Butchery (5e Variant Rule)

Butchery

Harvest Season

Anyone can spend time harvesting some fresh corpses for raw meat if they have a dagger, Leatherworker’s tools, or Chef’s Utensils available. How much time is needed, and the raw meat produced depends on the creature’s size. Larger creatures may allow more than 1 harvest.

Harvest Production

Corpse Size	Meat Produced	Time Required	Harvests
Tiny	1 Pound	24 Seconds	1
Small	5 Pounds	2 Minutes	1
Medium	25 Pounds	10 Minutes	1
Large	50 Pounds	20 Minutes	3
Huge	100 Pounds	40 Minutes	7
Gargantuan	200 Pounds	80 Minutes	12

The rate of gathering may be sped up or slowed down by double your Dexterity score modifier per pound:

Modified Gathering Time

DEX Score	Modifier	Time per Pound
1	-5	34 Seconds
2-3	-4	32 Seconds
4-5	-3	30 Seconds
6-7	-2	28 Seconds
8-9	-1	26 Seconds
10-11	0	24 Seconds
12-13	+1	22 Seconds
14-15	+2	20 Seconds
16-17	+3	18 Seconds
18-19	+4	16 Seconds
20-21	+5	14 Seconds
22-23	+6	12 Seconds
24-25	+7	10 Seconds
26-27	+8	8 Seconds
28-29	+9	6 Seconds
30	+10	4 Seconds

Minutes of Work=(Pounds of Meat x (24- (2 x Your Dexterity Modifier)))/60

Ex: Harvesting a medium sized corpse with Dexterity 17 (Modifier +3) will only take 7.5 minutes, rather than 10 minutes, but if done with Dexterity 5 (Modifier -3), it will take 12.5 minutes.

• Multiple people may work on harvesting a single corpse at the same time if Large or greater. The limit is set by the # of harvests. One person may also harvest a corpse multiple times as long as it’s fresh.

• Proficiency with Daggers reduces harvest time by an additional 2 seconds per pound.

• Proficiency in the Survival skill allows 1 extra harvest per corpse. Expertise allows 2 extra. This bonus may only be applied once per corpse from all characters working on it.

• Spending 1 hour harvesting meat may be counted as a short rest, but doing so will only produce half the meat of what more dedicated gathering will yield.

• If a creature can produce their own poisons or venom, the meat must be either gathered by a character with Dexterity 15 of Higher, someone with proficiency in Survival, or purified of poison afterward. Otherwise, it is poisoned even if cooked. See Creature details for the variety of poison in the meat.

• Raw Meat, whether harvested or not, will spoil in 2 hours unless cooked. In cold weather, this is increased to 1 day. In severe or extreme cold, it will never spoil. Raw Meat will spoil in 90 minutes in hot weather, 60 minutes in severe heat, and 30 minutes in extreme heat.

• Cooked meat will spoil in 5 days. If kept cold, it will last up to 20 days. In severe or extreme cold, it will never spoil.

Meat Market

The type of meat produced depends on the corpse’s creature type:

