Your Alternate Names For Stock Items?

[RachelTheSeeker]

Hey again! Sorry to create another thread so soon. I'm inspired by a post-related query by @Ami. He was looking for a different name of a classic Final Fantasy "Elixir" -- an item that restores all health and cleanses status ailments.

I take his plight to heart; one of the big things I'm not fond of in JRPGs, especially RPG Maker games, is using stock names for consumable items. Granted, I dig how Pokemon took JRPG trope items and played with them, such as turning magical healing potions into first aid spray. I am a big fan of turning tropes on their heads, while keeping the spirit of the original idea.

For Ami's plight, I had various mythical concepts, all based around life-extending substances and perfect cure-alls: nectar and ambrosia, amrita and soma, panacea and azoth, and even biblical manna. Even then, not every setting assumes mythological inspiration -- alternate settings might have ER-level stimulants, healing nanobot goo, pastes or pills to replace a day's nutrition, a perfect meal, first-aid spray, an "Nth-aid kit" that's more potent than a first-aid kit, or even a poultice (a soft, moist clump of medicinal stuff as a traditional treatment for injuries) made by a coven of witches. Heck, it could even be a gift from a benevolent, supernatural being -- an angel, a phoenix, a Seelie fey, and so on.

So I've gotta ask: what alternate names and concepts have you concocted for your own stock JRPG goodies? As examples, here's what I've got for my Byzantine-inspired fantasy setting.

• HP Items / Potions come in two varieties -- a "pep tonic", and a "healing elixir". The tonic has a variety of recipes and flavors among different cultures and brewers, but all are low-strength and ubiquitous. As I treat potions like arcane pharmaceuticals, you'd have to really try to overdose on pep tonics; varying doses can be applied to worse and worse wounds. Healing elixirs require potent ingredients and real magic to brew; they can be OD'd on (only in lore, thankfully), but restore all HP. There are some food items that can restore HP outside of battle, as eating food for immediate recovery seems silly in a fight.
• MP Items / Ether is known as "spirit nectar". Nectar goes hand-in-hand with ambrosia, forming the otherworldly foodstuffs that Greek gods consume to sustain immortality. As nectar nowadays means a sweet drink, and I equate sweet and refreshing drinks to MP recovery... well, there y'go. Like food for HP, some refreshing drinks or tasty desserts could recover MP outside of a fight.
• Revival Items / Phoenix Downs come in two varieties, and I might nix the low-strength one -- "life salts" and "ambrosia drops". Life salts are created like smelling salts through potion-brewing; both are unpleasant ways to revive someone who is unconscious. For the salts, they'd either restore a minimal amount of HP when reviving someone, or they'd only be available outside of battle. Ambrosia drops, however, are meant to revive someone mid-fight, recovering half or full HP. As it's meant to sustain immortality, ambrosia drops could potentially resurrect someone who is "medically" dead, if their body is intact or repaired if dismembered. However, this wouldn't rez someone past an hour of death, or if their body is destroyed beyond repair or recognition.
• Status Recovery Items vary. To remove poisoning, diseases or venom-induced paralysis, quaff a "mithridate"; it's named after a mythical poison-curing medicine created by a certain Anatolian king. To remove the effects of magically-induced hallucinations ("blind" state), supernatural paralysis or other curses, consecrate a hexed hero with "anointing oil". If you take a chance with "snake oil", you might find it cures any ailment... sometimes. For a more reliable cure-all, reach for an ampoule of "azoth", the alchemical recreation of Panacea.

Lemme know what you're thinking, and what genre and tone your game has?

 

[magnaangemon01]

In RPG Maker 3, my lazy self just called it a Full Heal if it fully healed HP or Heal All if it healed both.

Real original, I know lol

 

[Redeye]

Depends on the setting, I guess. If Alchemy exists in the world, then Potions would be the standard for recovery items, and perhaps Poisons and Explosive Chemicals for "attack items". You could even have the Alchemy Ingredients act as lesser recovery items that you can combine to actually make the more impressive potions. Of course, if you're like me who ended up creating an entire Alchemist / Apothecary character class, whose skills are themed about potion making, then things start to become complicated (Granted, an Apothecary class is a cool excuse to make them a "Dedicated Item User" with a Pharmacology boost).

