You can hear a train, cars and see powerlines in the background. That man has finally found the way back to civilization. Now he doesnt have to sleep outside anymore!
Consider Hamund's Harvesting Handbook on dm's guild. It gives each monster in the monster manual a unique loot table. harvester makes a check to see what they get, the better the roll the better the item harvested. It's one of my favorite 5e books.
I was going to mention this. It's fun to do. Some players don't care about it. Others go full Monster Hunter and start chopping up every monster for materials they can use for crafting. And PCs end up with unusual or quirky magic items they crafted themselves, making them different from any other character they have had before or will have after.
I use Hammond's Helpers as NPCs that now staff the Forge of Spells at Wave Echo Cave (post LMoP). If the players want to have magic items crafted, they leave the harvested materials with the NPCs, pay a fee, and pick them up when they're ready.
The direct problem with D&D and Crafting is that most GMs have all weapons and armour available in shops that is available at all times. For crafting to be viable you would have to take away the easy access to equipment so they have to scavenge, loot and repair/Craft their own stuff. Like if the party starts of with a shipwreck situation. They might have their original gear, but to get better stuff they really do have to make it themselves... which isnt a bad idea for a starter campaign...
Very true! That's kinda how I started my groups current DCC campaign. Their remote village was destroyed so they mostly have had to scavenge materials thus far. It also helps to start as level 0 peasants with no real gear!
I think it's actually a composite of several factors. - As you mentioned, why craft something if you can simply purchase it? Why craft something if you will get something far better looting the dungeon or gifted to you by the gods? - Time. Even with the shortened time for crafting now can be incredibly long. A lot of tables have campaigns that don't have a lot of time to work on crafting projects and the sorts and even the ones that do rarely have time for the fighter to personally forge their own plate armor. Plate is obviously one of the more extreme examples but this will become the case for magic items, higher tier healing potions, spell scrolls of higher levels, etc. - Not all crafting is created equal. You can be creative with anything but blacksmiths will forge armor, herbalists will concoct potions, gaming sets will let you not lose at a game of dice. Cobbler you could use to argue you can get stuff from boot marks, judging the wear of boots, and you could theoretically make some magical boots but if they are metal boots it might make more sense to be a blacksmith. - I don't think it really appeals to everybody. Obviously the setting, feel of the campaign, and mechanics will influence it but I do think some people could care less about crafting.
@@brycejordan8987Isn't the solution to most campaigns not having time, to make time for downtime between adventures? Or even during? WotC 5e adventures are kinda non-stop from my experience, but maybe the new DMG will have advice about this? (Probably not) Also, having cooler rules for crafting would help with people not being interested. Spending those weeks/months/years with a full time job just making some basic items isn't cool. But if you can craft unique items, more powerful items, and/or improve normal stuff? Now crafting sounds cool and has a reward beyond accounting. And it helps if a fun amount of them can be done in a reasonable amount of time.
Conversely, those shops could be around but the party faces obstacles with how to access them. Maybe they became outlaws from stealing or faced absurd prices beyond what their adventuring gains seemed to bring.
Cobbler's tools are one of the least useful tool sets out there. At least give it the ability to add movement speed to character's footwear even an additional 5 feet will do. Duration depends on DM fiat.
Friendly reminder that jumping is handled by the athletics skill, not acrobatics. Acrobatics would cover something like balancing on a tightrope, so it actually tracks that modifying your shoes could help with that.
How to fix half of the problems people have with crafting: put 1 extra line or box in monsters' statblocks signaling what can be harvested from that monster and its DC. For raw materials that don't come from a monster, make a table detailing which plants or minerals are needed for which item, where they can be harvested, & the DC for harvesting them. Rangers should always get advantage to find raw materials. The shody crafter Item should last an amount of long rests = roll of the crofter's Proficiency Die.
Since monsters don't carry treasure, I award their CR loot value in trophies, which could be a horns, feathers skull, or whatever. Survival or relevantly trained characters can get a better gold value with a good roll. Monster trophies count double their loot value towards craftable item cost with relevant proficiencies or charisma checks with merchants. For additional complexity in a survival/encumberance campaign, Monster parts weigh a lot, but the skill checks determine a better value per lb.
My group use the crafting rules in Heliana's guide to Monster Hunting by Loot Tavern. Which funnily also have rules for hunting and harvesting monsters, which we also use. The rules have you get either perks or detrimental effects depending on how well you made the item.
Nice! That came up while I was researching for this video, but the sample I found seemed a little complex for my preference. Perhaps worth a follow up if I revisit this topic!
