Some older readers may remember the first series of articles I wrote back in 2013, the Survival Out in the Wilds series focused upon a mixtures of D&D 3.5 / Pathfinder rules to expand players capabilities to use monster remains. The first article focused on skinning and the sales value of pelts, the second article was my groups own custom armour creation rule set, the third article continued with spell reagents and the final article was the cooking of creatures and some points to consider.

For quite some time since my group and I have often discussed how to cook various monsters and make logical guesses upon how they taste to the point in our campaigns we often attempt to cook at least one new monster each time.

Skerples of the Coins And Scrolls has taken this one step further, in support of GLOG (Goblin Laws of Gaming,) an old-school themed rules set published by Arnold K, Skerples has taken the 1977 AD&D Monster Manual and has listed beasts mundane and magical in alphabetical order with flavour, effects and occasional serving suggestion.

Below are a few highlights:

d30	Creature	Flavour or Effect
1	Barracuda or Gar, giant or Masher	Fish
2	Beaver, giant	Oily, fatty pork
3	Boar	Dense but faintly spiced pork
4	Buffalo	Faintly spiced beef
5	Bull or Cattle, wild	Beef
6	Camel, wild	Stringy beef
7	Crocodile	Cross between chicken and fish
8	Dolphin	Fishy. Next sailing voyage is cursed. 1-in-100 chance of being haunted by a vengeful dolphin ghost.
9	Eel	Fishy
10	Frog, giant	Buttery, faintly algal
11	Goat, giant	Mutton
12	Herd animal	Varies, but probably beef or mutton
13	Horse or Mule	Stringy mutton, lots of crunchy bits
14	Irishdeer or Stag	Venison
15	Lamprey	Fish

People
Eating most of the things on this list would be considered impolite or insufficiently rewarding. Adventurers will still try though. You could also roll to see what the trolls are roasting over the fire tonight. Intelligent creatures with significant magical effects are listed in the Special Creatures section. Eating fresh People might turn you into a wendigo. Eating rotten people might turn you into a ghoul.

Creature	Flavour or Effect
Brownie or Halfling	Fatty pork
Bugbear	Really bad mutton
Centaur or Minotaur	Fatty pork, blending into stringy mutton or beef
Dwarf or Gnome	Fatty pork
Elf	Pork, cures acne and dandruff
Giant	Fatty, very dense pork, requires 12+hrs of boiling
Gnoll	Fatty, very acidic pork
Goblin or Hobgoblin	Fatty pork, acidic aftertaste
Halfling	Fatty pork, slightly tastier than usual
Harpy	Mix of pork and chicken, tastes absolutely foul, provides no healing. Save vs Nausea.
Ixitxachitl or Sea Hag	Fish, but crunchy and bitter
Jackalwere or Lycanthrope	Fatty pork or creature's flavour. S ave vs intermittent partial lycanthropy
Kobold	Fatty pork, acidic aftertaste

Beholder
Flavour: flesh crackles like dry french fries. Invisible ichor drips upwards from your chin. In the distance, howling, or music.

Notes: must be eaten raw, and quickly.

d10	Result
1-2	Screaming Madness. Save or become permanently insane.
3-4	Outsider Flesh. Save vs Con. If you pass, gain 1 random mutation. If you fail, gain 1d6+1 random mutations.
5-7	Twisting Cells. Permanently gain +2 to a random stat and -2 to a different random stat.
8-9	Eye Rays. Gain a random spell. 1. Charm Person, 2-3. Eye Laser, 4. Fear, 5. Sleep 6. Telekinetic Shove. If you are not a spellcaster, Save or immediately cast the spell on a random target using d4 magic dice. If you pass your Save, you can cast the spell once per day using 1 MD, firing it from a random eye.
10	Natural Magic. You gain 1 Magic Dice and 1 spell slot. If you were not one already, you become a spellcaster.

