I am sure I have also seen somewhere on the 'net at least one "real world" herb list, although I don't think it was much more than a list of herbs and their (supposed) properties - some of which are undoubtably true, and others just folklore - it may have been in some FTP archive, and I can't for the life of me remember wwhere, but I am sure a search engine would tuen up something similar if it would be any use
>Also, who would be interested in my producing a much more detailed
>listing of healing herbs and their uses, preparation, cultivation, etc.?
>Along with descriptions of the illnesses they cure? The rules-effects will
>be no different to what we already have, I just want the atmosphere.
>Would anyone else use it?
>
Yes - it need not be all that detailed, (the aforementioned MERP list just gave a code for Climate/Locale/Difficulty of finding (ie mod to your roll) and a form/preparation (where form would be, for instance, leaf, fruit, root, berry, moss etc and preparation would be Brew (boil up for 20 rounds and drink), Ingest (swallow, chew, drink or inhale as appropriate) or Apply (takes 1-10 rounds to prepare and then apply to the area of the injury, which I assume can be anything from just slap the leaf on (like a dock leaf vs Nettles) to mixing as a poultice and applying with bandages...), along with (obviously) a name and effect, and a "normal" cost. We played that a character would only recognize certain of listed herbs anyway, so for RQ you would roll your (modified) healing plants skill to decide which ones you knew at character generation, and would then need to get training from other healers to recognize other plants and know how to prepare them. (Kind GM's may allow you to recognise/remember something on a critical roll "in the field" - especially when their last encounter has just decimated the party :-). This level of detail is certainly not huge but definitely adds more atmosphere than just "healing herbs" and "healing potions" - in fact it often seemed that searching out Herbs was an integral part of our MERP campaign (and, from a GM's point of view, it does get characters to stray off the beaten track as they go climbing the mountain or exploring in the forest as it is just the right location for a particularly rare or useful herb.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Tim Ellis EMail tim_at_timellis.demon.co.uk | | What is the use of a book without pictures or conversations? | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #143
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