The biggest problem with crafting is time. According to the old 5e rules, many simple things take a day to make, and some things take a week to make. And very rarely do other party members want to wait for one of the members to forge a dagger, be a herbalist, carve a bowl or brew a healing potion, which is why there is no time for crafting during the sessions. And not to mention that traveling, camping, resting, shopping, dining and other downtime are often time-skipped to save time and condense the campaigns.
For sure. Like with Bob's example from the 2014 book. 300 days for *plate armor?* And you save only 50% of the price? It doesn't really matter if it makes sense or not, it's simply not worth it and nobody wants to wait a damn near a year to get something so simple. A lot of new systems, or homebrew systems, help this issue, but not by much. It still often takes too long to be fun/viable for everyone at the table.
Have your players rest between sessions when it makes sense. I have my players email me how they spend their week of downtime and we RP it out in the first 5-10 minutes of the next session. Pretty easy stuff. Plus my players have several characters so some are crafting, building, running businesses and stuff while others go on quests and whatnot. The DM sets the pace, the players will typically go with the flow. My PCs have to set up camps and whatnot so its normal for them to get things done while the hirelings are setting up camp or cooking and whatnot. Its really just about the DM setting the tone and expectations the world sets. I had a player piss his pants once on a crit fail and my players have been taking bathroom breaks ever since lolz. The main thing is just to have the downtime happen between sessions so you dont have to waste too much time on it in game. Do that and folks will craft loads of stuff. Also let them collect the materials. You dont have to follow the rules all the time, if something sounds like it would work just let it happen. Save the dice for the risky stuff.
Almost an entire year to make a suit of armor. It's baffling. Every weapon shop must have 20 smiths working together minimum. Or armor is so rare no NPC beneath royal rank (or their bodyguards) should own a suit a armor..... A town with 10 armourers and 50 guards would take years to outfit just their town guards with armor and weapons. It's crazy.
Historically, plate armor takes 6 to 9 months, with elaborate embellishments pushing past a year. D&D is a magically and heroically embellished world. For this reason, I would cut crafting time to about 3 months or 6 months for something elaborate. Adding 3 months per plus 1 given to the armor. Also, I would bring the cost to crafting the item down to 30% of the item cost minus %5 up to three times (max -15%) per materials self gathered.
@@leintati You are talking about skillfully crafted and decorated plate armor, the crafting of which was slow and meticulously tailor-made so that each ornament would be showy and the armor a suitable size for its wearer. From the 15th century to the 16th century, the mass-produced plate armor, or the munition armor, was much simpler, more rugged, more standard. These properties, together with the lower quality and the phosphorus content of the used metal, made it possible for plate armor to be produced in a couple of months. These mass-produced plate armors were more common because they were produced in large quantities and their damage on the battlefield didn't decrease their value and status.
A simple idea for gathering materials from monsters: you have crafting materials for each creature type. Each material type will grant you access to a skill/ability typically shared with that creature type. You can only craft these effects onto weapons or armour, and once imbued, they can't be removed. It makes hunting specific types of monsters more exciting, and means you can have different weapon/armour sets that could come in handy in different ways. It's not too granular because it's only one crafting material per creature type, you can make all material requirements the same number, and chances of obtaining those materials can be relative to CR. You could basically get all the relevant info onto two pages, and open up a whole layer of complexity that would make crafting so much more fun.
In Cali, less trains, more jets, but much the same. I'm just surprised you don't have the Midwest summer curse of "So many bugs! And they all luv me!". (except for fireflies at night. I miss those. Cali fireflies illuminate very weakly and only for 10 days in selected regions.)
I feel like having a chance to find reagents on some monsters would be cool. Especially if those reagents then would allow you to craft with some kind of quality from that creature. Red dragon scales giving you the ability to craft armor with fire resistance or maybe a sword with some fire damage would be very cool. It’s got to be simple enough to not have to keep track of all the different kinds of monster parts… Nobody wants to be swimming in monster parts… But ultimately, I think it be super cool to be able to use reagents found on some of the scary monsters that you kill. I’ve certainly homebrewed this before and allowed players to bring monster parts to craftsman and get great deals on magical items… That sort of thing. Every time it has ever happened in a game the player really truly loved that item and would talk about how they made something in the game from the monster they killed. It’s definitely a fun thing that has been missing from D&D.
