Topic: Herb skills

[rafmeister]

I argue that turning the tincture into a watered solution for ingestion would still fall under the Prepare Herbs skill. 

If both ingested and brewed herbs require a successful Use Prepared Herbs roll to use, then they are useless for a wide range of characters.  My animist is a woodsman, and I noticed that even though woodsmen can take herbs instead of money as a background option, they don't get Use Prepared Herbs as a hobby skill option. 

What use is it to carry around herbs as a 1st level character when you only have a 5% chance of being able to use them? 

     Preparing a tincture would require 2-6 weeks of time. Once prepared, it is in a form ready to use. Remembering whether to apply it to the surface of the skin or serve it in a drink would require the apply prepared herb skill.

[Urbannen]

     Preparing a tincture would require 2-6 weeks of time. Once prepared, it is in a form ready to use. Remembering whether to apply it to the surface of the skin or serve it in a drink would require the apply prepared herb skill.

Okay, you're just disagreeing with me again.  I see one interesting problem with what you're saying.  That is, I haven't yet seen an herb in the Rolemaster game that can be prepared in more than one way.  They all say either 1. brew, 2. ingest, or 3. apply.  Certainly my knowledge isn't exhaustive.  Are multi-preparation tinctures found in some product? 

Look at the RMSS/RMFRP herb chart.  Under Form and Preparation it says:

Brew - Effective when drunk 20 rounds after water is boiled
Ingest - Immediately usable and may be eaten, chewed, drunk, or inhaled, whichever is appropriate
Apply - requires 1-10 rounds to prepare; herb is applied directly onto injured area

Now, you could definitely say that 'brewing' and 'ingesting' require some knowledge.  'Brewing' requires that you leave the herb in boiling water for 2 minutes and then that the patient drink the brew.  'Ingesting' requires that the patient understand which kind of ingestion is appropriate, whether eating, chewing, drinking, or inhaling. 

That said, it is very hard to understand why it is necessary to get a result of 111 in order to know you have to brew your tea for 2 minutes and then drink it, or in order to know you have to eat your loaf of herbal bread. 

The only way this works in play is if 1. the character is already an herbalist-type or 2. the GM gives massive circumstance bonuses and ignores any results that aren't successes. I suspect a lot of GMs do just that. 

On the other hand, 'apply'-type herbs are less straightforward and seem like they would need more specialized knowledge to use.  How many rounds of prep exactly?  What is the physical process of application: bandaging, rubbing, or something else?  It seems like needing a skill would make sense.  And the skill does say 'apply' and not 'brew' or 'ingest' after all.

If you require this skill for brew and ingest herbs in your game (and probably most people don't even bother), most players will quickly stop using herbal remedies rather than lose the dose (and equivalent money) when they fail to get a 111 result.  One possible way around it is to use the Use Prepared Herbs check of the prescribing herbalist or doctor instead of the character's.  You could say that the herbalist is really the one doing the using and the patient is just following the instructions. 

[markc]

Urbannen,
 A a chemist I can say that the guidlines are very basic in the rule book but they are expanded upon in Hands of the Healer [MERP] and another RMSS product that I cant think of right now. Most pills, medicine we take today is easy to consume but in the past it was generally more difficult to get the right drug without some unpleasent side effects.
 I think your argument has merit but for those games that do use the more advanced rules thier has to be an allowance also. I can say that I have played in 2 games that lasted about 2 years each in which we used the more advanced rules. It was a nice change and a lot of fun as it made us appreciate the those with haling spells in our group a lot more as we did not have a instant cure in a pouch or bottle. We also looked for, traded herbs, and found prepairers of herbs extensivly in all the reigons we traveled. It became a central part of one game and a side plot of another.

 IMO the key is to use what is right for your own game and then stick with it. I know that the mire complex rules would not have been valid for the first 6+ years I gamed. That was not what out group was into and it would have slowed the game down. But now we look for more detail and like the more advanced rules. I think we find more enjoyment if finding that we cannot do something and having to work around it then having characters that have an answer for everything.

 I think it was Kieth Richards quoting Jonny Chash saying "It not the notes we can play that make good music but the fact that we do not play those notes" . Or somthing along those lines.

MDC 

MDC

[Dark Schneider]

I think we can assume that this skill is only necessary for 'application'-type herbs.

If you read my post:

4) Use herbs: this skills is needed for those medicines that usually are used by medical personnel, I usually only requires to use this skill for herbs with difficulty 5+ that are used by 'application', and maybe some infusion if I determine that it has exact cooking time or must be combined with other substances, but usually not.

Maybe this is reasonable for you, the brew part is optional, so you can use it only for apply-herbs with rarity 5+.

[Urbannen]

It's a reasonable house rule.  It makes the Use Prepared Herbs skill very specialized, so that most players don't have to worry about it.  It would be found mainly in NPC medical professionals.