Potion Phys Rep

K

kes166

Apprentice
I'm looking for a phys rep for potion vials. I was at an HQ game and I noticed someone was using test tubes with what looked like a bubble wand and had the tag in the bubble wand and didn't have to fish the card out of the vial.

Does anyone know a website that sells empty test tubes with bubble wands?
 
Try the wedding supplies aisle in the craft section at your local Walmart. Other craft stores tend to have them too, but Walmart is generally cheapest.
 
The cheapest way to physrep potions is to go to home depot and buy a couple feet of clear rubber tubing and cut it to length. You can get plastic stoppers to cork the tube and it's open on both ends which makes tag retrieval easy.
 
Technically, the bubble wand reps are undersized according to the rules.

We tend to make a couple thousand order at a time from a lab supply for polypropelene 13mm x 100 mm test tubes. You can usually order different colored caps to go with them.
 
Inaryn said:
Technically, the bubble wand reps are undersized according to the rules.
Click to expand...

Incorrect, last I did the math.

.25 fluid oz = .45 cubic inches

The tubes are 4" high by 1/2 inch diameter.

Volume of a cylinder says that's .78 cubic inches, almost double what you need. The box advertises them as filled to .2 fluid oz, but that's including the 'wand' which takes up a great deal of volume. Ignore that, and you've got well over the necessary .25 oz space the rules require.

See page 102 of the rulebook, where we have a nice picture of a player using one of these reps. :)
 
I've never seen the wedding bubble tubes in a half inch diameter... The ones I've seen have always been smaller than that. (That includes ones being used as reps.) I've also not seen them hold 7.4 ml.

For all that the wands make fishing potions out easier, the test tubes not only tend to be cheaper in bulk, they also involve far less hassle since they come already empty.
 
Aside from the kinds of tubes mentioned, there's also laboratory test tubes that can be used for reps. I prefer to use them since they can be ordered in different colors and with different kinds of caps, making it easy to tell them apart at a glance (and without the read/write skill).

http://www.lcmlab.com/12x75mm_Polypropy ... -0025w.htm
 
Stripe said:
Aside from the kinds of tubes mentioned, there's also laboratory test tubes that can be used for reps. I prefer to use them since they can be ordered in different colors and with different kinds of caps, making it easy to tell them apart at a glance (and without the read/write skill).

http://www.lcmlab.com/12x75mm_Polypropy ... -0025w.htm
Click to expand...

>.> That'd be exactly what I was talking about already in this thread. However, the ones you linked to only hold 5 mL, which makes them too small to be valid reps.
 
ARB 104:
Potions: All potion phys reps must be large
enough to hold at least a minimum of a quarter
ounce of liquid.
Click to expand...

Detailed explanation of math time!

1 fluid ounce = 1.8046875 cubic inches
.25 fluid ounce = 0.451171875 cubic inches

According to this link, those wedding bubble tubes are 4 inches in height and 1/2 inch in diameter (or 1/4 inch in radius).

Plug those numbers onto this site, and we get those bubble tubes at 0.785714285714285 cubic inches

Requirement = 0.451171875 cubic inches
Bubble Tubes = 0.785714285714285 cubic inches

Conclusion:
As previously stated by Wraith, the bubble tubes are large enough to meet the requirements of a potion physrep.
 
I suspect that the bubble tubes have void spaces at the bottom and/or are including the wand bit sticking out of the top for calculating their height. A void space would be permissible, the wand bit would be up to your local marshals, I suppose.
 
Also, the walls are very very thick for a container. The bubble tubes work fine, so who cares about the nitty gritty details? I see no reasonable argument for banning them.
 
ARB 104:

Potions: All potion phys reps must be large
enough to hold at least a minimum of a quarter
ounce of liquid.
Click to expand...

Wraith, Orc, your math for calculating the space-filling volume of an object is correct but space-filling volume is not applicable in this situation. You see, the rule as stated requires that the container be large enough to contain 0.25 fluid ounces, not fill 0.25 fluid ounces worth of space itself. The measurements given not only include the tip of the wand but are also taken at the outer edge of the tube wall instead of the inner edge (which would actually come closer to determining how much liquid the container can hold).

0.25 fl oz = 7.39mL

A tube calulated to contain less than that volume is not a legal potion physrep.

Both the linked bubble wand tubes and the 12x75mm (5mL) test tubes are too small because they are incapable of containing 0.25 fl oz of liquid.

13x100mL or 16x75mL test tubes, either of which can contain 8mL (0.27 fl oz) of liquid, are appropriately sized.

If you were to grab a pipette and test it you would see this for yourself. Trust me, I have. :)
 
We've talked about it a couple of times now - the spirit of the rule is that the physrep take up volume, not that it be A - capable of holding the specified amount of fluid nor B - that it even need to be capable of holding fluid at all.

It has to be large enough that represents an object capable of holding the fluid, not that it has to hold that amount of fluid.

Might be worth expanding on the description in the future to make that explicit, by, say, giving an example, though.
 
Size argument aside...

Not including shipping on either order:

26.35 – 1000 test tubes
11.45 – 1000 caps
= 37.80 for 1000 complete reps
= approximately 4 cents per rep

8.95 – 48 bubble tubes
= approximately 19 cents per rep

Add in the bubble tubes have to be drained, cleaned, and dried, and I really don't get why they're preferred. They take more work and are nearly five times as expensive as 8ml polypropylene test tubes with caps.
 
I do remember those discussions, but they're hardly definitive and the rule still states that the item needs to be large enough to contain the stated volume of liquid within. I suppose the bottom line is that it, like many things, will vary by chapter. Your chapter may do as it will, but I don't see us changing our policies to allow containers incapable of containing .25 fl oz of liquid or blocks of wood, etc (that can't contain anything at all) as valid potion/elixir physreps anytime soon.
 
10 rounders are way too big to make decent potion reps, though. They're just awkward to carry without a harness. I could use a few for playing stock class paintball, though.
 
Wraith said:
10 rounders are way too big to make decent potion reps, though. They're just awkward to carry without a harness. I could use a few for playing stock class paintball, though.
Click to expand...

M16 ammo pouches carry 9 each, had 3 of them.
 
And of course, you could always make one of my pantented handy-dandy Potion Rods

One update note though - I've noticed on my trips of late that some Burger Kings are using clear straws that may not meet the required quarter ounce. The red ones though do.
 
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