Table of Contents
Alchemy
In Under a Hostile Sun a small set of charts allows potions to be homebrewed. This system is intended to allow the players to make most anything, whilst having reasonable guardrails.
- To determine a recipe cost the player / GM first determines what the narrative effect of the alchemical potion is (p34)
- Player and GM then agree on what game-mechanical impact (p35) the potion would have. Depending on which game mechanic is chosen you will need to pay some combination of Base Price plus additional addons.
- If the players want a pet mutation or a machine that will be a persistent part of the game, they will be limited by a pet’s food cost or a machine’s refueling costs. (p36-37) These also require the Elite Currencies, Mutagen & Mithril.
Each class can learn a different number of recipes. Recipes can be forgotten at will to make room to learn new ones. Inventing a recipe costs 2 Blockchain generally due to lab supply costs. (Ignore in one-shots)
Game Designer’s Note: Pets and inventions may seem similar mechanically, but there are key differences. Remember, a pet must be fed its full food cost to get its stat pool back. Conversely, an invention can be fueled by one unit, if desired. Pets can move and act autonomously whereas inventions must always have an operator. The drop rates of the Basic Resources can make mithril harder to produce than mutagen. Pet’s need to be tamed before they can be mutated. Inventions can be made from scratch.
Key Terms
Base Price: All potions have a Base Price from p34
Main Ingredient: One ingredient type in the Base Price is designated the Main Ingredient. Some recipes will require you to play an additional unit of the Main Ingredient
Enhance Price: Ingredient from p34 that is added for some recipes.
Special Ingredient: See p35 (Action Potions) / p37 (Cures).
Making a Potion
A Potion has a Narrative Effect or Narrative Type and a Game-Mechanics Effect or Mechanical Type.
Different Narrative Effects are associated with different Main Ingredients, Base Prices and Enhance Prices.
Your Mechanical Effect will determine what combination of Base Price, Enhance Price and/or Special Prices your potion costs.
Key Tip: Most Potions are [Base Price]+1+[Enhance Price (if needed)]. Some Mechanical Types do not require the enhance Price to be added. Whether the +1 is one more of the Main Ingredient or one more of an Stat/Action based Special ingredient will also depend on Mechanical Type. The Narrative Type will determine what Base Prices/Enhance Prices etc you are using to fill in the blanks