Other synonyms for "Potion" include Serum, Tincture, Tonic, Elixir, Draught / Draft, and Philter.

If Alchemy isn't a thing, then you'd be better off basing your items off of standard medical stuff like Bandages, Gauze, or Medicine. Food also works.

 

[Kupotepo]

@RachelTheSeeker, As examples, here's what I've got for my Byzantine-inspired fantasy setting.
HP Items / Potions = Honey Drink [I come up for your game lol]
MP Items / Ether = Blessed Water
Revival Items / Phoenix Downs = A mini statue of Phanes
Status Recovery Items = Herb's name Aloe vera for burning and Life root for a poison cure.

 

[HumanNinjaToo]

All my consumables are fruit and foods. Fruits restore MP and cures status ailments, while foods like hamburgers and cooked fish restore HP and give buffs.

 

[KakonComp]

It does depend on the setting.

In a 2-Hour game I made outside RM a while ago, All my items were one-use spells that could also be learned in the game, so the item names were the names of each spell. The item menu was also renamed Hermetics, and were supposed to be exactly as I said above, advertised to the player as one-off spells instead of the usual consumable item you bought from shops.

If I go with items as they're normally used, I do try to make sure the names aren't the standard, though I also tend to use Vials and Flasks in the name. One thing I've been throwing around in my head is that each "Potion" bears the name of the company that makes it, and the company name influences exactly what each item does. The player would also be able to invest and influence these items to heighten effects, add/change effects, or just make them cheaper for the player to buy.

 

[BURNING_JUSTICE_Games]

I use "Tonics" for the general-purpose items, and they're divided into color categories based on their effects. "Blue Tonic" recovers Health, "Red Tonic" recovers Magic (or whatever the specific resource for the game is), and "Yellow Tonic" cures Ailments

Each type has more effective variants based on more fancy shades of that color, like "Cerulean Tonic", "Scarlet Tonic", etc

There are also ones that combine the effects of those basic ones to provide multiple effects. "Purple Tonic" recovers both Health and Magic, "Green Tonic" recovers Health and cures Ailments and so on, and those also have more effective variants

There's also a "White Tonic" which revives a fallen party member, and a "Black Tonic" that damages/potentially kills an enemy target

I also use food items, and those have a buncha different effects stuffed into them. Those don't abide by the color system, so they can do whatever

 

[TheoAllen]

I use "Health vial" and "Action vial" (for TP) because it is self-explanatory and I don't have to make a lore justification for them as I didn't want to get stuck on naming items I just wanted to finish the game. Then I'm stuck with these names in the next project for "familiarity"

Other items are: Tonics are for revival. And scroll for debuff cures.

 

[Tsukihime]

I name them like drugs lol

Health Pills
Energy Pills

Liquids are out of fashion for me. I prefer solid drugs.

I'm thinking a more futuristic setting so everything has been made compact for storage and convenience. No one's walking around with a vial of health-boosting tonic. Just pop a pill and feel that strength pumping through your veins.

 

[Wavelength]

Moved to Game Dev General Discussion, since this topic mostly discusses names rather than mechanics.

 

[Doobles]

In my game I am using herbalism - herbs and flowers mostly for combat restoration. I do food and drink as out-of-combat restoration items at a much lower cost to the player. These two ideas I've cherry-picked from Grandia and Jade Cocoon. One thing to say though is that the game I am creating leans more on the side of realism. Potions, elixirs, ethers, and antidotes have been done to death, but in a more generic medieval high-fantasy, I likely wouldn't care as much about that. They're expected and have their place if the setting is right.

 

[Elissiaro]

In the game I'm working on right now I have:
HP - Healing Balm (Also Yarrow Flower for super low healing, might be used to craft healing balm if I make a crafting system)
MP - Dandelion Tea (might add Black tea and/or Energizing tea as better versions)
Revive - Smelling Salts

And for status recovery I currently have:
Sleep - Icy Water
Poison - Purifying Tea
All - Miracle Cure (I'm considering whether to add a low chance to be poisoned, cause historically a LOT of miracle cures were made of stuff like mercury and arsenik)

 

[RayGarden7]

Hey again! Sorry to create another thread so soon. I'm inspired by a post-related query by @Ami. He was looking for a different name of a classic Final Fantasy "Elixir" -- an item that restores all health and cleanses status ailments.

I take his plight to heart; one of the big things I'm not fond of in JRPGs, especially RPG Maker games, is using stock names for consumable items. Granted, I dig how Pokemon took JRPG trope items and played with them, such as turning magical healing potions into first aid spray. I am a big fan of turning tropes on their heads, while keeping the spirit of the original idea.

For Ami's plight, I had various mythical concepts, all based around life-extending substances and perfect cure-alls: nectar and ambrosia, amrita and soma, panacea and azoth, and even biblical manna. Even then, not every setting assumes mythological inspiration -- alternate settings might have ER-level stimulants, healing nanobot goo, pastes or pills to replace a day's nutrition, a perfect meal, first-aid spray, an "Nth-aid kit" that's more potent than a first-aid kit, or even a poultice (a soft, moist clump of medicinal stuff as a traditional treatment for injuries) made by a coven of witches. Heck, it could even be a gift from a benevolent, supernatural being -- an angel, a phoenix, a Seelie fey, and so on.

So I've gotta ask: what alternate names and concepts have you concocted for your own stock JRPG goodies? As examples, here's what I've got for my Byzantine-inspired fantasy setting.

• HP Items / Potions come in two varieties -- a "pep tonic", and a "healing elixir". The tonic has a variety of recipes and flavors among different cultures and brewers, but all are low-strength and ubiquitous. As I treat potions like arcane pharmaceuticals, you'd have to really try to overdose on pep tonics; varying doses can be applied to worse and worse wounds. Healing elixirs require potent ingredients and real magic to brew; they can be OD'd on (only in lore, thankfully), but restore all HP. There are some food items that can restore HP outside of battle, as eating food for immediate recovery seems silly in a fight.
• MP Items / Ether is known as "spirit nectar". Nectar goes hand-in-hand with ambrosia, forming the otherworldly foodstuffs that Greek gods consume to sustain immortality. As nectar nowadays means a sweet drink, and I equate sweet and refreshing drinks to MP recovery... well, there y'go. Like food for HP, some refreshing drinks or tasty desserts could recover MP outside of a fight.
• Revival Items / Phoenix Downs come in two varieties, and I might nix the low-strength one -- "life salts" and "ambrosia drops". Life salts are created like smelling salts through potion-brewing; both are unpleasant ways to revive someone who is unconscious. For the salts, they'd either restore a minimal amount of HP when reviving someone, or they'd only be available outside of battle. Ambrosia drops, however, are meant to revive someone mid-fight, recovering half or full HP. As it's meant to sustain immortality, ambrosia drops could potentially resurrect someone who is "medically" dead, if their body is intact or repaired if dismembered. However, this wouldn't rez someone past an hour of death, or if their body is destroyed beyond repair or recognition.
• Status Recovery Items vary. To remove poisoning, diseases or venom-induced paralysis, quaff a "mithridate"; it's named after a mythical poison-curing medicine created by a certain Anatolian king. To remove the effects of magically-induced hallucinations ("blind" state), supernatural paralysis or other curses, consecrate a hexed hero with "anointing oil". If you take a chance with "snake oil", you might find it cures any ailment... sometimes. For a more reliable cure-all, reach for an ampoule of "azoth", the alchemical recreation of Panacea.

Lemme know what you're thinking, and what genre and tone your game has?

Depends on the type of game that you're trying to create and if you want your game to stand out you should chance a few things up. Sounds like you have the right idea the names sound good.