[Basic] Skill of the week: Fishing, Survival and Urban Survival

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I think it would make sense to say that Fishing has familiarities: tickling, spear fishing, net fishing, and line fishing at least.

Are fishermen on large ocean going trawlers using the Fishing skill?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

Are fishermen on large ocean going trawlers using the Fishing skill?

That's a good question. I don't know the answer. I expect someone is doing so, at any rate.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

Are fishermen on large ocean going trawlers using the Fishing skill?

They use very specific skills to where I would think it has few, if any, defaults to basic fishing. I would call it Seaman plus Professional Skill: Ocean Fisherman.

[Kalzazz]

I find Survival one of those skills I almost never take due to the Mandatory Specialization, since there are so many possibilities and the defaults are fairly harsh.

Survival Woodlands does show up in Forest Gaurdian, and since I like elf archers I've gotten it a few times that way

[Phil Masters]

The Survival defaults aren't that bad. I tend to feel that if you're building Mr Wilderness Guy, you give him sky-high Survival for his favourite environment, and then lean on the defaults anywhere else.

And Survival does tend to be useful in all sorts of rural situations, in my experience; there's a lot of "Going from A to B without falling in a sinkhole or being bitten by a snake" rolling, even if you're fine for supplies.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

They use very specific skills to where I would think it has few, if any, defaults to basic fishing. I would call it Seaman plus Professional Skill: Ocean Fisherman.

That's skill bloat, and it is highly annoying to take Fishing for your fisherman character only to find out that you need an obscure skill in order to represent your job. A Familiarity might be a more elegant solution.

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

The Survival defaults aren't that bad. I tend to feel that if you're building Mr Wilderness Guy, you give him sky-high Survival for his favourite environment, and then lean on the defaults anywhere else.

And Survival does tend to be useful in all sorts of rural situations, in my experience; there's a lot of "Going from A to B without falling in a sinkhole or being bitten by a snake" rolling, even if you're fine for supplies.

Agreed on both accounts:
I'm currently playing a very outdoorsy character, and my strategy was to get high Per (for both Survival and Fishing), and then default lots of things to that, particularly Camouflage (adding a point into it to avoid 'skill is used at default' restrictions). And yes, the assumption is having at least a couple of days worth of rations, preferably more. Getting food takes time.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

That's skill bloat, and it is highly annoying to take Fishing for your fisherman character only to find out that you need an obscure skill in order to represent your job. A Familiarity might be a more elegant solution.

Deep-sea fishermen do need Seamanship, though. They're famously good at it, and have been an emergency source of sailors for navies for centuries.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Deep-sea fishermen do need Seamanship, though. They're famously good at it, and have been an emergency source of sailors for navies for centuries.

Having Seamanship I do not dispute. I just dislike having to come up with a Professional Skill for something that already has an associated skill. It's like having Professional Skill (Military) for someone who already has the Soldier skill.

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Having Seamanship I do not dispute. I just dislike having to come up with a Professional Skill for something that already has an associated skill. It's like having Professional Skill (Military) for someone who already has the Soldier skill.

There are some precedent, like gardening>farming or housekeeping>cooking ;
but I would give most fisherman seamanship and fishing at low TL. At high TL, a professionnal skill make sense, that will also include electronics sensor operation, use of refrigeration, knowledge of law and regulations, possibly mechanics.
Celjabba

[ericthered]

That makes me have a weird thought: how does high TL interact with survival? At least the hunting aspect of it. No bone-armed savage can hope to kill more than a dozen or so large animals, but the gun armed expert can wreck havoc.

At the same time, is high TL also good at surviving in other ways (better gear) and they should suffer more without gear? Does the book mention any ways to reflect this? have you come up with or used ways?