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

This is why I despise people who say or do vile things while drunk, whether it's hit someone or spew slurs and insults. They're not sorry, they're doing exactly what they've always wanted to do.

Whenever i drink heavily i get so sleepy that i cant enjoy the fun of it. If i drink moderately i only relax a little and it does not do much more effect. Strange huh, because that was not the case before.

Nonalcohlic apple cider is the kind most familiar to Americans.

When you have the largest speaking population, you can go back to making the rules

As your character gets drunk remove inhibitions and self-restrictive behaviour - they're less likely to be afraid of doing dumb, embarrassing or potentially harmful things - like starting a fight, spending money, performing vandalism, or trying to chat someone up. Also saying the first thing that comes into their heads, with little to no word filter.

Personality traits might be magnified, or reversed, and extremes of emotion are fairly common

Perception becomes exceedingly compromised, so as others have said ambushes are a risk. If there's a pain system in the game, you can ignore it for quite a while - drunk people tend not to feel, or even notice, injury. Coordination will likely also be compromised - people who are drunk are liable to be clumsy. Concentration is also pretty likely to be poor.

When drunk (especially towards the end of the night) people are also liable to be hungry and sleepy - and with the lack of inhibitions, are very liable to act on those impulses.

That's cirrhosis, user. You are gaining a tolerance for alcohol.

It's cute when people in England think they have a say in how English works.

Fucking septics.

I hear citrus can help. Might even fix that scurvy.

I stopped drinking years ago, it did fucking nothing for me. My head would swim but I wouldn't feel happier, more confident or anything. I liked the taste but the alcohol bit obviously didn't click with me.

I am not a regular drinker to have cirrhosis.Heavily in once in 2-3 months. Social drinks once or twice in a month.

One pint of beer, one glass of wine, one shot of hard liquor = one drink

One drink is usually little or nothing. Drinks add up, but subtract one drink's worth of alcohol from their system per hour. Being allergic, inexperienced, having no food in your system, on certain prescription medications, or just very small/thin might add one effective drink to your accumulation if you have any alcohol in your system at all.

Up to 2-3 drinks and people don't necessarily appear drunk until you see them screw something up like reaching for a salt shaker and missing or something. They're basically as usual but reimagined as a klutz who also might slip up with a social faux pas. Buzzed equals one mistake per half hour or so. Don't overplay it.

4+ drinks and you're drunk. Just add coordination lapses and social faux pas... lots of them. Say one minor per minute, one major per ten minutes. At some point you get really bad and then you're like a video of a drunk chick in London or Florida Man antics. Soon after, vomiting and passing out.

Social rules usually excuse people from their "party fouls" unless they're very serious. People often drink so they can get a pass, an excuse to others or themselves to do what they want to do but which politeness, self-image, rules, or reputation won't let them do. The classic example is the girl who wants random sex with strangers due to libido or the thrill or the romance, but she's a "nice girl" and so- oops- she does it when drunk. She'd NEVER do that normally.

Finally, some people are angry drunks, sad drunks, happy drunks, fighting drunks, etc. Alcohol induces a specific exaggerated mood in them.

Again, don't overplay it. You can have six drinks in a night of partying and not be impaired noticeably at all... by sipping slowly and keeping it one drink per hour or longer. PCs can easily drink to mingle without taking penalties.

Fun fact: the Achaemenid/pre-Achaemenid Persians had a custom for when they needed to come up with a plan.
They all got roaring drunk while discussing possible courses of action, with a servant taking down the ideas. The next day, the ideas would be read back and they'd pick which one sounded the best.
It's from Herodotus tho, so it's probably a meme

Must be 21 to drink in America, dummy.

Finally, there's taste. Some taste like shit until you cultivate a taste for them. Hard liquors and some wines and beers.

Some taste great. Hard cider, beers like cream ales, light wines. And then there's girl drinks like sangria, wine coolers, margaritas, fruity cocktails, and some liquors. They're sweet like fruity soda or creamy or frozen or whatever.

It's a lot like coffee. Drinkability and tastiness vary, as does caffeine content, and once you acquire the taste you can appreciate things that taste foul to the uninitiated.

Am I the only one who assumed he was from a Muslim country or Mormon and so didn't have any exposure to alcohol? How many teens even underage have no contact with booze?

You have fine taste in soda and so accept my humble posts in token of my regard.

Probably also a way to ensure that they didn't fall into groupthink. When you're drunk you can speak against your superiors and everyone accepts the social fiction that you'd never dare do that sober. So ideas get an honest appraisal and critique.

The Persians were pretty damn smart.

STOP APPROPRIATING MY CULTURE

>How many teens even underage have no contact with booze?
I just arbitrarily decided I wouldn't drink when I was a kid and now I don't see a point in starting

And to clarify I'm not OP, just to mention it wasn't that far-fetched. Although I did see my parents drunk fairly often, so not quite as extreme as OP's case. Having to help my dad piss while he giggled like a retard probably helped in the decision to not touch a drop of alcohol

If your culture was the one that drinks Dr Browns, then you're from the most widely and completely appropriated culture in history. Soda is the least of our problems. Especially on this site.

Besides, the cream soda and black cherry are the real treasures anyway.

I don't blame you, but never been exposed to anyone who uses alcohol?! That's more than just a personal decision, that's a product of a specific legal/moral system like Islam where most people can't or won't touch it.

Which btw makes this a valuable thread because many potential DMs need to know this stuff and won't learn it from daily experience.

You don't form an Empire by being a bunch of idiots. Usually that's how you topple them. From within.