Meat Types

Source	Meat	Diet	Effects	Price per Pound
Aberration	Alien	Aftertaste lingers for 1 hour.	Roll 1d6. 2-6 grant Psychic resistance for 1 hour. A 1 grants Psychic vulnerability for 3 hours.	9cp
Beast	Standard	Just normal meat.	None.	1sp
Celestial	Heavenly	Inedible by Fiends.	While carried, the meat floats and does not count towards your carry weight.	3gp
Construct	Assembly	Not even food.	Harvest artificer parts, metal, wood, or stone depending on specific creature. 1 pound of meat = 0.5 pounds of other materials.	Varies
Dragon	Draconic	Extremely spicy.	Take 1d12 Fire damage, then gain +2 to all ability scores for 30 Minutes or +1 to all ability scores for 1 hour. Your choice.	1gp
Elemental	Primordial	Edible only by Constructs.	Burn the fuel for 30ft of increased movement speed and +10 initiative for 1 hour.	0cp
Fey	Faerie	Causes glittery poop.	Shrink to 1 size smaller for 1 hour unless already Tiny. Gain +1 Dexterity and Wisdom for 1 hour.	3sp
Fiend	Devilish	Inedible by Celestials.	Become immune to the charmed condition for 1 hour.	3cp
Giant	Mega	Requires Strength 10 to chew or cut.	Grow to 1 size bigger for 1 hour unless already Gargantuan. Gain +1 Strength and Constitution for 1 hour.	2sp
Humanoid	Cannibal	Inedible by Good characters unless starving.	Deals 1d6 psychic damage to Humanoids unless Evil alignment if they know the meat’s source. Deal an additional 1d6 to Good characters.	1sp
Monstrosity	Monster	Requires Chef’s Utensils to cook.	Increase your lowest ability score by 1d8 or your 2 lowest scores by 1d4 for 1 hour. Your choice.	8cp
Ooze	Gooey	Inedible but never spoils.	Throw 1 pound of Gooey Meat to deal 3d8 Acid damage. Range 10/30.	1cp
Plant	Vegan	Edible by herbivores, but not carnivores.	Grants 1d8 temporary hit points until your next short or long rest. Gain +1 Intelligence and Charisma for 1 hour.	2cp
Undead	Spoiled	Only edible by scavengers or undead.	Anything else takes 6d6 Poison damage every hour and has disadvantage on Constitution saving throws for 1 day.	0cp

• Benefits and afflictions apply per pound eaten and do not stack. A character proficient with Chef’s Utensils may cook any raw meat into Standard Meat except Assembly, Cannibal, Gooey, Primordial, and Spoiled.

• Prices apply to both raw and cooked meat and may alter based on supply and demand.

• Besides Vegan Meat, all meats cannot be digested by herbivorous creatures or characters.

Jerky

You can turn any 1 pound of raw meat, except Assembly, Gooey, Primordial, or Spoiled, into 4 0.1 pound raw strips of jerky. A character with proficiency in Survival can make 6 strips per pound and one with expertise in Survival can make 8 per pound. Making jerky requires 1 pound of salt per 100 pounds of Raw Meat and can be done in 3 ways. Cut the meat into raw strips, salt them then:

-Fire: Make a camp or bonfire. Skewer or hang the strips around it on rods for 4 hours A 1ft^3 campfire can dry out up to 20 strips at a time. A 5ft^3 bonfire can dry up to 200 strips at a time. You must keep the fire fed throughout the process.

-Nature: Hang them on elevated rods or hanging rope exposed to the sun and wind for 1 day. Requires clear and/ or windy weather when you start. Can’t be used in extreme cold. Up to 50 strips may be placed on a 1ftx5ft line.

-Smoke: Requires proficiency in the Survival skill. Make a campfire or bonfire, an enclosed roof of branches or cloth to trap the smoke over the fire, and a rack or racks of wood or metal rods to hang the strips upon them for 3 hours. A 1ft^3 campfire smoker setup can dry out up to 100 strips at a time. A 5ft^3 bonfire smoker setup can dry out up to 1000 strips at a time. You must keep the fire fed throughout the process.

• Raw jerky will never spoil while being made into finished jerky.

• Jerky does not spoil for 1 year if left dry. In cold weather, this is increased to 10 years. In severe or extreme cold, it will never spoil.

• Jerky retains all the effects of its parent meat, but only for 6 minutes per hour of regular cooking’s effect per strip. Draconic Jerky only does 1 Fire damage and Vegan Jerky only gives 1 temporary hit point per strip.

• A character proficient with Chef’s Utensils may cook any Raw Meat into Standard Jerky except Assembly, Cannibal, Gooey, Primordial, and Spoiled Meats.

• Cooked jerky sells for double the price of its raw source per pound.

• Eating jerky in combat requires 1 action per strip.

• Eating jerky while moving imposes no movement or Perception penalties.

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