Yeah, I think the best solution I've seen is the Witcher's system where each monster part breaks down into 1-2 essences and then effects are created by combining essences. You could easily make intuitive basic components: Ectoplasm - makes equipment lighter / bonus to escape grapple Fire essence - deal fire damage or gain resistance to fire -> repeat for all the elemental damage types Chitin - makes equipment more durable / AC bonuses Spurs - change to piercing damage Blades - change to slashing damage Arcane essence - makes equipment magical Goo - bonus to grapple / climbing Fins - swimming / underwater bonuses Holy essence - healing bonuses / radiant damage Death essence - necrotic damage / resistance Feathers - falling damage reduction Fiber - bludgeoning damage reduction, bonuses to grapple/trip Toxin - poison damage/resistance
Ars Magica is a good place to look for inspiration - it has the notion of *vis* - embodied magical energy. A fire-breathing dragon may have 3 points of Ignem (fire) vis which can be had by extracting its gizzard; a unicorn may have a few points of Creo (creation/healing/purification) vis you can get by taking its horn. Magical effects are all characterized by a combination of 1 of 5 Techniques and 1 of 10 Forms, which means there are only 15 types of vis you need to keep in mind, and many of them are pretty intuitive. For a 5E game, you'd probably want 1 per school of magic, 1 per element or energy type (including things like psychic, radiant, necrotic, and force), and maybe a couple stray ones for concepts not well-covered otherwise. You could still assign a GP value to all this, e.g. "the Intellect Devourer's pituitary gland is worth 3000 GP of psychic essence", so you have something that doesn't feel as generic but you also don't have to e.g. measure extracted poison in drams and scruples.
The Witcher RPG reduced monster reagents to about ten categories or so, so you did not have to keep an inventory of "rock troll livers", only "Rebis x2". Ars Magica has the concept of Vis, Latin for "Power", as in magical power. It comes in "Fluid Vis", AKA, the magic you (or a creature uses) for spells, and Embodied or Raw Vis, i.e., magic in material form. This vis is then categorized into the 15 categories of magic Ars Magica uses (5 techniques, "what you do", and 10 forms, "what you are using magic on"). Again, you don't have to write "black unicorn horn", just "3 Creo [creation/healing] vis". Ars Magica really has some of the best rules for magic IMHO - from casting to enchantment to research. Perhaps to do this in D&D terms is to just have monster parts be "N gp of essence of [Magical School]", so your D&D 5e Troll's liver would be "250 gp of Transmutation essence".
Fizbans Guide to Dragon's and the 5e DMG have what you're looking for with your specific example. You certainly can craft dragon scale armor, and the DMG has the item and stats. Fizbans covers weapons and a few other items. Just use the items in there as a baseline for different dragon types. The crystal sword could be made from the spines of other Dragons. You could make a Topaz Annihilator made from red dragon scales that simply does fire damage instead of necro damage and casts a fire spell once a day instead of disintegrate. The Sapphire Shield could be instead made from another gem Dragon's scales. Just change the resistance, and have it seek that dragon types fave food or worst foe. When it comes to what to do with a dead dragon or displacer beast, the DMG and current books have got you covered. It's crafting for everything else they gave us no guidance or rules for... Just sayin. You ain't wrong tho.
Like take an item you have, take something else you have, bam! Chair of pop pebble propulsion. I just need to know the weight of the rocks and how the hell I have space in my infinite size backpack that is only limited by carrying capacity. (And everyone ignores that anyway so who cares)
I'm currently taking some inspiration from how baldur's gate 1/2 do inventory where it's slot based with a set amount and while items don't stack you have gear slots as separate slots quick grab slots (aka stuff you have on your belt) bags that take up a single slot but hold multiples of a kind of item like for example you could have a potion bag and a bag of holding be two slots but have no bearing on your other space beyond their weight (and for the case of the potion bag the combined weight of the potions) however I also recommend to ease up on Attunement because you now instead have specific slots for specific kinds of items (and if a feature granted you more Attunement slots simply give them a free space on a gear slot) so you're pretty much balancing the fact that players now have to think about their gear and how much they can carry in the backpack all pc's have that's never represented in art apposed to limited a player's gear by Attunement
i just love the BWB lore that bob was just on a journey into the wilderness to escape the planes and trains and he’s just given up and returned to civilization 😂
Regarding the idea that crafting is just a slower way to buy things... If you're a Dragonborn, for example, you have a physiology that's uncommon to most people. It could be difficult to find armor that fits, so making it is the easier solution. Many tables will probably not play with this level of detail, but some do.
