I'm making a fantasy-based TTRPG, and I'm pondering whether or not I could make foraging interesting.
I have a hexcrawl system with rules for what happens when the players traverses a hexmap using random tables. One of the things that can happen (besides random encounters, finding locations, etc) is that they can come across "resources", which for now is only different types of food (mushrooms, edible roots, etc). But I wonder if I could extend this system in a meaningful way, to make foraging fun? As in, can I make a system where players think going out to forage for herbs or spell components in the wild is more attractive than simply buying them in a local magic shop?
The most simple and obvious solution is to extend what I already have in the same way that it already works. That is, one of the things that can happen as players traverse hexes on the map is that they can come across resources in the form of "herbs" or "spell components", etc. When that happens, there could simply be a random table (different for each type of hex terrain) that you roll on, to see what and how much you found. This system would work, but I'm not sure it would be very interesting.
I mean, sure, as you're walking around in the wilderness, the other things that can happen (possibly hostile random encounters, and finding random locations, etc) will probably help keep the process of wandering in the wilderness as a whole interesting, but I wonder if the "you found resources/herbs" event itself could somehow be turned into a mini-game or something, to make it more interesting.
Anyone have any suggestions about this?