Races
In gaming terms, choosing your character’s race means you will select which sentient species you would like to belong to.
RPG Series
Illustrations by the inimitable Julie Dillon.
PERFUME OIL BLENDS
Presented in an amber apothecary vial
“You all meet at an inn…”
Pen and paper role-playing games have been a tremendous influence in my life since my formative years. My parents bought me the magenta D&D boxed set back in 1982, along with the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual. My lifelong passion for fantasy, science fiction, war games, and mythology was well-channeled through RPGs, and I credit playing D&D with helping me sustain my imagination and sense of wonder through adulthood.
I played with one particular group through the bulk of my late teens and early 20s, and this series — along with the atmosphere tools that Black Phoenix Trading Post has introduced — was inspired, specifically, by the time that we spent campaigning together. Our group was somewhat prop-driven in our gaming: we felt that setting a mood was conducive to our style of gameplay. Little things like changes in lighting, minor sound effects, and music made a world of difference, and we found that utilizing miniatures, model railroad scenery, and other tools in order to physically illustrate strategies and provide visual cues was tremendously useful. How much more immersive would it have been if we’d been able to smell the crypt we were crawling through? Or the stench of steel and blood that permeates a warrior’s cloak? What do the wizard’s spell components smell like? What does winter in the desert smell like? Or spring in a druid’s sanctuary?
Pen and paper role playing games are, to me, dynamic stories that are propelled by the active participation of many individuals. You can’t have a strong storyline without creating characters of some depth. When you create a character, you generally have their personalities, priorities, and history in mind, along with a clear vision of what your character looks and sounds like. But how does she smell? What does the world around her smell like?
In most pen and paper fantasy RPGs, three of the primary attributes that you must choose for your character are race, class, and alignment. Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s RPG scent series was designed to emulate the character creation process, and are meant to be layered in order to create a character concept. In short: you layer your class, race, and the two fragrances that compose your alignment to construct your character scent. RPGs in all their myriad forms — CRPGs, MMOs, and old school pen and paper — have brought me immeasurable joy. This is my homage. This series is dedicated to my first DMs — my parents — for laughing off the nutter-perpetuated AD&D Satan Scare of the 80’s. Thanks for taking the time to play with your little girl. I miss you, and I love you.
twopeople007 –
In the bottle it smells heavily of musk, but as it dries the leather begins to take centre stage. It’s a very fresh, earthy smell. Like gardening on an autumn day. A bit subtle for my tastes, but altogether a very good scent!
VetchVespers –
I really liked this in the bottle. It was smooth and very earthy leather with the zucchini adding a mellow, green sweetness. I could see it working for either sex. Unfortunately, my skin turned Orc strait to baby powder, which I guess has to be the musk, b/c all the other notes work for me normally. I make orc musk smell like baby butts. O_O
Ah well. I would love to smell this one on someone it truly worked for. Earthy, warm, animalistic, but not unwashed. 🙂
[email protected] –
Surprisingly fresh and lively! The green courgette/zucchini is sweet and smooth rather than earthy; it brings a lot of freshness to the warm musk. The leather gives a warm groundedness to the whole composition. I don’t think it would work great on everyone but on me it’s very nice.
Deremna –
This was one of my Christmas presents a couple of years back as my husband knows I love Orcs so very much. Well.. I don’t really ever wear this one unless I’m combining it with a couple other RPG scents. It just smells like dirt to me. It smells like dirt in the bottle, it smells like dirt on my skin. It makes an interesting mix when combined with Fighter, Chaotic, and Good but I cannot wear it on its own.
Danielle –
Initially this is zucchini…like fresh cut zucchini straight from the garden, wet and green. After about an hour or two the leather and musk come through adding some depth to the zucchini note. I like it, its a nice fragrance and much prettier than its title led me to believe it would be, but I don’t love it. Also, although I am still getting wiffs of it hours later, it faded significantly after a few short hours. This is a subtle perfume that stays close to the body. However, if you like unique green fragrances that are soft versus overpowering, I encourage you to try “Orc”
KatRampant –
I wasn’t aware that courgette was another name for zucchini! It’s not at all what I expected but it’s nice. It’s green, but not at all herbal – rather, smooth and earthy. On the dry down the vegetal freshness steps back a bit and lets some leather and smoke through. Overall impression is a rustic kitchen or a farmer’s market. Not something I’d wear all the time, but I like it. It layers beautifully with fighter.
SplitDemonIdentity –
In the bottle this smell really appealed to me, it was all dirt and sweet grass which were things I thought I could get behind.
But then I put it on my skin and it turned sweet on me, and I do not like sweet smells, so it turned poisonous to me.
My friend liked it though and it’s so distinctive that she was able to instantly tell if I was wearing that so that was fun.