Double Potions
Introduction
You are all students at a school for witches and wizards.  First and second period is Double Potions.  Will you get into trouble in class?  Will you be sent to the nurse’s office?  Or will you work together to successfully create a magical potion?

Potions are not to be taken lightly. They are among the most powerful magic that exists. You may think that it’s fun to create a little fart juice for your 4th period magical animal taming or a sneaking syrup to get past the hall monitor but potions have been the cause of almost every major incident in wizarding history.

Brewing potions is dangerous business. When the magical essence of something as small as a Cucumber Seed is release in the wrong way it can have disastrous consequences, so I expect you all to behave and focus.

Double potions is a game for 2-6 players. You will need a handful of 6-sided dice, a bunch (about 10) of tokens in each of four colors, and an opaque bag. You will also need your wits as Double Potions is a game as much about improv as it is about rolling dice. Oh, and it’s also about potions, but only mildly so.
How to Play
You create characters and take turns attempting to brew a potion. The potion is defined by ingredients and skills matched to one of four colors. The four colors represent (skill, ingredient):
White dice: stirring, pure ingredients
Red dice: fire, dangerous ingredients
Black dice: preparation, disgusting ingredients
Blue dice: use of magic, magical ingredients
Note: If you don’t have tokens in the correct colors you can use coins, for example: Quarter - White, Dime - Blue, Nickel - Black, and Penny - Red, just don’t be all cheaty when pulling out of the bag.
Create your characters
Put on your imaginary Categorization Cap and come up with your character. Define the following and write them down:
Your name, the more alliterative the better.
Choose your forte - knowledge or skill
Choose your specialization:
Knowledge: pure, dangerous, disgusting, magical
Skill: stirring, fire, preparation, wand
Choose one flaw or liability, for example: prone to fits of sneezing, has to be told twice, or know-it-all.
You should do this without discussion or strategizing with the other players. When you are done take turns describing your character to the other players.  Make up any other details about your character that you’d like.  The character with the best name becomes the leader.
Look up the potion recipe
Add 2 tokens of each color to the bag. Starting with the leader and moving to the left, each player draws a token at random out of the bag and rolls 2d6. Look up the results from the tables below.  If you have 2 or 3 players, repeat this process a second time so that each player has 2 tokens.
From the results build a recipe, for instance: “Add Whisper Mold and Yeti Breath and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add Dung of Ram, stirring frequently.” Keep track of the color, type, and difficulty of each ingredient and step--these will be your targets to beat during play.
White
Roll	Name	Type	Difficulty	
2	Bloom of Dandelion	Ingredient	Easy	
3	Stir Occasionally	Skill	Easy	
4	Feather of Dove	Ingredient	Easy	
5	Stir Slowly	Skill	Easy	
6	Clarified Pearl Oil	Ingredient	Medium	
7	Alternate Fast and Slow Stirring	Skill	Medium	
8	Thrice Cured Lily Pollen	Ingredient	Medium	
9	Whisk to Frothing	Skill	Hard	
10	Yeti Breath	Ingredient	Hard	
11	Transfer to Glass Cauldron	Skill	Hard	
12	Widow’s First Silver Hair	Ingredient	Hard	
Red
Roll	Name	Type	Difficulty	
2	Whisper Mold	Ingredient	Easy	
3	Low heat	Skill	Easy	
4	Saliva of Narcofrog	Ingredient	Easy	
5	Simmer	Skill	Easy	
6	Cobra Venom	Ingredient	Medium	
7	Boiling	Skill	Medium	
8	Raven’s Claw	Ingredient	Medium	
9	Seared	Skill	Hard	
10	Egg of Dragon	Ingredient	Hard	
11	Open Flame	Skill	Hard	
12	Felon’s Tears	Ingredient	Hard	

Black
Roll	Name	Type	Difficulty	
2	Slice	Skill	Easy	
3	Dung of Owl	Ingredient	Easy	
4	Chop	Skill	Easy	
5	Bug Juice	Ingredient	Easy	
6	Crush	Skill	Medium	
7	Dung of Ram	Ingredient	Medium	
8	Cube	Skill	Medium	
9	Fartflower Bulb	Ingredient	Hard	
10	Slice Paper-Thin	Skill	Hard	
11	Dung of Dragon	Ingredient	Hard	
12	Powder	Skill	Hard	

Blue
Roll	Name	Type	Difficulty	
2	Wave Wand	Skill	Easy	
3	Faerie Dust	Ingredient	Easy	
4	Utter Magical Word	Skill	Easy	
5	Thrice-Blessed Water	Ingredient	Easy	
6	Thrust Wand	Skill	Medium	
7	Ectoplasm	Ingredient	Medium	
8	Utter Incantation	Skill	Medium	
9	Unicorn Hoof	Ingredient	Hard	
10	Flourish Wand	Skill	Hard	
11	Beam of Moon	Ingredient	Hard	
12	Enchant Cauldron	Skill	Hard	
Choose the ingredients
Players should discuss what ingredients they will need and who will get them.  Each player takes responsibility for one step (ingredient or skill) in the recipe. Players may swap tokens with each other but each player must have exactly 1 token (or 2 with 2-3 players).
Make the Potion
In recipe order, each player takes their turn building the potion. Each player contributes to one part of the potion. The steps are as follows:
•	Chatter: The current player asks the next player an open-ended question. The player must answer the question coherently and without stumbling. The leader asks the first question unless the leader is the first player in which case the leader explains some detail about their ingredient or skill. Do not ask questions with simple one- or two-word answers.The question could have something to do with the potion or could be any question that you might ask a classmate. After the answer is given the other players vote thumbs up/thumbs down on whether the answer is sufficient, majority wins. If insufficient the player is flustered.
Example: “What is the history of wand use in potion-making?” “Why are you and Becky such enemies?” “What’s the latest information on Thee-Whom-Shant-Be-Referenced?”
•	This is where the potion is built, step-by-step.
•	Action: The player now attempts to add their portion of the recipe. A player begins with 2d6. If he or she has knowledge or skill in their step then add another die. Roll the dice and count up the number of dice that are 4, 5, or 6. That is the number of tokens the player receives. If a player is flustered, they only count dice that are 5 or 6.
•	Distraction: If the player rolls two or more 1s his or her liability comes into play and the player receives no tokens. That player describes how the liability distracts them from completing the step. Remove 1 die and roll again. However this time you are determined so count up dice that are 3, 4, 5, or 6 and receive that many tokens. A player starting with 3d6 can be distracted twice in a row, moving to 1 die, but can not be double-determined.
•	Contribute: The player adds to the cauldron the number of tokens in the correct color required for the step. Easy ingredients require 1 token, Medium ingredients require 2 tokens, and Hard ingredients require 3 tokens.
•	“No, Wait!”: If a player does not have enough tokens and is about to fail their recipe step another player can yell “No, wait!” That player then describes how they are helping and contributes a correct token to the pot. If they do not have the correct-color token they give up one of their tokens and roll 2d6 and count the 4’s, 5’s, and 6’s (flustered and determined does not apply). With 1 success they contribute a correct token to the pot, with 2 successes they also get their original token back, otherwise nothing happens.
•	Continue: Play continues to the next player. If the step was not complete the next player must complete the step. Play continues until the potion is made or players have run out of tokens.

Example Play
Anna Anubis [knowledge:disgusting, clumsy], Bonny Bombadil [skill:fire, barefoot], Carl Claro [knowledge:pure, haunted by spirits], and Devon Shire [knowledge:dangerous, claustrophobic] sit down to play. Anna is selected team leader based on her superior name and draws the first token from the bag--a red one. She then rolls 2d6 -- 4. Looking up on the chart the first ingredient is “Saliva of Narcofrog.” Next Bonny Bombadil draws a black token and rolls a 9; the second ingredient is “Fartflower Bulb.” Carl and Devon go next pulling White-5 and White-12, respectively.  The recipe is: Add Saliva of Narcofrog [red, ingredient, easy] and Fartflower Bulb [black, ingredient, medium] to the cauldron, then Stir Slowly [white, skill, easy]. Finally add a Widow’s First Silver Hair [white, ingredient, hard].

Anna knows about disgusting ingredients and Devon knows about dangerous ingredients so they swap tokens and Devon offers to work on the first ingredient, Saliva of Narcofrog, and Anna offers to work on the second ingredient, Fartflower Bulb. Bonny has no relevant skills or knowledge so she takes the easy white skill. Carl knows about white ingredients, so he keeps his white token and offers to handle the final ingredient.

