Nothing new has been made since 2035. Survivors find their crafting materials in ruined houses, shops, cars, hospitals and factories. This page is the rule for searching a place for materials. What the materials make is in the other Crafting Guide pages.
The GM gives each place a Scavenging rating from how often people search it, and picks the materials that fit the place. The rating sets the Search DC.
Rich. Search DC: 10. What It Means: Nobody has searched it. Most often a horde nest, a hot zone or a sealed building in a dead city.
Fair. Search DC: 13. What It Means: Some crews have been through, but much is left.
Poor. Search DC: 16. What It Means: Searched many times. People live nearby or come often.
Picked Clean. Search DC: 20. What It Means: People live here, and they took everything long ago. Trade is the better way to get materials here.
Dangerous places are rich because few people dare to go in. Strongholds, markets and camps are picked clean because the people who live there already took what they could use.
Pick one kind of search.
Quick Search. Time: 10 minutes. Check: Wisdom (Perception).
Thorough Search. Time: 1 hour. Check: Intelligence (Investigation).
The DC is the place's Search DC. Each searcher rolls on their own.
Searching in the dark without a light is at Disadvantage.
Success. Quick Search: 1d4 materials. Thorough Search: 2d4 materials.
Beat the DC by 5 or more. Quick Search: Also 1 rare material. Thorough Search: Also 1 rare material.
Natural 20. Quick Search: Also 1 finished item that fits the place. Thorough Search: Also 1 finished item that fits the place.
Failure. Quick Search: Nothing. Thorough Search: Nothing.
Fail by 5 or more. Quick Search: Nothing, and you make a Loud noise. Thorough Search: Nothing, and you make a Loud noise.
Materials. Each material is 1 unit of something that fits the place. The GM picks them, using the "Where to find it" notes on the Materials List page.
Rare materials. Gunpowder, Chemicals, Springs, Alcohol, Fuel, Brass Casings or Rubber Tubing. This list is on the How Crafting Works page.
Finished item. Something whole that the place would hold. A hospital might give a Med Kit, a gun shop a box of Pistol Rounds, a farm a Hatchet. The GM picks it.
Loud noise. A crash, a falling shelf or a slammed door. It uses the rules on the Noise and Hordes page.
After each Thorough Search, the place drops one step. Rich becomes Fair, Fair becomes Poor, and Poor becomes Picked Clean. The GM keeps track of its new rating.
A Quick Search does not lower the rating.
A searched place climbs back one step after about a month.
A place that is Picked Clean stays at DC 20 until it climbs back.
Food, medicine and ammunition turn up the same way when the GM allows it. Food made before 2035 is spoiled or risky. Swollen or rusted cans are never safe to eat.
Breaking a door, a lock or a window can be Loud.
Winter is the best time to search a dead city, because cold makes the dead slow.
Rosa makes a Thorough Search of the Lansing Car Plant. It is Fair, so the DC is 13. The GM decides it holds Scrap Metal, Metal Pipe, Wire, Rope, Canvas and Rubber Tubing. Rosa has Intelligence (Investigation) +4. She spends an hour and rolls 15, for a total of 19.
She beats the DC by 6. She rolls 2d4 and gets 5, so the GM gives her 2 Scrap Metal, 1 Metal Pipe, 1 Wire and 1 Rubber Tubing. Because she beat the DC by 5 or more, she also finds 1 rare material. The GM picks Springs, pulled from a car seat. The plant drops from Fair to Poor.
If Rosa had rolled a total of 8, she would fail by 5. She would find nothing, and a stack of car doors would crash down with a Loud noise.