Basic Information
A trapper is a person who sets up traps for the purposes of remotely catching wild animals, either for food, for furs, hides or other trophies, or for pest management. See Gamekeeper and rat-catcher for the pest controllers. Creatures can be of any size, and a variety of trap types can be used for trapping, including leghold/body hold traps, pitfall traps, and live-catch cage traps, glue traps, and snares. Live capture trappers will also be a thing, but much rarer … probably specialising in the exotic pet trade or for gladiatorial arenas, depending on culture.
Many trappers, especially in the Western Genre, will be Mountain Men, or something very similar as most of the good furs live in the Northern Wilderness … this may vary with other cultures, but in general good fur requires bad weather (exceptions being things like big cats, which develop high quality fur in some very warm climates). Bird trapping was also a thing at some points, where exotic feathers were desired for clothing and millinery - these trappers were more likely to be found in tropical environments where the brightly coloured birds are.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- Trapping is awesome! Getting some knowledge or how to set up traps and using some kind of survival skill to set the trap can be an interesting way for the PCs to catch interesting creatures.