Why aren't potions labeled?

[solkan_uk]

Usually not labelled, but only 'cause I've never thought about it.

Also "Potatoes spread to the rest of the world after European contact with the Americas in the late 1400s and early 1500s"

So it's not such a given really - not that D&D has much in common to any period of history.

 

[KarinsDad]

I'm just saying that whomever is making potions en masse for a group of gnolls probably doesn't even bother with labelling them since it won't make a difference anyway, but would be more work to them. People are, after all, lazy. =)

Sure that could happen.

But the majority of time, it probably would not.

How many caster leaders make potion expressly for a group of gnolls and does not make a variety of potions for himself as well? Would he want to get these confused?

Seriously. It takes a day to brew a potion and the guy is not going to take out 30 seconds to label it? Lazy does not even come into the picture.

If the potions are ordered, they would be ordered by someone who probably makes potions for a living and he too would label his product.


I'm not saying it could not happen, I'm saying it is unlikely (from a plausibility standpoint). Almost everyone who crafts potions would take out the time to label them unless they have a specific reason to not do so. In fact, labeling could be consider part of the crafting process (just like putting it in a vial).

 

[taliesin15]

"Mediaeval bag of chips" - hehe, I like that. It could be labelled "Seemeth to bee a kynde of fryed roote, mayhappe lyk untoo a persnippe or beete"

LOL! Bloody brilliant...
Well, I would think that most potions that are found are either going to be recently owned by the living (or until very recently living) NPCs/monsters, or else in the dungeon the party is ransacking where some centuries old high level mage had his headquarters, now the party has found his laboratory full of distillation funnels, alembics, and jars and jars of unknown solutions. Many of which have dessicated.
Anyway, in either case, I don't see why the potions would necessarily need to be labelled...

 

[SlagMortar]

Anyone who can afford more than 7 or 8 potions will probably have a handy haversack. No need for labels, just think of the item you need an it's on top.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Actually, my last character - a kobold dragon shaman - carried an unlabelled bottle of tabasco sauce, which he'd occasionally swig from. He didn't quite get the fact that his acid breath weapon was a supernatural ability, and thought it needed to be kept fuelled.

Nice!

I have used labelled, color-coded, scent-identifiable, and intentionally mis-labelled potions. Whatever adds to the fun of the game.

It is a nice bonus, too, for the character who speaks "classic gnoll" to be able to read the potion labels in the gnoll lair. Languages are often under-used.

 

[Patlin]

I've seen labels on some potions. But we do the spellcraft check anyway, just in case.

I label potions much of the time, but my players usually do the spellcraft check anyway, just in case. Somehow, they don't trust me!

Honestly, though... how many of your player characters have mislabeled potions just to get at the monsters that killed them post mortem? I bet most of them don't. Monsters aren't generally expecting to get killed by the PCs, after all...

 

[Bad Paper]

Every arcane potion maker has access to this spell, and there's no reason it couldn't also be a divine spell.

um, yes, but one caster cannot make up various Arcane Marks. He has his individual immutable tag that always appears the same.

 

[Tinker]

Potato history - skip if not interested

I wasn't going to do this, I really wasn't.

But the reaction to my potato gag made me curious enough to go check it on Wikipedia, and I saw Solkan UK's quote there in the first paragraph. But scroll down a little and there's a more precise date, so I now feel forced to share that with everyone.

"In the 16th century, the potato was introduced to Spain (the first record is from Sevilla, around the year 1570) and from there to the rest of Europe, North America, Africa and Asia."

Wikipedia places the end of the mediaeval period in the early 16th century when the Lutherans split from Rome. YMMV and of course any DnD campaign can have any elements it likes from any historical period or region, as well as all the fictional stuff.

also:
"It is believed that the original potato chip recipe was created by Native American/African American chef George Crum, at Moon's Lake House near Saratoga Springs, New York on August 24, 1853."

Though the article on French Fries, which are what we mean by "chips" here in the UK, says that there is a claim that the Spanish were frying sliced-up potatoes in the lifetime of St Teresa of Avila (d 1582). More reliable records of fried-potato recipes from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Interestingly the sweet potato came back with Columbus; you can make chips from that.

I really will shut up now.

On-topic figleaf: Older-edition versions of Arcane Mark used to let you place your personal rune plus a few other characters, which would be ideal for labelling potions by both function and maker.

 

[Storyteller01]

Probably already mentioned...

If you're dungeon crawling, there's no telling how long a potion's been down there. Not going into potion longevity, a non-engraved label will either deteriorate to the point of uselessness or become victim to moisture, animal saliva, bugs and vermin ripping up the label for nests, etc. It's pretty much why most scroll are (or should be) found in scroll tubes.

Reason Number two: Most games operate under the notion that a huge chunck of the population (commoners and such) are illiterate. Labeling a potion for commercial use wouldn't be much ghood beyond basic symbols.

 

[mvincent]

But the reaction to my potato gag made me curious enough to go check it on Wikipedia,

Don't even get me started on corn, tomatoes and capsicum peppers, which are now consider traditional items in Eastern countries, but were unknown prior to the Americas being discovered. Like the potato, Medieval Europe didn't really have them.