Advice for Rations from Hunting Animals

[moosher12]

I wanted to allow my players to extract rations from the animals they fought in Kingmaker to gather meat-based rations to add extra benefit. I'm curious what systems other GM's have used for this sort of thing. So far I am considering giving a certain amount of rations appropriate to the size of the animal, with a Trained Survival check, probably appropriate to the Animal's DC by Level.

My appreciation for any advice.

[breithauptclan]

How long do you want the process of butchering and such to take?

If it is a task that will take a day or two, use Earn Income to process dead carcass into gp worth of rations.

If it is a task that will take less than a day, use Subsist with some sort of benefit for having meat readily available. Perhaps just remove the -5 penalty for spending less than 8 hours on the activity.

[moosher12]

breithauptclan wrote:

How long do you want the process of butchering and such to take?

If it is a task that will take a day or two, use Earn Income to process dead carcass into gp worth of rations.

If it is a task that will take less than a day, use Subsist with some sort of benefit for having meat readily available. Perhaps just remove the -5 penalty for spending less than 8 hours on the activity.

I'm thinking of making it the equivalent of a camping activity, so 2 hours. Might not be the most realistic for an actual dressing, but figured it'd be a fine spot for players to feel a benefit and have fun with it.

[Captain Morgan]

I think everything suggested in this thread so far is spot on, and I have no notes.

[moosher12]

Unfortunately, I don't think the Subsist option will work for my group.In this case, for example, my players felled an owlbear and 3 boars. Someone making a subsist on that check, without the Forager feat, as no one in the party has it, will mean that all of that mass, could only produce 4 days of rations, not even enough to feed our 6 man party for a day. I think you can see where that would not work so well.

[moosher12]

Earn Income could be a good avenue, but a full downtime activity feels too long to be worth it with how cheap even a week of rations is. I might go with that, with a reduced cost for a 2 hour campfire activity over an 8 hour downtime activity.

[breithauptclan]

Yes, you can certainly create your own mechanics for doing this as well. Not sure how much I can help with that though since you are the one who knows what feel you are trying to go for.

Subsist is more for the idea that everyone grabs what they need for the day and leaves the rest for the wild animals. There won't be anything kept for later days.

Forager would represent additional training and skill for one of the characters to be the party's monster cooker. It would let the one character do the Subsist thing for most or all of the party.

Earn Income is more for the idea of taking more time and curing or otherwise preserving the meat into something that won't go bad in a day or two.

[The Raven Black]

The feat All of the Animal can be a good inspiration too.

I would adjudicate that, within 2 hours, any one PC, if Trained in Survival, can try a Subsist check for one Large creature they killed with no penalty. On a crit fail, no ration. On a failure, enough to eat for one PC for one day. On a success, enough to eat for one PC for two days. On a crit success, enough to eat for a PC for 4 days.

With the DC depending on the Size of the creature, on its Rarity and with +5 if not an Animal.