Homebrew: Potion Making

By Dalerik, in Anima: Beyond Fantasy RPG

Long time no see everybody, I have returned once again in my time of need. But I haven't come just to take from you, this time I offer something in return.

I've been playing pretty consistently over the last year or so getting to know the system a whole lot better, figuring out ways to better GM, and tweaking things. Recently I decided to try homebrewing a Potion’s Skill, for the budding alchemist type of character. Anima did not offer a lot of non-magic healing methods and that’s what sparked this.

So I've started doing work into what was the best way to do a potion making skill, how to fit it into the game to make it easier on both the GM and the player, without making things too much of a hassle.

Ill start by saying its probably in early alpha stages at the moment and I would like to get other perspectives before I create something that ONLY I think is effective, rather I would like to settle on something the community agrees would be an excellent addition.

My idea is add a “Potions” skill, or even section. Similar to forging/artifact making there would be modifiers and rules.

Now below I will be posting the 4 methods I have devised on how to make potion making in the game, and I ask which you believe would be the best way to do it.

Thank you.


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Method 1: the Simple Method

How it works. The player will decide they wish to craft a potion, they will then decide the type of potion they wish to create between, lastly they will decide the level of potion between 1-5

Step 1. In order to craft the potion the player requires the necessary setup, refer to Table 7 of the artifact book Equipment/Tools

Step 2. The player will then tell the GM the type of potion they wish to create, such as Damage potion, or Healing potion, or Potion of speed. And the GM will decide the materials the player needs in order to craft such a thing, things such as mushrooms or berries.
(The GM could very well say these ingredients are easily purchasable at a store as well)

Step 3: Now the player decides the level of potion they want, the higher level the more powerful the potion should be. But this also means the check would become higher

an example of the levels should go
Level 1 – 140

Level 2 – 220

Level 3 – 300

Level 4 – 380

Level 5 – 440

I think this one is the most simple and rules light version. However it leaves a lot to be decided for the GM and not everyone enjoys that.

Since everything is up to GM discretion, there are no balancing factors, and the GM may decide a level 3 healing potion is not much stronger than a level 1.

Other factors would be involved in the process such as time spent and assistants

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Method 2: The Artifact Method

This method is a lot more tuned to the way anima does creating things.

Depending on the level of potion 1-5 the player has a certain number of PP to spend on abilities such as Damage/Paralyze/Heal/Increase Speed

Then spend points modifying the duration, whether its contact or ingestion, and a plethora of other charts that gives the creator plenty of choice and diversity in their potion.

Similar rules will apply such as time/equipment/assistants. The plus side of this would mean higher quality ingredients may grant more PP if the GM decides, things such as unicorn blood or basilisk tears, whatever.

I find this one to be very time consuming just like the artifact creation but it may be the best choice.

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Method 3: Poisons method

Make slight alterations to the Poisons chart found in the core rulebooks secondary abilities (and page 213) Where the roll you make determines the level of the potion, and various things such as inhaling or deadly change the difficulty and level.

This was recommended to me by one of my players, they suggested making poisons INTO potions and keeping nearly everything the same.

It didn’t seem like a terrible idea.

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Method 4: Psychic Charts

This one came way out of left field for me, but it didn’t sound all too crazy.

You know how when you want to use a psychic power you pick your power, and then you roll your psychic potential and check your roll to see your result.

Something similar to that, with the chart being different for each power AND allowing you to split your potential between different effects for your potions.

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Lastly, a couple things and random ideas that would apply to or change any of the methods.

If a player wanted to create an additional potion they could gamble and increase the difficulty of the check by +30 for each additional potion. Alternatively +20 for a level 1, +30 for level 2, Etc…

a spoil period, the potions are considered unstable and after a number of days the potion spoils and becomes useless, this was suggested to me to prevent hoarding.

Toxicity, based off the witcher and its potions, each potion has a toxicity equal to its level times 2, and a players toxicity is based on their CON. If the player reaches half their CON in toxicity they suffer negatives for 24 hours, if a player reaches Toxicity equal to their CON they pass out after an hour for 1d10 hours and suffer penalties for 24 hours.

This prevents over consumption of potions and adds weight to the potions.

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That’s it, thank you very much for reading through it.

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts and ideas, whether you think any of this is futile or if you have an idea of your own

Edited by Dalerik

I thought of use the Alchemy skill, so, Artifact method, but I also considered using Magic, ae, the gift to enchant the materials.

Using poisons seems the simplest and it makes sense, provided they have the materials. There have also been suggestions of using herbalism in conjunction with any actual potion-making skills.

I don't think there's necessarily a "right" way, and so many things actually work.

just bumping to see if anyone has given any though to these?

so far I've tried out method 1. not bad but very subjective, I'm going to try method 3 soon.