Making Up Potions and Lotions

I have been thinking up a Realm where there are no proper Magic-Users or Clerics.  Where magic is very subtle.  It's folk-magic.  Magical formulas are not shouted out loud and spells don't come zinging forth from the sky or the hands of men in pointy, floppy hats.  Wise men and hedge witches mix brews and poultices and spells are very subtle indeed.

Hairbrush +1

So one of the important things you need to know about such a Realm is how you make up the potions, lotions, tinctures, and balms that cause spells to happen.  It turns out there are lots of ways to do this but the most fun way I think it to make things up at the table!  Here is a way for the hedge-wizards, druids and wise women of the Realm to experiment in their homes and laboratories to come up with interesting and unique concoctions!

The first thing is, you have to take the spells and potions that exist (and other alchemical thingies you want) and say to yourself "this is the spell list.  This is the universe of things that can be made."  It doesn't have to be exhaustive because the players are just going to have to ask you "can I make this?" and in this system, you can say, "let's find out!"

It's open-ended, see.  Anything is technically possible. Bounded, but infinite.  Like a reverse sphere.

The second thing is, you have to make up a long-ish list of reagents and ingredients. I'm going to crib 90% of my list from the old Asheron's Call MMO game and I will publish that list in a usaable form at some point soon.  It has reagents in a number of categories, so it's flavorful and not overwhelming. Remember: you don't have to guess any particular formula beforehand so having a bajillion ingredients is not overwhelming.

Then you need two more random roll charts, which I'm making up as I go.  One is Side Effects (some concoctions will have side effects because you really have no idea what you're doing.  This ain't science, it's alchemy.) The other one is Delivery Method.  Do you drink it? Smoke it? Sprinkle it on your food? Inject it into your spine?  Bleed it in? If everything's a potion, that's boring and it means we're all going to have to stop to use the bathroom far too often.

So this is how it goes:

You mix two ingredients. Plus a Scarab.  (A Scarab is a little alchemical figurine carved from some metal.  They serve as the focus for alchemical formulae and they get degraded by mixing up the concoction.)  Sometimes the mixture makes nothing.  Sometimes it makes something with a side effect. Very rarely it makes something without a side effect.

If you keep it, you then roll to determine the delivery method.

Roll 1A: Scarab + 2 Ingredients

d100 + your experience level

1-40 Bupkis

41-90 Something with a side effect

91-00 Something with no side effect

Roll 2: side effect (if necessary)

Roll 3: delivery method

Then you write down that combination.  That's a formula you pulled out of thin air and it makes something good.  It will work every time.

If you add a third ingredient, there is a chance for poison, a chance for bupkis, a chance for something new with a side effect, a chance of the old thing with no side effect and a chance of something new with no side effect.

Roll 1B: Scarab + recipe + 1 Ingredient

d100 + your experience level

1-20 poison

21-50 bupkis

51-70 New recipe with side effect

71-90 Old recipe, cleaned up

91-100 Something new, no side effect

Roll 2: side effect (if necessary)

Roll 3: delivery method

Then you write down that combination.  That's a formula you pulled out of thin air and it makes something good.  It will work every time.

Every addtional ingredient works like the third ingredient step.

If you stumble upon the recipe for a family of spells (for instance cure light wounds) then you know you just have to switch out the scarab and you have a base for the more complex spells in the same family - if you like the side effect and if you like the delivery method.

You can try to come up with the same spell in a different way if you want to.  Any two ingredients will combine - conceivably - into the same spell as you had before, only with a different delivery method and/or side effect.

So how do we make higher level formulae? Probably with more ingredients. That means more complicated charts and more modifiers.

And how do we take an existing concoction and figure out the formula? That's going to take some thinking too.