Today's Topic is "How Do You Run Magic Potions" as we continue our celebration of International Original Dungeons and Dragons Month!
OK, so let us start with what OD&D says about Magic Potions and then go from there:
After this it lists a number of potions with brief descriptions. The list is not intended to be all inclusive or to limit what kinds of potions that you can have. A bit of trivia, in OD&D the Haste Spell and the Potion of Speed are not indicated to have an aging effect. We never used the aging effect bitd and I still do not. Just as I do not increase the life span for when a character has a Slow Spell cast on them or they drink a Potion of Slowness.
So what do I do with potions, one is that they do not all have the same duration. IMC some types potions have the standard six turns plus 1d6 duration all the way up to some types of potions have durations as long as 10 turns plus 6d6 turns. One of the longer ones IMC is the Potion of Water Breathing.
I also use the house rule that you can taste the potion and usually, but not always, learn or at least have an idea what the potion is. If they have access to an Identify Spell, they can also use it. Tasting will not reveal that it is a Potion of Delusion for example, but the Identify Spell will. Tasting will not tell you if it is a Potion of Heroism or a Potion of Super-Heroism, but the Identify Spell will.
I do use potions that may be cursed and some that may be poisoned. I use some potions that are not exactly cursed per se, but they will cause any number of things to happen. Some will cause a human to look more Elvish with the ears and other features. Sometimes these effects will be permanent. Other could do things such as cause the character to gradually mutate into some other creatures or any number of other effects.
Another thing I do with potions is sometimes in my dungeons when you come to a fountain it may be something other than water. It could be pure or tainted water (the vast majority of the time), it could be milk, coffee, beer, wine or some other drink or just some really strange liquid, it could be toxic in ways similar to some real world springs are, and sometimes it might be some type of potion.
If it is some type of potion, then you cannot fill up flasks and take it with you and they are almost always not things that you would necessarily want to take with you. No you have to drink it there and not save it for later. It could be healing and you can drink to you are fully healed. There is a very rare chance that it could be the Fountain of Youth (has not happened yet, but the possibility exists) or something of that sort, but likely it will mess you in some way and the character has to decide if they like it or not. Some do and drink deeply and others wish they had not drunk.
Somehow though, as random as it is, characters keep drinking even when it is not pure water. So that is what I do, plus anything else I might be inspired to do. What do you do?
Tomorrow's Topic is "What is Your Favorite Beast".
OK, so let us start with what OD&D says about Magic Potions and then go from there:
POTIONS: All potions come in quantity sufficient to perform whatever their end is, although a small sample can be taken without affecting the whole. For those with limited effect the time will be six turns, plus the number of pips rolled on a six-sided die. Some potions will not be detailed here as they duplicate magic already explained or are self-explanatory.
After this it lists a number of potions with brief descriptions. The list is not intended to be all inclusive or to limit what kinds of potions that you can have. A bit of trivia, in OD&D the Haste Spell and the Potion of Speed are not indicated to have an aging effect. We never used the aging effect bitd and I still do not. Just as I do not increase the life span for when a character has a Slow Spell cast on them or they drink a Potion of Slowness.
So what do I do with potions, one is that they do not all have the same duration. IMC some types potions have the standard six turns plus 1d6 duration all the way up to some types of potions have durations as long as 10 turns plus 6d6 turns. One of the longer ones IMC is the Potion of Water Breathing.
I also use the house rule that you can taste the potion and usually, but not always, learn or at least have an idea what the potion is. If they have access to an Identify Spell, they can also use it. Tasting will not reveal that it is a Potion of Delusion for example, but the Identify Spell will. Tasting will not tell you if it is a Potion of Heroism or a Potion of Super-Heroism, but the Identify Spell will.
I do use potions that may be cursed and some that may be poisoned. I use some potions that are not exactly cursed per se, but they will cause any number of things to happen. Some will cause a human to look more Elvish with the ears and other features. Sometimes these effects will be permanent. Other could do things such as cause the character to gradually mutate into some other creatures or any number of other effects.
Another thing I do with potions is sometimes in my dungeons when you come to a fountain it may be something other than water. It could be pure or tainted water (the vast majority of the time), it could be milk, coffee, beer, wine or some other drink or just some really strange liquid, it could be toxic in ways similar to some real world springs are, and sometimes it might be some type of potion.
If it is some type of potion, then you cannot fill up flasks and take it with you and they are almost always not things that you would necessarily want to take with you. No you have to drink it there and not save it for later. It could be healing and you can drink to you are fully healed. There is a very rare chance that it could be the Fountain of Youth (has not happened yet, but the possibility exists) or something of that sort, but likely it will mess you in some way and the character has to decide if they like it or not. Some do and drink deeply and others wish they had not drunk.