Read more »

Over the last decade there have been numerous attempts at fan made Pokémon games, many of these titles have never been completed with either the project simply losing steam and interest or have been shut down by Nintendo themselves.
With that said as of August 6, 2016 Pokémon: Uranium has left beta and has officially joined the small list of completed fan games.

Developed by “~JV~” and "Nageki, a.k.a Involuntary Twitch"  Pokémon Uranium Version is made using the popular RPGmaker XP tool and is free to play without requiring any emulators however at this time it is only available for PC and be downloaded Here.

Taking its format from the original franchise, the goal is to explore the new region of Tandor and collect all 8 Gym Badges to participate in the Tandor Regional Championship, which is the equivalent of the original franchise Elite Four. In addition as you travel the region the games blurb hints that you will find yourself exploring the mystery behind the reactor disaster ten years prior to the events of the game and why now there are reports of feral Pokémon attacking everyone they encounter.



While Tandor only has 150 different species of Pokémon listed in its Pokedex many of these are new and exclusive to the game with the inclusion of the new Nuclear Type and a few examples can be seen in the image below:

 
While some of my own favourites such as Cubone and Mawile aren't present in the region the unique combinations and designs of some of these Pokémon would not be out of place in a official Nintendo title, in particular the new three starter Pokémon introduced: Orchynx (Grass/Steel), Raptorch (Fire/Ground) and Eletux (Water/Electric) are the biggest changes to the regular format with each only having a single Evolution and a Mega Evolution rather than the standard 2 Evolutions.

Pokemon Uranium also has a huge amount to custom features:

• Pokemon Trainer Test: This allows the player to take a test to determine their starter Pokémon  rather than selecting them.  
• Nuclear Type: A new Pokémon type.
• New Moves and Abilities
• PokePod: This fulfils the role of the phone from the earlier games and allows you to arrange battles with certain trainers.
• Pokemon Speech Translator (device used to communicate with Pokemon)
• Sidequests:
• Nuzlocke Mode (new difficulty)
• GTS, Wonder Trade & Virtual Trainer
• Mega Evolution

Interested and want to learn more?
Visit the Pokemon Uranium Website, Tumblr or the Pokemon Uranium Wiki. 
Finally I have an alternative mirror to the Version 1 of the game Here.

Read more »

"Tell me why are we doing this again?" Isabel shivered drawing the heavy Worg fur cloak around her as they climbed their way over the rocky mountain path, the sound of the thin snow crunching underfoot and wind almost drowning out her voice.
"These potions must be delivered before the winter snows stops all travel through the mountains for the season and since stone giants are blocking the main pass.." Duncan moved beside her now helping her climb another boulder as she sighed "Couldn't we just get rid of them?"

Sandell grunted from the front of the group as his experienced eyes picked their path "All they want is their sacred statue back, I say when we get to Pryham we find the damm thief who stole it. Anyway I've travelled this mountain for 60 years I'll get us there... hows the leg holding up Samuel?"
The young priest leaning on his quarterstaff grinned from under the thick hood, his gloved fingers playing along the wood "I'm doing fine honoured grandfather with divine grace I've been blessed with health though I'm grateful for these cloaks and gloves Duncan made." The dwarf 's spluttering at the phrase honoured grandfather caused Duncan to smile, it seemed the priest had developed a sense of humour since his fever.  

Welcome to part 3 of the Survival Out in the Wilds series, in the last article we covered possible effects using monster hide and shell would have in crafting armour.  In this article we are now going to have a quick look at what uses other bits of a creature can be.

Our main topic will be the spell reagent rule, this rule set is simple but does rely on firm knowledge of a spells material components and some personal ruling for the DM thus is best for a player or DM that knows his choice of spells well.
In theory it works by the spell caster using a rare and more powerful spell components in the place of (or in addition to) the material components of the spell, granting the in game advantage of up to +3 additional caster level onto the spell depending on the component used.
Casting a spell using a spell reagent does not affect the casting time and uses the reagent up along with the material component. A reagent costs 25gp per point of bonus it grants (25gp, 50gp or 75gp respectively) and can only be used for the spell it was purchased for. However feel free to alter this cost however you wish as the rule set was primarily designed for players to gather their own.

