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The assassin smiled as she watched the target drink the poison. Any moment now the victim would keel over … any moment.
Or not.
Depends on the poison. Poison isn’t a simple roll d20 for a fail or save. Some poisons require build up over time. Others are skin contact, not ingestion. Some just make you sick, other destroy organs, causing not just a slow death, but an agonizing one.
I recently read an article from Dan Koboldt who likes to put “Science in Sci-Fi, Fact in Fantasy”: “Poisons in SSF“, published April 21, 2016 – he interviewed a toxicology specialist for his posting.
Tropes touched on:
1. All poisons do is kill. (the reproductive toxicity is scary in the non-killing versions of poisons)
2. Poisons work when you eat and drink them.
Find out how to approach and update these common poison tropes and make your fantasy or science-fiction assassin more vicious and unpredictable, read the article and tap the resource links at the end. Again, the link is: http://dankoboldt.com/poisons-in-sff/