Modelling the effects of cigarettes
 

Nicotine has useful physiological and psychological effect well known for soldiers in combat and post combat environments, offset by a marked increase in the likelihood of emphysema and lung cancer.
However individuals in the Twilight 2000 are subject to comparatively high doses of ionising radiation so may accept that risk. Anyway, I just added that to make sure that everyone know's I'm not encouraging smoking.

Cigarette use can effect COOL rolls, but have a rapid withdrawal effect that also effects COOL rolls. However cigarette use also is highly addictive, at least as addictive as heroin, so individuals using cigarettes are unlikely to stop cigarette use willingly especially given that they offer some relief from the general low key dismal impact of the Twilight 2000 environment.

What do they do?
I see them effecting rolls in two ways. The first way is for short interval situations. An individual who has failed a COOL roll may use a cigarette to either reroll or to shorten the effect of the failed roll. For long interval situations cigarette use can add modifiers to over a period. A good example of modifiers could be a bonus to maintain concentration on a task or being unruffled enough to retry a task. Of course withdrawals gives the individual the same but negative modifiers.

Not all cigarettes are equal. 'Ersatz' cigarettes have little tobacco in them. They cost far less and have a much lesser effect. Pipe tobacco can also have varying amounts of actual tobacco for varying effects on rolls. Industrial cigarettes, known as 'camels' during WW2 regardless of what brand they were, have the standard effect and are considered 'strong' in dosage.

In Germany 1944 an ersatz cigarette was $2 and a camel was $5 and that's a good standard in my opinion.

The other important drug; coffee, was worth $500/kilo!

I see one big issue with this, the cool effect is only for those smoke already. If you are a non smoker and think that smoking for the first time will help I do not think it will. Now I do have to say this as a non-smoker, who has never smoked. But even being around heavy second hand smoke I found it very detrimental, now my troops who did smoke I can 100% see this, even if they had stopped for some time. A couple other things at least about cigarettes, I found out talking with my guys that they get stale very quick. A stale cigarette tastes terrible, but when you need your fix a stale cigarette is so much better than none.

Yeah, it's a complex issue and I think our big task will be to balance gritty reality with actual playability. Nobody wants to make five rolls to see what their smokes are doing for them.

In the game 'This War Of Mine' where the player runs refugees stuck in a war zone one of the triumphs is when you get your poor miserable bots to have a cigarette and a cup of coffee in the same day. That little piece of well being is considered a significant victory and I was sorta trying to model that.

In the real life version of This War of Mine, the game we played was called Bosnian Roulette. Winners got a jug of water. And the opportunity to play again the next day.

Cigarettes were often just tea that had already been steeped three or four times then chopped into tiny flakes and hand-rolled with whatever else could be added. I don't know what the conversion rate would be, but 10-50DM for a single cigarette seems about right (I was a rare breed who never smoked; OK... rarely smoked). Coffee was a luxury afforded by the Smurfs.

In focussing on such details, it may be important to keep in mind the limit of matches and lighters. Sure, you can score a cigarette to smoke privately or with friends, but how do you light it? Less problematic for soldiers, but for how long? In game terms, a scene could certainly play out in finding a pack of unadulterated cigarettes, but having no (safe) method for lighting one.

I use the rules developed by TW2K13 (modified for the V2.2 rules of course). They work pretty well.

If you're going to model the effects of cigarettes, you should also model the effects of withdrawal from lack of cigarettes. What about cigars? Pipes? Chewing tobacco? (Effects can be even nastier than cigarettes!)

That's why I like the TW2K13 rules. They include the effects of withdrawal (treating those effects as a "virtual wound" that can be treated by using again)