To help understanding we’ll cover a series of examples:
The general enhancement spells such as Bull’s Strength and Bear’s Endurance are the easiest ones to judge and serve as a good introductory point as the material components involved in these spells are usually the fur, feather or dung of the creature the spell is named after.

So if our spellcaster wished to enhance Cat’s Grace he could replace the normal material component of cats fur with the fur of a large cat such as a lion, this would most likely only grant a +1 bonus to caster level however it could be easily argued that due to non magical nature of the animal no bonus should be rewarded.  
A more reliable reagent would be the fur of a suitable Dire Creature so a Dire Lion for this example, this would grant a +2 bonus to the caster level of the spell.
Now our spellcaster wants to cast Bull’s Strength and has a powered Minotaur Horn using this instead of bulls dung (in addition of not smelling) this would grant a +2 bonus to caster level unless it was a Minotaur Lord in which case a +3 might be allowed. Another alternative would be the silver horns of a gorgon which like the Minotaur Lord could also increase the reagents power to a +3 bonus , as general rule the more powerful and suitable the creature is to a spell the greater the bonus.
In the above example this is due to both creatures having a very bull like nature, simply using the horns of a strong creature such as some breed of dragons would not be suitable.

Simple enough so far however things quickly get interesting when more vague creatures come into play for example the Owlbear, it could be used for both Bear’s Endurance and Owl’s Wisdom however due to its dual nature a Spellcraft check DC equal to 15 + spell level would be appropriate to cast.
Consequences for failing the check could be that the spell just doesn’t cast or perhaps some side effects may occur depending on the reagent used, such as gaining a +2 to Constitution and Wisdom instead of +4 to a single statistic or the effect of Rage spell in addition on the person receiving the spell which lasts as long as the original spell is on them.

Other examples of alternative components would be adding a reagent to a spell or improving an existing component rather than replacing though this only works with spells that already have a material component as the example below.
The Displacement spell requires the material component of a small loop of leather, if a spell caster tried to use a Displacer beasts fur as an alternative without the loop would most likely require a Spellcraft check similar to above (as the the shape of the loop is important to the spell.) Using both components together would suffer no problems and would grant a +1 or +2 bonus however a loop made from Displacer beast fur would grant a +2 or +3 bonus.

For a general rule if you believe a spell reagent doesn’t quite fit a spellcraft check should be made using the DC 15 + spell level. Additional factors such as age or damage could cause additional difficulty to the spell. For example Using the fur of a summoned or polymorphed creature for a reagent should increase the DC.

As stated at the start this rule does require a bit of monitoring by the DM though in my previous experiences the party wizard often begins making his own catalog of spell reagents, which has led to some interesting adventures where the wizard has marched the party off to collect the ideal materials.

One further detail to be addressed is the number of reagents recovered from slaying a creature, this can cause a few arguments as after all an owlbear has a lot of fur and feathers and some players believe they should have at least 50-60 spell reagents from the body.
For the best balance I’d say about 5-10 usable reagents are available however this was mostly to balance the cost of the party selling reagents back to other mages.

The next article will focus on the juicy insides of the beasts and answer the question of just how does Dragon taste?

Quick Link: Part 1 Part 2 Part 4

“60 years grandfather? How much of it was spent lost?" the gentle teasing clashed with the mild irritation in Isabels voice, it was nearing nightfall and still they had not reached Sandell's clans mining post.
"Well we would of been there two hours ago if I was travelling with dwarves.. anyway be careful there's a cave opening ahead." grumbled Sandell who not minding the cold found his temper wearing thin with the complaints of the Enchantress.
Over the howling wind Duncan could swear he heard a familiar noise, his eyes now scanning the darkening skies they focused a circling bird possibly a hawk weaving unnaturally almost as if intended to noticed. His gaze dropping as it passed over the mountainside above he found his throat tightening as he spotted what the creature was trying to signal. "THE CAVE RUN NOW".