In earlier iterations of D&D this sometimes became an issue with small races, like halflings. In these editions they had small sized weapons, which could be less likely to find from opponents, unless you happen to fight some small sized opponents. It's strange looking back that weapons had a size, but armor did not. I do remember a DM not allowing my halfling character from using the armor of a medium sized opponent, it makes sense I guess.
I usually require a check to determine how many parts they get; roll/5 number of d4 parts, the roll based on the type of creature, if the roll doesn't reach a DC = 10+CR the d4 just become 1. They always get something, it's a matter of how much, and I tell them in the moment if they identify or with a roll what effects they can get
For me, a crafting system is a system that allows me to craft my own weapons, not an alternative to purchase weapons available in every shop. They had a unique opportunity due to the weapon masteries and properties. Personally, it's disappointing.
Well they do mention that it has to be a feasible project, with an example like, two jewelers couldn't really work on the same ring. But yeah somwehere in Faerun there must be a factory assembly line of 150-300 blacksmiths churning out all the armor
For harvesting, I’ve done the following in my games: for things like hide, teeth, hair, or even meat, it’s a DC10+CR check to see how long and how much they can collect. Passing the DC means it takes 1d6 minutes to collect 2d4 “pieces” of the monster. Failing means it takes 2d6 minutes for only 1d4 “pieces”. While they are harvesting, I sometimes roll to see if vultures, bandits, or wolves stumble across their fresh kill (but not always). The simple pieces can be sold for GP or one player created a set of hide armour with cool teeth embellishments (effectively a +1 hide armour). For complex things like poison glands or magical imbued scales, it’s a DC15+CR check. If they pass, then they get the item and its properties to use when crafting. If they fail, they might only get half of the components or nothing (say if they rolled a nat 1). This system mostly works. None of my players have crafted their own things; rather they get the local blacksmith/alchemist/tinkerer to build the things for them.
My biggest problem with crafting in TTRPG's is it's entirely against what I feel the point of the game is: going on an adventure and being thrust into action. (Also HOOOOOONK! Team train! ✊)
@BobWorldBuilder I still think battle zoo is way too clunky and delays the game for not things most of the party enjoys. Train hoot hoot steam horn. Any system that's let's break out another book track more resources and require gms to evaluate balance of each item that is not automated kills the flow of play imho. 😅
Spoiler: Nobody will use the official crafting rule. 1 year for one plate armor... Poor armies. When they wrote this example they have must seen the problem. Any black-smith guy will make you plate armor in a couple of days.
Yeah I feel like any crafting system that involves downtime or more than a couple rolls just doesn't stick in peoples' games, but that's really just my experience
While a full year is probably too slow, a few days is definitely too fast for a full armature of plate harness. There are historical references to there being workshops in Milan that could produce full suit in one day, but that would've been many men working in concert, each making different parts of the armor in parallel. So for a single smith, several weeks to a couple months might be more reasonable, depending on the quality of the armor and how much care is taken to fit it properly. (Note also that historically, the smiths would've had next to nothing to do with any straps, that probably would've been contacted out to a girdlers guild, same for arming clothes and a tailor's guild. Even little things like gilded trim would've been contracted out.)
Right? I feel like the time it would take to gather all the materials and then the actual crafting time, people could just gather the gold, travel to town and buy it outright.
12 дней назад
Exactly, how many dungeons or just jobs in town could you do in the same time. Is not very convenient to invest all that time in my opinion
Feel like things should more about quests and unique acts than just time and material investment, I guess. Hunting creatures like that book you mention sort of fits that, though I like the idea of items being truly unique and sort of manifestations of the world's magical nature rather than things players can 100% treat like technology. But even doing that, some of the costs for stuff seem more discouraging than aspirational, even DCC's values seem super high for something you're technically still able to do. For plausible items it makes sense that PCs could make them with the appropriate setup, including fancy stuff, but something truly special should be more about the sort of legendary stuff you see as back story for famous items. Curious how these new rules work in practice for the players at large
You should look at the crafting rules from the dungeon dudes pluto jacksons guide to monster hunting. The book isnt out yet but they made a video that goes over all the rules. I think you'd like it
I have had players have a good bit of fun with RTG's Witcher game. I do recommend using the Equipment-Homebrew from Nic Cage, but otherwise it's a damn fun game. Crafting in that game is very much feasible, as during travels (if you have downtime) you could easily just ask to find some resources. If you're in the right area and have the tools, you might be able to harvest it. Alchemy is almost fully possible without having to kill monsters, though it's certainly easier for a Witcher to slay a wolf for its tallow or a spectre for its dust, than to find a well-traveled cave-diving forager who can sell you some rare Dwarven Immortelle, just to extract the Fulgur from it. Weapons, Armor and everything that's equipment will usually require schematics to actually be made, which could be found in exploring or looting, or by buying them off of craftsmen. Or you could just bring a schematic of your own to a craftsman (along with some of the potentially rare resources needed, such as black steel or the wax of a troll) to make a new suit of Witcher armor over the course of a week.
