In the end I think this is all way to much worry about a task that is relatively simple.
There are hundreds of cases of people getting lost and living off the land for periods of time. The ones that die tend to die from a single problem, a lack of water, or the environment is way to extreme, to hot or cold. A few die of starvation but everyone will start to test different plants and some will start to catch small game.
I learned how to clean and butcher an animal after one lesson. Granted I am not cutting steaks off a cow for a restaurant but all animals are pretty much the same. As for contaminating the meat with gut stuff. Wash it off and cook it. Its fine.
Its all not that hard of a skill, cavemen learned it.
Plus just how easy is hunting if the party has a caster? magic missile to the rescue. See a squirrel eat a squirrel.
The reason few people actually die of starvation is because it's significantly more likely for someone to be weakened by starvation only to end up to succumbing to something else like dehydration, infection, injury, or exposure that they would have been able to avoid had they not been weakened. And the people most likely to end up dying out in the wilderness are the ones who delude themselves into thinking that living off the land is easy and simple and something that anyone can do without training. You could ask Chris McCandless about it, were he still alive.
Also, cavemen had every bit as much cognitive ability as modern humans. They weren't stupid.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I learned how to clean and butcher an animal after one lesson. Granted I am not cutting steaks off a cow for a restaurant but all animals are pretty much the same. As for contaminating the meat with gut stuff. Wash it off and cook it. Its fine.
Plus just how easy is hunting if the party has a caster? magic missile to the rescue. See a squirrel eat a squirrel.
Before you say "all animals are pretty much the same," methinks you should refresh your memory of that Simpsons episode where Homer ate a pufferfish that was prepared by an amateur sushi chef and almost died. This is a fictional story, but people can and do die from improperly prepared poisonous animals.
Also, using magic missile on a squirrel? Wizard Andy: "Hey look, Ranger Dave, I just shot a squirrel with my first level spell. How do you like that?" Dave: "Congratulations, its corpse has been completely blown apart. We'll be lucky to find any edible pieces in this undergrowth before some weasel or rat carries it off."
I would note that an awful lot of preparing a corpse is related to maximizing the amount of edible meat, and making sure that the meat lasts long enough get full value. If you aren't terribly concerned about efficiency, it's not going to be all that difficult to get enough meat off of anything that's edible and Medium or larger to feed a party. If you don't have purify food and drink available there should probably be a modest difficulty Survival check to avoid food poisoning. Aside from that, it comes down to what things are edible in the first place. Beasts will almost always be edible if not necessarily very tasty. Most humanoids and giants will be edible but doing so may be considered evil. Some monstrosities and plants would be edible. Constructs, elementals, oozes, and undead are quite unlikely to be edible. Eating celestials, dragons, fey, and fiends may or may not be possible, and may have unusual side effects and/or be considered evil.
The last puffer fish death I have heard about was because the guy got drunk and ate something like 5 or 6 meals worth, on a dare.
All the flesh of a puffer fish is poisonous even when properly prepped. It tingles the tung and lips so your supposed to eat a bite and then eat other stuff until the feeling goes away, he did not.
But that has nothing to do with basic survival. Ever eat a bug? I have. Shoot a rabbit with an arrow? I have. A squirrel? yep. And they were still edible.
When I said animal I meant land mammal. The things most people would choose to eat.
Snares are not used to save the meat. They are used so you can still be passively hunting an area while off doing something else, Its not something you would do while on the move.
In the end I think this is all way to much worry about a task that is relatively simple.
There are hundreds of cases of people getting lost and living off the land for periods of time. The ones that die tend to die from a single problem, a lack of water, or the environment is way to extreme, to hot or cold. A few die of starvation but everyone will start to test different plants and some will start to catch small game.
I learned how to clean and butcher an animal after one lesson. Granted I am not cutting steaks off a cow for a restaurant but all animals are pretty much the same. As for contaminating the meat with gut stuff. Wash it off and cook it. Its fine.
Its all not that hard of a skill, cavemen learned it.
Plus just how easy is hunting if the party has a caster? magic missile to the rescue. See a squirrel eat a squirrel.
The reason few people actually die of starvation is because it's significantly more likely for someone to be weakened by starvation only to end up to succumbing to something else like dehydration, infection, injury, or exposure that they would have been able to avoid had they not been weakened. And the people most likely to end up dying out in the wilderness are the ones who delude themselves into thinking that living off the land is easy and simple and something that anyone can do without training. You could ask Chris McCandless about it, were he still alive.
Also, cavemen had every bit as much cognitive ability as modern humans. They weren't stupid.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Before you say "all animals are pretty much the same," methinks you should refresh your memory of that Simpsons episode where Homer ate a pufferfish that was prepared by an amateur sushi chef and almost died. This is a fictional story, but people can and do die from improperly prepared poisonous animals.
Also, using magic missile on a squirrel? Wizard Andy: "Hey look, Ranger Dave, I just shot a squirrel with my first level spell. How do you like that?" Dave: "Congratulations, its corpse has been completely blown apart. We'll be lucky to find any edible pieces in this undergrowth before some weasel or rat carries it off."
Yeah, there's a reason snares are used for small game. Even a normal arrow can pretty well pulverize the body of your typical small forest critter.
I would note that an awful lot of preparing a corpse is related to maximizing the amount of edible meat, and making sure that the meat lasts long enough get full value. If you aren't terribly concerned about efficiency, it's not going to be all that difficult to get enough meat off of anything that's edible and Medium or larger to feed a party. If you don't have purify food and drink available there should probably be a modest difficulty Survival check to avoid food poisoning. Aside from that, it comes down to what things are edible in the first place. Beasts will almost always be edible if not necessarily very tasty. Most humanoids and giants will be edible but doing so may be considered evil. Some monstrosities and plants would be edible. Constructs, elementals, oozes, and undead are quite unlikely to be edible. Eating celestials, dragons, fey, and fiends may or may not be possible, and may have unusual side effects and/or be considered evil.
The last puffer fish death I have heard about was because the guy got drunk and ate something like 5 or 6 meals worth, on a dare.
All the flesh of a puffer fish is poisonous even when properly prepped. It tingles the tung and lips so your supposed to eat a bite and then eat other stuff until the feeling goes away, he did not.
But that has nothing to do with basic survival. Ever eat a bug? I have. Shoot a rabbit with an arrow? I have. A squirrel? yep. And they were still edible.
When I said animal I meant land mammal. The things most people would choose to eat.
Snares are not used to save the meat. They are used so you can still be passively hunting an area while off doing something else, Its not something you would do while on the move.
Death by Eating a Pufferfish, as reported by Western media:
https://www.newsweek.com/woman-dies-after-eating-deadly-puffer-fish-delicacy-1791716
History of deaths caused by eating Pufferfish (half of all food poisoning deaths in Japan each year):
https://www.nippon.com/en/column/g00468/