any have any good tips how to do hunting

TheDungeonTomb · Mar 10, 2019

i am trying to find new and fun and intrigue ways for players to go hunting. so it is more like track the tracks. move stealthily in on the pray, before the target sence or hear you. and have a few more rolls than just the normal survival . any ideas how to have party go hunting will be welcome. have a good day all

akr71 · Mar 10, 2019

Nope, just a Survival check here, though the Survival check I usually use to see if they spot any signs of game.

Even the best hunters sometimes come back empty handed, so it is usually a roll of the die to see how lucky they were on this hunt.

Put it back on the players - the DM doesn't to figure everything out. Ask them what they do to try and improve (lower the DC) their chances on the hunt, such as setting up a blind or a tree stand (& how long to they wait there) or setting traps and/or snares. If their plan is complex, it might require another skill check.

hawknsparrow · Mar 10, 2019

TheDungeonTomb said:
i am trying to find new and fun and intrigue ways for players to go hunting. so it is more like track the tracks. move stealthily in on the pray, before the target sence or hear you. and have a few more rolls than just the normal survival . any ideas how to have party go hunting will be welcome. have a good day all

Hunting can become a game within a game. I would use it where they really need it to survive... they wear down thier resources... food... water... spells.... health... where the tension is at a level where it will be fun to try to succeed. Fishing...what else is competing for the reaource?... bears? Other beasts or tribes? How will they fish... baskets? Nets? Lines? Skill check challenges all through this with environment adding to the challenge. Maybe the fishing hole is at the bottom of a cliff they have to climb down while Eagles are attacking. Game hunting... same thing with cmpetition.... but now the game can become the hunter... what might be hunting them? I would turn hunting into encounters.

TheDungeonTomb · Mar 10, 2019

some nice ideas Hawknsparrow thanks

Draegn · Mar 10, 2019

Though not sporting one could bait an animal into a trap. An illusionary fragrance of something sweet, the sound of an animal in distress, the scent of an animal in heat all could be used.

MarkB · Mar 10, 2019

Yeah, making them into encounters sounds good. Maybe come up with a terrain-appropriate random encounters table that contains everything from grazing herds to fishing spots to wild fruit trees to packs of predators. The Survival check is to see whether they find anything, and if they succeed you roll on the encounter table and let them deal with whatever they find.

aco175 · Mar 10, 2019

Never thought about it much, I tended to just make a single check and say you get a lot or just a single something. I figured that a single arrow or fireblast could kill a rabbit or duck or even a deer. I do not hunt myself, so I do not know the nuances that need to go into the whole thing.

I could see something based on terrain and a list of animals you find, along with wandering monsters and giant animals you can fight. Wisdom Survival checks can determine following tracks and finding good spot locations. There seems to be so much dependent on the DM to determine success, like high ground, tree stands, water locations, food sources, etc... I would have a couple other checks not Wisdom to aid in getting a better animal or lower the DC to get an animal.

One thing to think about is what the other PCs are doing while one PC/player is taking up so much game time and if they are ok with it.

Guest 6801328 · Mar 10, 2019

I would just let the player narrate the whole thing, success and all.

No need to roll dice unless the result has impact and the outcome is uncertain. So, yeah, if there’s a danger of starving AND there’s a reason hunting would be hard (eg nobody proficient in Survival and/or game scarce) then roll some dice. But make sure there are real consequences, that player decisions matter, and that failure isn’t binary (that is, use “fail forward”).

The last thing I would do is:
Can I go hunting?
Sure, roll Survival.
18.
You got, um, a nice deer.

Guest 6801328 · Mar 10, 2019

Or, make the hunting a plot hook. Eg fail the stealth roll, the buck flees, the hunter chases...and discovers the overgrown ruins...

“What do you do?”

5ekyu · Mar 11, 2019

TheDungeonTomb said:
i am trying to find new and fun and intrigue ways for players to go hunting. so it is more like track the tracks. move stealthily in on the pray, before the target sence or hear you. and have a few more rolls than just the normal survival . any ideas how to have party go hunting will be welcome. have a good day all

How much game time do you want to spend on getting food - especially with it likely being an activity only one, perhaps two, participate in? Do you plan on giving the others an expanded "starting a fire" scene?