I like KibblesTasty's version of the crafting rules. It gives you some variance into the kind of loot that monsters can drop without going too far and needing to detail specific loot for each monster. Basically it divides them into reagents (usually gathered from nature rather than harvested from monsters) of which you have three types: curative, reactive and poisonous, and essences (those are the usual monster drop) which again you have three types: arcane, divine and elemental. What you need to define is the recipe but it does give you guidance into creating your own and provides them for all magic items in the DMG!! It also includes specific advice for other disciplines like wand- and scroll-making, blacksmithing (with the intent of making it magical) and I think any variant you can think about crafting
I like the more robust tool section. I think the crafting rules in 3.5 work really well. I especially like the ability it gives you to make your own custom magic items. The only changes I'd add to 3.5 is rules for adding better weapon properties to non magical weapons with a harder crafting check. And monster loot being usable to decrease the cost to make magical items. Or allow the monster items to be used in place of the spells. Something along those lines. I personally like making players role crafting checks. My favorite crafting and item modification system in a role playing game is Edge Studio (formally Fantasy Flight Games) Edge of the Empire ttrpg.
I like just the item being called monster parts and you can get an additional specific item by an additional skill challenge so you only the specific item you actual need and can skip it otherwise. The monster part will by adjacent to the monsters type. So this sword requires four undead parts, 2 beast parts, and an abomination part to make this item and of course a liches phalactory part. There, you've made a tiny humunculi! Edit: changed empty phalactory to phalactory part as a player I was talking to said the empty phalactory might be very large or destroyed to kill the liche.
FOOTWEAR; I can recall a few years back during a football game being played in some nasty weather conditions. Players were slipping and sliding all over the field UNTIL a trainer (probably not a cobbler) used a staple gun and inserted staples into the bottom of the cleats. Voila, instant traction.
Bob, I want to honestly thank you for being what seems to be the only D&D related youtuber who isn't constantly just yelling into the microphone. You're a breath of fresh air and I appreciate you!
I created a homebrew called "City and Wild" with a custom and simple harvesting system and my players are having fun when creating new items with special materials (not only monster parts), new properties and such. This helped a lot to fill this missing system on DnD, and hopefuly we will continue using it with the new 2024 edition.
I would like the "Degree of Success" check for harvesting. Have different quality of monster resources based on how high you roll. Always get a minimum mundane material unless rolling a natural 1, in which case you ruin the materials while harvesting.
Honestly, the thing that ticked me off the most but I never see a lot of people mention about the Crafter feat is how they changed the 20% reduction on crafting time (with proficient tools) in the UA for the freaking Fast Crafting table. A big thing about crafting is there are many things you won't ever craft due to the time required to do so not being worth it (Plate Armor anyone?) so I was happy to see them lessen the burden between this and multiple people helping to halve crafting time. And then we got the Fast Crafting table. Yippee.
I still have no idea what's even in the fast crafting table because no video I've seen about the new phb has mentioned it, but at the very least you're getting a 20% discount for purchasing materials for making gear so now crafting plate mail now only costs 650gp instead of 750gp... now just comes the problem of time
My DM uses the Unearthed Arcana rules for player bastions and allows any crafting to be resolved during a Bastion day, which occurs every tenday. Each member of the party crafts different equipment or consumables. These can be made from monster parts or foraged ingredients where the difficulty of harvesting (and crafting) is determined by the rarity of the ingredients. For example, our party was attacked by intellect devourers in our tavern; we killed them and managed to harvest intellect devourer brain fluid which we then turned into a sort of mind swap potion that was used to infiltrate an enemy hideout.
a TTRPG with a somewhat interesting crafting system is Fabula Ultima. everyone has Inventory Points which can be used for ad-hoc items, but there's also a class which can do many more things with IP, as well as create projects that can be single- or multi-use. and since that TTRPG has obligatory multiclassing, it doesn't feel like crafting is the only thing the player does.
