Hunting and Tracking

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by NiccoloSanGiovanni

I wonder why Tracking in the Basic set is so detailed with the whole idea of making tracking rolls ever 30 minutes and yet so vague as to how you actually catch up to your target.

Because Tracking is not the skill of catching up to your target; it is the skill of following your target's tracks. You'll catch your target if you move faster than them for long enough.

I mean, it seems really strange to include modifiers for tracks that are days or even a week old and to seriously expect players to roll dozens or even hundreds of times to see if they catch up to their target.

The modifiers for a trail being a week old doesn't imply that your target has a week-long head start on you and that you'll be making nonstop Tracking rolls for a week to come. You might be tracking a criminal who is known to be hiding somewhere in this wood. The GM decides the criminal last passed this way, going to his hideout, a week ago. The hideout is an hour's walk into the woods. So the tracker rolls Tracking at -7 (-10 for a week old, +3 for following a man) to spot the trail, and again at -7 after following it for 30 minutes. After another 30 minutes they'll have come to the hideout.

Generally, if you're trying to track over long distances, either the target will be traveling in a straight line — in which case you can miss a few Tracking rolls and not lose the trail — or else it will change course. Tracking a meandering trail for days without ever losing it is unrealistic. If you lose the trail, you search around until you find it again. Cinematic trackers will have very high skill levels to avoid losing the trail.

If you're just concerned with the sheer number of rolls for a long-distance tracking, and if the trail is straight, just assume that once the tracker finds the trail and sees that it is straight, they don't have to roll again until the trail actually does turn — or unless they want to find more signs along the trail than just "they went thataway." If the trail meanders, you'll just have to make all those rolls. If, as GM, you just think the character should succeed at tracking, then just declare a success and move on.

[ericthered]

For tracking specific targets, I'd run some interaction with the area of the target. Run some rough numbers the larger of the area you're canvasing and the area of the creature you're hunting. Count the number of big game items in that area. (30 deer per square mile isn't a bad starting point).



Then turn that count into a penalty somehow. You could give a -1 for each doubling, or you could use the size/range table. apply that to the basic hunting roll to find tracks. You can increase your odds by increasing your information, and you may even be able to deduce the behavior of a specific animal by following tracks without catching up to them. "Ahah! he's gone into that ravine again! that's the third time. I can just set up in the ravine..."

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

So the tracker rolls Tracking at -7 (-10 for a week old, +3 for following a man) to spot the trail, and again at -7 after following it for 30 minutes.

Is there any particular justification for the bonus for following a man?

(And what about a woman? An elf, or orc? A hexapedal centauroid sapient from another galaxy? Where do you draw the line between "man" and "deer"?)

Luke

[(E)]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

Is there any particular justification for the bonus for following a man?

(And what about a woman? An elf, or orc? A hexapedal centauroid sapient from another galaxy? Where do you draw the line between "man" and "deer"?)

Luke

People wear boots, maybe.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

Is there any particular justification for the bonus for following a man?

I would imagine it's easier to track shoe prints than deer hoof prints, but I'm no outdoorsman, so what do I know? Maybe other things factor in, like losing threads of clothing or rubber from shoes.

(And what about a woman? An elf, or orc?

I'm sure when the text of the modifier was first written back in the '80s, they were thinking "person." Regardless, the modifier DOES apply to men, and there seems no good reason not to use common sense and apply it to women, elves, and orcs as well.

A hexapedal centauroid sapient from another galaxy? Where do you draw the line between "man" and "deer"?)

Do they wear shoes? Clothes? If they do, I'd give the bonus.

The modifiers are supposed to be examples, not an exhaustive list. The GM is expected to exercise judgment.

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

The modifiers are supposed to be examples, not an exhaustive list. The GM is expected to exercise judgment.

The problem is that, from my experience looking at tracks, people aren't actually easier to track than deer or horses, or maybe even dogs. Now, I'm not an expert tracker, more of an enthusiastic amateur outdoorsperson, so if they got this info from talking with real trackers there might be something to it. But without knowing why people are easier to track, it's hard to know where to apply the modifier when dealing with odd cases. The dolphin driving a mecha suit? The human brain operating a go-cart? The australopithicine? The spider-thing from Arcturus V? I mean, this is GURPS, and we run into all kinds of edge cases.

Clothing would make a useful dividing line. But then, the naked aborigine or Amazon native - who is still a man, by my reckoning - doesn't rate a +3. What about the surfer girl in a bikini (okay, if she's walking in the sand of a beach, a +3 bonus is fine until the tide comes in, although for very different reasons). If this is the reason, I want to know so I can say "Oh, you're in e really elaborate costume, the venators have a +5 to track you instead of the usual +3."

Luke

[NiccoloSanGiovanni]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

Because Tracking is not the skill of catching up to your target; it is the skill of following your target's tracks. You'll catch your target if you move faster than them for long enough.



The modifiers for a trail being a week old doesn't imply that your target has a week-long head start on you and that you'll be making nonstop Tracking rolls for a week to come. You might be tracking a criminal who is known to be hiding somewhere in this wood. The GM decides the criminal last passed this way, going to his hideout, a week ago. The hideout is an hour's walk into the woods. So the tracker rolls Tracking at -7 (-10 for a week old, +3 for following a man) to spot the trail, and again at -7 after following it for 30 minutes. After another 30 minutes they'll have come to the hideout.

Generally, if you're trying to track over long distances, either the target will be traveling in a straight line — in which case you can miss a few Tracking rolls and not lose the trail — or else it will change course. Tracking a meandering trail for days without ever losing it is unrealistic. If you lose the trail, you search around until you find it again. Cinematic trackers will have very high skill levels to avoid losing the trail.

If you're just concerned with the sheer number of rolls for a long-distance tracking, and if the trail is straight, just assume that once the tracker finds the trail and sees that it is straight, they don't have to roll again until the trail actually does turn — or unless they want to find more signs along the trail than just "they went thataway." If the trail meanders, you'll just have to make all those rolls. If, as GM, you just think the character should succeed at tracking, then just declare a success and move on.

Ah, I see! Thank you for that explanation.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

But without knowing why people are easier to track, it's hard to know where to apply the modifier when dealing with odd cases.

I agree that the +3 for people is mysterious, but it doesn't seem to be crippling to game play. Since GURPS is providing a broad skill of Tracking, rather than trying to simulate every aspect of the process of tracking, it's reasonable to leave it to the GM to decide this. If you don't want to distinguish between people tracks and animal tracks, you don't have to. Sure, I'd like to know the reasoning behind +3 for tracking men, but without the reason, I can still take my best guess.

There have been lots of times in other rules where other rules affect Tracking without taking every permutation into account. For instance, infrared vision will give you a +3. "But what if the thing you're tracking is the same temperature as the environment?" Then the GM will just have to decide something on the fly.

I see you've been involved in a discussion of this before, here.

[WilliamVC]

just write in the search on the forum the thread you need and I hope you find it! if not then you can create it yourself!