Herbalist’s Primer weaves science and fantasy into something more

One day, Anna Urbanek’s mother sat her on her lap and laid out three different items on the table in front of her: a small glass of vodka, a few scraps of money, and a tiny leather-bound book. It was her first birthday, and as is the tradition in Poland, it was time for her to make a choice. Which item would she be most attracted to? 

“My mom specifically took a black book, so it doesn’t skew the results,” Urbanek recalled. “Obviously a child [would reach] for something that’s colorful. So she took her black leather-bound mushroom guide, and of course that’s what I picked. That’s why we are here, I guess.”

Over the last several years, the Polish-born author and artist has carved out a niche for herself with a unique series of books — Herbalist’s Primer, Geologist’s Primer, and the soon-to-be-released Mycologist’s Primer (currently on Kickstarter, with help from Hunter’s Entertainment). Together with her partner Jakub Wisz, the pair have created a series of reference materials: illustrative pseudo-textbooks that draw from real biology and the natural sciences, but also from pagan traditions and the occult. The result is a hybrid kind of document, one that looks back on the real world with love and understanding, but through the lens of fantastical fictions — artifacts that can serve as inspiration for tabletop role-play.

To Urbanek, the desire to create these artifacts all comes back to her first and deepest passion, which is her love of books.

“I suppose the only true answer to that is that I’m a librarian,” Urbanek told Polygon in a recent interview. The book-loving toddler grew up to receive a master’s degree in library sciences, and while that’s not her day job anymore, it still influences her work.

“I care about people reaching for books regardless of their background and their interests,” Urbanek said. “I’m just trying to reach as many people as possible with the cool facts and potentially interesting tidbits of lore that I personally was — and still am — absolutely fascinated by. […] I just want to info-dump everything that I’ve been obsessing about […] in this wonderful world of folklore and natural sciences and how they come together on this very weird intersection that I landed on.”

Other book lovers tend to be drawn first to Urbanek’s illustrations. She says they draw inspiration from classic 19th-century field guides, like those from John James Audubon as well as other British, French, and German naturalists. But the really good stuff is just a little bit older than that.

“When it comes to the contents, […] I was definitely much more inspired by the books that were written pre-Enlightenment era,” Urbanek said, referring to books that were written and published prior to the 17th century. “Before that, whenever you had a book on natural sciences, they also included things that weren’t particularly scientific. […] We lost this. There was this giant tradition, in European literature at least, to include not only the science when we’re talking about natural sciences, but also include how it’s represented in the literature or in art in general, and any potential folklore that’s also pertinent to the subject, and I miss that.”

Through Urbanek’s recasting and remixing of these both ancient and modern texts, fans of TTRPGs get lots of valuable inspiration for their games. Allspice, in addition to being a potent part of fall feasting, also has “limited control over probability [and] games of chance”; primrose is a flowering perennial, and may also be a sign that a portal to the fey realms is nearby; and wormwood, long considered the “patron plant of herbalists,” is also a votive offering that allows communication with the dead.

“When writing Herbalist’s Primer, I was definitely inspired by the classic Green Witchcraft by Ann Moura,” Urbanek said, “which is obviously maybe not something that a standard Dungeons & Dragons player would have fallen into. You have to be interested in the occult in the first place probably to discover some of those books, but they are such an inspiration and such a wonderful source of fascinating stories that you can just pull from and introduce into the worlds you are creating. 

“I feel like it’s my obligation as a librarian to introduce people to books that they wouldn’t normally find on their own,” she added. “Maybe that’s why I always put a bibliography in those books so people can find whatever I think is interesting.”

Now that the books are out in the world — both through DriveThruRPG and via Urbanek’s publishing and distribution partner, Renegade Entertainment — information is starting to flow back to her about how people are using her system-agnostic books in their own home games. There are plenty of folks using it to add color to their games of D&D, of course, but also Pathfinder, Blades in the Dark, and more. Soon, it may even become an integral part of even larger projects.

“We have released the contents of Herbalist’s Primer, and generally all those books, [and] we are allowing people to use it under the fair use practices,” Urbanek said. “Because I don’t own biology, and I don’t own the folklore that I use to create all of those books. We thought it’s only fair to release it into the wild and allow people to create their projects — as long as they just attribute us somewhere in the credits.”

Now that Mycologist’s Primer has reached its goal — and then some, with less than two weeks to go in its campaign — Urbanek says that she Wisz have something even more ambitious in store.

“We already have a lineup of several other primers just getting ready in the background,” Urbanek said. “But […] we are working on a really cool sci-fi system called Aphelion. […] We haven’t shared a lot of details yet, but we are definitely working on something that will allow you to ride a garbage truck in space. […] It’s going to be this really cool adventure through the solar system on ships powered by solar sails and solar roadways.”

And don’t worry: Urbanek said she’s found plenty of ways to fold her passion for plants, gems, and mushrooms into that project as well.

“I don’t know if you know,” Urbanek said, conspiratorially, “but for example, there are fungi and lichens that can feed on solar radiation and actually insulate spaceships from irradiation and protect the people inside. So we are definitely planning something interesting.”

The campaign for Mycologist’s Primer ends on Nov. 15. You can find more from Urbanek and Wisz on their website.