I quite like the general shape of how monster harvesting is done on Critical Role - they make a Nature check, but it's not pass/fail, it's *how much* usable stuff they're able to harvest, and/or how much time it takes. You're rarely going to fail to collect ANY hide off a dead bear, but an amateur might take half an hour to hack off a ragged strip of it, while an expert might be able to skilfully take off the whole pelt in good enough condition to use/sell it as a cloak.
Great Video Bob as always. ❤. BTW Grace World Destroyer was awesome in the Stephanie Plays Games and Baron school naming fundraiser. I have her high praise. ❤
A DM of mine had a variant rule (probably homebrew/houserule?) of the "monster parts" idea, that required some kind of relevant check (typically nature) with a DC set by the number of monsters you wanted to harvest, times their CR, plus 8, rounded up, and every increment (3 or 4 or 5, I forget) would give you an additional piece of something. Made the checks feel a lot less arbitrary, and the ranger was happy to be useful!
I allow my players to spend their spell slots to speed up the crafting time for magical items, that was usually the biggest problem for crafting in my games. A 1st spell slot spent speeds up the crafting by 1 day; 2st slot by 2 days; 3st slot by 3 days, and so on. Also, artificers spell slots are more powerful for crafting, doubling up for each increment of spell slot (1st slot = 1 days; 2st slot = 2 days; 3st slot = 4 days; 4st slot = 8 days, and so on). Magical ingridients can be find in the wild or looting monsters, and rangers have advantage for these things. I found it as a simple and fair addition for crafting.
Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting and Larsene's Ledger would be my thoughts for things that fit. Want to harvest a Beholder, you can either do it yourself or with help, better the roll the more you acquire, maybe even a magical essence to enchant magic items. You also needn't be proficient to try and craft, it's just more difficult to do so. It's also more complex than mentioned here, but my groups been enjoying it
An articifer in my game decided to crafting claymores. Not the sword, but the ball bearing thrower made by the good ole US of A. Crafting rules say that 1 mine would take 3 work weeks (15 days). 150g explosive material, 1g 100 ball bearings, and the clay was free since we went and found it himself. Its good for things that you can't exactly find in DND. Also don't give explosives to your party.
In my homebrew game and whenever I DM for D&D-esc games, I have always done a sort of Monster-Hunter-lite system, where players can combo 2 ingredients. Which can just be plants or minerals I invent or include "parts" from a monster, just imagine a part of the creature and have it drop when it dies or let the players harvest it... Fighting a Displacer Beast? Maybe it drops a Displacer Hide, Displacer Lung, or Displacer Tentacle... "Hide" is a really easy one for most every monster. Combinations: Displacer Hide + Hide Armor = Displacer Armor, As Hide Armor but gives you the Displacement ability of the Displacer Beast once per day. Displacer Lung + Displacer Lung = Displacer Potion, when consumed you can magically teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. (As Fey Step) Displacer Tentacle + Whip = Displacer Whip, deals 1d6 slash +1d4 pierce, uses Strength. In my homebrew I have written down a 1d6 table of what to get/craft for every monster I've created so its more controlled with little overlap. Crafting the item takes a 1d6 skill roll, but if they wait till they get to a town to some sort of crafting location like a smith or tailor then they can roll with advantage or pay to have it done. Failure destroys the ingredients. (Players with the Hunter feat also get to roll twice on the harvesting of a creature part for their party.) And don't forget harvesting can take time, you can use the idea in a lot of ways as a DM. -Maybe a pack of predators come to interrupt you, or a larger animal steals your entire kill. Track the griffin that stole your kill? -Maybe the players could use the harvest time as a rest, the meat could mean no rations used. -You can't harvest when fleeing or fighting, maybe the chance of harvesting could bait a player back to a dangerous place.
Quick and easy harvesting rule. The harvesting happens, and any check made would be to determine complications - damage taken - or time wasted (which can of course lead to other issues like a random encounter) With a DC depending on the CR of the creature or value of the harvested material. With a few questions beforehand to determine what you intend to harvest and what you intend to do or make with the material.
Harvesting: Adventurer Conqueror King System. Lairs and Encounters book. Crafting of magical items: adventurer conqueror king system. Crafting of normal items? Dunno.
I think PF2e handles crafting normal items well. I'd actually say crafting most items in the system (magic, alchemical, otherwise). Having a crafting skill and giving items levels that correspond to character level helps a lot LOL
Fantasy Craft has a fairly satisfying crafting system, since its gear offerings are intrinsically built around a fairly robust menu of modular upgrades. As long as the GM is properly gating custom gear builds and not just allowing every possible permutation to be bought off the shelf, crafting provides a very meaningful avenue for players to build out their own custom equipment. It also provides for using monster parts as raw materials in crafting, giving them an abstract coin-equivalent value similar to the system you describe here. One of my players has been working steadily on tinkering with her own custom armor over the course of our long-running campaign. It's almost become something of an extended side-quest, deciding on the next upgrade to work toward and chipping away at it whenever there's a little downtime.
