Sniki
Hello, and happy new year! Welcome to this week’s issue of LoreMasters - Your regular source of inspiration, ideas, and homebrew for your TTRPG games. In each issue, I'm going to be bringing you a veritable Heroes Feast of items, spells, podcasts, streams, Kickstarters, and STUFF, so if you like this, please subscribe and pass it on to your close friends and distant relatives.
(Also, please check out my work on DMsGuild)
Sniki
The shop bell jingled brightly as Grzzl entered, stooping low under the frame as they looked around the large apothecary, walls of tiny drawers and large jars, filled with odd liquids and distended shapes.
A small snout peaked over the countertop, followed by the rest of Sniki. A small and quick kobold with dark red skin, he wore a high-collared and well-tailored coat of royal blue, trimmed with gold epaulets and ivory buttons, a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles perched on the end of his nose.
“Ahh, yes, a customer, how may I help you” he smiled in a high, thin voice.
“Oh, um yes, I’m, I’m after something to help me brew some better tea, something sweet yeah?”
“Oh of course! Tea!”, Sniki replies as he scampers up a small ladder, pushing it along the back wall, his quick fingers running along a series of small drawers, as he whispers under his breath, “Brewing…beer…poison…tea, ah tea!”
He pulls out several drawers, sliding them down onto the counter and climbing down.
“So, here we’ve got Foulgerm Flowers,” he says proffering a drawer of sickly-looking green and black flowers, “Don’t be deceived by their look now, a dash of hot water and they fade away into a delicately sweet vanilla. Or maybe you want something a bit more, punchy? Then look no further than this, sweetened and distilled essence of Dire Stag horn.”, he slides across a drawer of fine white powder, “Two spoons of that in a pint of hot water, a joyous explosion of sweet cake tea, strong and full of flavour.”
“Oh yeah, that one, yeah” Grzzl tries to interject,
“Not so hasty, we have many more to try!” Sniki exclaims, oblivious to his customer’s choice, as he pulls more and more drawers from the wall….
Sniki
History and Character: Sniki is a Kobold Apothecary. He runs a fine and well-respected shop, right in the centre of town. His knowledge of the uses and abilities of natural ingredients are second to none. He is quick around his shop, hopping on ladders and climbing shelves to fetch whatever his customers need.
Shop: Sniki’s shop has a complete complement of all-natural components, for use in arcane spells and rituals, as well as mundane poultices and infusions. Sniki also stocks all manner of poisons and ingredients that can be used for ill wants.
Playing Sniki: Sniki is a kind and gentle person, who speaks in a high-pitched and nasally voice, always seeking to provide his customers with the best possible item they need, up to and beyond the point at which they are ready to buy. His joy for his products should be infectious, fussing over each one as if it was the greatest thing in his shop. He has no concern with customers who want his products for nefarious plans, seeing those just as valid a use as anything else.
Sniki is a delight to play. He was an on-the-spot invention as my players were looking for an apothecary to brew some better beer, and he’s lived on as a regular supplier ever since. I’ve talked in the past about my love of crafting systems in games, and Sniki is a key example of that.
I think the key to a good and interesting crafting system is the idea of a branching tree. You don’t want to present your player with a simple recipe booking, a+b=c, as it becomes a problem solved simply by coin, so making it a choice tree, forces their hand to make decisions about what they want to do. They want tea? Great, sweet or tart? Fruity or Earthy? Sniki can talk them through this whole idea in the form of a sales pitch, showing how a different combination can lean towards different outcomes, hopefully inspiring creations of the players’ own, a sense of experimentation.
In addition, his function as a purveyor of rare ingredients makes him an excellent quest giver, he will always need a fresh supply of a local plant, or a piece of ooze for distilling, all the way up to a dragonscale of a certain colour, depending on your party’s level and temperament.
I love playing Sniki, and hope you find a place for him too.