Why did HM do this, but not 3E?

[Akrasia]

What Breakdaddy said is corect -- aside from the 20 hp 'kicker', converting a HM module into C&C is as easy as converting a pre-3e A/D&D module.

I have 'White Doom Mountain', and it looks like a snap to use with C&C.

 

[Krieg]

.../snip/... you don't see many people in fantasy fiction cutting up their fallen foes like butchers in a shop for all their various uses.../snip/...

The Blood of a Dragon by Lawrence Watt-Evans...

They told Dumery he had no talent for magic and could never be a wizard, so he set out to become one of the tradesmen to whom even the wizards had to humble themselves -- a dragon hunter, supplying the dragon's blood the wizards needed for their spells.

He saw a man selling dragon's blood to a wizard and followed the man back into the mountains, hoping to convince him to take him on as an apprentice dragon hunter. He soon discovered, though, that things were not quite what he had thought...

 

[Dragonhelm]

Displacer beasts are great monsters to "harvest" from. A friend of mine adapted their claws for use as spiked gauntlets once. A cloak could be adapted into a cloak of displacement.

And let us not forget displacer jerkey!

I remember reading somewhere (Monster Manual?) about using dragon scales for armor. That's about the only 3e resource I remember seeing that in, IIRC.

I can also see how one can have an adventure where a tribal shaman sends the party to get the extract of some gland on a rare monster, which can be used for medicinal purposes to save the life of a sick tribe member.

On a side note, I'm curious to know how C&C works out for Hackmaster modules as well. I've been getting into C&C lately and have started to see the value of using C&C for adapting AD&D modules. This makes Hackmaster all that more valuable to me.

 

[Psion]

I just received my very first Hackmaster products as part of a Kenzer special and while reading through the stuff I came across something I found very cool and immediately wondered why D&D/WOTC didn't do this.

An entry for medicinal uses, if any, for the monsters remains.

An entry for magical component uses, if any, for the monsters remains.

Some d20 supplements -- like creatures of freeport -- do this.

 

[hong]

The Blood of a Dragon by Lawrence Watt-Evans...

One != many, strangely enough.

 

[reanjr]

[edit] Monte confirms first point
I believe I remember one of the designers saying they wanted to avoid players hacking up and dissecting every monster they kill. Wizards also took a hand-off stance on the ecology of creatures (I believe) to avoid pigeon-holing a creature. Many creatures you could just describe differently in appearence and culture and you have come up with a brand new creature with the exact same stats.

Also, I think it is easier to do magical component uses under magic rather than under individual creatures.

 

[Krieg]

One != many, strangely enough.

The post was mostly just being facetious and I should have done a better job of clarifying that.

However that does bring up the point that it is a bit ironic to use characters in of fantasy fiction as a justification when D&D as a whole doesn't represent how characters in fantasy fiction behave under almost all circumstances.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Magical Reagents

I did something like this a few years ago... *browsing the hard drive*

There! Yeah, I called it Magical Reagents and I wrote it back in October 2002. I never tested any of it and I won't even read through it now but... What the hey! You can have it.

 

[jester47]

This sounds like a perfect title item for Ronin Arts or EN Publishing...

Aaron.