Harvesting!

I saw an FB post about a Hero who killed a Lizardman and decided to skin it. He was going to wear the leather, and the GM was wondering how much of a bump should it give. They were playing 5e, so he was thinking of making it AC 12+dex. Making it +1 leather.

Now he wasn’t excited about this prospect, but he thought he needed to reward the skinning.

I thought this was nonsense and destructive.

When Heroes are harvesting the dead monsters, beasts, and even people, the GM needs to ask themselves why the world isn’t currently doing this? Afterall Lizardmen have been around for thousands of years, this PC is the first to think of skinning it? That makes no sense.

The award for harvesting is an idea the GM must tread with extra care.

I do not recommend giving awards of this nature lightly. I have all sort of valuable goods that players can harvest from the dead, but each of them I carefully consider.

Let’s take the +1 AC Lizardman armor. If this were the case, Lizardmen would be extinct. Like the buffalo of the American plains, there would be wagon trains sent out to kill them. It wouldn’t be hard to raise an army when the enemy is weak, numerous, and produces +1 armor!

And +1 leather would be typical. A nation would enslave the lizardman making them work and when they die, harvest them for their armies.

The GM has to make a lot of choices on the fly so you cannot think of everything. But with that said…

The GM needs to ask why isn’t the world already harvesting this then?

If the party is in permafrost fighting a silver dragon and wants to harvest it, that makes sense. A dragon is a rare beast, mighty, and already has a ton of lore and myth about it. I would think the world already harvests dragons (when it can) and therefore I would give all sort of goodies.

I would ask myself: How is having dragon scales produce magical armor going to change the world? It is unlikely a King will raise an army to hunt dragons in the permafrost for a few magical scale mail. The cost of soldiers dying to dragon’s breath isn’t worth it. Yet, the world knows dragon scales is valuable, so there is a demand. This all makes logical sense, and therefore it is added to the world.

In my world, I have the deadly male Baskilisk. It is an alligator-like monster that has natural magic allowing it to paralyze with a stare, harden itself to stone for a few moments, and pass through magical barriers. Hunting the Baskilisk is risky business. But it can be harvested for a high-quality leather (+1 AC).

Even though they are powerful, the Basilisk is hunted. There is an industry, much like Whalers who search for the beast and kills them for hides. It isn’t a big industry, but parties often encounter hunters in their travels. And Adventures hunt them too. When the party has enough levels, it is a famous monster to search out and slaughter.

The male Basilisk has become a great addition to my world. I have had to build a whole industry around the finding and killing of the Basilisk for leather. It has become a good starting point for some nights of adventuring. Heroes can have backstories about working in that trade.

My point is that all of them came from a thoughtful choice in world design. And if I had done it on the fly, I would have later gotten to this point afterward by thinking about how my world would respond to the Basilisk.

In the FB post, where the GM was like “I guess I am going to make it +1 AC,” did not sound like a thoughtful choice. And doing so, if their players make the connection that a standard monster is walking loot, look out! That could become the campaign. Now he has to either backtrack (you killed a rare and random special Lizardman) or let the world become a less logical place.

What I told him was to make the leather of poor quality. That is the gut instinct the GM must develop to make a better world.

The instincts of the GM should be not to reward but to withhold.

Now killing Lizardmen is a lousy deal. One less reason to go fighting Lizardmen. Now it makes more sense for them to exist. “King, there are Lizardmen in the bogs!” The king thinks, “They have nothing and are worth nothing; why lose soldiers killing them? Perhaps if I ignore them, they will go away.” He orders a post placed at the bog that reads: DANGER LIZARDMEN! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. In his mind, problem solved.

Harvesting Beast is a big part of my game!

I have been building a list of valuables to harvest from dead monsters. I have a whole skill for harvesting. There are alchemists in town waiting to buy the hearts, livers, and eyes the party remove from various monsters. Most of the products harvested are for components of artificial and potion making. But it can lead to some adventure hooks and starting points of some adventures.

Add harvesting to your game. Just stop and think about what the monsters hides are worth before giving it out.