2. You make decisions as if they're happening to someone else. This is sometimes useful. Often it isn't. Addictive on TOU DR 8. |
| 9 | CogniData Clarity (unlicensed). Memory enhancement. Perfect recall for d4 hours — every conversation, every face, every detail. PRE +2 on information-based tests. Crash: PRE −3, d4 hours. The clarity shows you things you'd edited for comfort. |
| 10 | Red Current. Electrical system stimulant (android-specific, causes human seizure on TOU DR 12 fail). Android: Power +2 for 4 hours. All Glitch rolls at +2 during effect. Push dose: Power +3, guaranteed Glitch roll at session end. |
| 11 | Bug Powder. Hypnotic. Target: TOU DR 12 or sleeps d4 hours regardless of safety. Self-administered: controlled dissociation, PRE +1, all physical discomfort suspended. Push dose: unconscious d6 hours. The Vatican uses this in Sacrament Five. |
| 12 | Zinc. Aggression amplifier. STR +3, PRE −3. All threats must be addressed immediately — PRE DR 14 to de-escalate any confrontation while under effect. Push dose: STR +5, automatic combat initiation each round against nearest perceived threat. |
| 13 | Black Meat. Rendered from Brazilian centipedes — the process is not discussed. Synthetic endorphins follow. All negative emotional states suspended for d4 hours. PRE tests against fear, grief, or despair: automatic success. Crash: those states return simultaneously. Addictive on TOU DR 8 because of course it is. |
| 14 | Nerve (unlicensed ARM product). Designed for android compliance during maintenance. On androids: Glitch rolls suspended for 2 hours, all tests at −1 (too calm). On humans: TOU DR 10 or paralysis d2 hours — the body confuses itself with a machine. |
| 15 | The Formula (Sacrament Seven raw ingredient). Whatever is actually in it before processing. TOU DR 14 or hallucinate your own memory playing forward — see what happens next, accurate 50% of the time (GM rolls secretly). Addictive on first use on TOU DR 10. |
| 16 | Flush. Heavy detox compound. Clears one addiction immediately. TOU DR 12 or spend d4 hours violently ill. Push dose: clears d3 addictions, TOU DR 14 or unconscious d6 hours. Available from Surgeons and one specific Termini stall. |
| 17 | Static (street name). Named for what it sounds like internally. Sensory enhancement: AGI +1, PRE +1. Also: cannot filter input — every sound, smell, and sight at full intensity. Crowds become untenable (PRE −2 in crowded spaces). |
| 18 | Persistence. Keeps you functional past the point where you should stop. HP cannot drop below 1 for duration (d4 hours). After duration: immediately take all deferred HP loss. Addictive on TOU DR 10 because the alternative is dying. |
| 19 | Church (Vatican black market). Sacrament Seven combined with something that amplifies faith specifically. Profound certainty for d4 hours — certainty about what's right, what to do, what matters. PRE +2 on conviction-based tests. Crash: complete absence of certainty, PRE −3. |
| 20 | Unknown. No label. You'll find out. Roll d6 each hour: 1–2 it's one of the above (roll again), 3–4 it works as intended but the intended is unclear, 5 it doesn't do what you hoped but does something else (GM decides), 6 TOU DR 12 or d4 damage from something the body was not built for. |
Addiction — Push Your Luck
Addiction is not a side effect of the city. It is the city's intended output. A hungry person is a predictable person. A predictable person pays their subscriptions. The Vatican understood this before it was the Vatican. The city understood it before it was this city. The product has changed. The mechanism has not.
Addiction is no longer purely punitive. It is a resource with a cost. Each substance has two states: Dosed and Hungry.
Dosed
After using, the character gains the listed effect. They may also push the dose once per scene: double the mechanical bonus, but make a TOU DR 12 or roll on the drug's crash effect. Pushing is a choice. The city is watching to see if you make it.
Hungry
After 3 uses in 48 hours without tolerance-building, TOU DR 12 or become addicted. Addicted and unmedicated: all tests −2. Every scene without the substance: roll TOU DR 10. Fail: the character must prioritize acquisition above the current objective. This is not a decision. It is a compulsion.
