I think I’m going to turn this topic into a post, because it seems like a pretty common problem. Thanks for the inspiration, Jason!

As always, there are some excellent suggestions here in the comments! I particularly like Rudolf’s expansion on the envelope idea, of drawing the container — plus sealing it for locked items and including traps. Very clever.

Alchemy to identify potions is a nice idea, though kind of weird since alchemy is not part of making the potions. I like the spellcraft check idea though.

Standardized potions are nice also. I generally figure healing potions are labeled (you really never want to count on your buddy knowing which potion is the healing potion when he’s trying to save you). In fact, in one previous campaign, given marked healing potions, I had PCs feed healing potions found on prisoners to them so they could be questioned and sent on their way (these were wilderness encounters, where it wasn’t necessarily wrong that the goblins were about, but perhaps they needed to be a bit more tolerant of trade…).

Frank

Never throught of using it in item management, though.

Frank is correct that the trick is not to have a card for everything. This is what I meant in my earlier post that you can go to far with the idea. The short form is that cards should only track things that you really care about tracking. Do you count every arrow religiously? Then have a card for the quiver and mark them off. Do you allow simple restock or even not worry about it? No card. You don’t need cards for armor and other “passive” worn items unless they are the kind of things that the party trades a lot.

Martin, I used the index card box in my Fantasy Hero days. It does help, but I speculate that the envelopes handled by the players (but stored with the DM) would work better. It takes considerable time to dig through the box unless you organize by player anyway.

For potions, what we do is assume that potions of the same type made in a (widespread) culture always have the same flavor/smell/color sufficent to readily recognize them once the party has used a few. Thus, a basic healing potion from Archipelago X is obvious to the natives. That’s why they don’t label them, BTW. If a very old potion was “common” in its day, it probably has no label. An esoteric potion, however, usually does have a label. In d20, I allow alchemy checks to discover potion properties (including whether a potion is spoiled or inert). The net result of this system is that most potions are known by the party, but you still have plenty of reasonable situations where they can find something unknown (if you want).

OT: Some people have reported that the card idea works well for spells. It’s a lot of work to prepare them, but very handy in play. With complicated items, that’s the real time savings as well.

But I would like to maybe contribute a small system I use for letting players ID potions.

At beginning levels, it’s a nice challenge, even raising the money for Identify spell (100g) is a challenge in itself. In order to make life more easy for us, I allow a spellcraft check to verify magical properties and ID the potions.

The fomula I use is 10 + spell level + caster level = Spellcraft DC.

I also permit synergy bonus of +2 on potion ID check if Craft->Alchemy has 5 or more ranks.

I’ve never had a group that would — as a group — use a messageboard, but I’ve always wanted to try it. It’s too bad that it doesn’t solve the whole problem for your group, because it seems like an idea with a lot of potential.

(Frank) That’s a good way to do it, though it raises issues of how skills work. By requiring a skill check, then there is the possibility of not getting critical information.

Agreed. I always just winged it — none of the info was critical, except in the sense that the item could be used right then, instead of several days later back in town.

(Ryan) I usually have a player quartermaster in my games, and what we usually do is that player runs auctions for each item that start at what the group could sell the item for (they have a vendor who eats the identify costs in exchange for getting to enter the first bid on every item).

This is a perfect example of a system (tip #5) that works well for your group. Very cool!