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Herbalist's Primer
Herbalist’s Primer is a guide to real-world magical plants.
A mix of ethnobotany, folklore, green witchcraft, occult, and science.
A fully-illustrated, thoroughly-researched resource for writers and world-builders.
An all-in-one book for druids, healers, alchemists, and poisoners—perfect as an in-world item and applicable in all fantasy (and most modern) settings.
A system-agnostic toolkit for game masters everywhere, complete with tips on including the plants in your campaigns—and creating new, exciting pieces of flora.
About
Herbalist's Primer
Herbalist’s Primer is a system-agnostic illustrated guide to real-world magical plants. Inspired by the 19th-century herbalists and the millennia of folklore, myths, and legends, it brings a wealth of easily-accessible, organized information straight to your gaming table.
From screaming mandragoras to shape-shifting deadly nightshade to hawthorns holding portals to the fey realms – the world of plant folklore is full of fascinating stories, magical rituals, and simple spells that are quite unbreakable.
Every entry lists—if possible—their culinary, medicinal, magical, and poisonous properties. Each entry includes basic botanical information, a handy scale reference, commonly used names, and a short description, so there’s no need to read the whole thing if you’re just browsing for inspiration!
We have chosen the most interesting magical plants of the world’s folklore, from the Arctic to Cape Horn. We’ve read numerous herbaria, and took a deep dive into the planet’s biodiversity.
And now we can bring it all to you: nicely organized for your convenience and fully illustrated!
Inside the book
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A full-color, hardcover book (6″ x 9″) with 360 pages of botanical, ethnobotanical, folklore, and tabletop roleplaying material.
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100 illustrated, detailed descriptions of magically-inclined plants from around the world – from aconite to yew.
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Short, sweet, and useful lore chapters on the basics of botany, herb gathering, preparation, alchemy, poisons & antidotes, and more!
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Recipes for magical and medicinal concoctions, written in-world and in accordance with occult lore of the ages past (mix aconite with animal fat, then rub it on a broom handle for an excellent flying experience!).
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Tools for creating original magical plants, plot hooks, quest ideas, and a botanical Latin primer to give your custom, fantastical plants a semi-proper scientific name.
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Convenient tables with magical and medicinal properties of plants, astronomical correspondences, and the language of flowers – all according to the highest authorities in the fields.
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An index, a detailed table of contents, references, bibliography—everything you’d expect from a popular-science publication that will make your herbalist cry the tears of joy.
Meet the plants
Each of the hundred entries includes:
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a common and scientific name
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other names, as they appear in folklore and older sources (did you know that parsley is called devil’s oatmeal? Now you do!)
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a short description with main properties for quick browsing (TL;DR version for your convenience!)
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a detailed botanical illustration in the style of 19th-century herbal books, showing various elements of the plant
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a silhouette of the plant for scale reference
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quick-reference tabs, informing about the plant’s basic properties
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a table with botanical data (plant family, habitat, size, life cycle, parts used in herbalism, and descriptions of flowers and leaves)
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a detailed physical description (including scents and flavors!)
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notes on habitat and cultivation
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advice on foraging and preparation of plant material (harvest time, tools, and traditions and superstitions surrounding the gathering)
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culinary properties (at least for the plants you can eat more than once!)
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medicinal properties (as used in traditional herbal medicine; not real medical advice)
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magical properties (spells, charms, rituals of the occult new and old!)
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poisonous properties (if applicable; covers symptoms, doses, and antidotes)
Would you like to read a full entry, just to make sure it’s the type of content you’re here for? Learn something cool about calendulas on our blog!
The appendices contain more information about each plant: their astrological correspondences (compiled according to general modern occult knowledge, as described in 777, Cunningham’s, and later books), the legends and myths, the science behind the folklore, and the cultural significance around the world.
Do you want to see them all? Well, here you go, we’ve made a handy visual guide just for you (yes, it’s included in the book, you can roll a random plant, we got your back).
Grab the whole collection!
Herbalist’s Primer is not just a book. Thanks to the success of the Kickstarter campaign, we were able to release a full collection of plant-filled materials.
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Herbalist's Notebook
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Herbalist's Coloring Book
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Herbalist's Poster
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Herbalist's Flash Cards
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Adventure: Song of the Hedge
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100 Adventure Seeds