Almost scrambling he rushes over the rock grasping Isabel's arm as he passes pulling her surprised form into a sprint, the others knowing him better do not question what would cause the normally quiet man to shout and simply run. "Not again.. by the nine hells." Samuels pain voice cries out as slipping only to find the dwarfs powerful hand catching him a grim grin on his face "I agree now come on."
A growing thunder of noise above them the group barely reached the cave as the avalanche of snow and ice crashed over the entrance sealing it. Panting heavily in the pitch blackness the group tried to recover their breath, the silence broken by chuckle from Sandell "Swept away in a flood as a child, hit by a mudslide and now nearly crushed in an avalanche.. I think your god wants a personal audience Samuel." the young priests face shook his head smirking "Well I guess his Divine grace will have to learn to be patient."

Read more »

“No its ruined…” The dwarf’s deep voice echoed in the cave heightening the sense of frustration in it as he tossed the tattered stained silks back to the stone floor, “Be lucky if it sells at half the price if the merchant even wants it back now..”.  Duncan nodded listening as he retrieved his arrows from the bodies of the goblins holding each shaft high checking for damage “I believe payment was only for the return of his goods and there’s no bounty on these bandits… still one less future problem.”

“Sandell perhaps if I were to use some of my minor cantrips upon them, clean them up at bit or at least get rid of that smell.. Ugh you think the Goblins wouldn’t do that in their bedding.” their newest member the young enchantress Isabel moved over to the dwarf  her fingers toying with the pouch on her belt. “Lass if you can get THAT smell out, I’ll give you half my portion from this job.” the dwarf quipped back hefting his waraxe back into its holder.  

In the last article we discussed skill choices and DC's for the adventurers skinning their latest monster and some example prices for hides, this article we aim to give a few rules on just how much hide you get from a monster for crafting and what kind of advantages it brings.

While rules exist in the Dungeon Master's Guide and Pathfinder's Core Rulebook regarding Dragonhide and the amount hide needed to craft armour, there has been a lot of complaints from players regarding downgrade in abilities from 2nd Edition D&D and the sheer amount of hide required to make anything.
This will be focused upon in detail in a later article but these issues highlight why it is not suitable for a general ruling to be used on other materials,  however the rules regarding Chitin armour listed in Races of the Dragon (Quoted below) have made a much better ground work to create the rule set suggested here.

Races of the Dragon pg121
A single giant beetle provides enough material to create a single breastplate or tower shield sized for a character of the same size category as the beetle (or two such items for a character two or more sizes smaller than the beetle). For example, a Large giant stag beetle has enough chitin to make either a breastplate or a tower shield sized for a Large
character, or two such items for Medium or smaller characters. A suit of half-plate or full plate armor takes twice as much chitin, while a light shield or heavy shield takes half as much. (A chitin buckler can be made from the cast-off bits of any giant beetle.) The chitin from multiple giant beetles can be combined; a Small beetle counts as half of a Medium beetle, a Medium beetle as half of a Large beetle, and so forth

So taking this as our example:

A single creature provides enough material to create a single suit of light or medium armour (Hide, Scale or Breastplate depending on the creature) or a tower shield for a character of the same size category.
Two items can be created for a character one or more size categories smaller than the creature or four items for a characters four or more size categories smaller.
A suit of heavy armour takes twice as much material, while a buckler, a light or heavy shield takes half as much.
Small trinkets can be made from a number of cast offs, for items like cloaks treat them as a single suit of light armour while smaller items such as boots and gloves use the same amount of material as a light shield.