Withdrawal: 2 clean weeks. PRE −1, TOU −1 throughout. The body keeps its own schedule and does not care about yours. The Chemist class can manage others' withdrawal mechanically. They cannot manage their own — TOU DR 16 to not relapse when the substance is available. The substance is always available. This is Rome.
Overdose: Take d6 damage, PRE DR 14 or unconscious d4 hours. The Chemist can reverse an overdose with PRE DR 12 and the right antidote. The right antidote costs 200 lire and requires planning ahead. Most people in this city are not planning ahead. Most people in this city are managing the current hour and calling that survival, which in Rome it is.
Non-Drug Addictions — d66
Not everything that ruins you comes in a vial. The city is creative about need. Roll d12 for what else has your character by the throat — whatever it is, the city noticed it before you did, and the city is already building a subscription tier around it:
| d66 | Result |
|---|---|
| 11 | Violence. Not anger — the specific mechanical satisfaction of impact. The city provides ample opportunity. PRE DR 12 to avoid escalating any physical confrontation you're involved in, regardless of tactical sense. |
| 12 | Information hoarding. Cannot discard data, notes, names, or records. You keep everything. Your gear always includes an overstuffed notebook. PRE DR 12 to share information without keeping a copy. |
| 13 | A specific person. Their approval matters more than it should. Their disapproval costs PRE −1 for the rest of the scene. You know this is a problem. You cannot address it without addressing it with them. |
| 14 | Risk. Specifically, the moment before an outcome is known. PRE DR 12 to take the cautious option when a reckless one is available. The caution feels like a small death. |
| 15 | A sound. Music, a voice, a specific mechanical rhythm. When it's absent: PRE −1. When it's present: PRE +1. You have been known to follow it into places you should not have followed it. |
| 16 | Being right. PRE DR 14 to concede a point you believe is wrong without visibly struggling. PRE DR 10 to concede a point you believe is correct. The distinction between these two states is the problem. |
| 21 | The Zerocalcare broadcast. Miss a session: PRE −1 that day from feeling disconnected from something that matters. This is not rational. You have stopped arguing with it. |
| 22 | Collecting. A specific category of object — roll d6: 1 mechanical components, 2 printed paper, 3 discarded photographs, 4 religious items, 5 spent ammunition casings, 6 something stranger (GM decides). You acquire them. You cannot throw them away. |
| 23 | Surveillance. Knowing where people are, what they're doing, who they're with. PRE DR 12 to stop tracking someone you've decided to track. This began as tactical. It became something else. |
| 24 | Arguing. The form, not the content. PRE DR 10 to let a statement you disagree with pass without engagement. This is exhausting for everyone including you. |
| 25 | Being needed. PRE −1 in any scene where you are not essential to what's happening. You manufacture necessity. Sometimes this is helpful. Mostly it is exhausting. |
| 26 | Confession. You tell people things about yourself you should not tell them. PRE DR 12 to maintain a useful deception for more than d4 scenes. The truth keeps arriving. |
| 31 | Competition. Any game, race, contest, or comparison. PRE DR 12 to lose intentionally. PRE DR 10 to lose gracefully when you didn't intend to lose. The city is full of things that are better than you. This is a problem. |
| 32 | A faction's ideology. You believe in something one faction says more than is strategically wise. PRE DR 12 to act against their stated interests even when they've wronged you. |
| 33 | The moment after danger passes. The specific thirty seconds when the threat is gone and you are still here. This feeling has become necessary. You have been manufacturing danger to get it. You know this. |
| 34 | Loyalty, specifically. Once committed: PRE DR 14 to withdraw, regardless of whether the commitment is still deserved. You know people are taking advantage of this. You continue. |
| 35 | A smell. Food, machine oil, a specific pharmaceutical compound, rain on specific stone. When you encounter it: must stop and process it (one round). When you don't encounter it for a week: PRE −1. |
| 36 | Performing competence. Cannot visibly not-know something. PRE DR 12 to say "I don't know" in front of people whose opinion matters. You bluff constantly. The bluff is generally good. When it fails it fails specifically. |
| 41 | The view from high places. Once per session: must find the highest accessible point in the current location and assess it. PRE DR 12 to skip this when time is critical. |
| 42 | Having an exit. Cannot be in an enclosed space without identifying all exits within the first round. In spaces with no clear exit: PRE −1 continuously. You have left situations early because of this. You will again. |
| 43 | Routine. A specific sequence of actions that must happen at the start of each session (determine with GM). If interrupted: PRE −1 for the scene. If prevented entirely: PRE −2 for the session. The routine is not negotiable. |
| 44 | Being underestimated. You engineer situations where people expect less than you can deliver. PRE DR 12 to let someone accurately assess your capabilities before you've demonstrated them. |
| 45 | Someone specific's approval that they don't know they're giving. An NPC who doesn't know you, whose opinion of you you track carefully. PRE −1 whenever they make a negative assessment. They don't know you exist. |
| 46 | Winning. Specifically: the moment of winning, not the consequences. PRE DR 12 to walk away from an opportunity to be right/better/victorious even when continuing is tactically wrong. |
| 51 | A place. Somewhere in the city that is yours in the sense that you keep returning to it. PRE −1 each session you don't visit it. PRE +1 on the session you do. You protect it in ways that compromise other things. |
| 52 | An android. Not romantically — structurally. Their continued existence has become necessary to yours. PRE DR 14 to prioritize other things when they're in danger. |
| 53 | Writing everything down. Related to but distinct from the chronicler habit — specifically the written record. You fill notebooks. PRE DR 12 to destroy one even when it's tactically correct. |
| 54 | The worst possible interpretation. You assume bad faith. PRE DR 12 to accept a benign explanation for anything ambiguous. You are right about this more than you should be. This does not help. |
| 55 | Beginning things. The start of a task, a relationship, a plan. PRE DR 12 to finish something when starting something new is available. You have d4 unfinished projects at all times. Roll to see how many. |
| 56 | Saving people. Specifically people who have not asked to be saved. PRE DR 14 to not intervene when you believe someone is in danger, regardless of whether intervention is wanted or wise. |
| 61 | Zerocalcare radio static specifically. The frequency between stations where the signal almost resolves. You find it clarifying. Others find it distressing. You don't turn it off. |
| 62 | Scavenging. You cannot pass discarded objects without assessing them. Slows movement in ruins and markets. Occasionally produces useful items (roll Salvage once per session, GM decides if opportunity exists). |
| 63 | The last word. PRE DR 12 to exit a conflict without making a final statement. PRE DR 14 if you're losing the conflict. The final statement is not always wise. It is always made. |
| 64 | A debt you're owed, not a debt you owe. Someone owes you something significant and hasn't paid. PRE −1 each session it remains uncollected. PRE DR 12 to forgive it even when forgiveness is strategically correct. |
| 65 | Being alone. Paradoxically: you need time alone to function (PRE −1 if you haven't had it this session) and find being alone intolerable after d4 hours (PRE −1 per hour after that). The window is narrow. The city doesn't care. |
| 66 | Rome. You cannot leave. PRE DR 16 to actually depart even when departure is survival. Something about this city is inside you. You stopped asking what. You continue not leaving. |
Dealer Table — Who Supplies You
| 1 | Pharma-Vatican distributor. Legitimate. Expensive. Carries debt of another kind. |
| 2 | Street chemist operating from a reconsecrated church basement in Trastevere. |
| 3 | SecCorp officer selling confiscated goods. Unreliable. Will eventually ask a favor. |
| 4 | Android who synthesizes in their apartment in Ostiense. Excellent product. Uncomfortable politics. |
| 5 | Termini Morta vendor. No names. No questions. No guarantees about what's actually in it. |
| 6 | Yourself. You make it. This means you're never out. It also means you're always working. |