Herb Gathering

Herb Gathering

One of my players wanted his character to use his Naturalist skill to find some valuable herbs to earn some money. This prompted me to investigate the rules and finding that there's no out-of-the-box solution to this somewhat simple request. As a temporary ruling, I ruled that this is similar to a job roll for the gatherer - this worked for that purpose, but what if the character wanted to find something more concrete? Let's see.

First, let's see what the herbs can be used for:

1. They can have medicinal uses.

2. They can be used as materials for herbal potions made with Herb Lore.

3. They can be used as materials for poisons made with Poisons.

4. They can serve as mundane countermeasures against psionics, if you're using the psychobotanics variant instead of psychotronics.

5. They can be valuable (dyes, spices, tea, etc.).

Medicinal herb categories are listed on pp. LT150-151. We have the following:

1. Analgesic

2. Antiemetic

3. Anti-infective

4. Anti-inflammatory

5. Aquaretic

6. Astringent

7. Calmative

8. Carminative

9. Cathartic/Purgative

10. Cholagogue

11. Coagulant

12. Demulcent

13. Emetic

14. Expectorant

15. Febrifuge/Antipyretic

16. Rubefacient

17. Sedative

18. Stimulant

19. Tonic (promotes fitness)

20. Tonic (stabilizes women's hormonal cycles)

21. Vermifuge

22. Vulnerary

If you read the effects of these herbs, you will see that some of them are highly specific. This makes the nature of disease important (something I took into account in my random disease generator). GURPS Low-Tech says that you can buy the herbs and that the first aid kit (p. LT146) contains these herbs - however, no prices are given for the herbs. Since the kit contains bandages ($10, ibid) and these raw herbs/drugs, and the kit itself costs $50, we can assume that the herbs cost no more than $40. If we assume that the kit has 6 uses (like the bandages), this gives us ~$6.667 per dose of all herbs. If we assume that all categories of herbs are equivalent in price, we get the price of $0.3 per dose of any one herb category.

GURPS Low-Tech Companion 1 has a list of herbs with their actual names for all the categories, and many herbs fit multiple categories. If we look at the table on p. 26, we will notice that some of the categories have more specific variants (such as Tonic (vs. heart disease)), and that we have two new categories:

23. Contraceptive

24. Abortifacient

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 8: Treasure Tables also has some valuable non-medicinal herbs, such as tea leaves.

According to p. 45 of GURPS Low-Tech Companion 3, a gatherer earns $400 per month, adjusted for margin of success or failure. This job requires Area Knowledge-12 and Survival-12. Herbs are listed among the products gathered, so we might be able to derive something from this. There are 22 work-days in a month, so a gatherer earns about $18 per day, assuming he succeeds on every roll. With effective skill 12, he has a 74.1% chance of success. To account for that, we have to increase the daily earning to $24. As per the foraging rules in GURPS Basic Set and GURPS DF 16: Wilderness Adventures (there are others, I know), a character can forage on the move without slowing down to find one meal. In addition, he may forage instead of traveling - this takes an hour. The basic rules assign five daily foraging rolls + the one made on the move = six daily rolls total. Thus, we can assume that a single successful Naturalist roll lets you gather $4 of herbs - and that's ~13 doses! This gives us a rough approximation.

DF16 also gives us another healing herb category:

25. Antidote for a known poison

But are these precise details even necessary? When herbs are procured with this ease and are this cheap (even though they have a limited shelf life), it feels like unnecessary bookkeeping just for the sake of it. So, let's summarize and consolidate everything:

HERB GATHERING

A traveling character can forage for herbs once per day without affecting the rate of travel. In addition, each character can forage for herbs instead of traveling. Such attempts take one hour. Each foraging attempt requires a Naturalist roll. A character can only forage for one variety of herbs at a time (see below). The foraging modifiers under Terrain Types (DF16, p. 22) always apply. Taking extra time gives a bonus: +1 for two hours, +2 for four, +3 for eight, or +4 for a day spent not traveling at all. Experts can try once per half hour at -5. The referee may also impose seasonal or regional penalties. Area Knowledge can be used as a complementary roll.

Success finds $4 worth of herbs. Critical success finds $8 worth of herbs. On a critical failure, make a HT roll. If you fail, you lose 1 HP due to poisoning yourself.

Fresh herbs retain their properties for a week. Dried herbs have an unlimited shelf life, but impose a -1 penalty to Pharmacy (Herbal), Poisons, and Herb Lore.

Herbs come in the following varieties:

1. Universal Healing Herbs. $8/dose, neg. weight. Six doses can be used to replenish the herb supply in a first aid kit (p. LT146). These herbs can be used for anything done with Pharmacy (Herbal) - see Drugs (pp. 150-152 of GURPS Low-Tech), herbal contraception and abortifacients (p. 27 of GURPS Low-Tech Companion 1).

2. Specialized Healing Herbs. $1/dose, neg. weight. These herbs can be used for any one purpose listed above. For example, expectorant, stimulant, rubefacient, etc.

