So I'm thinking about running X1: Isle of Dread as an Age of Exploration sandbox/hexcrawl, the driving motivation of which will be "exploit the hell out of the newly discovered land".  The games I have handy cover wilderness survival fine, but I'm having trouble finding anything on resource harvesting given primitive or pre-industrial technology.  Locating and logging rare woods, spices and foodstuffs is easy enough to handwave, but what about surveying for minerals?  Does anyone know of any good references on how this was done?

Go to your local university and hit up a reference librarian. Finding this sort of information is their actual job.

Google Roman tin mining in Britain. Tin mining in Cornwall. The '49 gold rush.  

By the time of the iron age beginning many mineral and metal deposits were well known and had been worked for centuries. Familiarity with mining lead to familiarity with the sort of rocks likely to be ore bearing. Then it was, as it still is today, a matter of finding those rocks and searching for ore.

How pre-industrial? If I recall correctly Roman mines were not much different from wild west mines in structure. Its the refinements (maybee) in processing the ore that changed overall.

You need people who can recognize signs of ore deposits and then a workforce to follow and then either someone to sell it to or your own facility.

Also at what point in the process do you want to be involved? At the discovery and mining phase or at the trade and processing phase?

Quote from: Omega;928460How pre-industrial?

Age of Exploration.  So fifteenth to seventeenth century without gunpowder.

QuoteYou need people who can recognize signs of ore deposits and then a workforce to follow and then either someone to sell it to or your own facility.

Yeah, I got that, but I want a little more detail at the front end since the PCs will be the prospectors.

QuoteAlso at what point in the process do you want to be involved? At the discovery and mining phase or at the trade and processing phase?

Discovery and mining.  The Isle of Dread is a Caribbean-esque/Lost World island way out to sea in the Mystara setting; my campaign premise is a young nobleman in possession of the map from the module is gambling his fortune on an expedition to the place in search of resources, and he's bringing a bunch of people to help him map and exploit the place.

Try the mining section in the AD&D Dungeoneers Survival Guide. Starting on page 48.
How to find a site.
Types of mines.
Excavating the tunnels.
Shoring the tunnels.
Types of product.
Quality of Product.
Smelting ore and finishing stones
How long before the mine plays out.
Staking a claim.
Hireling loyalty
Hazards natural and unnatural.

Quote from: Omega;928520Try the mining section in the AD&D Dungeoneers Survival Guide.

Huh.  I have the WSG, but I didn't think to try the Dungeoneering one.  Thanks!

Judges Guild Ready Ref Sheets / Wizard's Guide
pp. 46 Prosperous Prospecting.

They also have random encounter tables for Trees, Fauna, Herbs, Flowers, Vegetables, and Weeds and Fauna (animal wildlife).
pp. 48-50

This book still has to be the best $2.99 I ever spent on gaming.

You might find this thread about mining/tunneling in a fantasy setting useful.

A good question with a pretty simple answer from what I understand - it was done in very similar matter as today, except with more primitive tools.

Basically, you were combing the countryside, usually along creek beds and hilltops for mineral residue, then you needed to mine the area a bit to see if you can estimate the deposit to be big enough to bear promise (so in many ways, similar to our situation right now, except we have more tools to do it quicker). With stereotypical D&D level of technology, you probably'd have surveyor's maps and manuals, which, while light years away from modern ones, would help skilled surveyors denote and deduce the potential nodes in vicinity.

From PCs perspective, it boils down to spotting mineral residue, calculating where it must be coming from in case of spotting such in creeks, then seeing if the vein is rich enough for the digging to be profitable.

Quote from: daniel_ream;928442So I'm thinking about running X1: Isle of Dread as an Age of Exploration sandbox/hexcrawl, the driving motivation of which will be "exploit the hell out of the newly discovered land".  The games I have handy cover wilderness survival fine, but I'm having trouble finding anything on resource harvesting given primitive or pre-industrial technology.  Locating and logging rare woods, spices and foodstuffs is easy enough to handwave, but what about surveying for minerals?  Does anyone know of any good references on how this was done?

Are you looking for prehistoric technology or just pre-industrial? Like others I would suggest asking the librarian or emailing a professor in a relevant historical specialty, but you might try Civilizations Before Greece and Rome by Saggs. I recall that having some information on mining and other things of that sort. The Wheels of Commerce also has good information but that is early modern and pretty dense (so it is right before the Industrial Revolution and is three volumes). There is another book called Prehistoric Farming in Europe that you might find helpful (I only read small sections of it though a long time ago, so can't vouch fully for it). This book I haven't read but on a search it looks promising, Two-Oxen Ahead:Pre-Mechanized Farming in the Mediterranean by Paul Halstead. Generally any survey book on the Neolithic Revolution will have some helpful information on things like very early farming and resource acquisition. That subject should also help point you to some good sources.

There are many sources but have you tried the Buster Ancient Farm project?  No need for conjecture or what a game designer thinks is involved...  http://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/research-2/

Looking at it in game terms, the various editions of Chivalry and Sorcery seem to have a good bit of information that can be dropped into a game.

It would surprise me that ACKS doesn't have something about this! If it doesn't, someone should really let Alexander Macris know...