Bad Alchemy
Alchemy is pretty dang cool. It mixes together dangerous concoctions and doesn't afraid of anything. I remember playing through Skyrim the first time around, stunned by the scale of everything, but it wasn't until I hit "X" on the first alchemy table that the dedication to building a full and consistent world really sunk in. (Un)fortunately, OSR ain't Skyrim, and while it's not *difficult* to find a decent d100 table that tries to mimic the grand scope of the Elder Scroll's encyclopedic knowledge of its biology, those tables are often crunchy, dense and sometimes esoteric.
Grease
Grease is an often overlooked tool. It has been a valuable asset for medicinal and preservation purposes since humanity learned the art of alchemy. All greases serve as solvents for poisons, restoratives and hallucinogens.
-Rank 1: The Grease is waxy and may serve as a weather and water-proofer.
-Rank 2: The Grease is thin and may serve as a liquid lubricant and cooking oil.
-Rank 3: The Grease is flammable.
Glue
Glues are an ancient tool for trapping and mending. Glues are useful for game or pest traps or crafting and sealing whenever one is short a pair of hands.
-Rank 1: The Glue is tacky and may serve for catching small game alive or thickening soups.
-Rank 2: The Glue dries or is considerably more viscous and may serve for mending armors and bags.
-Rank 3: The Glue dries into an amber-like substance and may serve for mending weapons and trapping medium game.
Hallucinogen
Hallucinogens are used to communicate with the spirits by shamans or much more devious plots by pranksters and mischief makers.
-Rank 1: The Hallucinogen helps to channel the spirits and decode cave paintings and spiritual or magic items. Non-magical users may enjoy themselves.
-Rank 2: The Hallucinogen helps to channel specific spirits, and expressions of Spirit Magic that fall within routine casting for the user may expect great success. Non-magical users are impaired for many purposes.
-Rank 3: The Hallucinogen is overwhelmingly powerful. The user is a glowing beacon for the spirit world. Experimental casting may become easier at the expense of sensory awareness. Non-magical users may act as if driven to insanity.
Poisons and Restoratives
Poisons were certainly not invented by humans but are widely used by them for mundane tasks like hunting and medicine. Likewise, restoratives combat or compliment those poisons.
-Rank 1: Both poisons and restoratives may serve to affect health by 1 for 1d6 turns.
Besides - what do you do when your player picks up a random flower (sure, why not) then wants to use it to make a poultice (ah, fuck), or asks you about using an animal part that you had no idea anyone would even dream of licking? Front-loading this information is time consuming, and do you really want to whip out another PDF and search for a single microscopic entry?
No, the answer is no. Unless, y'know, you're a masochist. (More power to you, then.) Save the list for inspiration, use it to roll loot, or generate a quest even! This here blog post is gon' get you where you need to go 80% of the time through the use of real-time generation. That is, your player picks up X squiggly, writhing mass of flesh and rolls to determine what property (Y) it has. You both take the desired number of notes (name, effect, location, whatever) and *move on*.
Riding on the back of Spirit Magic's approach to nebulous and in-the-moment approach to effects, Bad Alchemy twists this philosophy to take advantage of the fact that cool effects come from weird and often unexpected resources in real life pharmacology. Often times, we really don't know what that tree sap is going to do until you get your tongue right on that bad boy and wait a few minutes. After that little tastey-taste, maybe your players now know it's not such a great idea to get too close to that particular type of Fire Sap Cashew. Who could've guessed?
I also like the idea of paying homage to natural variation, even within the same species. You ever see a beautiful rose on the same bush as a handful of badly bug-bitten buds? I bet you have - not all of those roses will do for your beloved! In that same vein, not every poison dart frog is actually poisonous; venomous snakes CAN actually run out of the danger juice; and oranges from Florida don't taste the same as the ones from California.
As GM, though, you can roll with whatever interpretation you want - either each individual resource can be full of its own merits (the rose on the bush example), or you can be lazy like you should and grant a particular property to every member of the species across the board. It's not like I have your gaming table wiretapped.
I chose some pretty realistic and bog standard effects for my game, but feel free to add in any effects you deem necessary. Hell, go ahead and experiment with adding another rank or two into the system and see if it gets you anywhere. Really make it your own recipe, y'know?
Anyway. Alchemy is pretty dang cool. Enjoy.
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Bad Alchemy
- Alchemy is completed with a successful Intelligence or Wisdom check after foraging the appropriate ingredients. If your system has a skill for it, use that.
