Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 05-27-2015, 03:01 AM   #31
The Colonel
 
The Colonel's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening

Historically, quite a lot of European farming at least seems to have been mixed - some livestock, some arable, often (in a crop rotation system) with livestock grazed on the fallow fields. Procedures may vary in other regions with less in the way of livestock.
Herding would seem more sensible for livestock kept at range as opposed to in hand - so free grazing sheep or pannaging pigs.
Also, some cultures might well use gardening more than farming - as I understand it, for example, the Amerindian cultures of the Atlantic coast tended to use crop growing techniques that were smaller scale and less intensive to the extent that they would look more like vegetable gardens than cropping fields. AFAIK there are other cultures world wide in much the same position - I think Jared Diamond (of Guns, Germs and Steel) referred to it as a transition stage between hunter/gatherer subsistence and "food production" in the form of true agriculture.
Of course food production cultures still use gardening - again, in medieval European economy there seems to be clear roles for both the field (farming) and the garden (gardening), growing different things in different ways.
The Colonel is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-27-2015, 08:50 AM   #32
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening

Quote:
Originally Posted by Polydamas View Post
Why do you think that?
Low-Tech Companion 3, page 10, "Herding".
johndallman is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 05-27-2015, 09:34 AM   #33
Polydamas
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
Low-Tech Companion 3, page 10, "Herding".
Ok, but what does the Basic Set say? GURPS authors have been going back and forth on this for a long time, probably because with the exception of Matthew Riggsby agriculture is not one of the areas of their expertise.

I have never had enough money to buy the Low-Tech Companions since I have not had a gaming group for years and GURPS does not have a very strong claim on my tiny entertainment budget.
__________________
"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper

This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature
Polydamas is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-27-2015, 11:11 AM   #34
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening

Quote:
Originally Posted by Polydamas View Post
Ok, but what does the Basic Set say?
Not a whole lot:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Page B194
This is the skill of growing things.
It is usually used to earn a living, but
you can also use it to answer theoreti-
cal questions about or solve problems
related to agriculture.
To me, that says fairly clearly that it covers growing plants (and the description of Gardening makes that explicit), but isn't clear on the subject of animals.

I'll edit the OP on the subject of LTC3.
johndallman is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 05-27-2015, 11:30 AM   #35
Polydamas
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening

Ok, thanks. All my game books are back in the old country, so I can't check myself. I just remember a few cases where how GURPS is usually played and what the rules literally say do not match (or where a supplement reinterprets something in BS), so it is always good to check the original wording.
__________________
"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper

This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature
Polydamas is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-28-2015, 03:09 AM   #36
The Colonel
 
The Colonel's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening

What happened to the Agronomy skill? IDHMBWM - was it 3E?
The Colonel is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-28-2015, 03:13 AM   #37
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Colonel View Post
What happened to the Agronomy skill? IDHMBWM - was it 3E?
3e Agronomy was renamed as Farming.
johndallman is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 05-28-2015, 06:12 AM   #38
The Colonel
 
The Colonel's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
3e Agronomy was renamed as Farming.
Yay for translation!
The Colonel is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-28-2015, 03:49 PM   #39
(E)
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening

This is just my take on things but reading the low tech 3 section on herding it seems to be based on grazing animals in a situation that doesn't involve paddocks i.e no fences or other barriers like hedges etc. thought that might be worthy of a mention if people have the image of 18th century English fields and hedgerows in mind when picturing the set up mentioned.

personally I think the calculation involving numbers of animals per person herding lacks detail. And that a sheepdog has a higher animal handling skill.

Modern stocking rates are a lot higher. 3.5 stock units to the acre is maintainable on poor soil and terrain even with larger modern animals. (heaviest sheep (meat breed rams) topping 320lbs) the average ewe being around 132 lbs. Also about 8 lbs of wool produced per adult animal per annum. 1 stock unit equals the amount of feed required to maintain one lactating ewe and lamb. Historically one big increase in animal production happened when the importance of breeding became known in the 17th and 18th centuries. On a side note maintaining animals in a pastural system is considered to be %60 feed %30 parasite management and %10 other
__________________
Waiting for inspiration to strike......
And spending too much time thinking about farming for RPGs
Contributor to Citadel at Nordvörn
(E) is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-01-2016, 10:45 PM   #40
sir_pudding
Wielder of Smart Pants
 
sir_pudding's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening

Regular routine farming is a job roll.
sir_pudding is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
basic, farming, gardening, skill of the week

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:59 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.