Of course this is subjected to common sense for example skinning a Wolf would provide enough material for Leather, Studded Leather or Hide armour or a leather buckler or hide light shield, you wouldn't be able to create a tower shield despite the rules as a wolf doesn't provide suitable materials.  It should also be remembered that most materials will also have to processed by a hide worker or tanner before they can be used in crafting.

Next looking at some possible effects of using unusual hide to make armour, rather than listing the effect of every creature individually here is some common questions by players.


Does it increase the armour/shield bonus?

The following method works well by preventing low CR monster from unbalancing the game at low level but rewarding at high level, it repeatedly mentioned on many roleplaying forums and the version below has been expanded to include shields:

Start with the natural armour bonus of the creature and divide it by three, rounding down.
This number is the basic non-magical armor bonus for a suit of heavy armour.
For a suit of medium armour you subtract 3 from this number.
For a suit of light armour you subtract 5 from this number.

For shields again start with the natural armour bonus of the creature and divide it by three, rounding down.
Halving this number this is the basic non-magical shield bonus of a tower shield.
For a heavy shield you subtract a additional 1 from this number.
For a light shield you subtract a additional 3 from this number.

If the value is less than the regular armour/shield bonus of the crafted armour then the material just has a visual effect and uses the normal armour bonus of the armour type.

So for an example: A Bulette (CR7) has a natural armour bonus of +12, dividing this by three equals a armour bonus of 4 for heavy armour or 2 for a tower shield (4 halved). Since both of these are below the normal ratings these are increased to 7 (splint mail) and 4 (Tower shield) respectively and have little effect on the armours abilities other than visual.  
A stronger creature like an Black Scorpion (CR15) has a natural armour bonus of +28, breaking down to 9 for heavy armour and 5 (rounded up from 4.5) for a Tower Shield. In addition the Black Scorpion armour would class as Chitin armour and gain any further benefits due to this.

Does it increase the maximum dexterity bonus?

In most cases it is easier to assume that the maximum dexterity bonus remains the same as the original armour unless the creature possesses an exceptionally light and strong shell or scales. Existing examples of this are Chitin armour which has been mentioned.

Races of the dragon pg121
Chitin Armor: The maximum Dexterity bonus of an armor or shield made chitin is 1 greater than that of the same type of armor made from metal. Breastplates, half-plate armor, full plate armor and shields can be made from chitin.

What effect does it have on the armour check penalty and spell failure?

The armour check penalty and spell failure is more of a result of the armours design rather than its material again this will often be unchanged, however armour made from particular heavy or bulky creatures may increase. Though I recommend by no more than +2 armour check penalty and +5% arcane spell failure on top of the armours normal penalties.

Handling addition effects.

Regarding a creatures natural damage reduction and resistances I have personally found the following system has worked well in many campaigns adding minor benefits while not unbalancing play.

Creatures resistance/damage reduction   Amount gained by wearer.
5                                                            1
10                                                          5
11+                                                        10

For example if a creature had 5 damage reduction bypassed by magic weapons, armour made from its skin would gain 1 damage reduction/magic.
The armour itself retains full damage reduction (added on as hardness) resistances and immunities, the reasoning behind why a character does not receive the full benefit is simple. It is not just a creature's skin that makes it resist to its elements and even the best made armour requires joints and openings for the wearer for moment and simply to put it on.
No plate or leather armour has ever been waterproof so while a splash of acid may harmlessly dribble down a black dragon hide breastplate, a knight being struck by a considerable amount would still suffer damage as acid seeps in through the cracks and joints of his armour.

One special mention is spell resistance (SR) rather than granting the wearer SR it simply affects the armour, alternatively it may be treated as the armour as having the spell resistance armour enchantment appropriate to the creatures SR without the Strong abjuration visible by detect magic.

