Are Potions Labelled in Your Game?

[Thornir Alekeg]

In my games, potions are sometimes labeled, sometimes not. It depends upon the circumstances. In a place where there are a multitude of potions in shelves, they will probably be labeled. In the pouch of a fallen foe, maybe, mabey not. Of course labelling does not have any conventions, so figuring out what the label means may not be that easy.

 

[William_2]

Yes, generally labeled with words or symbols that are useful to the owner. So, often that is just in Common.

This point:
“nobody's really going to call a potion/spell "Cure Light Wounds" or "Alter Self," for instance, that'd just be stupid.”…is quite interesting, I think.
I agree that when I imagine people referring to spells and potions in Common, I do imagine more interesting names. So, I don’t think that a potion says CLW on it…but I do think it is labeled with whatever the spell name is in Common. Spells are specific in the D&D world – they would have specific names, I think. I’m not so sure that the name of a spell like Alter Self might not indeed be something equally pragmatic in Common, as well. The idea is that people really use these spells, after all – they don’t know they are just in a game, and should pick evocative titles...

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

“nobody's really going to call a potion/spell "Cure Light Wounds" or "Alter Self," for instance, that'd just be stupid.”…is quite interesting, I think.
I agree that when I imagine people referring to spells and potions in Common, I do imagine more interesting names. So, I don’t think that a potion says CLW on it…but I do think it is labeled with whatever the spell name is in Common. Spells are specific in the D&D world – they would have specific names, I think. I’m not so sure that the name of a spell like Alter Self might not indeed be something equally pragmatic in Common, as well.

Probablly everyone has their own way to 'ID' potions. Whiel their might be some uniformity amongst practicioners of a certain sort (ie Druids, Clerics, Wizards, etc), you'll still find individual preferences. Clerics would very from god to god.

A potion of C.L.W. might be called a Potion of Health by Druids, Vitality of Kord by Clergy of Kord, Minor Positive Energy Infusion by Wizards, etc...

Although Positive Energy Infusion sound like some sort of enema to me. "The good news is we found an elixer of Cure Serious Wounds. The bad news is that you'll have to remove your armor (the lower part at least) for it to be 'administered'". "Also, it appears to have been sized for something size category huge. Now open wideeee."

 

[Mystery Man]

The magic users in my group are at the level where they just roll to go through the motions, but really they don't need to. They can take 10 and just know. It's never been a huge deal.

 

[The_Gneech]

In my game, about half the potions characters find in loot are labeled. If they buy a potion from the local Wise Woman or whomever, it's either labeled or in some kind of distinctive bottle.

-TG

 

[Janx]

...She might not even be literate to even consider actually writing any sort of a label. Even if literate, ink might be a luxury (as the cost of scribing new spells in a wizards spell book seems to indicate), so at best you might expect some simple, sloppy looking charcoal marks or engravings that might be meaningless to anyone else.

Therein lies the rub, she just labeled her potions. It might be actual letters, but she marked it in a system that she comprehended. As opposed to keeping a variety of random containers with random items about that she can't identify without effort.

Consider the villain with the mislabeled potions. He just finished dispatching the local heroes, whilst suffering grievious wounds. His loyal henchman comes upon his fallen form, and begins pouring "healing" potions down his throat that he found in his lord's backpack.

Who ever mislabels their stuff to screw the enemy when they die is planning on defeat, not victory. Such folk rarely live long enough to become supreme overlords.

Janx

 

[Faraer]

In the Realms, a common set of potion symbols is given in Dragon #285 p. 88.

 

[jgsugden]

Virtually every potion is labelled in my games. However, many of the lables are misleading, are in foreign language, or are in code. I try to figure out where the potion may have originated and how it camr to be where it is, and then let that information guide how it is labelled.

For instance, if I roll up some cure light wounds potions and a shield of faith potion in the treasure of a small pack of goblins that are wandering around the wilderness, I make up a back story that the goblins recently killed a local merchant that was carrying the potions on his person. Accordingly, I might have the potions labelled in common, labelled in the merchant's personal code, or not labelled at all (as he'd have no trouble keeping straight which was which).

 

[Ace]

Potions are commidity items IMC and are usually labelled and come in certain distinct colors, textures and tastes. FREX a healing potion is Kool Aid red ( its a Diablo pun of course) and taste sweetish if you are hurt. Most healing potions are made this way

-- Healing Slave (which requires time to put on and is cheaper) looks like blueish vaseline and tastes awful

There are occasional varients and labels do come off though

 

[adwyn]

With regards to the misslabeling, IMC there are no "disposable" containers - people reuse whenever possible, so while a potion from a high end shop might be labeled, that same bottle with the labeled inscribed might contain something different when bought from a hedge wizard in a backwater town.

In fact one party nearly came to a dire end when they mistook the small glaziers craftsman's mark on the bottom of several vials as a label of the contents.