Author Topic: Characters looking for herbs...  (Read 1865 times)

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Offline Barwickian

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Characters looking for herbs...
« on: January 14, 2018, 03:00:26 PM »
Herbs are one of the distinctive features of Rolemaster/MERP (in this case, I'm using MERP, informing it where necessary with RM2 and RMFRP).

Both systems have a good varied list of herbs, and rules for finding specific herbs. Neither system is particularly good at a general search for herbs.

By this I mean, if you're in Rhudaur (or northern Emer), looking for say, Elendil's Basket or Thurl, the rules are very clear. They are much less clear if you're spending 4 hours just looking around for any interesting herbs you may come across.

It's something that's always bugged me a little, but now I come back to running MERP (as a way of easing players into RM), it's bugging me again.

I'm wondering how other GMs handle it. I can see a few solutions.

(1) Don't sweat it - if the PC(s) searching make a successful roll, they find something useful. The GM will decide what they find. Old school ruling-not-rule. This is the way I've always handled it. It's easy. It leaves me a little dissatisfied, because the rules for looking for specific herbs are so... specific. And I have a tendency, as GM, to always pick the same few low-value, low-effect herbs, just because it seems so easy.

(2) Draw up a list of herbs to be found in the region. Assign probabilities based on difficulties of finding herbs. Roll on a table to see what's found. (Number of rolls based on number of doses found). Huzzah! A new table! This strikes me as being very MERP/RM. It's also work I don't particularly want to undertake.

(3) A slightly more complex variant on (2). A character's roll determines the herbs that may be found, based on their difficulty... If a character looking for herbs rolls, for example, 98 (dice + skill), they may find difficulty 1 or 2 herbs in the region, have an idea that difficulty 3 or 4 herbs are in the region (and try again), but not find difficult 5+ herbs. This strikes me as more realistic than option (2), and if I must put the legwork in, this is where I'd put it.

Any other thoughts? Is there a better way to handle it?

Offline Jengada

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Re: Characters looking for herbs...
« Reply #1 on: January 14, 2018, 03:46:43 PM »
I have exactly this issue right now. I've taken a two-pronged approach to it.
1 - If it's going to really tie up play time, I'll do something akin to your #1. I ask where and how long the player wants to search, then I tell them what they find.
2 - If it's potentially significant in any way - either what they find will affect the party's decisions, they might have encounters while out looking, or it may otherwise change my plans for plot direction - I do a bit more work. I make the player say where/how long/what they're after. If they're after something specific the character knows, I will just roll for whether it's there, then let them roll to see whether they find it. If they're just "looking for any of the useful things I know", then I may roll for whether each herb that COULD be in that area, is. Then do one roll with their "finding skill" (I would use foraging in my campaign). Use the Difficulty of Finding modifiers, and figure out what the least common herb their roll would find, then tell them they found that and some of each more common herb. Dose # would probably be proportional to how high they rolled, but inversely proportional to the Difficulty of the herb.

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Offline Hurin

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Re: Characters looking for herbs...
« Reply #2 on: January 14, 2018, 03:54:07 PM »
I have exactly the same issue, and have been asking for a better way of dealing with this for a long time now.

Right now, I am resorting to allowing PCs to make a find herbs roll (usually herb mastery). If it is successful, I roll randomly to see what they find. But what I really need for this to be good is a chart of herbs listed by biome, and some better way of finding out how many doses they find.

What I would really like is:

1. A maneuver chart for finding herbs, which gives a higher number of herbs found for a higher roll. I'd like to see this in RMU Character Law.
2. A list of herbs by biome. I would like to see this in RMU Treasure Law. If we can have a random coin shape generator, then we certainly should have a random herb generator by biome.
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Offline Hurin

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Re: Characters looking for herbs...
« Reply #3 on: January 14, 2018, 04:09:34 PM »
I should make clear: what I mean is that there is no static action/maneuver table for when you are just walking through the wilderness keeping an eye out for any useful herbs. All the tables and rules seem to be predicated on the idea that you are searching for only one useful herb. Even the old MERP book Hands of the Healer, which has tons of herbs and wonderful background on different healing traditions (eg. Dwarves using crystals and gems), and has maneuver tables for a whole host of techniques including preparing herbs, still does not have a simple chart for this.

