Scroungers

 You know those “crafty” people?  I’m not talking Martha Stewart “I have multiple warehouses of stuff in my backyard” kind of crafty, but the more normal kind.  Sure, the internet is filled with ideas for what you might do with soup cans, pipe cleaners and construction paper, but when the rains come unexpectedly, this is the person who actually has that stuff on hand.  Those kind of folks are “normal” in a rural fantasy setting.  Not only do they know how to knit, but they know how to spin yarn.

Then there are the scroungers.  These people only survive because of their ability to find stuff and make use of it.  They don’t have the money to buy anything, so they must find everything and then find a use for it, or vice-versa, it doesn’t always matter.  Admittedly, these folks are more like hoarders.  You’ve seen the shows - there’s stuff piled four feet deep in every corner and they claim to know where absolutely everything is.  Sometimes they do.

This is the level of scrounging to be expected of the native ogres in Ballogfar.  They literally spend their lives wandering the ruined city collecting stuff they think might someday be valuable.  Like what?  First, we have to remember the lessons from the last edition.  Wood, leather, fabrics, they are all gone - rotted away.  Yes, there are some recently created items from these materials, but not many.  There are no 1,200 year old wooden buckets!  There aren’t even any iron ones.

But there just might be some copper or bronze ones.  More likely, there are buckets made of copper sheeting that used to be used as roofing.  Or there is some sort of ceramic bucket, maybe a mortar or a pot or a brewing vat.  Let’s break away from buckets for a second.

Think a little smaller - cups and steins.  Imagine our intrepid ogre scrounger searching a collapsed home and found a good-sized stein.  The ogres made ceramics, so this is completely plausible.  Except, there’s a chunk missing.  Oh, well, he chucks it back into the fallen down house and goes off looking somewhere else, right?  Wrong!

A true scrounger looks at the broken stein and starts thinking if it has a value.  If he has wax or tallow, would it make a decent candle holder?  Could he still use it to dig like a small shovel?  Is there something he could store in it?  Does it have any value as a weapon?  If he breaks it, will its pieces have any value to him?

And that’s the point!  The native ogres of Ballogfar own a lot of stuff, but very little of it has value to a party of adventurers.  That doesn’t mean it is worthless, just that it cannot be sold in a human society.  And if you think the only things that have worth are those that can be sold, then you’re wrong.  Love, integrity, self-worth ... OK, we were just kidding there.  Some crazy person’s self-righteous voice went off and that’s what came out. Ignore that whole part!

But here’s when scroungers get really interesting:  What is the thing they are using for a purpose that was never intended?  Maybe they’re using a skull to hold a candle off the floor - maybe that’s still not of value.  All that copper sheeting they have turned into cups and buckets and pots, etc. may be “worthless” but it has base metal value.  Not a lot, but still, you gather up 100lbs of it, and the smelter will cut you a deal.

But what about the plate the ogre is using to hold his cheap tallow candle?  He likes it because it is reflective, but you like it because its gold.  The other candle holder, the skull, - it’s a whole different ball game if it is a crystal skull.  Or what if it is animated?  Is the ogre using a glass cup that is enchanted to never break?  Maybe it was a cage for a magical creature at one time but is now just a cup. 

The opportunities are truly endless!  These ogres still like shiny things, but they need food.  There is gold, silver and copper lost throughout the ruins, but the ogres spend less time searching for those things vs. food and things to make their shelters better.  That’s when these recycled uses become very happy surprises.

This post was written as part of The Lost City of Ballogfar Part II aka All About Ogres (and Ruins), the latest in our Small Bites editions.  Each Small Bites book looks deeply at one subject, a character archetype, a race/monster, a style of questing, or some other role-playing/world building subject.  This one is showcasing ogres, especially those who live in fantasy ruins.

We hope we’re getting you interested.  If you want to see the World Walker edition for FREE!! click the link here.  If we’ve hooked you and you want to get the full 130 pages of content in the Game Masters’ edition, click here.