3. Valuable Herbs. Variable value/ounce. These are any non-healing unprocessed plant materials, such as some of those listed under Other Materials Table (p. 13 of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 8: Treasure Tables). Where specifics do not matter (such as job rolls to gather herbs for sale), you can assume the value of $4/ounce.

4. Toxic Herbs. Neg. weight. These generic toxic herbs can be used as raw materials to create poisons with the Poisons skill. Only herbal poisons can be created from these materials. If consumed raw, they call for a HT roll to avoid 1d toxic damage with a delay of 1d minutes.

5. Component Herbs. Neg. weight. These generic herbs can be used as raw materials to create elixirs with the Herb Lore skill.

6. Psychobotanic Herbs. $8/dose, neg. weight. These special herbs can be used to prepare psychobotanic drugs that affect the recepient's ability to use or resist psionics. In addition, these herbs can be used as raw materials to create psionic elixirs with the Alchemy (Psionic) skill. Psychobotanic herbs are always specialized - there are no "universal" psychobotanic herbs. Naturalist rolls to gather psychobotanic herbs take a -4 penalty.

Herbal Remedy Duration and Delay

GURPS Low-Tech does not state the duration of the positive effects of herbal drugs. Unless stated otherwise, assume a delay of 20 minutes and duration of (15 - HT) hours, minimum 1 hour, where duration is not instantaneous.

PSYCHOBOTANICS

Psionic alchemists are able to create powerful psionic elixirs. However, lesser effects can be attained by using psychobotanic herbs without any alchemical preparations. This uses the same rules as regular healing herbs (see Drugs on pages 150-152 of GURPS Low-Tech). Psychobotanic herbs have the following categories:

    Anti-telepathic: Gives +2 to Will and IQ rolls to resist telepathic abilities, but also -2 to use telepathic abilities.

    Beacon: Sensory psionic abilities that affect the recepient get a +1 bonus to skill. This includes abilities such as Combat Sense, Prognostication, Telereceive, Psi Sense, Psidar, and similar.

    Biostabilizer: Gives +2 to all rolls to resist Biokinesis and Psychic Vampirism abilities, but a -4 to use Psychometabolism abilities.

    Dream Agitator: Effects last until the recepient wakes up. This herb causes chaotic dreams - the recepient loses 2 FP upon waking up due to missed sleep, but has +4 to resist Dream Control abilities.

    Kinetic Tinder: The recepient gains ER 4 that can only be used with Psychokinesis, Pyrokinesis, Electrokinesis, Photokinesis, Cryokinesis, and Sonokinesis abilities. When the effect wears off, the recepient loses 2 FP.

    Para-block: Psionic senses, such as Clairvoyance, Telescan, Retrocognition, and similar, are at -4 to detect the recepient. The recepient takes a -2 penalty to use his own psionic abilities and gets a -2 to Perception.

    Psi-agitator: Gives +1 to all psionic Talents, but using a psionic ability makes the user lose 2 FP.

    Psi-shield: Gives a +5 bonus to resist the next psionic ability directed at the recepient. This bonus works only once, disappearing immediately after providing the bonus. While the effect is active, the recepient's own psionic abilities function at -2 to skill.

    Supersensor: Gives +2 to use telepathic abilities, but also gives Supersensitive (p. B158). If the recepient has Mind Shield, its level is lowered by 2.

    Suppressor: Gives +1 to all rolls to resist psionic abilities, but also -4 to use any psionic abilities.

RANDOM HERB GENERATION

Sometimes, it may be necessary to generate the properties of found herbs randomly, such as when characters find a bunch of herbs in a pile of loot. You can use the following random table:

Herb Type Table (1d6)

1 - Universal Healing Herb

2 - Specialized Healing Herb (roll on the Specialized Healing Herb Table below)

3 - Valuable Herb

4 - Toxic Herb

5 - Component Herb

6 - Psychobotanic Herb (roll on the Psychobotanic Herb Table below)

Specialized Healing Herb Table (1d24)

1 - Analgesic

2 - Antiemetic

3 - Anti-infective

4 - Anti-inflammatory

5 - Aquaretic

6 - Astringent

7 - Calmative

8 - Carminative

9 - Cathartic/Purgative

10 - Cholagogue

11 - Coagulant

12 - Demulcent

13 - Emetic

14 - Expectorant

15 - Febrifuge/Antipyretic

16 - Rubefacient

17 - Sedative

18 - Stimulant

19 - Tonic (promotes fitness)

20 - Tonic (stabilizes women's hormonal cycles)

21 - Vermifuge

22 - Vulnerary

23 - Contraceptive

24 - Abortifacient

Psychobotanic Herb Table (1d10)

1 - Anti-telepathic

2 - Beacon

3 - Biostabilizer

4 - Dream Agitator

5 - Kinetic Tinder

6 - Para-block

7 - Psi-agitator

8 - Psi-shield

9 - Supersensor

10 - Suppressor