Farmland as a type of wilderness

[Michael Thayne]

Do we have rules for doing wilderness travel type activities in farmland? E.g. eating field mice or stealing grain off the stalk, sleeping in irrigation ditches, and so on? Is that Survival (Plains) (or maybe Jungle or Swamp or something for a rice paddy), or its own thing entirely?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

Do we have rules for doing wilderness travel type activities in farmland? E.g. eating field mice or stealing grain off the stalk, sleeping in irrigation ditches, and so on? Is that Survival (Plains) (or maybe Jungle or Swamp or something for a rice paddy), or its own thing entirely?

On one hand, it's not exactly the same as wilderness; there are farmers who don't want stray humans raiding their crops, but there's also a greater density of exploitable crops. But on the other, I think it depends on the type of crops. Grains were generally cultivated in relatively damp soils, which might be swamp or riverbank; orchards would probably be woodland.

[tbone]

Interesting question. Farms and villages combine nature (if quite developed) with some urban features (structures, roads, etc.) It's easy to imagine some sort of "Rural Survival" skill cross-defaulting with Urban Survival and with one of the wilderness Survival specialties (depending on region, crops, etc.). It might even cross-default with Farming for some purposes.

Whatever the skills, rural survival should be easier than wilderness survival; really, an existing Survival skill at a nice bonus (for ready shelter, food, etc.) should do fine. As long as the PCs don't get the farmers mad at them. (Hm, what's the rural equivalent of Streetwise?)

Also, it's amusing to consider dungeon delvers in farmland. A party will have its urban specialists and wilderness specialists, but may not have anyone with a farming background.

Delver: "Beware, peasant! A monster approaches, with the body of the legendary Tarasque and the head of a Minotaur!"
Farmer: ". . . Uh, you mean my cow?"

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by tbone

Delver: "Beware, peasant! A monster approaches, with the body of the legendary Tarasque and the head of a Minotaur!"
Farmer: ". . . Uh, you mean my cow?"

LOL!!
Druids would probably be welcome and a bit of coin should help with getting food and a might in the barn. Also some might be asked to deal with pests, including some birds that would otherwise eat the grain.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by tbone

Delver: "Beware, peasant! A monster approaches, with the body of the legendary Tarasque and the head of a Minotaur!"
Farmer: ". . . Uh, you mean my cow?"

Not as scary as the double centaur, with the upper and lower body of a horse.

[(E)]

There is some content in Citadel at Nordvorn that might be useful, a village generator and some sample village write-ups. A considerable amount of detail is available there as farmland is almost the default terrain for the sub-setting.

One thing though, where there is a concentration of food i.e. a farm, there will be something trying to eat it that the farmer will want removed, birds, wild animals or even escaped and now feral animals.
I could see a very seasonal food glut/food shortage situation.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by (E)

There is some content in Citadel at Nordvorn that might be useful, a village generator and some sample village write-ups. A considerable amount of detail is available there as farmland is almost the default terrain for the sub-setting.

One thing though, where there is a concentration of food i.e. a farm, there will be something trying to eat it that the farmer will want removed, birds, wild animals or even escaped and now feral animals.
I could see a very seasonal food glut/food shortage situation.

This brings us back to the "kill the rats" starter adventure...

[Rupert]

The traditional 'help the famrers' monster in That Other Game is, of course, the ankheg.

[thrash]

Twilight 2000 had rules for foraging in fields. Is there anything similar in After the End that could be adapted to low tech?

The Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash light novel series does a pretty good job of portraying what it's like to arrive, starving, in a region cultivated by species that are ordinarily hostile to your own.

[Kromm]

It'll depend a lot on your genre and setting.

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy supports the classic nonsensical vision of TL Olden Times: A feudal economy propped up by farmers despite society having many modern values and a cash economy, and despite cities having aspects of Imperial Rome, Renaissance Venice, and Hooke's London. There, farm = supermarket. Delvers should find it as easy to eat on a farm as we find it to go to the corner store . . . so unless you're prone to demanding nuisance rolls for crossing the street and dealing with the clerk at the 7-11 in modern-day gaming, just assume farms mean the heroes don't need to forage or hit the rations.

In most historical settings prior to the modern era, the situation shouldn't be very different. If you're trying to be gritty about it, I'd call that a Per-based Farming+5 roll. Thus, country folk with even minimal Farming (attribute-1, the lowest for an Average skill) would roll Per+4, while city folk would be getting by on default (attribute-5) and using straight Per. Don't forget that historical armies ate this way, and were usually made up of farmers conscripted to bear arms.

In the modern era, I'd probably require the roll because farm = supermarket is no longer true for anybody. I'd also chop off the +5. So professional farmers would roll something like Per+2, other country folk with minimal Farming would roll Per-1, and city folk would be rolling at Per-5.

Either way, I think Per-based Farming is the appropriate "Survival" skill. And note that gardeners, wherever or whenever they might live, can default Farming to Gardening-3, so some historical monk who tends the vines or herb garden might well still have a respectable roll (say, Per+4), while a modern hobby gardener with just a point in Gardening would at least have Per-3 or so instead of Per-5.

If you hate the way the +5 drops to 0, call it +(8 - TL): +7 at TL1, +6 at TL2, +5 at TL3, +4 at TL4, +3 at TL5, +2 at TL6, +1 at TL7, and 0 at TL8. Or pick another progression you like better.

For post-apocalypse settings, choose the example above that fits best. In far-future mutants-as-monsters silliness where civilization is long gone, you're just doing GURPS Dungeon Fantasy all over again. In a grittier survival game, use the effective TL of the foragers: modern-day (TL8) folk raiding a field shortly after the cities burn are rolling at default with no bonus, or Per-5 unless they're gardeners. Once things have settled into a stable de facto TL3-4 and everybody is functioning at that TL, it's probably back to full Per even for the non-farmers (which would be almost no one).

Obviously, modifiers will apply based on the quality of the crops. During a drought year when farmers have penalties to Farming, so should foragers; during a year of plenty, bonuses should apply across the board. And at some modern "U-pick" farm set up to give city folk the farm experience without getting dirty, all the neat little rows and signs and manicured crops ought to give everybody a Per+4 or Per+5 roll.