Poisonbrewing

[Dr Divago]

hi all

once a while in fantasy game happens someone ask about poison: a player whant to make her characther poison brewer

the fact is, she is a stealth/fight with some supernatural skill (aka invisibility) to make her stealth around, and she's planning about buying skill to brew poison and use them

 

now, rule for poison are in FH so no problem founding them; the only problem is i need to actually build some posion

what i'm worried about is the impact on the campaign. of course she can say "i use only persona brewed poison" but the problem still exixst: she can buy/found ingredient, brew them and found a quick and fast way to eradicate some enemies rather than attacking them. plus, giving LS to every big boss is a bit unrealistic

 

BUT

poison are part of the campaign (in Turakian Age). and it's adequate for the characther

so i can't just say "no there are no poison" nor "poison are'nt useful 'cause of magic and priest yadda yadda"

 

so... how can i limit this?

- restricting use of poison brewing? maybe need two or more skill? (PS: poison brew; SS: animal poison; SS: plant poison; SS: alchemy...)

- increasing cost of ingredients and time to make one? maybe make poison so volatile they can rarely (if possible) be bought/sold

- reducing poison impact?

- requiring point investment in something?

 

ty for help

[Mickael]

Re: Poisonbrewing

 

Hasn't the character any "code of honor" or doesn't she follow a specific religion? Maybe you could find a way to convince her that the use of poison must be very limited because it's very dishonoring. A few years ago I read a book from Kant (I suppose the english translated title would be something like "Project of perpetual peace"), in which he described a few things that should never be used during a war, because if they were used, I would never be possible again to trust the ennemy after the end of the war. One of those things was the use of poison.

 

On the other hand, from a GM to player point of view, you might also tell her that if a character is using such poisons, NPCs could also make their own poisons...

 

EDIT : OK, the title seems to be "Perpetual peace", here is a link with a summary : http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/kant/kant1.htm

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: Poisonbrewing

 

Is the game heroic or super heroic? if it is super heroic, tell them they need to buy posion with CP and brewing is the explination for the power. If it is heroic, it shouldn't be a problem, just charge a % of the cost for the poison

[mayapuppies]

Re: Poisonbrewing

 

I'd love to help with this, but right now the poison (and herbalism and alchemy) rules for my Kamarathin setting are being worked on for publication. I'm shooting for a summer release if you can wait that long.

[Dr Divago]

Re: Poisonbrewing

 

ty for replying

the code of honor unlickily does'nt apply to this char; there are a knight and a paladin, both with code of honor, and a priest (of hornbrek, fyi) and this three could easily be annoying and force her to don't use poison, at least not while they understand.

BUT

she has the annoying cliche of "i take no order, they cannot force me to not use it, yadda yadda" and easily drive to internal disorder...

ok could be the best way to limit the use... but... it could be also a way to cause internal damage to the party so i'd like to leave this only as last chance

 

what i thought is:

- skill

PS Poison Brew to create the poison;

SS Zoology and/or SS Botanic to create animal/plant poison (you need to roll the lower between SS Zoology/Botanic and PS Poison Brew skill)

Alchemy (also a magic skill) needed for very powerful poison (the one with more than 4d6 RKA damage)

 

poenalities are -1 for 10 Active Points, adding total of RKA and Drain points

 

- onset and durability

ingestion poison can endure 1 day into glass vial; no more than a week in a clay jar specially preserved (wax sealed and special room); served inside the food become useless after a while (usually few minutes)

contact poison can endure same time than onset time; btw handling contact poison'ed item could be hard: fail a DEX roll and if your lucky remove the poison from the item (if you are NOT lucky... wel... roll for damage )

injection poison can endure same time than onset time unless in special needle item (like blowgun's dart) and of course you cannot put poisoned weapon inside holster

[Manic Typist]

Re: Poisonbrewing

 

My take on this is just what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Also, making poisons can be very dangerous. You should make the rolls for her, and certain failures could lead to contamination. It could get on another implement, her fingers, into the food supply, can poison her through her skin, get in the clothes...

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Poisonbrewing

 

Make her buy the poison as a Power. The point cost will keep it in check. Other than that, the only reason I can think of to keep poison out of the hands of genre-appropriate PCs is the D&D legacy. Poison was so effective in the early editions that it was basically an insta-kill. That's not an issue in Hero.

[IndianaJoe3]

Re: Poisonbrewing

 

I think that making her buy it as a power is the way to go. Requiring a Skill Roll, Side Effects, and rare, expendable Foci would also be appropriate (especially for the more potent toxins).

[Darbor]

Re: Poisonbrewing

 

Agreed with buying as a power. That was how we handled healing/buffing potions in our game and it made the whole process controllable, that is making, carrying and using. Also, keep in mind that containers are usually small, heavy and breakable (clay pots is what we used) so there is significant risk to carrying it.

[Ternaugh]

Re: Poisonbrewing

 

I'd handle it much like alchemical potions. In my game, they are written up much like spells, and usually paid for with points. I'd suggest Delayed Effect (which would limit the number of "doses" available at any given time), coupled with rare ingredients/long preparation times, and Side Effects if the poison brewing process goes wrong.

 

From the other side, I would assume that alchemists/healers would have access to a number of antidotes for common poisons, and there are always magical means to stop poisons as well.

 

JoeG

[Shadowsoul]

Re: Poisonbrewing

 

Presumably the other characters aren't paying points for armour, swords and arrows. So poison is just another piece of equipment. As long as you limit the number of doses that this character can make e.g. by saying that it takes a whole day to distill/brew a single dose then she shouldn't have a particular advantage over the people walking around with axes and plate armour that they can use all the time.

[Dr Divago]

Re: Poisonbrewing

 

ty all guys

sincerely i don't like the idea to make her buying like power; as Shadowsoul said, everyone else is using armor, weapon and special equip (also magical item sometimes) without paying for it.

btw, a lot of people adviced me to make her buylike power. So... how did you build the power?

like alchemistic spells?

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Poisonbrewing

 

Brewing poison is essentially the same as brewing a potion. If you make alchemists pay points for their potion brewing, the assassin should pay points for poison brewing. And poison isn't quite the same as other equipment. No one's getting worked up because someone wants to carry three swords, or have eighty arrows handy at any given time, but if the guy wants to have thirty doses of blade venom at all times, his GM gets antsy about his NPCs and the other players worry about getting overshadowed in combat, especially if the guy's carrying around the "Horrid Monster" type venom. If he pays the points, he limits himself in the number of doses and the lethality of each dose.

 

If you wouldn't let an alchemist carry around a five gallon bucket of healing potion, and say he needs to pay points to have that skill, then the poisoner should have to as well.

 

(And yes, I'd build the poison power exactly like an alchemist potion power)

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: Poisonbrewing

 

In fantasy campaigns I have run, if a character wants to buy poison for a weapon, I might let them, but it might not be available or it might be low-grade stuff. That way, as GM, I have some control over what poison gets used and when. Consider too that lots of poisons can kill you, but only slowly, which is rather less useful in combat and it gives the poisoned person a chance to find an antidote or healer before they croak. I won't bother going into the social ramifications of buying and using poison, but that should be a consideration for most characters.

 

If the character wants to brew poison, I consider that a power, like being able to cast spells, and they have to pay points for it since they will likely be able to use it frequently. This gives the player a lot more freedom to build the poison as they see fit (for instant damage or to Drain a particular stat or whatever), but since they have to pay points for it, the poison isn't likely to be so unbalancing. If the player wants to stack a lot of limitations on the poison to make it cheaper, that is perfectly reasonable, but then the limitations keep things in check.

 

Something else to consider if the character has a poison brewing ability is that other people's weapons can be poisoned as well, so don't forget to allow for that flexibility when building the poison.