Why aren't potions labeled?

[Kwitchit]

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.

Middle Earth does though-
PO-TA-TOES...

 

[taliesin15]

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

ah, but just to be complete about this, let's not forget to mention here that the YAM (as opposed to the sweet potato) is indigenous to Africa, and pretty much brought over with African slaves to the New World, and to some extent Europe. Though not as much to the Middle East, even though the African slave trade was much larger and longer, the East Africans apparently didn't have as many yams.

back to on-topic matters...
besides the use of Arcane Mark, many Mages, with Super-High Intelligence, oft have many extra languages, some which might be obscure and archaic--they could be using some super odd dialect of Draconian (to use a d20 mainstream example) or, IMC, an obscure branch of Gaelic...another idea rarely if ever mentioned in AD&D (though I think Gygax made a passing reference to this at some point) is the use of a Cypher or Cipher, in other words, a code language. FWIW, there are actual historical instances of "mages" using them, that is if you consider Dr. John Dee, court astrologer to Elizabeth I, and Edward Kelley mages...

 

[KarinsDad]

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.

So how come many PCs start out with 2 to 4 languages (read, write, and speak) each? They are basically linguists, a good majority of them.

The Commoner NPC is not listed as illiterate like the Barbarian.

The Expert NPC probably cannot afford to be illiterate.

And starting languages are based on race and Int ability score, not so much on class abilities unless a specific PC or NPC wants to take additional languages or the class adds an additional language.

So why would you make this assumption?

 

[Tinker]

IMHO most peasants etc. should be illiterate. I house rule that illiteracy is the default and if you want literacy you have to buy it.

So most people are illiterate. But most people don't buy potions. I would reckon most potion buyers would be literate, unless your campaign is really modelling an early-to-High Middle Ages society where literacy was mostly just for clergy (in DnD terms, Clerics and Wizards). I think it's more usual in DnD campaigns for most people with either a family background or a current career such as merchant, better-off artisan, cleric, wizard, military officer, etc. to be literate. These would be most of the potion-buying public.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Sometimes labeled, sometimes not. Sometimes just colored bottles.

If Bob, the Evil Barbarian only has three potions, and they are all Bull's Strength in red bottles then he does not need to strain his Int 6 brain trying to figure this out. If he buys a healing potion then he asks for a blue bottle....

Wally the Wizard, who brews his own and sells 'em on comission, buys labels and puts them on the bottles before he hands them over to his customer. For Bob he uses red bottles...

Ahnald the Artificer on the other hand may have a long label, with text that wraps around the bottle several times, including three puns, two languages, and a brief code that actually says what the potion is. But everyone agrees that Ahnald is weird....

The Auld Grump

 

[Sidekick]

Hmm some potions are labelled, some aren’t.

As an Eberron DM, those potions ‘mass produced’ by the houses (Cannith, Jorasco) or states are labelled. Usually with some form of colour coding or small emblem imprinted in the top of the cork/stopper.

But there’s nothing like a good old fashioned ‘potion B’. Especially when it turns up 3 adventures later and me as the DM has NO idea what it does.

I either just roll randomly or decide what would be appropriate/funny at the time.

They tend to be either cure potions, enlarge/reduce potions or sometimes occasionally a potion of mage armour or shield…

[trip down memory lane]I remember fondly in 2nd Ed when my gang were trying to loot from a red dragon. The rogue put on a pretty necklace from this chest.

It turned out to be a necklace of strangulation. He started to die.

So he picked an unmarked potion from the 5 or 6 in the chest and drank it in order to stay alive.

It was poison (randomly rolled).

That guy had ALL the bad luck I swear…

 

[Nail]

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

Two points:

• The spell does not say that. It's says "personal mark"...it does not say that a person may have only one kind of mark, and
• if a 0-th level spell can put on a permanent magical personal mark, then it's not too much of a stretch that a new 0th level spell could put some other mark.

Creativity, people! Are we stuck with only the spells in officially sanctioned WotC sources? Yeesh!

 

[papakee]

I wonder how many people label their tea or juice before putting it in the fridge. I know what it is by color and smell. No reason to label it other than for expediency.

If I found a jug of purple beverage in an abandoned alleyway, would I drink it or try to figure out what it was first? Would it matter if someone scrawled 'grapey juicy' on there with a marker?

 

[Nail]

I wonder how many people label their tea or juice before putting it in the fridge. I know what it is by color and smell. No reason to label it other than for expediency.

I wonder how many combat medics label the components of their first aid kits they use on the battle field? Surely they know what each component does by color and smell?

 

[papakee]

Medieval combat medics worked with herbs and roots, so I suppose they wouldn't need to label such things as they are the ones who had to collect them in the wild. Medics in the civil war era worked mostly with a saw, so no..I think they would know a saw when they see one.

I've not found any drawings or paintings from the medieval period that has contents labeled on the vats and vials they are using to make medicine. And the common drawings and descriptions of potions in literature more often than not, do not have them labeled. Labeling item contents is a fairly new concept.