- The number of ingredients that match a given property raises the concoction's Rank by 1 in that property up to a max 3.
- Examples of each rank of property are not comprehensive, and players should come to agreements with the GM on what effects apply.
Grease
Grease is an often overlooked tool. It has been a valuable asset for medicinal and preservation purposes since humanity learned the art of alchemy. All greases serve as solvents for poisons, restoratives and hallucinogens.
-Rank 1: The Grease is waxy and may serve as a weather and water-proofer.
-Rank 2: The Grease is thin and may serve as a liquid lubricant and cooking oil.
-Rank 3: The Grease is flammable.
Glue
Glues are an ancient tool for trapping and mending. Glues are useful for game or pest traps or crafting and sealing whenever one is short a pair of hands.
-Rank 1: The Glue is tacky and may serve for catching small game alive or thickening soups.
-Rank 2: The Glue dries or is considerably more viscous and may serve for mending armors and bags.
-Rank 3: The Glue dries into an amber-like substance and may serve for mending weapons and trapping medium game.
Hallucinogen
Hallucinogens are used to communicate with the spirits by shamans or much more devious plots by pranksters and mischief makers.
-Rank 1: The Hallucinogen helps to channel the spirits and decode cave paintings and spiritual or magic items. Non-magical users may enjoy themselves.
-Rank 2: The Hallucinogen helps to channel specific spirits, and expressions of Spirit Magic that fall within routine casting for the user may expect great success. Non-magical users are impaired for many purposes.
-Rank 3: The Hallucinogen is overwhelmingly powerful. The user is a glowing beacon for the spirit world. Experimental casting may become easier at the expense of sensory awareness. Non-magical users may act as if driven to insanity.
Poisons and Restoratives
Poisons were certainly not invented by humans but are widely used by them for mundane tasks like hunting and medicine. Likewise, restoratives combat or compliment those poisons.
-Rank 1: Both poisons and restoratives may serve to affect health by 1 for 1d6 turns.
-Rank 2: Both poisons and restoratives may serve to affect health by 2 for 1d6 turns. Both poisons and restoratives may serve as numbing or relaxing agents that cloud the senses.
At Rank 3, the two properties diverge into providers of life or death. Their options open them effects such as near-instantaneous statuses. The GM may also rule that as an added side to their increased potency, the number of doses may be raised from 1 to 1d6.
-Rank 3 (Poison): The Poison may serve as a paralytic or some other hard sensory deprivation such as blindness or deafness that lasts 1d6 turns. It may deal 4 health damage per turn for 1d6 turns.
-Rank 3 (Restorative): The Restorative may serve to combat or help counteract poison or venom. It may restore 4 health per turn for 1d6 turns.
Burst
Bursting effects are a strange creature - they by themselves are not inherently useful. Some cultures weaponize them, but these are high level mixtures that take time and often implement other properties of the ingredients.
-Rank 1: The burst is more akin to a small fizzle that is good for starting tinder. It may last for a few seconds and smell rancid, but has a low smoke signature and low overall temperature.
-Rank 2: The burst either creates a lot of smoke or a lot of heat. It will easily burn green wood. It has some propelling force but not enough to deal damage.
-Rank 3: The burst is loud. It propels liquid and powder mediums for some distance as well as igniting them if possible.
At Rank 3, the two properties diverge into providers of life or death. Their options open them effects such as near-instantaneous statuses. The GM may also rule that as an added side to their increased potency, the number of doses may be raised from 1 to 1d6.
-Rank 3 (Poison): The Poison may serve as a paralytic or some other hard sensory deprivation such as blindness or deafness that lasts 1d6 turns. It may deal 4 health damage per turn for 1d6 turns.
-Rank 3 (Restorative): The Restorative may serve to combat or help counteract poison or venom. It may restore 4 health per turn for 1d6 turns.
Burst
Bursting effects are a strange creature - they by themselves are not inherently useful. Some cultures weaponize them, but these are high level mixtures that take time and often implement other properties of the ingredients.
-Rank 1: The burst is more akin to a small fizzle that is good for starting tinder. It may last for a few seconds and smell rancid, but has a low smoke signature and low overall temperature.
-Rank 2: The burst either creates a lot of smoke or a lot of heat. It will easily burn green wood. It has some propelling force but not enough to deal damage.
-Rank 3: The burst is loud. It propels liquid and powder mediums for some distance as well as igniting them if possible.
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