D&D SRD
Spell Resistance: This property grants the armor’s wearer spell resistance while the armor is worn. The spell resistance can be 13, 15, 17, or 19, depending on the armor.
Strong abjuration; CL 15th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, spell resistance; Price +2 bonus (SR 13), +3 bonus (SR 15), +4 bonus (SR 17), or +5 bonus (SR 19).

The reasoning behind this is that it limits the enchantments that can be placed upon the armour as well as increasing the cost, in addition any attempts to enchant the armour would have to overcome the spell resistance.
In the rare cases of spell immunity the armour could not be enchanted at all and bring all the benefits and drawbacks of been immune to magic to the wearer.
It should be noted unlike most creatures with spell resistance the wearer of spell resistant or spell immune armour would not be able lower their resistance willingly and in an emergency may have to be stripped of their armour for healing spells to work on them.

Other things to consider?

A creatures extraordinary abilities have to be handled on case by case basis but a general ruling can be be taken as armour or equipment crafted of the creature reduces the cost of applying suitable related enchantments by 25%. For example:

The iconic Dungeons and Dragons displacer beast is famed for its displacement ability which makes it appear to 5 foot away from where it really is.
Creating a displacer beast hide cloak does not give the wearer the natural displacement ability of the displacer beast but it could be used to create a cloak of displacement (minor or major) at a reduced 25% cost ( 12,000 gp down to 9000gp and 25,000 gp to 18480gp respectively)

A possible suggestion to scale this would be to require higher CR monsters for more powerful magic items, continuing with the example above creating a cloak of displacement (major) with a reduced 25% cost would require the hide of the more powerful and rare displacer beast pack lord.

Here is the big question and arguably the most difficult: Cost.
Simply put I can't answer this, it really depends on how rare your creatures are and the demand. Sure wearing troll skin leather is effective but does it look and smell bad?
I will suggest that the cost for masterwork items is doubled, and that the armour for unusual creatures table from the SRD is used to determined the extra cost by using the nonhumaniod section of the table.

Armor For Unusual Creatures D&D SRD
Armor and Shields. Refer to the appropriate line on the table below and apply the multipliers to cost and weight for the armor type in question.
Size                        Nonhumanoid
Cost                       Cost     Weight
Tiny or smaller         ×1        ×1/10
Small                       ×2        ×½
Medium                   ×2        ×1
Large                       ×4        ×2
Huge                        ×8        ×5
Gargantuan               ×16      ×8
Colossal                   ×32      ×12

The craft DCs should not be changed from 10 + AC bonus as the increased AC does this automatically and the additional costs represent the extra time and equipment needed.

Finally these rules are not set in stone and are simply suggestions, don't be afraid to say no if you suspect something will unbalance your game or doesn't fit in. Perhaps not all creatures are suitable for crafting, perhaps it requires unique equipment only a certain faction has access to, its your world, your rules.
Now that the hide has been covered the next article looks at the spell reagent’s and material components.

Quick Link: Part 1 Part 3 Part 4

“So about that gold Sandell.” The young wizard grinned teasingly at the dwarf toying with the cleaned silks between her fingers the faint scent of Jasmine drifting in the air, looking still somewhat sceptical Sandell shrugged “Well that’s one roll just another nineteen to go… and the fabrics still stretched and torn.. Think you can handle that?”
Leaving the pair to discuss Duncan knelt amongst the bodies of the worgs running his fingers over the blood stained fur of one of the creatures that was still passing trying to calm its last moments, his eyes drifting to the world outside the forest leaves showing hints of red now as thoughts of the future drifted through his mind. “Winters coming..”

Read more »

Shadows danced across the forest clearing in the gentle breeze as the fading days light filtered through the swaying leaves, several small rabbits grazed cautiously unaware of the man watching them from the cover of branches of young yew tree.
Duncan silently cursed his travelling companions lack of preparation under his breath as he shuffled trying to bring life back into his numb back, to be fair though no one had expected the mudslide that had injured the young priests leg.

