In order to use must have purchased the Herb Lore skill to be an Apothecary - Surgery, Brewing and History: Biology will all be helpful alongside this skill and will provide benefits when using this skill. If you have Herb Lore/Brewing, see Control for a Handout.
HERBALIST REGISTER
Out of Character all players playing an Herbalist must be noted on the Herbalist Register that their In Camp referee will have with them in their given area. This contains the following information:
This is so that the referees and Game Management are aware of what you are attempting - so that information is not lost. Thus, anything not recorded will be considered to not have taken place. In order to make lotions, powers and the various other forms of administration you must tell the In Camp Area ref - who will also give the making/Brewing/research etc. time you will need to spend on the activity.
GROUP WORK
Any number of Apothecaries may work together on research, making and brewing. However, in order to contribute to a group all the Herbalists involved must have the same Apothecary skills - and must possess Brewing. The players must have equipment in order to brew - the Treatment Application section details the equipment used per item.
Herbalists (Apothecaries without the Brewing skill) cannot form into group and undertake research.
HOW THE PROCESS WORKS
In order to make something the Apothecary must have herbal ingredients. These ingredients will then have to be ‘used’ by role-playing out the appropriate processes - Herbalism is not simply number crunching.
This means that the player should have access to various devices for these processes. Mortar and pestle, glass alembics, various forms of tubing, evaporation dishes, ceramic jars, cauldrons, copper pressure valves, retorts, beakers and vials are all examples of the type of equipment that an Apothecary can have available. Simple processes such as making Lotions or Poultice might only require a mortar and pestles, maybe a cauldron - Preparation ingredients only require crushing between two flat stones at the most. The Herb lists contain all the relevant information for this.
STRENGTH VALUES
The Strength value of each herb tells you how potent they currently are. In order to beat a disease or infection, the remedy must equal or beat the Virulence value. Poisons stay in the body until the victim is dead or it is removed. A Poison’s Strength value is called it’s Toxicity.
STANDARD VOLUMES
Each ingredient used produces 30 ml of volume (a good mouthful) - and 30 ml is the standard measure of 1 administration or treatment.
Poisons that are placed into food and/or drink have can be placed as a few drops (10 ml). This reduces their Toxicity by a third.
TREATMENT APPLICATION
Some types of Treatments might require the Brewing skill to make - not all do however. You will need to find out at Control when you get your handout.
TREATMENTS AND RECOGNITION
Though this might seem obvious it really isn’t. Apothecaries differ in the ingredients they use in specific concoctions and also their methods. There are at least 100 ingredients in the world - many with similar effects, many with similar smells, flavours and textures.
An Apothecary can only recognise their own concoctions - they cannot recognise those of other characters. It is suggested to get Literacy to help aid in identification. For this reason, an Apothecary or Herbalist may only apply lotions and poultices to weapons if they made them and can only issue treatments that they themselves made - otherwise they mind end up causing a healing treatment to be a poison, or a poison to have no effect as the mixture becomes contaminated.
INGREDIENTS
In order to obtain ingredients, the Herbalist will need either to forage, to get someone else to forage, to barter with another herbalist or to otherwise buy from traders and sellers of herbs. A character can only forage once per day per buy of the skill - and up to seven ingredients can be gained from a single Forage.
ENACTING POISONS AND TREATMENT EFFECTS
When a player or even an NPC or Monster wishes to use a treatment a ref must be present so that it is known by the Game Team that the ill-effects have been removed and to ensure that no cheating is taking place. In the case of diseases, the ref also knows the Virulence of the disease, and once informed of the Potency of a treatment and its cures, can inform players how much (or even if all) of the disease is cured. The treatment must be role-played out - a poultice requires a bandage, and lotions require rubbing in. Do not simply rip a card and declare it to have happened.
In the case of poisons the player calls “Poison:…” and states the effect of the poison in game terms, which might well include a spell effect or similar. Examples include: Doubles, Fire, Confusion, Twisted Reality and Paralysis. A person under the effects of a poison must be informed by the wielder of its Toxicity value. Thus: “ Poison: Sleep, Rank 6’” tells the player that they are struck by a poison weapon, dealing a Sleep effect at Toxicity 6.
