Rules / Crafting & Treasure / Gathering & Harvesting Ingredients
Gathering & Harvesting Ingredients
Gathering Ingredients
When a character succeeds at gathering ingredients (Survival), the GM picks a fitting result or rolls on the terrain table below. Each result is a full ingredient profile (one source tag and one function tag); the GM then describes the actual ingredient in the world: a bitter root, a sulfur crust, a venom sac, a spore pod, a mineral salt, a resin globule, a preserved gland. On a critical success, roll twice or choose two results. These tables are also in the Roll Tables compendium (Crafting folder).
Forest (d100)
| d100 | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 01–15 | Botanical, Medicinal |
| 16–25 | Botanical, Sedative |
| 26–35 | Botanical, Irritant |
| 36–45 | Fungal, Toxic |
| 46–55 | Fungal, Sedative |
| 56–65 | Resin, Preservative |
| 66–73 | Animal, Stimulant |
| 74–80 | Bone, Medicinal |
| 81–87 | Blood, Toxic |
| 88–93 | Botanical, Preservative |
| 94–100 | Resin, Irritant |
Swamp or Marsh (d100)
| d100 | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 01–10 | Botanical, Medicinal |
| 11–20 | Botanical, Toxic |
| 21–30 | Fungal, Toxic |
| 31–40 | Fungal, Sedative |
| 41–50 | Venom, Toxic |
| 51–58 | Blood, Toxic |
| 59–66 | Organ, Sedative |
| 67–74 | Organ, Preservative |
| 75–82 | Resin, Irritant |
| 83–90 | Botanical, Preservative |
| 91–100 | Venom, Sedative |
Mountain or Highlands (d100)
| d100 | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 01–15 | Mineral, Volatile |
| 16–28 | Mineral, Corrosive |
| 29–40 | Metallic, Corrosive |
| 41–50 | Metallic, Preservative |
| 51–62 | Crystal, Volatile |
| 63–72 | Crystal, Preservative |
| 73–80 | Salt, Preservative |
| 81–87 | Bone, Medicinal |
| 88–93 | Animal, Stimulant |
| 94–100 | Mineral, Medicinal |
Plains or Grassland (d100)
| d100 | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 01–18 | Botanical, Medicinal |
| 19–30 | Botanical, Stimulant |
| 31–42 | Animal, Stimulant |
| 43–52 | Animal, Medicinal |
| 53–62 | Bone, Preservative |
| 63–72 | Blood, Toxic |
| 73–82 | Botanical, Irritant |
| 83–90 | Resin, Preservative |
| 91–100 | Botanical, Sedative |
Desert or Badlands (d100)
| d100 | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 01–14 | Mineral, Corrosive |
| 15–26 | Mineral, Volatile |
| 27–38 | Salt, Preservative |
| 39–48 | Crystal, Volatile |
| 49–58 | Crystal, Preservative |
| 59–68 | Resin, Irritant |
| 69–78 | Venom, Toxic |
| 79–86 | Venom, Sedative |
| 87–93 | Botanical, Irritant |
| 94–100 | Oil, Volatile |
Coast or Tidal (d100)
| d100 | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 01–14 | Salt, Preservative |
| 15–26 | Oil, Preservative |
| 27–38 | Animal, Medicinal |
| 39–50 | Animal, Toxic |
| 51–60 | Bone, Preservative |
| 61–70 | Mineral, Corrosive |
| 71–80 | Botanical, Medicinal |
| 81–88 | Botanical, Irritant |
| 89–94 | Oil, Volatile |
| 95–100 | Salt, Medicinal |
Tundra or Frozen Wilds (d100)
| d100 | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 01–14 | Botanical, Preservative |
| 15–26 | Botanical, Sedative |
| 27–38 | Mineral, Preservative |
| 39–50 | Crystal, Preservative |
| 51–60 | Crystal, Volatile |
| 61–70 | Animal, Medicinal |
| 71–80 | Bone, Preservative |
| 81–88 | Salt, Preservative |
| 89–94 | Botanical, Medicinal |
| 95–100 | Animal, Stimulant |
Jungle (d100)
| d100 | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 01–12 | Botanical, Medicinal |
| 13–22 | Botanical, Toxic |
| 23–32 | Fungal, Toxic |
| 33–40 | Fungal, Sedative |
| 41–50 | Resin, Irritant |
| 51–60 | Venom, Toxic |
| 61–68 | Blood, Toxic |
| 69–76 | Organ, Stimulant |
| 77–84 | Organ, Preservative |
| 85–92 | Botanical, Stimulant |
| 93–100 | Venom, Sedative |
Creature Ingredients
Many creatures can be harvested for alchemical ingredients once killed or otherwise rendered inert, but they don't yield anything useful just by dying. A character usually has to work out which parts are worth taking, then remove them intact before the remains spoil, rupture or become useless: Assess Ingredients, then Harvest Ingredients. A creature's entry may list its ingredients in an Ingredient Profile; if not, the GM decides from its biology, traits, abilities and condition.
Assessing a Creature
Once a creature is dead, incapacitated or otherwise safe to examine, attempt a Nature check to identify useful natural parts (hide, bone, meat, organs, venom, glands, claws, teeth, feathers, scales, fungus, silk and the like), or Mysticism if the creature is mainly supernatural, magical, extraplanar, undead or plainly altered by arcane forces. The GM may allow another skill that fits better. Critical Success: as success, and you also identify any extra ingredient profiles, unusual tag combinations or special harvesting risks (GM's call). Success: you identify its available ingredient profiles. Failure: you can't tell what it holds. Critical Failure: you misread it and can't Assess that creature again unless circumstances meaningfully change.
Harvesting a Creature
Once a useful part is identified, harvest it with Survival. You usually need a cutting tool, suitable containers and access to the body; delicate ingredients may need healer's tools, alchemist's tools or other special gear (GM's call). Critical Success: roll on the yield table below and add 1. Success: roll on the yield table for the number of ingredients you recover. Failure: nothing usable, but you can try again while the source is intact. Critical Failure: the source is ruined and yields nothing more.
A creature may offer more than one ingredient profile; when harvesting, choose which available ingredients you take, up to the total yield. You can only preserve so many creature ingredients during a dungeon stretch or expedition: at most your Survival ranks in ingredients per stretch. Once you hit that limit, you can't harvest more creature ingredients until the stretch ends.
| Creature size | Ingredients recovered (minimum 1) |
|---|---|
| Tiny | 1d4 − 2 |
| Small | 1d4 − 1 |
| Medium | 1d4 |
| Large | 1d6 |
| Huge | 1d8 |
| Gargantuan | 1d10 |
A critical success on the harvest adds 1 to the total. Most creatures offer 1 to 3 different ingredient profiles; especially unusual, magical or massive ones may offer 4 or more (GM's discretion).
Time and Spoilage
Harvesting takes time: a simple ingredient 1 minute, a delicate one 10 minutes, full field dressing or stripping major parts 30 minutes or more. Fresh biological ingredients spoil unless preserved: soft tissue usually becomes unusable after 1 hour in hot conditions, several hours in mild ones, or 1 day in the cold. Bone, hide, shell, horn, teeth, claws and other hard parts last much longer. The GM may shorten or lengthen this for weather, creature type, environment and preservation methods.
Dangerous Harvests
Some creatures are dangerous even dead. A harvest may call for a save, extra time, special tools or a successful assessment first if the creature has dangerous organs, volatile fluids, infectious tissue, active spores, unstable magical parts or similar risks. A dangerous ingredient should say so in the creature's Ingredient Profile.
Ingredient Profile
A creature's entry can list what it offers in a short profile: