Help expanding the herbalism system

[Soren / Zarathustra217]

As mentioned in other topics, we are working on adding more ingredients for herbalism to provide something more attractive for higher levels and to help flavour the many other domains. While the technical implementation of this is fairly forward, it is however quite time consuming to come up with suitable names and descriptions for all these new herbs and fungi. Thus, we now turn to the community for help, in hope to lend a bit upon your creativity.

What we ask is that you come up with names and descriptions for herbs or fungi, similar with the current available but themed for the other domains in the module. You don't need to come up with the effects the ingredients should generate, as it'll most likely have to be fitted into a schema anyway.

However, to keep the excitement of discovering something new, we'd prefer if you send your suggestions to a developer, and we'll pick out the most fitting.

Use the following form:

Name: (Name of herb/fungi)

Domain: (Barovia, Blaustein, Dementlieu, Har'Akir, Hazlan, Perfidus or The Mists - can be several)

Season: (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter - can be several)

Place of growth: (Desert, Rural, Forest, Mountains, Caves, Ruins/Tombs - can be several)

Description: (Insert description, 200-500 characters)

Thank you all in advance, looking forward to see what you can contribute with. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them here.

[Norture]

I love stuff like this! When I get back from class I'll start thinking things up. When we create plants, can we also include a suggestion for what sort of effect we have in mind for it, if we're basing the plant off a real plant that has some sort of effect? For example, I had a character in another game that had a laboratory in a jungle. I RPed she would use "eyeberry" extract in various potions, eyeberry being guarana.

Similarly, are all the herbs basically going to be the same as pre-existing herbs but with new names? Should we be making herbs keeping in mind they will in practice function like woundwort or wolftail?

Or, do you want us to just make things up, and you will come up with herbal properties yourself?

[Soren / Zarathustra217]

The new herbs will be a bit more powerful to meaningfully have it attract higher levels to these areas. On the other hand, they will probably work by the same basic schemes - so that the effects generated are most of the time just simple cleric, druid or wizard spells. You are welcome to suggest which you had in mind, but as mentioned, it'll probably be changed to fit into the balance of the system.

It's perfectly fine to base it off real plants, but it's a high priority that it helps underline the themes and feel of the specific domains as well as Ravenloft as a whole.

[dutchy]

Name: The Desert Lotus or Fire Calice

Domain: Har'Akir

Season: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter

Place of growth: Desert

Description: An extremely rare sight for the wary desert travellers. These flowers seem to be the only ones ((or one of the few)) that can manage the unforgiving heat of the burning sands. It's a valued article within Har'Akir, as it's known that it can be used to make a special elixir that aids those who travel the deserts for long periods.

((Basiscally, its an ingredient for a potion of fire resistance. Or make it grant fire immunity.))

we'd prefer if you send your suggestions to a developer, and we'll pick out the most fitting.

[Purist]

Didn't read that part. My mistake.

[EberronBruce]

Can a list of developers on this project be posted with contact information?

[Vaku]

Lol, what you get for me posting without sleep.

[Soren / Zarathustra217]

Can a list of developers on this project be posted with contact information?

Just send it to me

[Norture]

Are there any preferences for what domains/area types need the most work? For example, I imagine there's a huge flood of Har'Akir herb submissions and fewer Dementlieu.

Also, I don't mind if someone who speaks French corrects/renames anything I design to make more sense. I'm relying on google translate and toss words into it until I get something relatively short.

[Tyras]

Sent Zarathustra217 a PM with some ideas, but I'm not showing any posts in my outbox so I fear they were lost to the internet.

[Dobian]

Sent Zarathustra217 a PM with some ideas, but I'm not showing any posts in my outbox so I fear they were lost to the internet.

Did you check the "save" box on the bottom?  I'd like to send a few ideas too if I can find time to write something up.

[Tyras]

I don't think I did.  [Shakes fist at his forum newbiness].

I'll come up with more ideas, and I'll remember to hit the save button 

[Soren / Zarathustra217]

Thanks to all who've send in suggestions so far, you are doing great work. I hope nobody minds that we'll take a lot of liberties in altering and fitting the herbs in though - it doesn't mean there's anything bad about the suggestions, just that we strive to have a coherent feel and balance overall.

Please keep it coming too

[Miuo]

Can we get a general idea of what kinda herbs are still needed for suggestions, with not being able to see what other people suggest, theres little idea of what we need more of :3

[Jeebs]

What exactly are the guidelines here?  Are you looking for canon stuff, or just anything?  I'm rather creative and I could probably make you a substantial list of made up stuff, but I'm not sure that's what you're looking for.  I've stayed away from contributing anything so far because I haven't gotten around to exploring the entire server yet and I still find the odd plant here and there that I hadn't seen before, so I didn't want to submit things you already have.  However, as I said, if you're not looking for canon or real-world herbs, then I can likely make you a fair list of original plants over the week-end.

[Soren / Zarathustra217]

Again, great job all who've submitted so far, we've gotten a long way toward our goal.

We could use a lot more ingredients that are find in interiors though - like ruins, tombs or caverns. I imagine this'll mainly be various forms of fungi, bacteria or rot.

Some specifically mist-themed plants would be nice too (that grows exclusively within the mists).

What exactly are the guidelines here?  Are you looking for canon stuff, or just anything?  I'm rather creative and I could probably make you a substantial list of made up stuff, but I'm not sure that's what you're looking for.  I've stayed away from contributing anything so far because I haven't gotten around to exploring the entire server yet and I still find the odd plant here and there that I hadn't seen before, so I didn't want to submit things you already have.  However, as I said, if you're not looking for canon or real-world herbs, then I can likely make you a fair list of original plants over the week-end.

What we need is non-canon stuff (as we already have access to all canon stuff ourselves), but something original too (non-real-world). It's perfectly fine to make spin-offs of real world plants though, but the more it blends into the domain themes, the better. In that sense, good descriptions are important - both the physical aspects and cultural significance (if any).