Potions Anyone?

[Oriande]

This may be a silly question, but I didn't find anything directly related on the resource boards so...
What I would like to know is which potions have been most useful or most entertaining during play?
Also, how often do you actually spend time on the list of ingredients?

[gojj]

Also, how often do you actually spend time on the list of ingredients?

I can't speak for others but with my group we only mention ingredients if someone thinks of something funny . But overall I think listing out ingredients in unnecessary and would just slow down the flow of the game.

[UmbraLux]

This may be a silly question, but I didn't find anything directly related on the resource boards so...
What I would like to know is which potions have been most useful or most entertaining during play?

A common potion I see is one setting up a few beneficial aspects on the drinker...allowing them to be used for free bonuses when appropriate.  Other common potions are veils (think invisibility) and skill replacement (use skill X in situation Y instead of skill A).  Those three types of potions can cover a lot of different narrative situations.

Also, how often do you actually spend time on the list of ingredients?

About once...just to prove you know how it's done. 

[devonapple]

Best (and only) potion that my shadowmancer-turned-Wizard has used so far was a "Liquid Courage" potion sealed in a Glo-Stick container which broke when our White Court Despair-Feeding Virgin failed to buy off the Compel triggered by my character taking a Despair-related Consequence in an extended ghost-speaking scene. I was able to use the Potion rules to retroactively declare I'd planned for her eventual loss of control, but we didn't go much into the ingredients for that scene. As she attempted to start feeding off of me, I suddenly tasted like her Bane Emotion.

[Vairelome]

As she attempted to start feeding off of me, I suddenly tasted like her Bane Emotion.

"It tastes like burning!"

Sorry, had to be said.

[Rubycon]

I would also say, list ingredients only if they are difficult to get and some kind of investigation is needed (as with the plutonium in Grave Peril). Any other way, just use the potion.
What I had asked myself, can someone else who gets a potion in his hands determine in any way what the potion is made for?

[Vairelome]

What I had asked myself, can someone else who gets a potion in his hands determine in any way what the potion is made for?

I don't remember anything in the RAW that says one way or the other.

I'd suggest a Lore roll at a difficulty equal half the total shifts of power required to make the potion if the character has Thaumaturgy or Ritual (Crafting), or a difficulty equal to the total shifts of power if the character doesn't have either.  This would make analyzing potions relatively easy for someone who can make them, and generally difficult for someone who can't.  If you want potion analysis to be much more difficult, and usually impossible for someone who isn't a crafter, double those difficulties.

If the potion in question is super-powerful, because it's a plot device or whatnot, you might require the testing be done in an Arcane Lab, with the Lab's rating, steps on the Time Increment Chart, and/or relevant invoked Aspects to boost the Lore roll as needed.

[ARedthorn]

I've had my players come up with the ingredients at their own option, with one catch and one advantage:

It can't interrupt play.
Creativity will be rewarded.

I'll tack on side-effects to the potion based on what the ingredients say about the potion and HOW it will work... it helps me story-tell the effects better, so it makes my job easier, and everyone's day more fun (because the scene is better fleshed out)... that deserves a reward, so I'll often give a second, very minor side-effect to the potion as a meta-game reward for the player going the extra mile with the ingredients... if something strikes me funny though, sometimes, there'll be a minor negative side-effect as well (and if it's enough to complicate the players' life, and make the story better- it'll earn them FP), but only if the players are on-board. If the player says "That's not how I wanted it to work," I'll listen.

[polkaneverdies]

Aredthorn seems to have hit on the ideal solution in my opinion.

[Vairelome]

Agreed.  As a player, I'd definitely endorse ARedthorn's solution.

[Todjaeger]

Pretty much the only time I would list potion ingredients is if the players were looking to create a specific potion/potions to achieve 'special' effects.  By that I mean that the story plot line revolved around, or at least heavily involved, getting the potion created.  In which case determining what 'special' ingredients are needed and then actually obtaining them become part of the story line.

To do things otherwise, when the potion is a rather 'mundane' potion, requiring players to list what the ingredients are and forcing them to go shopping for them would be about as interesting to most players as making them actually go shopping.  It would be a chore and not a fun one.  The only possible time I might make an exception was if the player wanted to create a new, specific potion in game and had already used up their allotment of potion slots.  In that instance, I might allow a player to make some Lore rolls to determine what they might need to get, or have the players make up some rare ingredients, and then have them in game try to get the materials to make an 'extra' potion beyond the normal number of allowed by the number of potion slots.

Given that I don't normally anticipate players fully utilizing all their potion slots and still needing to have more potions, or that players would really enjoy shopping for potion components, I don't anticipate needing to so all that often.  Having players go on quests for potion components on the other hand...

By the way, how does this sound for a potion component for something involving water and cold?
An unfrozen tear shed by Queen Mab...

-Cheers

[Oriande]

By the way, how does this sound for a potion component for something involving water and cold?
An unfrozen tear shed by Queen Mab...

Love it! This is definitely quest worthy and has all sorts of story potential.