Topic: Use Prepared Herb question

[runequester]

Is this skill only used for herbs with an "apply" method (i.e. not brews or ingested) or is it used for all of them ?

On one hand, I like having a little limitation on the herbage to avoid this turning into resident evil, but on the other hand, I cant imagine that you can mess up eating berries

[yammahoper]

I find this skill almost silly.

If you know how to prepare the herb, ot follows you know how to apply it.  If the herb is already prepared, and in the berry example lets say the berries must be boiled down into a concentrated potion with some additives to counter the bitterness and counter the nausea they cause, well, general instructions by the seller should be all the PC needs...unless he buys stolen goods from someone who has no idea how to use the herb properly, then buyer beware.

So if you use the skill, it should convey how herbs are to be used, meaning the prep they require.  I guess it is possible to know how to apply/use something without knowing how to make it...liike a computer program, for instance.

lynn

[markc]

Is this skill only used for herbs with an "apply" method (i.e. not brews or ingested) or is it used for all of them ?

On one hand, I like having a little limitation on the herbage to avoid this turning into resident evil, but on the other hand, I cant imagine that you can mess up eating berries

 This is something that has come up many times so if you need more info I would do a search.

 But if you are not playing a game that is "herb intensive" then just throw out the skill. IMO the skill is in there to be used with herb lore, prepair herb and use prepaired herb. Herbs back in the day did not come in such easy packages as pills and did not hold thier potency unless they were unprepaired. But they were instead a mini chemistry experiment to get the compound you needed. Some games like this level of detail and some do not. So it is up to the GM to declair how his game is going to be run. There are also some good rules in the Essence Comp about herb useage and preperation and what form the prepaired herb is in. Tincture in the main one I remember off the top of my head but there are others.

MDC

Edit:
 the other thing i forgot to say was that you could have most "useages" of the hrb an easy or very easy task and give them a high modifier to use it. Like +100 or +70 to there roll to use the herb.
MDC

[Joshua24601]

The plethora of herb skills is indeed nutty..  I use all the skills and just look at them a specialties/complementary skills.

Flora Lore would recognize some herbs (common ones)... but this isn't a herb skill... a PC can recognize a herb, but dosen't really know how it works... so wouldn't know to apply it externally or internally, brew it or eat it...

Herb Lore.  This is complete knowledge as to herbs... and what gives them their effective result.  Herb lore will identify herbs found, and be very useful when foraging.  This also includes knowledge of what makes a herb effective, so helps in the preparation process and application... I give a +1 bonus to each, prepare and using prepared herb skills for each rank in herb lore.

Prepare Herbs.  This is the process of transforming the herb from its raw state to a purified state, it as much a crafting skill as a knowledge.  It can also allow the user to attempt to concentrate herbs, making them more potent, combine herbs (into for example, one tea that has the effect of two distinct herbs), change the herbs method of application, as well as make other 'on-the-fly' tweaks.  Obviously herb knowledge is a necessity here and well as application... so again, each rank in this skill gives a +1 bonus to Herb Lore and Using Prepared Herbs.

Using Prepared Herbs.  This skill I think of as knowing how to get maximum effect from herbs... I think of it like the knowledge that a pharmacist has... he knows how much you should take and when.  To make this skill useful I call the listed effects for herbs, the optimum effect.  A town healer/herbalist might sell a PC herbs and tell them how to use them to deal with one bleeding location, or one specific poison.  But unless he's addressing the same problem, with the same herb, and same quality of herb, the PC's got to use this skill.  Think of herbs, not a bandages, or potions, but as drugs.  Lack of this skill or utter failure would result in the herb only being 50% effective, or even completely wasted, it could even cause a side effect... (ie: most anti-biotics will fight an infection, however the use of the wrong ones will meet with more limited results, and possibly cause other side effects like digestive tract problems)... again, because of the large number of herb skills, I give +1 to Herb Lore and Preparation for each rank in this skill.

[Dark Schneider]

No, IMO is the skill to convert a raw herb to medicine form (capsules, infusions etc.). If an herb is not in medicine form I require an 'use herb' roll to use it in raw form, you need to clean and know the part to use, mix with other substances, etc. and this is part of the 'use herb' skill in my game.

The other use for 'use herb' (in my game) are for apply herbs with difficulty 5 or more (medicine for medical staff).

As you mention in Resident Evil, you could allow to mix herbs so you have variuos effects in 1 dose (faster to use as you can use 1 herb per round), but you should penalize it increasing the total addition factor, for example, you could use: AF_mixed = (AF_herb_1 + ... + AF_herb_n) x 1,5. If 1,5 is too much you can modify it as you want for your game.

[Elton Robb]

What is interesting is that I have GURPS: Low Tech (3rd Edition); and they talked about how Medicine had evolved through the ages.  If I remember correctly, how the Herbs are used in Rolemaster are based on Stone Age Naturopathy.

In the bronze, Iron, and Medieval Ages; naturopaths developed more sophisticated ways of creating medicines.  Tinctures, syrups, infusions, extractions, poultices were all used to concentrate the medicinal quality of herbs.

I think the skill should be replaced with "Prepare Herbs."  Higher level skills mean better techinques at getting the medicinal quality out of the herb.  Although there are some exceptions.

[Arioch]

You may find this topic useful:

http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=5841.0