You feel rotten, you're not sure what it is, and there's a queue behind you. Time to describe it well, ask the right things, and leave knowing exactly what to take.
You've been battling a cough for the best part of a week, and it's winning. Your head is thick, you're not sleeping, and this morning you finally admitted defeat and walked to the chemist on the corner.
Here's the thing: nobody's going to fix this for you. Whether you walk out with the right little bottle depends entirely on how well you can describe what's wrong — and how carefully you listen to the instructions. Vague symptoms get vague help. And there are two questions people almost always forget to ask: are there side effects? and is it safe with what I'm already taking?
Behind the counter: a pharmacist who could do this in their sleep — patient, precise, and genuinely on your side, as long as you give them something to work with.
Run-down, a bit foggy, and secretly hoping there's a magic bottle. You need to describe the problem clearly, get a remedy, and understand exactly how to take it.
Calm, careful, has seen every cold going. Will help the moment you give them the details — and will always double-check what's safe before handing anything over.
Here's your toolkit. You don't need to memorise it. Read each phrase, say it out loud once, and pick the ones that sound like you. You'll have it open while you practise.
Draw a card and say what you'd say, out loud, in one or two sentences. Use your own words or the toolkit. Then peek at one possible answer.
Done a few rounds? Try again with the toolkit covered. When it flows, you're ready to hear them in a real conversation.
Read it out loud, one role each, then swap. Spot as many phrases from your toolkit as you can. Listen for how the symptoms get described, and for every little check the customer makes before pocketing the bottle.
1. The pharmacist decides the illness is "on its way out rather than coming on." Which two details led them to that conclusion — and why does it matter for what they recommend?
2. Before pocketing the bottle, the customer runs three separate safety checks. What are they checking each time — and why would forgetting any one of them be a real mistake?
3. "It's the night-time version that would send you to sleep." Why does that detail matter so much today, and what would have gone wrong if the customer hadn't mentioned their plans?
No script this time. You'll have a real conversation with a real person. They have their own mind, and you have a goal.
Say each step once, out loud, in your own words. No writing, no peeking at the phrases.
Pick your situation. Your partner plays the other person.
🏆 You win when you leave with the right medicine and you understand how to use it.
Start the scene first. Partway through, draw a card. Whatever it says, it just happened.
Now you're on the other side. Your partner takes your old part.
Draw another twist whenever you like.
Tick what you actually did, in either seat.
Run it one more time. Draw a twist before you start, and try to reach a good result faster than before.
In 1348, when the Black Death swept through Europe, people went to the only "pharmacists" they had — and were handed vinegar to sniff, herbs to burn, and posies of flowers to hold against their noses. The advice was confident, detailed, and completely useless. Nobody understood what was making them ill.
You've just done something that would have astonished them: described a symptom to an expert who actually knew what it was, and walked away with something that genuinely works — and a clear warning about what doesn't mix with it.
Seven centuries of trial, error and quiet science stand behind that little bottle. All you had to do was ask the right questions.