Gathering, harvesting and extracting raw materials for crafting skills

[Giorgo]

The new Alchemy Manual provides recipes and cost for raw materials for crafting new Alchemy items. The crafting and magic item construction rules provide information on how to craft/build items, and the cost of the raw materials needed to do so.

The PCs are in an area devastated by war and all trade/commerce has ground to a halt. The stores are empty (or burned down) and there are no large settlements nearby where a quick shopping trip can be done. They are however in a region rich in plains, forest and mountain resources that they can access with their skills and some hard work.

Are there any rules for gathering, harvesting or extracting the raw materials needed to do crafting related activity, provided they have appropriate Craft, Profession and/or Knowledge skills?

If no such rules exist, any recommendations on how to determine how many units of gp equivalent resources can be gathered, harvested or extracted with good Craft, Profession or Knowledge rolls(appropriate to the resource applied to)?

[kikidmonkey]

I would say using the profession skills as a guideline for how much they can gather in a day, with the exception of rolling for random encounters that lead to profitable discoveries. "as you were digging for ore, you stumbled upon a slumbering bulette! (after combat) after slaying the beast you discovered it's den is rich in (magic item ingredient)*

[Giorgo]

Good idea, thanks.

I did some more research and it looks like I can use inspiration from the Downtime rules for making income, modify it so it makes x2-x3 income in raw materials perhaps?

[Kwauss]

Keep in mind the appropriate craft skills don't always account for searching for raw materials. I would assume locating the raw materials would require Survival, or the appropriate skill. For instance Craft (Tailor) probably doesn't include trapping animals and skinning them to make fur coats - that would be Trapper or Hunter profession, or use of the Survival skill. Certainly Craft (Gemcutter) is different than Profession (Miner). For alchemy, I would require Miner to find minerals and salts. Now, for monster parts, adventurers are perfectly fine...

[Drejk]

For purely non-adventurous raw material gathering I would use Profession rules - daily or weekly profit from Profession check (i.e. Profession check result divided by 10 for day or 2 for a five-day workweek) would represent raw materials of rolled value gathered.

With proper organization and abundnace of resources I would either give bonus to the check or even outright multiplier if the party takes their time (and/or adventure) to locate right place.

[Thefuzzy1]

I use survival to find and knowledge nature or profession herbalist to id plants

survival alone for basic animal parts (deer horn etc) via hunting

knowledge geography to find and know dungeonering or profession miner to id/ harvest ores,gems etc

after a appropriate monster fight the relevant knowledge skill (by monster type) to id and survival to harvest organs/gore bits

Handle animal or profession herder for domestic fibers (wooletc)or profession farmer to grow flax etc

the hard part with raw materials is for most crafts there is multiple crafts needed for a finished good as in once the gem is mined a craft gem cutter to determine final value before craft jewelry or weapon can use the gem. Or once the sheep is sheared a craft spinner then craft weaver then craft clothier to make a garment etc. Most characters dont invest that many skill points into so many directions but in a post apocalyptic type setting the survival aspect may drive them to it. The profession pricing for how much is gathered works fine it means with a day of work they may gather a lot of cheap plant type materials but the same roll would be few tiny gems or a small bit of ore etc. The most work is figuring out prices for odd items (just how much ogre liver will 5cp get you or blue bell flower etc.)

[Sarrah]

I am only familiar with the mining of iron and gold. In terms of game mechanics, I would say knowledge geography (gold is sometimes found in river beds) + profession miner (actual collection of raw materials) + craft alchemy (catalysts to break up the iron pyrite) + knowledge dungeoneering (if you are building mineshafts).

[Giorgo]

Thank you for the replies, I just purchased D&D 3.5 Experts and after I have a chance to read it in full and make notes, I will respond with a follow up post.