The chart should adjust which herbs are found depending on rarity, meaning low rolls will find common herbs and high or open-ended ones will find the rare ones.

I will make one if I have to, but like Barwickian, I would prefer not to have to make my own homebrew if I don't have to.
'Last of all, Húrin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed'. --J.R.R. Tolkien

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Offline Nightblade42

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Re: Characters looking for herbs...
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2018, 10:14:45 PM »
Years ago I made up a chart listing herbs & poisons by region & by difficulty.  It was the easiest way I could find to resolving this issue.  Juts figure out what region/climate the PCs are in, have them make their roll & compare its success vs the difficulty raitings of the herbs & poisons that can be found there.  Then, if need be, make a roll to randomly determine what is found (i.e. if there are more then one herb/poison that has the same difficulty level).

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Offline jdale

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Re: Characters looking for herbs...
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2018, 10:34:54 PM »
I'm not sure it would make sense to do a chart for herb-finding in A&CL with no herbs to give as examples. A list of herbs by biome certainly sounds useful, as does a random herb table by biome, in Treasure Law. If it doesn't happen (I can only suggest and encourage), it seems like a great thing to submit to the GC.
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Offline intothatdarkness

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Re: Characters looking for herbs...
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2018, 10:45:17 PM »
When I did my world, one of the early things I did was break up the RM2 herb list by biome specific to my world. That way I was never at a loss when players went looking for herbs.

Herb locations and the like are (or should be) very setting-specific, and guidelines for developing that kind of thing rightly belong in a GM book or GM section (barring of course an official RMU setting of some kind). One of the prices for generic rules is you have to do quite a bit of the local color yourself.
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Offline Jengada

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Re: Characters looking for herbs...
« Reply #7 on: January 15, 2018, 12:13:29 AM »
When I did my world, one of the early things I did was break up the RM2 herb list by biome specific to my world. That way I was never at a loss when players went looking for herbs.

Herb locations and the like are (or should be) very setting-specific, and guidelines for developing that kind of thing rightly belong in a GM book or GM section (barring of course an official RMU setting of some kind). One of the prices for generic rules is you have to do quite a bit of the local color yourself.

I have herbs, poisons, and other useful plants in each region listed with habitat and frequency codes just like the creatures.
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Offline B Hanson

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Re: Characters looking for herbs...
« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2018, 08:10:43 AM »
The SW Encounter Table I posted up includes a random herb sub-chart that does take into account rarity. I use it for general searches, but it is for SW and probably excludes some of the MERP specific herbs like mirenna (sp?) and kingsfoil. It's organized by broad biomes.

http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=15879.0;attach=3176

It's also available over at Rolemasterblog.com without a user account.
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Offline Hurin

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Re: Characters looking for herbs...
« Reply #9 on: January 15, 2018, 10:47:19 AM »
Brian's Shadow World charts are exactly the thing I would like to see in RMU: herbs are listed by biome, and then you can roll percentile dice to see which ones you find. Perfect.

If we could have something similar in Treasure Law, that would be awesome. If there isn't an herb finding maneuver table, I will make one myself and submit it to the GC. From the fact that multiple people have had the same problem, I think it would be useful.
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Offline Jengada

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Re: Characters looking for herbs...
« Reply #10 on: January 15, 2018, 01:52:51 PM »
.
.
I have herbs, poisons, and other useful plants in each region listed with habitat and frequency codes just like the creatures.
I should have also noted, when I put an herb or plant (or original creature) into my world, I make a map showing its geographic distribution, just like you'd find in nature guidebooks. I include sketches of the whole plant and the useful part, or for creatures, the whole creature and the footprint.  (If I do it right, there'll be an example attached.)
We ask the hard questions here, because they keep us too busy to worry about the hard questions in the real world, and we can go with the answers we like the best.