DMG Reflections: Potion Miscibility

Mage Hand is a handy spell after all!

I've said this before, the 1st edition Dungeon Master's Guide is my favorite D&D book of all time. I know I'm not alone in this sentiment. There's not a dull day that goes by that I can't pick up this book, flip to a random page and find something in it that I don't ever remember reading. The DMG is mostly packed with information useful to gaming yet often there are entries that are so esoterical that they border on useless. But that's the beauty of the DMG, because once in a blue moon a situation might arise in a DM's game and lo and behold Gygax has it covered. One of these oddly improbable situations is the Potion Miscibility Table (Pg 119).


"The magical mixtures and compounds which comprise potions are not always compatible. You must test the miscibility of potions whenever:

1) two potions are actually mingled, or
2) a potion is consumed by a creature while another such liquid already consumed is still in effect.

...it is suggested that the following table be used - with, perhaps, the decision that a 'delusion' potion will mix with anything, that 'oil of slipperiness' taken with 'oil of etherealness' will always increase the chance for the imbiber to be lost in the Ethereal Plane for 5-30 days to 50%, and 'treasure finding' mixed mixed with any other type of potion will always yield a lethal poison. Whatever certain results you settle upon for your campaign, the random results from the table apply to all other cases."

This level of detail can only be found in old school D&D. As the editions rolled on by, drinking multiple potions became as superfluous as drinking different colors of kool-aid, while mixing two potions together in the same container is an unthinkable action to today's gamer. But with the Potion Miscibility Table there is some interesting side effects that a gambling player could exploit:

• (01) EXPLOSION! Internal damage is 6-60 h.p., those within a 5" radius take 1-10 h.p. If mixed extenally, all in a 10' radius take 4-24 hit points, no save.
• (02-03) Lethal poison results, and imbiber is dead; if externally mixed, a poison gas cloud of 10' diameter results, and all within it must save versus poison or die.
• (04-08) Mild poison which causes nausea and loss of 1 point each of strength and dexterity for 5-20 rounds, no saving throw possible.; one potion is cancelled, the other is at half-strength and duration.
• (09-15) Immiscible. Both potions totally destroyed, as one cancelled the other.
• (16-25) Immiscible. One potion cancelled, but the other remains normal (random selection).
• (26-35) Immiscible result which causes both potions to be at half normal efficacy when consumed.
• (36-90) Miscible. Potions work normally unless their effects are contradictory, e.g. diminution and growth, which will simply cancel each other.
• (91-99) Compatible result which causes one potion (randomly determined) to have 150% normal efficacy. (You must determine if both effect and duration are permissible, or if only the dureation should be extended.)
• (00) DISCOVERY! The admixture of the two potions has caused a special formula which will cause one of the two potions only to function, but its effects will be permanent upon the imbiber. (Note that some harmful side effects could well result from this...)        

There you have it. The drawbacks seem to outweigh the advantages, but if you think about that one in a hundred chance of a permanent effect from mixing two potions, it goes a long way to explaining things in canon like the extraordinary abilities and lifespans of quasi-deities like Heward, Murlynd and Keoghtom, or the abundance of transformed monstrosities like liches, animus, mongrel-men and some yuan-ti. The Potion Miscibility Table is not hard to implement in any edition and I guarantee it'll add an air of suspense to these items that players take for granted.

Greyhawk Reading: Gygaxian Insults

Much to my dismay I still only own Gygax's first three Gord novels. Having read Sea of Death recently and posted on it extensively, I was reminded of how humorous a lot of Gygax's characters are when they curse and cast insults at each other. This is especially true of Iuz, Obmi the dwarf and Gord himself. It made me reflect on how I roleplay villains and henchmen. I'm not sure I am liberal enough with insulting my player's characters. Given that I'm running a piratical campaign, this is important you see.

Anyhow, I went back and skimmed through Saga of Old City and Artifact of Evil to see how consistent Gygax's insults were, and yes indeed he loved to hurl them out in all three. Without reading the books, you can tell these insults are written by him too, because they have that certain "pulpy wordplay" feel that was so common in everything Gygax did. I can only imagine he got more proficient at linguistic lambasting in his latter novels. Just to share, here are several of what I would call his "PG-13" insults. I hope you enjoy you flithy, rotten maggots!"

Saga of Old City

"stinking yellow mongrel"

"Excuse me? Would you mind repeating
what you just said about me?"

"vagabonds, liars and chicken stealers"

"gutless piss-pants"
"buggermaster fattybald"
"drunken stewpot"
"bloated windbag"

Artifact of Evil
"inferior mongrel"
"half-breed reprobate"
"louse-ridden cranium"
"fonkin, frightface, foul fool!"
"long-eared turd eater"
"rot your skinny pizzle"

Sea of Death
"bandy-legged bastard"
"nighted bag of offal!"
"crooked dungheap"
"insolent whelp"
"pack of curs"
"lickspittle dogs"

GH Comic #305: Fellowship Broken

Yup, it's that time again! For those who haven't followed along since the beginning of the current story arc, it actually begins at the end of the previous one. There are links at the bottom to navigate from there, or to go back and read some of the gods in space's previous adventures. Enjoy!

Read the current episode here.

Sea Princes: Hybrid Seafaring Rules

One of the things I've learned DMing all these years is that when you get into a seafaring campaign you're in for some extra work. I think next to psionics, one of the most extensively rewritten aspects of D&D is their sailing rules. In my research to bring ship rules to my Sea Princes campaign I've seen the whole spectrum of rules from no-frills to extreme simulation. I put all these in a hat and with a 3.5e campaign in mind, created a hybrid system of my own. This is some highlighted points of what I'm using:

Navigation: (Stormwrack) Three skill check fails and you're miserably lost. Maps or no maps.

Evasion of encounters: (Expert Set rule converted to 3.5) I like this simply elegant system for ship/monster chases. It's just an opposed skill roll modified by relative speeds. No messy chase systems that will take half the game session and the fact that encounters can be avoided speeds up sessions as well. 

Movement rate and Wind Modifiers: (Stormwrack) This was lifted from the book. I saw no issues with it as it compared favorably with other editions. A typical caravel will make 30 miles a day average which is the exact length of a GH map hex.

Weather generation: (Stormwrack) Their chart was simplified enough that it still broke things down into cold, temperate and warm climates. Sure I'd love to use the official World of Greyhawk Weather Generator but its one of those uber-simulations that really slows the game down.

Damage from weather: (1e DMG with 3.5 conversion) This one I couldn't pass up. To create some quick random trouble on stormy voyages, now there are percentage chances for things to happen to the ship; from capsizing (there is a save for this one) to broken masts to crew falling overboard.

Repairing damage: (1e DMG) I went with an overall Hull Value system for ships instead of treating each damn section of the ship with HP like Stormwrack did. Consequently this makes damaging and repairing rules fast and low maintenance.

Grappling and Ramming: (Stormwrack/Expert Set) There were many ways to handle this and opposed skill rolls by the capatain seemed to fit the edition best. Ramming damage is the amped up version from the Expert Set as opposed to the feeble damage in Stormwrack that would have ships bouncing off each other.

Ship stats: (Stormwrack/Expert/1e DMG) For the most part I lifted these straight from Stormwrack including seaworthiness and ship-handling skill modifiers, cost and crew compliment. Their Hull Value and Armor Class I worked out from older sources. I changed greatship to galleon and I added the carrack by my own design to fill in a gap in ship size from caravel to galleon.

Ship weapons: (1e DMG/Stormwrack) This one is mainly derived from the siege weapon system in 1st edition with some tweaks by me that lead into my rules for handling fires. For instance, 10 flaming arrow hits do no hull damage but cause a roll on the burn chart where a Fireball spell explodes for .5 HV damage per die and a burn chart check per 5 dice.

Burn damage: (1e DMG/Expert Set) This hybrid system is a chart that is rolled on anytime an attack method causes a fire to spread. Depending on how high the roll is, the fire acts is staged in how much hull damage it causes each round. The five stages run from Minor to Critical in keeping with 3.5 names. Extra fires of a lower stage than the ship is currently burning do no extra damage but accumulate to raise it to the next stage. Then, in keeping with the Expert set, a simple system of 5 or more crew to reduce these fires a stage is used.

Encounters: (Stormwrack/Slavers/Drg #116) This one took a lot of time and is still a work in progress. I used 3.5 edition encounter rates, ship specific encounters from the High Seas article in Dragon #116, and I cobbled together several d100 encounter lists from varying sources. Notable is a sublist I gathered from various sources of Special Events. Sometimes an encounter isn't always a monster or ship. I came up with two d100 charts of various other sea-based events that could happen on a voyage. I can't wait!

I still have to playtest a lot of this stuff so I won't be publishing these rules, but maybe someday I'll refine them for public consumption. Comments and advice are welcome any time.

Greyhawk Reading: Sea of Death Notes

I've finally finished reading Sea of Death. Over a couple posts I've been looking at Gygax's post-TSR novel with a slant towards using it as canon material. Nothing mentioned here is considered a major plot spoiler and if you have the chance I would try and find an old copy of this paperback novel. By Greyhawk standards, it's an incomparable view of how a Baklunish-Sea of Dust run should be. This week I conclude my report with some excerpted cultural information that might come in handy for my own Ull scribings.

First off, remember in this novel Gygax has renamed a number of locations, so Yoll, is the same as saying Ull, and Yolakand is synonymous with the capital Ulakand. Easy enough to go with, let's see what else Gygax did with the Yollites.

Arroden hate Yollites: In this story, the Arroden tribesmen are dervishes of the Dry Steppes. They are fickle as any nomad raiders should be, but they do allow caravans from Ghastoor (Kester) on through to Karnoosh (Kanak) as long as there aren't Yoli among them. In this case they must pay a "tariff" which the Arroden tongue-in-cheekily tell Gord (the hero in Sea of Death) is plunder and death. Fair enough Arroden, the Yoli probably enjoy a good fight.

Yollites enjoy a good fight: As if there was any doubt, Yollites are brash and warlike. In one part of the book, a group of Yollites battle another Baklunish tribe, the Okmani (from the hills of Okmanistan I kid you not). Both are similarly armed being close relatives culturally. All are mounted on horses, using scimitars, lances, short bows and small shields. It is mentioned that the Yollites "casually" fight until they are outnumbered then they truly become fierce. Combat to Yoli is all fun and games, until someone puts their eye out, then it's on!

Battle cries and tribal colors: Here is something you'll never find in a Greyhawk supplement. In the same melee mentioned above, the Okmani and Yollites scream their battle cries as they charge into combat. The Okmani yell "Yii-Yii-Yii Okman!" while the Yollites shout back "Yoll-Yoll-Yoll!" That is pure Gygaxian flair right there. Like a good tribal skirmish should be, both sides are sporting their colors as well. The Okmani wear green and gray striped cloaks, while the Yoli are dressed in flame red/pink and red checkered garb. This is quite interesting as Ull's flag in the game setting is ochre so I always assumed that was the favored color for their garb. Red is a more aggressive color however, so I can see at least some warbands in that land using that hue (I won't get into what they use for dye).

Yoli are relentless horsemen: Gord tries to make an escape on horseback and is doggedly chased by a band of Yollite horsemen. They don't gallop after him however, they track along "a few miles back" apparently in no hurry (reminds me of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). They are in their home territory, Gord is the outsider (Ourmi as they call easterners) and they know he will eventually wear out. The Yollites do this for no less than two and a half days. What would your player characters do if the bad guys followed them for that long? Probably the same thing Gord does.

Yollites are master bow-crafters: Gord and his companion come into possession of a short bow of Yoli make and Gygax describes its strength and quality. It's a composite bow made of "horn, sinew and wood". If it were up to me, those materials would be "minotaur horn", "ogre-sinew", and "bronzewood". Masterwork indeed!

Yollites are fearless mercenaries: One of the main antagonists in the book is Obmi the evil dwarf. As villains go he is destructive, cruel and hard to please. He hires Yoli mercenaries to travel with him through the bulk of the novel. Sure the Yollites are expendable, but never once do they shirk their duty or run away, unlike lesser Baklunish tribesmen in the story when confronted with the hardships of the "Ashen Desert" (Sea of Dust). Yes, reading Sea of Death has only reaffirmed my belief that the people of Yoll (Ull) are the meanest, most rugged warriors in the World of Greyhawk setting. Thank you Gygax!

Oerth Journal Back in Production

I'm a bit late reporting on this news, posted on my "home site" Canonfire, yeah, but I've known about it for much longer. I was in "wait-and-see mode" I guess. For those who don't know, Oerth Journal is a long running Greyhawk ezine started back in the 2nd edition era by many notable fans of the setting when Greyhawk had been put into hiatus, much like it is today. So now, Oerth Journal is back in production (it never really stopped per se) and hopefully with this shot in the arm we'll see some new Greyhawk fan talent put their stuff out there. I for one have already been a frequent contributor to the Oerth Journal in the past, as both a writer and artist. It's highly likely I'll be in one of their future efforts as well. Ideally I'm hoping for an exciting new look format with this announcement. Being the most well-known fan-publication of Greyhawk material, it's worth a try for any lover of the setting who has ever wanted to see something of theirs published for a wide audience.

To their credit there is now a blog for Oerth Journal for those who want to submit ideas or ask questions. I'll keep y'all informed if I hear about any content that will be coming out in their issues to come. Later!

Update 4/11/2021: The OJ blog is no longer dedicated, so I'll now redirect you to the current Oerth Journal curator, GreyhawkOnline.

Fiction: That Infamous Key Part 5

Another episode of Mystic Scholar's entertaining Greyhawk City based story That Infamous Key is now up for your reading pleasure. For those who have just tuned in, there are links to the previous episodes over at Canonfire. The fifth episode features a trip to the Temple of Pholtus (watch out for some guy named Issak), a trip to the Green Dragon Inn (where dropping the name 'Mortellan' will get you ahead), and a trip to a gang's hideout. All in a day's work!