The River of Youth aka All About Magical Ingredients & Alchemical Health by John Josten is a free role playing game supplement published by Board Enterprises. This is part of the Small Bites series and is the “World Walker” version. The full version is only available to Patreon supporters and is about four times the length.
The supplement is available from DriveThruRPG for free as a 20-page PDF. One page is the front cover.
The Introduction takes a look at what’s in the supplement; the longer items are only in the full version.
Fletnern Wiki duplicates posts from the wiki related to the subject, covering legends, regions, rives, individuals and businesses.
The Sounding Board duplicates a number of blog posts, starting with So what are the enchanters doing anyway?, which looks at what those who can create magic items would be doing. Primarily developing their magical powers for their own benefit, not to make someone a magic sword.
Handling Immortality looks at how the brain would deal with longevity, and how people living longer would affect their cultures.
Healing Magics looks at what might be the negative side of magical healing; adventurers become desensitised to pain, lose good judgement even when healing isn’t available and suffer a decline in the body’s own defences.
Attribute Enhancement looks at how the availability of enhancement may result in a character become dependent on it, losing confidence in their abilities without it and essentially becoming addicted, as well as the wear and tear on body and belongings.
Absent Minded Enchanters looks at using the trope of the absent-minded professor for enchanters, alchemists and similar, to make NPCs memorable.
Alchemy Noobs looks at the type of people likely to become alchemists, and how their ideas of what might make a really good product may not make sense to anyone else.
How to Play A… Potion Drinker looks at how quickly potions could be drunk, and how those designed to be drunk in battle would be smaller, downed more quickly and taste worse.
Wet Behind the Ears briefly looks at why alchemical health might cause a character to go adventuring to be able to afford it.
News of Fletnern starts with a legend about a woman who was so beautiful people fought wars to get her; it’s directly compared to Helen of Troy.
Styles of Beauty looks at how different peoples have different standards of beauty.
Facial Hair looks at how different peoples treat this.
By the Numbers looks at ingredient prices and what they mean for what’s being bought.
“Free” Stuff looks at why shops sell effectively valueless spell components to spell users; because it’s easier for the customer and ensures they are in the same shop that sells pricier goods.
Church Bells looks at the myths and legends around Flinda, the goddess of beauty.
The final pages are What’s Missing, which describes everything in the full version, and In Conclusion wraps things up and gives various links.
The River of Youth aka All About Magical Ingredients & Alchemical Health in Review
The PDF is bookmarked with major sections linked. The Table of Contents is to a similar depth and is hyperlinked. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of stock images, primarily black and white, but one colour. Presentation is okay.
As is common in this series, this is a collection of articles along the same general theme, and this edition does hew closer to that theme than some. Some of the articles are more on the theoretical side, looking at why something is done and ensuring that what is done makes at least some sort of sense, which is truthfully atypical for a fantasy game. The River of Youth aka All About Magical Ingredients & Alchemical Health is a useful collection of articles on the subject and it can be found by clicking here.
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