I run a D&D discord with an ongoing system that the whole server can participate in, we host quests that anyone can join, basically connected one-shots. Every day is a "Work Day" where you can roleplay via text even when you're not playing in a session that day. I've made my own homebrew version of harvesting from monsters and from nature, as well as crafting, and alchemy. While it's still in a beta stage, players are enjoying the process.
I'm attempting something based on ideas from dungeon dudes upcoming crafting system. Basic recipes need basic monster parts so I classify them by creature type and "tier" or rarity, which is a range of CRs. So to build a +1 weapon you need 3 parts from monsters of any type, of tier 2. Only for iconic and new magic items, you need specific parts, like the hair of a banshee or vampire ashes. I think the most complicated part is inventory (which is also a problem in video games)
I'm a fan of kibblestasty's crafting system for the sort of crafting most people seem to want from TTRPG crafting, but making magical items is a legendary endeavor, and that sort of thing needs an ad-hoc system to feel satisfying imo. Reforging ancient blades, consecrating profane blades, ritually combining harvested items, etc
"Fight, Item, Run" by Whimsy Machine has a fantastic crafting system! When the GM makes a monster for an area they give it a Trait (GMs make all the monsters, but the process is part of the game and monsters/challenges boil down to its HP and a Trait). When a character hits a monster, they can gain essence from the monster that turns into a piece of gear related to the monster once the monster is defeated! No extra downtime spent on purchasing materials, you can just get the gear from the monster directly. However, if you like the flavor of downtime, it wouldn't be hard to say that you get a material from the monster which they can use to craft a piece of gear after a small "Time Skip" (yes that is a mechanic in the game). Also, there is a style of magic called Alchemy that focuses on using two items to create a magical effect (something that could easily be re-made into crafting mechanics). Also, also, you can create gear from having deep friendships--once your bond with an ally exceeds a certain value, you share a scene together and a piece of gear is created from that interaction (this also mainly happens during combat, so that's fun)!
XP to Level 3 made a Fallout TTRPG that makes crafting and customizing your weapons and armor a lot of fun. I've been GMing 2 parties of 4 and some of the funny things they cook up in our group chats, preparing for the next sessions are so good I can't say no to them. I am hoping to maybe one day start streaming the sessions. I would love to give the TTRPG world a few smile every week
Crafting isn't a separate subsystem in Fate, but I've always found that it allows for a lot of fun in coming up with creative tools and materials you can bring to a craft.
You could add a few broad categories to the monster part system to get a little more detail. Such as 30 gp worth of weapon parts, armor parts, etc. And I LOVE ALL Bob World Builder videos!
I'm pretty fond of "Ghesh's Guide to Making Things" by Anne Gregersen and the associated Monster Loot series of supplements that match up with every WotC monster manual and adventure with monsters (available on DM's Guild). While you can make a few things, mostly you harvest reagents from non-humanoids (because humanoids already carry loot and harvesting from them would be gross). Those materials are used to add mods to existing armor and weapons, granting them new properties to enhance gameplay. Bonus: "Sir Alkan's Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse" by the same author is one of my favorite supplements out of my entire TTRPG experience going back 25 years, and has enough inspiration for dozens of apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic campaigns.
We had a great time designing Phaylen's Journal of Extraordinary Items and it seems that the new rules are not too different from the ones we designed. There are rules for simple magic items, over 100 craftable items, and updated toolkits with tons of mundane items to craft.
I'm going to be honest, as a DM I want harvesting to either require a check, or a proficiency requirement. When you play a video game they give you the drops automatically because RNG and YOU are the main character and as such why would anyone want to make items for others. When you make characters either have to make a check, or have a tool proficiency for the task, it makes it more rewarding for those that do. Look at it like this, if everyone could pick locks without a check or tool proficiency, then why would the rogue feel useful out of combat (this is an oversimplification, obviously rogues have lots of other useful skills) All of this said, I think that you should need a "hunters tools" proficiency or something, and then keep the timed rules unless the monster part that they are collecting is special and needs a check. This should be decided on an as needed basis.
As a general rule, I think any character in a TTRPG should be able to *try* anything. The rogue should be the best and most likely to succeed at picking a lock, but anyone can try it. For this, I think anyone should be able to collect parts, but probably a ranger (or other unique character trait) would be best at it.