Anna, being the team leader, asks Devon the first question.
Anna: Devon, why were you sneaking around the grounds last night with Groundskeeper Gavin?
Devon: I told Gavin I saw a Snufflebug so we were trying to sneak up on it.
Everyone is happy with the answer and votes thumbs up.
Devon: Using gloves I grab the Narcofrog and hold it upside-down to collect the saliva.
Devon rolls 3d6 and gets 1,3,3. Devon gets no extra tokens for his attempt. However he has a red token so he places that in the cauldron to complete the first step. It is now Anna’s turn.
Devon: Anna, how did you know I was sneaking around the grounds last night?
Anna: Umm, I was, umm. I forgot I had left my books in Professor...umm...Parsnip’s room.
Anna stammered way too much, maybe she was following Devon around?  Anyway, too much umming and pausing. Everyone gives a thumbsdown. Anna is now flustered and must roll 5 or 6 to get a token.
Anna: I hold my nose and root through the soil to dig out a bulb, being careful not to rupture its scent sack.
Anna rolls 3d6, as she has knowledge, and gets 1,3,6. She receives one black token. She places two black tokens in the cauldron to complete the step.
Anna: Bonny, who discovered the Fartflower’s magical uses?
Bonny: Oh, that’s easy. In 1645 Jack Genowaithe accidentally broke the scent sack of a fartflower spilling the juice into a potion of Malachi Rain he was concocting. It doubled the efficacy and reduced the after-effects.
Bonny totally nailed it.
Bonny: I stir the pot slowly.
Bonny rolls 2d6 and gets 6,5. She takes 2 white tokens and adds them to her pile. She places on token into the cauldron to complete her step.
Bonny: Carl, how are widow’s hairs collected?
Carl: The Regents of Reagents keeps a registry of recent widows and check in periodically to check for white hairs. When the first one is spotted it is plucked and the widow receives a gold piece.
It started strong but petered out towards the end, two thumbs up but that’s enough to not get flustered.
Carl: Using a set of tweezers I carefully remove the hair from its vial and place it in the cauldron.
Carl rolls 3d6 and gets 1,3,5. He receives one white token. He places two in the cauldron. He is short one for the recipe.
Bonny: No, wait! I notice that the hair slipped out of the tweezers and onto the floor. I crawl around and find it.
Bonny places one of her white tokens into the cauldron. This finishes off Carl’s step and the potion.
Everyone, in unison: Success!
Notes
Flustered and Determined
Flustered always removes the lowest number from the successful numbers and determined always adds a number. It is possible to be flustered and determined at the same time, in which case the success numbers are 4, 5, and 6. It is not possible to be double flustered or double determined.

Success	Not Flustered	Flustered	
Not Determined	4-5-6	5-6	
Determined	3-4-5-6	4-5-6	

For increased difficulty, have a player become distracted if they roll a single one and remove a token if they roll two or more ones.

Voting
It requires a majority in order to win a vote. In case of a tie the player fails and is flustered. See Robert’s Rules of Order.
Dice tables
Results from http://anydice.com/program/6732 and do not take into account distracted rolls.

"2d Distraction",0.027777777777799998,0.16433554953060828,0,1
#,%
0,97.2222222222
1,2.77777777778

"3d Distraction",0.0740740740741,0.2618914004395053,0,1
#,%
0,92.5925925926
1,7.40740740741

"Standard",1,0.7071067811865476,0,2
#,%
0,25
1,50
2,25

"Skilled",1.5,0.8660254037844386,0,3
#,%
0,12.5
1,37.5
2,37.5
3,12.5

"1d Determined",0.6666666666669999,0.4714045207909138,0,1
#,%
0,33.3333333333
1,66.6666666667

"2d Determined",1.3333333333319999,0.6666666666663333,0,2
#,%
0,11.1111111111
1,44.4444444444
2,44.4444444444

"1d Flustered",0.33333333333299997,0.4714045207909138,0,1
#,%
0,66.6666666667
1,33.3333333333

"2d Flustered",0.6666666666659999,0.6666666666663333,0,2
#,%
0,44.4444444444
1,44.4444444444
2,11.1111111111

"3d Flustered",0.999999999999,0.8164965809273178,0,3
#,%
0,29.6296296296
1,44.4444444444
2,22.2222222222
3,3.7037037037