TLDR: I came up with a trading system with hunters but idk how to make the item tables
A piece of my campaign I'm running soon has a bit of grity realism. Like, the party has to eat a certain amount of food, monster parts can't be eaten unless someone knows how to prepare it, hunting/gathering is a survival check when searching for resources, etc.
It's basically the end of the world as mutated monsters are running around and its about survival. My players asked if looting monster parts could have a use and I had an idea to have these special hunters travel around the region. While they don't give money, they do trade with monster parts for special/cool items or just basic stuff like easy to cook food.
My idea is a scoring system. The players can buy a version of a bag of holding that is meant to preserve monster parts they put in. So, like, pelts don't rot or claws don't get damaged, that sorta stuff. When they take the monster part, they have to make a check and mattering how well they do, the better condition it's in (1-5 poor, 6-10 okay, 11-15 good, 16-20 great, 20+ PERFECT). But I've ran a small issue..... I don't know how to set up the tables or what to put in them. My idea was a, like 50 item table (maybe less) for each grade. The quality of the items in each table increase the better the item given. (Or quantity too, like good give you 5 potions vs perfect gets you like 12).
But other than basic stuff like potions, scrolls, food, etc..... I'm running out of ideas on what to actually put on the tables! I suck at shop design and idk where to go from this point! Please help!!
what I might do is just make it a 3 category.1-9 is poor quality, 10-20 is good, 20+ is perfect quality. But I'm still struggling to figure out shop stuff
Sorry not entirely sure what's your asking? Is it what items would the monster-part traders have and be willing to trade for the monster parts? Or it is it a table of monster parts? Is there a reason you can't just use the published loot tables?
also the published ones suck. They always have; 2014 and 2024. They're either all over the place or random items no one is gonna use. I don't think my players are gonna give up a dragon tooth or something for a random flute that doesn't work.
And I looking for custom item ideas too! The campaign is homebrew! I don't want them to feel like they're giving up their loot for like, a scroll of Alarm. I've never been good at custom shop tables thus why I'm asking for help.
and yes, I've tried those websites that can help make them for you but once again, those are too random no matter how specific I put it
I love this idea. I wish my dm would let us do stuff like this. He is more of a realist/recreationist and while he follows RAW he doesn’t like it and seems to lean away from the magic and fantasy side of the game.
Back to the OP idea. Personally I might simplify it, unless you really wanna get into lots of different parts and prices and quality.
I might suggest letting them roll for the success on harvesting, then roll for a quantity of “monster parts” harvested . Perhaps allow them to roll more or less dice to determine that quantity based on the size of the creature(maybe d4 for small creatures, d8 for medium, d12 for large and d20 for large+). This would narrow down the metrics and simplify all the book keeping.
Then your vendor can have just one menu with a list ranging in value with prices based on quantity of “monster parts”.
if you wanted to get deeper, maybe even include a special item from certain monsters that is part of a quest reward given by the vendor.
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TLDR: I came up with a trading system with hunters but idk how to make the item tables
A piece of my campaign I'm running soon has a bit of grity realism. Like, the party has to eat a certain amount of food, monster parts can't be eaten unless someone knows how to prepare it, hunting/gathering is a survival check when searching for resources, etc.
It's basically the end of the world as mutated monsters are running around and its about survival. My players asked if looting monster parts could have a use and I had an idea to have these special hunters travel around the region. While they don't give money, they do trade with monster parts for special/cool items or just basic stuff like easy to cook food.
My idea is a scoring system. The players can buy a version of a bag of holding that is meant to preserve monster parts they put in. So, like, pelts don't rot or claws don't get damaged, that sorta stuff. When they take the monster part, they have to make a check and mattering how well they do, the better condition it's in (1-5 poor, 6-10 okay, 11-15 good, 16-20 great, 20+ PERFECT). But I've ran a small issue..... I don't know how to set up the tables or what to put in them. My idea was a, like 50 item table (maybe less) for each grade. The quality of the items in each table increase the better the item given. (Or quantity too, like good give you 5 potions vs perfect gets you like 12).
But other than basic stuff like potions, scrolls, food, etc..... I'm running out of ideas on what to actually put on the tables! I suck at shop design and idk where to go from this point! Please help!!
what I might do is just make it a 3 category.1-9 is poor quality, 10-20 is good, 20+ is perfect quality. But I'm still struggling to figure out shop stuff
Sorry not entirely sure what's your asking? Is it what items would the monster-part traders have and be willing to trade for the monster parts? Or it is it a table of monster parts? Is there a reason you can't just use the published loot tables?
Items they'd have and be willing to trade.
also the published ones suck. They always have; 2014 and 2024. They're either all over the place or random items no one is gonna use. I don't think my players are gonna give up a dragon tooth or something for a random flute that doesn't work.
And I looking for custom item ideas too! The campaign is homebrew! I don't want them to feel like they're giving up their loot for like, a scroll of Alarm. I've never been good at custom shop tables thus why I'm asking for help.
and yes, I've tried those websites that can help make them for you but once again, those are too random no matter how specific I put it
There's some published stuff made from monster parts:
There's some animal / creature themed stuff:
But you can kind of make up how all kinds of magic items are made from animal parts. E.g. a Broom of Flying from an Awk feather.
Though if you want stuff tailored to your players' characters you'd need to tell us about them.
I love this idea. I wish my dm would let us do stuff like this. He is more of a realist/recreationist and while he follows RAW he doesn’t like it and seems to lean away from the magic and fantasy side of the game.
Back to the OP idea. Personally I might simplify it, unless you really wanna get into lots of different parts and prices and quality.
I might suggest letting them roll for the success on harvesting, then roll for a quantity of “monster parts” harvested . Perhaps allow them to roll more or less dice to determine that quantity based on the size of the creature(maybe d4 for small creatures, d8 for medium, d12 for large and d20 for large+). This would narrow down the metrics and simplify all the book keeping.
Then your vendor can have just one menu with a list ranging in value with prices based on quantity of “monster parts”.
if you wanted to get deeper, maybe even include a special item from certain monsters that is part of a quest reward given by the vendor.