@@BobWorldBuilder but how do you distinguish ability without checks? Picking a lock requires a check so maybe it was a bad choice for me to use it as an example. What about smithing? Smithing requires a tool proficiency to attempt which means your smithing character is unique within the party. You could let anyone who doesn't have the proficiency be able to smith with a check, but then why would anyone try to specialize in it at all. They could just become a skill horder instead. Obviously people still will specialize for the flavor, but from a player standpoint, if you specialize in something niche and then someone else who didn't have to specialize is able to do it just as well, you're going to be disheartened at the very least. If you use the method of anyone with the tool proficiency can do the simplest version of a task automatically, then you make it to where anyone who wants to can do that task, they just have to seak out the ability to use those tools first. Then with checks added in for more difficult tasks, you make those that devote more to thier trade feel like it was worth it.
I've only done this twice, in my current campaign the rogue keeps harvesting any poisonous creature for their poison pouch and then spends some time making venoms, in my previous campaign my sister made a cloak out of hezrou leather, it gave advantage in saving throws vs aoe and once a day can use the stench feature
The rogue just needs a vat and they can create the world's first airport jungle juice and use it on some poor sap and see what happens What could go wrong?
The last thing I want is my ttrpg to be more videogame like. Remember that was the goal with 4E. Also, I'd stop giving so many magic items if players can make them so easily with the alternative craft system you mentioned.
It makes sense to me that a harvester sometimes messes up and doesn't get the whole possible loot, besides the fact that in the fight, some stuff might have been ruptured by a mace or pierced by a long sword. Giving it a dice roll makes the difference from getting a gold pouch from a a dead wolf and wolf's fang from a goblin. One would be weird. But I do like the idea for something to do on downtime or even preparations for some other quest.
Ghostfire Games Grim Hollow settings has monster harvesting that leads to crafting items. The upside and downside: every monster has it's unique thing to make. The power and utility is tied to the monster CR. The time is usually a few hours to a week. Checks - usually some sort of tool use - are usually required relevant to the item.
The editor showing a clip of Pump shoes was actually the perfect gif there, and warranted a comment to show appreciation for what a "1 time acrobatics advantage might look like"
3:44 Now I'm considering a small army of Dragonborn Union organizers that are contracted by powerful NPC's and players to negotiate their crafting & business contracts: Guildbusters Union 405 Sometimes for very rare, large, or powerful creatures I like to make a mini game where the other players have to defend the harvester from outside threats. Vultures swooping in to the dead behemoth to feast, dire wolves, or raiders, the players have to defend the harvester for a few rounds just to amp up the engagement.
Monsters of Drakkenheim isn't out yet, but they did a mini-series showing off both the monsters and the harvesting and crafting mechanics that tie into their monsters.
We use Kibbles' Compendium of Craft and Creation. It offers a slightly more complex crafting system and there are tons of options for harvesting and looting ingredients 😎
In my homebrew, to craft an item, combine components and make the relevant skill check. On a success, you craft the item; on a fail you need more time and resources. Repeat until success to determine how much time and resources the crafting process takes in total. (chance to succeed is always the character's natural deft stat + artform or profession skill against a d100m roll under to succeed). To improve an item, spend the relevant resources and make a check. On a success, you improve the item's quality by a small increment. On a fail, the item can't be improved anymore. On a crit fail, the item is damaged, and on a crit win the item's quality is greatly improved, and it gains a special feature. There are various feats allowing characters to "unlock" items that have been unsuccessfully improved for further improvement. To repair a damaged item, spend resources and make a check, and it works like the crafting pretty much. Items can also be imbued with spiritual properties to make them strike fear in foes' hearts, to enhance one's own resolve, to give them an enchanting, mysterious quality, allowing them to charm entire crowds, etc. It's a low magic setting, magic works like it does in real life - psychological influence, trying to make sense of hallucinations, weird contraptions and concoctions of unknown and fantastical make, cheap parlor tricks and elaborate orchestrations to influence large masses of people, faith and miracles, etc. I am pretty happy with how it works.
I don’t know how this is so complicated for WotC, they literally had crafting rules in 3ed/3.5 that worked perfectly fine and allowed for customization! There were spells associated with magic item crafting and it’d be super simple to have certain monster parts be allowed to substitute subsets of spells like dragon parts replacing any spell requirement that was associated with a respective element (and maybe have material grades reflect spell level requirements too!)