The boys divine gift had healed his wound but the fever that followed left him weaken and had slowed their pace considerably and only he had bought more trail rations than those required for their return journey to Tymburg and those had run out now with just over a days trail left. His thoughts were interrupted by a Hawks cry above the now startled rabbits starting to flee, giving up on the chance of a deer Duncan drew back his notched arrow and let it fly.


Its an interesting fact that both 1st and 2nd edition AD&D and various Dragon Magazine articles did include rules for skinning and values of pelts, however these rules were not included in later editions.
Since then a lot of players have often slain a huge beast and have inquired how or if they could use anything from their fallen foe. This article series aims to expand this question and introduce some new items and uses.

While the Survival skill is the most commonly used Craft (Taxidermy) and Profession (Hunter) can also be used to recover valuable parts from slain creatures.
Other useful skills will include Appraise or Profession (Hunter) which can be used to gauge the value of such an item, Knowledge (Nature) could help as well to identify animals with valuable pelts while Knowledge (Arcana) can be used to recognise creatures with spell component uses.

Due to their unusual and unnatural natures aberrations and outsiders are particularly difficult to skin and there is often little demand for a full pelt. To determine the DC for skinning these creatures either start at DC 20 or 25 for more unusual creatures, though more animalistic outsiders like celestial animals or Yeth hounds can be treated as Magical Beasts.
Failing a check by less than 5 reduces the pelt to poor quality pelt decreasing its value by 50%, failing by more than 5 makes the pelt worthless for anything more than scraps. Passing a check by 10 or more improves the quality of the pelt increasing its value by 50%.

It should be remembered that after combat not all creatures will be in great condition to recover pelts from, while an arrow to the flank might not damage a worg’s pelt too badly repeated hits from a +1 Flaming longsword will certainly lower the quality.

Regarding the pricing of pelts on the town market Expeditious Retreat's A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe or A Magical Medieval Society: Silk Road have been highly recommend by various members of the RPG community for their in-depth trading rules. However according to the Silk Road book a pelts worth is measured per pound and this leads to the problem of trying to determine the weight of each pelt.

A simpler rule of thumb is provided by the Dungeons and Dragons Arms and Armour Guide which states: pg:40

Furs and hides, common 20lb.     1gp–5gp
Furs and hides, unusual 20lb.        6gp–10gp
Furs and hides, rare 20lb.            11gp–20gp
Furs and hides, exotic 20 lb.        21gp–50gp
Furs and hides, monstrous 20lb.   51gp–200+gp

This still leaves the problem of weight of the hide, using the weight of hide armour and the rules for armour weight by size category I suggest a single medium size creature provides 20lb of hide, small creature 10lb and a tiny creature 5lb. For larger creatures continue to double the weight of hide I.E: a large creature provides 40lb and huge 80lb etc.

While the party will hardly become rich through hunting and skinning this adds a nice bonus for a opportunist, and in more primitive tribes where gold is seen as little use they may be accepted instead with the added benefit of respect killing the beast brings.

The next article will cover a few general rules on just how much hide you get from a monster and what kind of advantages it brings when used to craft.

Quick Link: Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Drawing his arrow from the slain rabbit Duncan wiped its bloody tip across the grass as he looked up at the circling hawk, by sheer bad luck they had both chosen  the same prey and now the bird its prize stolen seemed to be judging if it could steal it back. While the rabbit was hardly enough for his group to eat the fading light would make it impossible to hunt further, “Perhaps a meagre meal will teach the others to prepare more in the future” a small grin crossing his face with the thought Duncans fingertips slipped down to the only other catch of the evening a fat squirrel.
“No sense us both been hungry aye old girl?” Tossing the squirrel further into the clearing he watched as with a few moments hesitation the Hawk flew down collecting the prize, with rabbit now in hand he turned to begin his march back to camp thoughts drifting now if he should use the soft pelt to make a pair of gloves or a muff for the sweet barmaid at Tymburg.

Read more »