I've never been drunk and I've never been in the presence of drunks. Any tips or tricks...

you've never wanted to hit someone?

You've never even seen drunk people in movies or TV? That's probably the easiest way to get a feel for it.

>Also keep in mind everyone reacts slightly differently
This is also good advice. Physical changes (drowsiness, loss of coordination, dulled sense of pain, blurry vision) are pretty universal. But mental changes can vary a lot.

The stereotype of "angry drunk", "happy drunk", "depressed drunk", "crying drunk", "goofy drunk", etc. has some basis in reality. Increased silliness and friendliness are the most common. An actual "angry drunk" is probably less than 1% of the population.

You usually won't see noticeable mood changes unless someone is *really* drunk, and has lost the ability to walk straight, form coherent memories, etc.

Also, it won't necessarily always be the same mood change. I have a friend who's usually the typical "silly drunk", but maybe 1/10 nights, he'll become the "crying drunk" and talk about how much he loves his family and worries about their problems.

+1 for cider.
If you want to get into even more dangerous territory, drink rum & coke. Tastes better than beer but has twice as much alcohol and half as much liquid. Plus, the caffeine makes you feel less tired, so you usually end up drinking more than you normally would.
Rum also goes good with most other soda (Dr. pepper, mtn dew, sprite, anything fruit-flavored). Unfortunately, root beer is a little too sweet and not tangy enough to go well with rum, tho. Also, "hard root beer" tastes like crap.

Yes. Very much yes.

Be the uninhibited version of yourself or your character. Someone who is drunk is, in the best way I've heard described, not going to choose the thing that benefits them most, but the thing they're going to enjoy most.

And everyone is a different kind of drunk, so take that concept, add in a lack of balance and sluring when you get trashed and run with it. That should be good enough to make a reasonable facsimile of a drunk person.

Nobody wants to see a realistic drunk. Play it for laughs or give them a quirk.

Higher grade of impulsive- and recklessness. But also easier entertained and persuaded.

I've never wanted to hit someone while drunk, yes. I'm not some abusive asshole bubbling under the surface.

When they're drunk most people try unsuccessfully to act sober, most distinctly by saying the same thing a few times until they get it right. If you're REALLY drunk you start salivating more (and sometimes puke or feel like you will), and it becomes difficult to walk, like when you're in a dream close to waking up and can't quite walk right because you're sensing your legs being tangled up in a blanket irl. Sometimes you also get the sudden urge to shit a lot. For a lot of people (myself included), you can drink a lot sitting down and remain totally sober, but a few seconds after standing up it will all hit you at once (sometimes disastrously).

It can be difficult, especially once your judgment is impaired by alcohol, to pace yourself correctly and avoid either getting blackout drunk (means you won't remember what happens during this period the following day and basically lose your inhibitions, really bad) or sober (even worse).

Basically, think about what it's like when you're cooking without a recipe. Maybe you're making something you've made before, but you get he urge to experiment a little and change up ratios or seasoning or add a new ingredient, say butter or something else universally good. You do this within reason and usually the result is either better or worse than usual but still edible regardless. With making decisions while drinking, it's like that, but being drunk makes it so that more extreme or unusual values seem appropriate or reasonable to you. In other words, it's not quite that being drunk makes you stupid, or makes you do things you normally wouldn't, just that it makes you more willing to "fudge the numbers," and for instance think, well, I'm not approaching sobriety yet, but I want to do something with my hands and mouth while these assholes are talking, and I'm not QUITE hitting the floor yet, so it's probably okay if I have another beer right now. And beer's weak stuff, so I can have two more after that.

Drunks are clumsy and generally uninhibited. After a certain amount of alcohol they tend to get drowsy and pass out.

I generally want to hit people a lot more when I'm sober. It's one of the reasons I drink.

The idea that all drinking does is linearly lower your inhibitions is erroneous and I suspect it's propagated by non-drinkers. That's one effect, sure, especially when you get REALLY drunk, but drinking affects your thoughts more than it does your inhibition to act on them in my experience. It also makes you more emotionally sensitive, which is probably the reason a lot of people are violent drunks. Makes it more difficult to do maths mentally, makes you less coordinated (which in turn probably makes some people feel embarrassed), makes it easier to sleep in small or very large amounts and more difficult in moderate amounts, makes you less sensitive to physical stimuli (like pain), makes your vision swim. Then there's "beer goggles," which is probably associated, again, by non-drinkers with lowered inhibitions, but is definitely not the same thing. People (or anything else really) whose appearance actively repulses you when sober can appear moderately attractive while drunk because your eye for detail goes out the window and your values change. Some of my worst drawings are things I thought looked great while I was drawing them, intoxicated, the night before.

>being impatient