Healing Potions

[Hopeless]

I believe I asked about this before and ended up picking up the RQ 2 Arms & Equipment book (still have that... somewhere), but I was wondering how did you deal with the availability of healing potions?

In a game I ran I made it clear only one cult made them and they were stored in shrines near or in settlements with the local hierarchy basically selling them with some kept when they needed them.

Since you really can't deprive the game with heal spells whether divine or common magic in nature I thought that would make a good subplot for the series as the cult in question is being targetted for elimination with their secrets being hunted by the other cults aware that if their cult is wiped out then there won't be any more healing potions unless someone figures out how they produce them.

Anyway how do you view this?

Do you let alchemy cover how these are made?

 

[soltakss]

I allow healing potions to be made by anyone with the Alchemy skill who has the knowledge/recipe for a Healing Potion.

They are sold by Healing cults, witches, wise women, Earth cultists, Adventurer's Guilds, Alchemist's Guilds and so on.

I have them as being medium-cost, so less expensive than buying a Healing spell, but more expensive than paying a healer to heal you.

 

[Hopeless]

I have been wondering about that.

Been thinking of running a game where the players learn there's a supposed sorceress living outside town whose been blamed for several local deaths and for turning a number of the locals into animals.

The "Sorceress" is actually the only local brewer of healing potions whose not a member of the local church (or cult) so they've been trying to discover her secrets and kill her seemingly because of her refusal to join their cult.

The PCs are their latest attempt, but the stinger is the reason she's stuck around so long is because she's aware of a pair of necromancers living on an island who are too powerful for her to confront but she's been keeping watch on them inbetween fending off attacks by their local servitors who want to silence the only person who has an inking of why the local village is being kept dirt poor and ignorant by the local clergy.

So it could lead to them killing their potentially most important ally and benefactor in the area (that irony appeals to me!) or have them a base to work from and a series of adventures that will eventually lead to them confronting the necromancers and possibly learning of a far greater threat for further games.

Anyway I still don't understand why healing potions don't seem to be addressed in Legend but its nice to have some alternative ways of handling that.

 

[strega]

I don't think healing potions are a particularly D100 thing. Most D100 based games try to be smart about things and players should realise that combat is not the first resort especially as it's pretty dangerous. Unfortunately with the widespread influence of MMORPG and video games the players seem to think that a save point or for TTRPG's a hero point or some sort of get out of death or serious injury free card is mandatory in modern game designs.

Many D100 games with use of simple 'hedge' magic for all alleviate a small amount of the damage arising from combat with First Aid or simple healing spells available to everyone.

The moment GM's start 'fixing things' with no 'hedge' magic you have to introduce healing potions or some other fudge to make the game work.

If players would think before hitting things as a primary action they wouldn't need healing potions but the mindset from playing 'kill things and take their stuff' games using the most widely know games system doesn't lend itself to sensible play in most D100 systems.

 

[soltakss]

We have done the "Climbing over a pile of corpses to get at the bad guys" in RQ and it worked really well.

I have never been a fan of the "D100 means you think before going into combat" idea. Sure, tactics are important and a poorly-armoured, poorly-equipped, magic-light PC should avoid combat where possible. However, a well-armoured, magic-high party can wade through hordes of NPCs, at least in RQ2/RQ3 - I have done it! However, you need access to Divine Intervention, a lot of magic point storage and high magic, enchanted locations and boosted stats help, as well.

Easy access to Healing Potions make PCs more able to survive combat, so they are more likely to enter into combat. If you restrict healing potions/healing magic then you will reduce the number of combats that PCs enter into.

 

[Hopeless]

Or better yet give them a reason to be more careful, provided they understand this isn't d20.

I like the idea of low magic fantasy, but am not quite ready to restrict the available healing.

Just picked up Pirates of Legend so maybe that will provide some ideas to help with this.

 

[p_Clapham]

If memory serves me correctly the older editions of Runequest had stuff that was mechanical similar to healing potions. Bonded/ allied spirits that could cast healing spells on your behalf, or items that were enchanted with healing magic.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

No, there were even alchemist guilds who could supply same (RQ2).

 

[Olaus Petrus]

As I'm not huge fan of instant healing I prefer settings where healing magic is almost nonexistent and natural healing is usually the only available option (which makes healing and first aid very important skills).

While I allow the existence of the philosopher's stone. It's something only powerful NPC alchemists can produce and what they aren't usually willing to trade. In my settings healing potion would be a rare treasure (most of the time unavailable) and which you could buy only if you could offer something rare and magical in exchange.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

One way to do it would be to have the Healing Potion (with appropriate spell maybe) increase the healing rate rather than provide instant healing.

Say a Healing Potion that is produced by using certain molds (yuck) that prevent you from getting all those infections that ALWAYS happen during healing - keep those away and you heal faster = say 2-3 times faster... (antibiotics).

 

[Olaus Petrus]

One way to do it would be to have the Healing Potion (with appropriate spell maybe) increase the healing rate rather than provide instant healing.

Say a Healing Potion that is produced by using certain molds (yuck) that prevent you from getting all those infections that ALWAYS happen during healing - keep those away and you heal faster = say 2-3 times faster... (antibiotics).

Rare and magical herbs can do wonders. I have occasionally used that idea, but most of the time herbs are just something you need to make first aid or healing test without penalties (you need proper medicines if you're going to treat some serious condition).

 

[DamonJynx]

Check out Alex Greene's article available here.

Also, LBH can we get rid of the spam?

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

One way to do it would be to have the Healing Potion (with appropriate spell maybe) increase the healing rate rather than provide instant healing.

Say a Healing Potion that is produced by using certain molds (yuck) that prevent you from getting all those infections that ALWAYS happen during healing - keep those away and you heal faster = say 2-3 times faster... (antibiotics).

Rare and magical herbs can do wonders. I have occasionally used that idea, but most of the time herbs are just something you need to make first aid or healing test without penalties (you need proper medicines if you're going to treat some serious condition).

I wasn't considering "rare and magical herbs" I was thinking of Antibiotics and Germicides - Both of which are not really technolgy related, a mold on bread could have been discovered during the Mesolithic era if anyone had been paying attention...

 

[Olaus Petrus]

One way to do it would be to have the Healing Potion (with appropriate spell maybe) increase the healing rate rather than provide instant healing.

Say a Healing Potion that is produced by using certain molds (yuck) that prevent you from getting all those infections that ALWAYS happen during healing - keep those away and you heal faster = say 2-3 times faster... (antibiotics).

Rare and magical herbs can do wonders. I have occasionally used that idea, but most of the time herbs are just something you need to make first aid or healing test without penalties (you need proper medicines if you're going to treat some serious condition).

I wasn't considering "rare and magical herbs" I was thinking of Antibiotics and Germicides - Both of which are not really technolgy related, a mold on bread could have been discovered during the Mesolithic era if anyone had been paying attention...

Sorry if I misunderstood, but you mentioned magic yourself in the first sentence. I used herbs as general term for plants and fungi which has healing properties. Normally (natural and common) plants or fungi with antibiotic or germicidal properties are already part of the first aid/healer's kit and trying to heal a infected wound or fever without such medicines is much more difficult (i. e. you get difficulty penalties to your skill test). So I assumed that by antibiotics you meant something which goes beyond the capabilities of normal molds and plants which the ancient and medieval doctors used to heal the infections i. e. rare and/or magical plants and fungi.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Honey, fresh spiders' webs, and garlic juice (the British Army used 17 million tons of garlic in WW1 as an antiseptic). All were used for millennia due to their medicinal properties.