Speaking of alcohol and ending empires, there was that time Alexander burned down the Persian capital (which he'd just conquered) during a night of drunken revelry

And talking about drunkenness there's an age-old tactic of inviting an enemy and his men over for a big feast, getting them hammered and then killing them while they're drunk

>Am I the only one who assumed he was from a Muslim country or Mormon and so didn't have any exposure to alcohol? How many teens even underage have no contact with booze?

I literally drank half a can of beer in high school but when I got to college I drank more because it was often easier to get than dude lmao.

Once I got out of college I pretty much stopped drinking again. Now I only have a drink at parties or when I go tubing.

Muzzies drink too, even in countries where it's literally banned by islamic law.

OP it should be mentioned that drunkenness can be a acquired social condition. What I mean is, give a group (more than one) high schoolers a pack of O'Douls and they could act like they are more wasted than a biker gang. Group think is powerful and the allure and legacy of alcohol only compounds it. Placebo effect is real.

As you get drunker you notice details less and lose coordination. It can be easy to nurse a drink until your companions are wasted without them noticing.

A good Npc might be a barbarian chieftain who is always first to drink and rowdier than his horde when inebriated. To keep himself aware and in power he has his wife water down every trinkets after the first and only she serves him. This way when some upstart is looking to try his luck he has his A game.

Some one mention Dutch courage. A ration of alcohol the night before is sometimes the only warning a foot soldiers might get that conflict will happen tomorrow. A last drink and something to calm the nerves.

>waits till he's 21 to drink

youtube.com/watch?v=-LO4xWk7_cI

There's also a similar but different tactic revolving around alcohol which have been used throughout history and was especially effective on barbarians such as people from the euroasian steppe or germanians. It consists of providing a feast for the enemy, for instance by having some smaller part of your army which is away from your main force retreat from their camp as a result of a enemy raid on it. When the barbarian foe sees the food and alcohol they will in all likelyhood gorge themselves in keeping with the phrase "to the victor goes the spoils". When the enemies' raiding party is stuffed with drink and food you then perform a counter-attack on the camp, wherein you slaughter and/or capture the whole lot.
Tomyris, the Scourge of Cyrus II, did, according to Herodotus lose a third of her forces and got her son captured as a result of such a strategy.

>Dutch Courage
Fun fact: in the Swedish army during the Carolean era the soldiers had to drink a set amount before a battle.
Pic unrelated but yet somehow suitable.

>I've never been drunk

K

>never been in the presence of drunks
HOW
LITERALLY HOW

I'm not OP, but it was the same for me until I was 20. (As far as never having been in the presence of someone who was drunk.) I lived in a really sheltered family and didn't have many friends. I was over at one friends house when he had some friends over who brought beer. I could have been around them at a younger age but I didn't want to be. I'm 23 now and never have nor will drink.

Why not? I'm not saying getting black out drunk, but why not drink a little?

Becomes part of their identity, usually.

Spoken like someone who's never had a drink

No interest. The only thing that would interest me would be getting drunk via drinking games or trying to play games while drunk, however I who I might become when drunk scares me.

>breaks the law
>complains about breaking the law

Essentially you get more outgoing and spontaneous until you get sleepy and if you keep going even then you get into puking territory, another way to think of it is the more you drink the less you think. Also keep in mind everyone reacts slightly differently, I have a friend who skips drunk and goes straight to sleepy so he rarely drinks and then there's also things like alcohol flush syndrome where you're whole body goes red and you find it slightly harder to get drunk.

>do's and don'ts
Depends on your group/campaign, if they're more serious a certain level of drunk might make you more likely to get into fights and also more resistant to damage as you're just too drunk to care or notice you're injured, while getting too drunk would just make you a stumbling mess who gets slept in one hit. But if they're more for comedy you could play it up, maybe your drunk character suddenly turns into a terrible flirt who can't help going for the nearest tavern wench even though she's clearly trying to get rid of him, and his fighting becomes comedic as he unintentionally dodges attacks in a drunken fist kind of state frustrating anyone who picks a fight with him.

Fucking watch the cider mate. I'm an experienced drunkard and cider kicked my ass the other night. It's like a high-alcohol beer that goes down like apple juice.

I'm in the same boat, user.
I am physically incapable of getting more than slightly buzzed, as my guts immediately and violently void themselves at any higher level of drunkenness.

>tfw got super drunk on cider and told people embarrassing stories just last month

At least my friends only bully me about it sometimes.

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

>Am I the only one who assumed he was from a Muslim country or Mormon and so didn't have any exposure to alcohol? How many teens even underage have no contact with booze?
I just assumed straightedge, but Mormon is a good theory. Though, 100% of the Mormons I've known were exposed to a drunk at some point. :^)

I remember I was reading about two kinds of partiers: "beer and girls", and "coke and hookers". It didn't have to do with what kind of drug or what kind of company, but more about the mindset.
Does your character drink because they love their life and wants to celebrate it, or because they hate their life and want to escape it?

The coke and hookers guy loves his life, right?

What the fuck is non alcoholic cider? Here in kent its 8-12%

Try drugs. Get similar fun effects, while not ending up vomiting everywhere. Obviously, start with very low dosages at first.

Coke is a horrible drug, and in my experience everyone who takes it is either miserable or a complete arsehole.

I've no idea why, most other drugs come with a large range of users but coke? Nah, it's for wankers.

It's basically sparkling apple juice, for example: non alcoholic beer also exists too.

Tangy brown apple juice that is superior to its piss yellow sweet brother

Unless you get blackout drunk, or do it often and heavy enough to become an alcoholic(or if it runs heavily in your family), its just gonna be a slightly more outgoing, slow witted, clumsy version of yourself. Its not like doing coke or pcp or something.

>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.

If you're going to do this though, make sure you also drink a lot of water since a combination like this will make you quite dehydrated and thus more hungover.