Do you guys pay attention to poison and potion onset times?

Faolyn

(she/her)
So I recently (finally) read through the Without Numbers games, and I kinda want to play them. Specifically Worlds Without Numbers, but using my own setting. I'll probably end up playing them solo (using something like Mythic) because my friends aren't too into OSR games and anyway, I don't really want to GM this.

Of course, my itch to make/convert monsters came out in full force, so I pulled out all my old 2e Monstrous Compendiums and am slowly getting to work. Which is when I came across monsters with poison. After looking up what type A, type F, etc. poisons did, since I'd forgotten, I saw that a lot of them have an onset time.

1736370950865.jpeg


And I remembered that potions didn't take effect immediately either.

So anyway, those of you who still play older editions or OSR games, do you care use onset time? Do you find it fun, or just unnecessary bookkeeping? Is it even used in modern OSR games? (I swear, I can barely find anything on poisons in WWN in the first place)
 

log in or register to remove this ad

I never did paid attention with potions taking time (not even sure I knew that was a rule). I do for poison since it's needed to make use of spells like slow and neutralise poison.
 

And I remembered that potions didn't take effect immediately either.
I never did paid attention with potions taking time (not even sure I knew that was a rule).
I just looked it up as I didn't recall this either. Drinking a potion added 1 to your initiative and had a speed factor of 1d4+1 to take effect. We never bothered using speed factors, it just added too of a headache for the DM for little reward.
So anyway, those of you who still play older editions or OSR games, do you care use onset time?
We did use onset times. I don't recall if the rules specified if a character knew they had been poisoned or not, but I'd suspect that it would depend on the type of poison encountered. Some examples. Injected poison from a Drow blade may leave signs around the wound. Contact poison may or may not, poison ivy or poison oak doesn't manifest for some time after contact. Ingested poison like drinking caustic bleach as opposed to eating poisoned Mom's Apple Pie would have two very different initial effects. Some effects would lead to tension if they know they've been poisoned but didn't know when it would take effect or what the effect would be, while others would be oblivious and unsuspectingly be afflicted at some random time, at which point panic sets in, or they drop dead. It added a fun element to the game instead of just saying to a player, you've been poisoned.
 

I just looked it up as I didn't recall this either. Drinking a potion added 1 to your initiative and had a speed factor of 1d4+1 to take effect. We never bothered using speed factors, it just added too of a headache for the DM for little reward.
Yeah. Having to digest a potion for it to take effect makes sense in an "extreme realism" way, but I doubt more than a handful of people actually had the memory or patience for such a thing.

I honestly can't remember if any 2e game I was ever in used speed factors, especially for non-weapon things. In retrospect, they make no sense because rounds were a minute long. If your round is just a few seconds then every fraction of a second counts, but at a minute long, nah.

We did use onset times. I don't recall if the rules specified if a character knew they had been poisoned or not, but I'd suspect that it would depend on the type of poison encountered. Some examples. Injected poison from a Drow blade may leave signs around the wound. Contact poison may or may not, poison ivy or poison oak doesn't manifest for some time after contact. Ingested poison like drinking caustic bleach as opposed to eating poisoned Mom's Apple Pie would have two very different initial effects. Some effects would lead to tension if they know they've been poisoned but didn't know when it would take effect or what the effect would be, while others would be oblivious and unsuspectingly be afflicted at some random time, at which point panic sets in, or they drop dead. It added a fun element to the game instead of just saying to a player, you've been poisoned.
Definitely sounds like it would be fun. For me, at least. I can see some of my current group getting annoyed at it.
 

I honestly can't remember if any 2e game I was ever in used speed factors, especially for non-weapon things.
IIRC speed factors were optional, and I too never played with anyone that used them. Once in a great while we used initiative modifiers when it really mattered and made sense to impose them but didn't bother with those much either. Same with spell casting times. These were all meant to keep players/DMs from constantly choosing and using the most damaging weapons and spells to level the playing field. It's great to wield a two-handed sword or blast off fireballs but not so great if you're attacked multiple times each round before you get a chance to use them.
Definitely sounds like it would be fun. For me, at least. I can see some of my current group getting annoyed at it.
The game has definitely evolved, or devolved, depending on how you look at it. I see it as just different, not better or worse, just a different play style than 25-30 years ago.

One of my favorite memories regarding onset times while not quite poison onset time but the same concept. I looked but I can't find the encounter but it's from a Forgotten Realms adventure. Its either Beneath the Twisted Tower or one of the Randal Morn trilogy adventures. At some point the players come across some giant spiders. They defeat them and while searching the lair they discover a pulsating sac. Players being players one of them decides to pick it up and put it in his backpack. 1d4+1 hours later the sac hatches and releases 1000s of tiny baby spiders that proceed to attack. It was hilarious. Now that I'm thinking about it as both those adventures had a few encounters with spiders I'm wondering if I made that encounter up. Around the time we were playing those adventures I was leaving my house and noticed a decent sized spider on the molding of the outside door, and next to it was what looked like small wasps nest or cocoon. Stupidly I touched it and it disintegrated, and 1000s of spiders came out. Some blew away in the wind but most of them just crawled on the side of the house. They were there for a few days until it rained. It's been so long I honestly can't remember after 30 years, but regardless both encounters happened.
 

We always used the onset times. And Type E poison remains the golden child (if you have access to it) or the absolute worst (if you have to face against it).
 

We always used the onset times. And Type E poison remains the golden child (if you have access to it) or the absolute worst (if you have to face against it).
<goes to check Type E>

Ah, AD&D and your save and die poisons. Those were fun. (For a given definition of the word fun, of course.)
 

One of my favorite memories regarding onset times while not quite poison onset time but the same concept. I looked but I can't find the encounter but it's from a Forgotten Realms adventure. Its either Beneath the Twisted Tower or one of the Randal Morn trilogy adventures. At some point the players come across some giant spiders. They defeat them and while searching the lair they discover a pulsating sac. Players being players one of them decides to pick it up and put it in his backpack. 1d4+1 hours later the sac hatches and releases 1000s of tiny baby spiders that proceed to attack. It was hilarious. Now that I'm thinking about it as both those adventures had a few encounters with spiders I'm wondering if I made that encounter up. Around the time we were playing those adventures I was leaving my house and noticed a decent sized spider on the molding of the outside door, and next to it was what looked like small wasps nest or cocoon. Stupidly I touched it and it disintegrated, and 1000s of spiders came out. Some blew away in the wind but most of them just crawled on the side of the house. They were there for a few days until it rained. It's been so long I honestly can't remember after 30 years, but regardless both encounters happened.
I'd love to do something like that--the spider nest--in one of my horror games, but too many of my players are arachnophobic.
 

I'd love to do something like that--the spider nest--in one of my horror games, but too many of my players are arachnophobic.
I found the spider sac encounter; it was in Beneath the Twisted Tower. I didn't make it up, but it appears I modified it a bit.

I had a player that actually quit playing because in the summer we'd play in my garage because she was afraid of the possibility of coming across spiders. It was odd because we never even saw any spiders in there when we played.
 

Attachments

  • Huge Spider.jpg
    Huge Spider.jpg
    40.6 KB · Views: 17

I found the spider sac encounter; it was in Beneath the Twisted Tower. I didn't make it up, but it appears I modified it a bit.

I had a player that actually quit playing because in the summer we'd play in my garage because she was afraid of the possibility of coming across spiders. It was odd because we never even saw any spiders in there when we played.
A dungeon I ran a while back has a fun similar surprise with cockatrice eggs. :)
 

Remove ads

Top