Havesting Monsters for Shadowdark

My quick homebrew rules for when players want to harvest/eat the monsters in Shadowdark

If you just want to skip to the rules, click here.

So I’m running a Shadowdark play-by-post running through Stonehell dungeon, and my players recently killed a giant gecko. Totally unprompted by me, two of them asked if they could eat it. I was thrilled. I’ve been a fan of the whole “Delicious In Dungeon” idea way before that was a manga/show. I still remember in the first D&D campaign I ever played, when I asked if we could eat some monster we found in the dungeon. The GM looked at me like I was insane. To this day, I’ve never understood how a fantasy world hasn’t developed a wild culinary scene where people are constantly wanting to eat new or unique monsters.

From Delicious in Dungeon, a manga/anime born from the entire idea of…but what if we just eat the monsters?

Regardless, when my group asked if they could eat the gecko, I was excited, but also realized I needed to come up with some kind of rules, because once players do something once, they tend to do it again. I knew I wanted the rules to be simple, but at least somewhat based on realism. So I got to work on learning how to clean a deer. I read some articles and watched some videos to at least get an idea of how long something like this might take.

Funny side story, my wife, who is very much not a nerd, walked behind my computer while I was doing some of this research and asked me why I had a video open on how to field dress and clean a deer. When I told her I was doing D&D research, she looked at me like I had lost my mind.

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The Rules

When attempting to harvest a creature for rations or parts, you can choose from the following options:

1. Quick Cuts. Takes 1 turn. 1d4/6/8 Rations per HD, modified by a check.

2. Field Dress. Takes 3 turns. 10/20/30 Rations per HD modified by a check.

3. Harvesting Parts. Depends on what you're trying to harvest, but generally takes 1 turn; success is DC-based

Quick Cuts. You quickly gather the easiest cuts of the animal and leave the rest. The faster option, but results in the least usable food. Gain 1d4 rations per HD for small creatures, 1d6 per HD for medium creatures, and 1d8 per HD for large creatures. Requires a Dex, Wis, or Int check (with advantage if receiving help). DC depends on the creature; standard is 9. Succeeding by 5 or more results in 50% more rations. Failing by less than five results in 50% fewer rations. Failing by five or more results in no rations. If you choose this option, you may not choose to Field Dress the creature.

Field Dress. You spend time carefully preparing the animal for further processing later at the camp. The slower option, but results in the far more usable food. Gain 10 rations per HD for small creatures, 20 per HD for medium creatures, and 30 per HD for large creatures. Requires a Dex, Wis, or Int check (with advantage if receiving help). DC depends on the creature; the standard is 12. Succeeding by 5 or more results in 50% more rations. Failing by less than five results in 50% fewer rations. Failing by five or more results in no rations. If you choose this option, you may not choose to Quick Cut a creature.

Harvest Parts. This is the option for harvesting specific creature parts (eyes, teeth, organs, etc) and entirely depends on the item you are trying to harvest. It can be performed with either Quick Cuts or Field Dress. The length of time and the DC both depend on what you are trying to harvest from the creature.

This process assumes that what you are doing in the moment is gathering parts, or just field dressing the body to take back to the campsite and finish processing later. These will be fresh rations, meaning they go bad in a week.

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I wrote this for Shadowdark play-by-post, but it should be easy to adapt to any system. If you play with these rules and find anything wrong with them, I’d love to know!

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