Somehow though, as random as it is, characters keep drinking even when it is not pure water. So that is what I do, plus anything else I might be inspired to do. What do you do?
Tomorrow's Topic is "What is Your Favorite Beast".
It is possible to embed any spell as a potion if you have the ability to craft potions. This is one of the prime abilities of the Witch adventurer class in point of fact, and how they generally use their magic. Healing potions and the like are fairly common (albeit expensive), since Apothecaries are a recognised craftsman profession. That said, village wise women are generally capable of manufacturing 1d6 magic healing potions a year out of local resources (although it is assumed to take a full year to brew these potions). They are generally kept for emergencies/accidents in the village rather than sold.
ReplyDeleteA potion is effectively any one-use magic spell - it need not be something that could be drunk but it generally requires that the item be destroyed to activate the spell (or the item is destroyed when the magic is actually invoked). Other forms include origami shapes that are torn to release the spell, candles, incense blocks, or even a stick that is broken. [Scrolls in my game are methods for learning new spells instead.] Even normal potions might need to be drunk, or poured over the thing they affect, or uncorked, or thrown and the vial broken (the later is particularly true of fireball potions). An arrow might be a potion (which is activated - and destroyed) in firing. Generally one of the missile spells is used so a fire arrow becomes a magical fire arrow. Another type of potion is the monster summoning potion, which does not so much summon a monster as reduce a monster to essential salts and place it in a potion bottle to be reconstituted on release.
One of the problems of potions is that they generally only store the magical effect and no conditions on its use. So a generic "love" potion simply act as as a generic charm person that makes anyone that drinks it think everyone is their friend. A more useful "love" potion would be a suggestion spell that the drinker is infatuated with a specific person, but the suggestion must be made when the potion is made and would require a magical connection with this person (ie a part of the person [such as a lock of hair] must be added to the potion mix). [Incidentally the use of "love" potions is generally considered assault in most legal jurisdictions, and the possession or supply of such conspiracy to commit assault.]
@Reverance Pavane Great comment!! What version of D&D or other game do you play?
ReplyDeleteMy main campaign is pretty much a home-brew these days, heavily based on post-Greyhawk OD&D, but heavily influenced by early West Coast sensibilities (the stuff that eventually led to the Perrin Conventions). There is a strong focus on the role of characteristics and level as a concrete entity (which, as for the game of Bushido, is incredibly useful for the gamemaster running a sandbox campaign). Unlike previous versions this one purposefully does without directly specifying concrete rules for stuff, but is based around a number of axioms that make it pretty easy to generate consistent rulings on an ad hoc basis. I do like to keep it close enough to the core precepts of the D&D system so that anyone familiar with the game can easily play it, although the meanings of things might be slightly different from what they are used to. For example, scrolls don't exist in the form they do in D&D, Willpower replaces Wisdom, the fact that clerical spells are specified slightly differently (for example continual light is banish darkness completely, or even that fighters effectively get limited magical abilities in terms of martial arts). Most people find the game is very easy to pick up (unless they are a rules lawyer type in which case the lack of detail tends to anger them [an inadvertent design feature]). I do tend to reverse the amount of downtime and adventure time in my game though, so that most characters are busy performing downtime activities and need to make explicit time to adventure (usually once a season except winter, much in the style of Pendragon), but then I have always favoured a long time-base campaign, especially since it allows the characters to see the changes they have wrought in the game (and build stuff - my stronghold game effectively starts at 5th level). Plus it opens themes like immortality (usually answered by having children to carry on your legacy).
ReplyDeleteAlthough I also quite enjoy the solo-play rules created by Kevin Crawford for Scarlet Heroes and Godbound for more wuxia/romance play (where the player characters [and important NPCs] are explicitly extraordinary characters). Plus Beyond the Wall for one-shot adventures with kids at the local library (which are quite fun because the campaign setting is pretty much improv fairy tale so I have absolutely no idea in what direction each adventure will head). Most of my other games are on hiatus now (including my long-running Glorantha game that runs using a modified set of the original Ironclaw rules). But there is so much left to play. I really want to give Shadow of the Demon Lord a play at some point (I enjoy both the system and the cosmology).
So little time and so many games!
You have a lot packed into those two posts, when I get a chance I will start a thread over on the forum to discuss some of these things as a whole. May I quote these to the forum?
ReplyDeleteI have looked at Pendragon several times and would like to incorporate a lot of that in a game or play in such a game, but I have not had players that were interested in strongholds. I have always been interested in stronghold myself.
I like games that are easy to pickup, that do not require a lot of rules knowledge for the players. I like to keep as much of that as I can behind the screen and just let the players play the game.
You have a lot of things going on and lots of game interests. Do you have a blog or website or something?