A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Gregorius21778: 50 Elixirs for “classic” RPG

Gregorius21778: 50 Elixirs for “classic” RPG is a role playing game supplement published by Kai Pütz a.k.a Gregorius21778. This is a collection of 50 new potions that was primarily written for the Lamentations of the Flame Princess system but which should be compatible with other systems of the Old School Revival.

This is a fourteen page PDF which lacks bookmarks. The supplement is available from RPGNow at the regular price of $0.74 but was purchased at the reduced price of $0.53. One page is the front cover and one page the front matter and how to use the supplement. The remaining twelve pages describe 50 new potions.

The 50 elixirs follow a standard format. There is the elixir’s name, followed by a description, including taste, and finally the effects of consumption, with game effects italicised.

The supplement lacks bookmarks, but these are not really needed for one of this length. They may have been nice, but they are not absolutely necessary. The supplement maintains a one column text format throughout. In the promotion description, the author states that he is not a native speaker of English. Given the warning, it might be assumed that this isn’t written that well. This is not the case. There are a few places where the English usage is awkward, but nowhere is it impossible to understand what is written. On the whole, the standard of English is high. The supplement lacks any illustrations.

The intention of the supplement is to give the GameMaster new potions that players would not be familiar with, and this it does. Some of these elixirs are quite powerful in nature, but many also have negative effects as well preventing them from becoming too unbalancing. Yes, there is a powerful effect, but there’s a trade-off with problems and vulnerabilities in other areas. The elixir names are more evocative than average, such as The Elixir of Unsteady Humors, adding a bit of colour to what can often be a fairly bland item. The descriptions of their appearances is interesting, but a GM may wish to change things up so that players don’t get to recognise a potion from its description.

Adapting the elixirs to other OSR RPGs should, as stated, be fairly easy. Adapting them to other systems, in particular D&D 3.x/Pathfinder will probably be harder; these potions are rather more powerful than is typically seen in those systems – which typically are low level spells in a bottle – and the mechanism for introducing such isn’t really in place. It could still be done of course with a bit more work.

Gregorius21778: 50 Elixirs for “classic” RPG is a nice little supplement that provides a wide range of evocative and new potions for a game and it can be found by clicking here.