
Little Potion Bottles
Potions are one of the most common magic items in D&D, and thus become ubiquitous and forgettable. But throw them into a unique container, and they get a bit more interesting. I still remember the hollow giant ant-head potion bottles that by dwarf Thuffir IronHelm carries around.
Table 1: Potion Container Material (d10)
- Glass
- Iron
- Tin
- Gourd (don’t roll for shape)
- Ceramic
- Clay
- Animal or monster body part
- Crystal
- Leather (don’t roll for shape)
- Glass
Table 2: Potion Container Shape
- Test tube
- Small classic bottle
- Square bottle
- Spherical
- Ovoid
- Flask
- Conical
- Decanter with handle
- Multi-faceted
- Special Shape (roll on special shape subtable)
Table 2.1: Special Shapes (d6)
- Humanoid
- Skull
- Cluster of grapes or other fruit
- Grinning goblin face
- Plump woman
- Fist
Table 3: Closure (d10)
- Cork
- Cork and sealing wax
- Wax
- Screw-on lid
- Screw-on lid with sealing wax
- Leather tied on
- Carved wooden plug
- Tree sap
- Glass cap, must be broken to be opened
- Loose metal cap
About 50% of potion bottles are also decorated in some way
Table 4: Decorations (d8)
- Holy symbol etchings
- Ribbon tied around the neck
- Feathers and beads on a string around the neck
- Painted in primary colours
- Painted with a single rune or glyph
- Wrapped in fine cord
- Marked with someone’s initials
- Small holy symbol or rune dangles from a thin cord
I generally also grant a 25 to 50 percent chance that the potion bottles are labelled. 50% when in the lair of an intelligent humanoid, 25% otherwise.
Table 5: Potion Label (d6)
- Crudely painted label
- Paper label glued on
- Paper label tied on
- Container wrapped in labeled paper
- Label glued to cap
- Scrap of leather tied to container
Table 5.1: Label Markings
- Actual type of potion
- Deliberately wrong
- General type of potion
- Simple symbol (plus, minus, sunburst, skull)
- Cryptic symbol (the moon, holy symbol of a lost cult)
- Name of potion in a very rare language
This is a great guide! I’m gonna pass it on to my husband (who is my DM). He’s always looking for things to add to the game for ‘flavor’. A lot of people don’t realise that it’s the little things like this that make the game feel more ‘real’. It’s way easier to be a good role player when it’s easier to pretend that you are really there. Thank you!
WHAT? No d12???? 😉
I did something like that one in …insert open office version of excel (seriously, the have to name their subprograms not so generic you can’t even reference them whithout looking)… but it’s in german, and I haven’t used it in play, because I don’t have this program running while I DM… back to tables, it is. Thanks.
Good point! All those tables and not one of them uses a d12! Oh, my poor dodecahedron!
This article started out as a 2d12 table, but kept getting more and more detailed as I worked on it, finally evolving into this set of tables.
I’ve posted a companion table on my blog.
Awesome. That was going to be next week’s table, but I’ll figure out something 😉
C’nor & Dyson:
I did it again–I took the liberty of combining both efforts into an easy-on-the-eyes table .pdf. Holler at me if you want a copy.
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This is great, I love this kind of flavor. I have an iOS app that generates random potions. The app provides color, texture, a smell. It would be cool to also generate a container. Would you mind if I borrowed some of this and add it to my app?
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/potions-generator/id951378721?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
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Ported this over to the RandomTableWiki as well, with some small enhancements (rather than just ‘fist’ it rolls on the body part table, added some colors to the decorations).
Roll it here: http://www.randomtablewiki.com/RollTable.rtw?RollRequest=Thing/PotionContainer
View it: https://sites.google.com/a/paladinpgm.com/randomtablewiki/randomtables/thing/potioncontainer?pli=1