I want to discuss how the alchemy system works in the upcoming UnderQuest. My goal was to create a crafting system that allows the players to really make decisions as to exactly what sort of potions they want to make. Below is an example of two ingredient cards. Let’s take a look at exactly how this system works.
So here we have the Nether Cabbage and Goblin’s Toe ingredients. You will notice some symbols and text on these cards that may not make sense at first glance, but I hope to clear it all up for you. To craft a potion you need at least two ingredients. All ingredient have three rows of symbols and these symbols tell us what effects each ingredient offers.
The Nether Cabbage has three heart symbols (each one heals 1 health) on the top row, a mushroom symbol (provides 1 food) in the middle row, and a cross symbol (cures 1 curse) on the bottom row. The Goblin’s Toe has a diamond symbol (gain 1 grit) on the top row, two heart symbols in the middle row, and a drop symbol (cures 1 poison) on the bottom row. In the top left corner of each card you will see the ingredient’s difficulty to use value. The Nether Cabbage has a value of 2, while the Goblin’s Toe has a value of 1. Lastly, at the bottom of each card we have the risks and rewards of using each ingredient.
So how does this all work?
The first thing you will do is place both cards side by side, so that the three rows line up. You will look to see if any of the symbols match up on any of the given rows. In the case of these two ingredients, they do not. But you notice that if you pushed the Goblin’s Toe card up one slot so that its middle row lined up with the top row of the Nether Cabbage, that you would create a row of 5 hearts! That would heal 5 health if successfully crafted. You able to shift cards in this way, but at cost. Each time you shift a card up or down, you must increase the total difficulty of crafting by 1 point. Using these two ingredients have a total of 3 difficulty if you add the two cards together., but since we had to shift the rows one slot, that 3 difficulty, becomes 4.
Now if it time to attempt to craft this potion. You simply roll d6 and add your Mind stat. If you meet, or exceed, the difficulty value, then you successfully craft the potion and immediately gain 5 health and discard both cards. However, you could craft an exquisite version of the potion, if you happen to roll a natural 6. In this case, you can choose one of the rewards shown on the ingredients being used. In the case of these two ingredients, we could either keep one of the ingredients instead of discarding it, or we could gain a bonus 1 grit. Good job!
But what if we fail? If you roll, and the sum of your roll and Mind stat are below the value of 4 to craft this particular potion, you fail. You must discard both cards, but before you do that you must suffer a risk for having failed. Simply flip both ingredients over and shuffle and pick one at random. You must suffer the risk indicated on this card. In this case, you might gain 1 poison or perhaps 1 curse token.
Lastly, there will be a host of skills that your adventurer may learn that will help you craft potions more effectively, and even allow you to use more than 2 ingredients. More details on that to come.
Grey Gnome Games 