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

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

The most common ways for the last thousand years or so, barely a drop in the bucket when compared to humanity's entire existence of 60 to 200+ millennia.

sure when you measure the size of history in strait years.

When you measure the size of history in person-years -- the years of individual human experience all stacked up, its not a drop in the bucket.

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Not so. At least with rivers and lake beds the topography changes all the time (generally), so it's also a matter of looking for the visual cues to know where the deep spots/calm spots/fish hiding spots are.

Yeah, well, I'm thinking about fishing in the sea with trawls, trawlers, and nets. Cod, haddock etc. move in predictable ways so the fishermen generally head to the same-ish spot at the same time each year.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

Yeah, well, I'm thinking about fishing in the sea with trawls, trawlers, and nets. Cod, haddock etc. move in predictable ways so the fishermen generally head to the same-ish spot at the same time each year.

Gotcha.

Personally I see 'trawling' as separate from 'fishing' as far as the GURPS skill should work.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

The most common ways for the last thousand years or so, barely a drop in the bucket when compared to humanity's entire existence of 60 to 200+ millennia.

We shovel in every easily digestible material on earth, and process the rest to be easier on our modified herbivores' systems. Like pigs but with cooking technology really.

The last few thousand years or so were the times when the population of humanity grew exponentially so by definition the majority of humanity has lived in such a system.

In any case today it is like asking why we need special words for "irregular" or "infantryman" when in cave man days all warriors were irregulars and all were infantrymen. In modern times and in fact for a considerable amount of time they were not. Moreover this denotes the specific tasks to be assigned them which they do at optimal level. Likewise "hunter-gatherer" denotes a lifestyle that is now rare, with the exception of commercial fishing, and tells how it differs from others. Irregulars can ambush caravans and scout but not storm cities and likewise hunter-gatherers can provide fish and fur but not bread.

[RogerBW]

Several characters in my games have had Urban Survival, but it hasn't come up all that often (I should do something about that). Hardly anyone has had Fishing, and it's usually been a colour skill. Lots of characters have one or two Survivals, and a few choose to collect the set.

[Jose]

So it might be a strange question but why take survival?

Currently my witch has survival 15 which is a 95.4% of success this sounds good, but the failure is catastrophical 2d+4 damage to the entire party.
While rations cost 2$ a meal making it 6$ for a day.
It also takes a lot of time to forage for food.

Why would I want to use this when rations and a tent are available?
Is it for cheapskates?
Do we find landmines or a nuke or several sleeping but somewhat hungry predators, if we crit fail?

Or a better way to phrase it: What advantage does my witch have over the other player who just buys a tent and rations for the journey?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Jose

... but the failure is catastrophical 2d+4 damage to the entire party.

That's 2d-4, which is still a lot.

Or a better way to phrase it: What advantage does my witch have over the other player who just buys a tent and rations for the journey?

Relying on Survival if you have money and opportunity to be properly equipped is foolish, no doubt about it. That's not what Survival is for.

It's for when you're shipwrecked, or you lose your supplies and equipment to thieves, a landslide or some other accident. For all the cases where things have gone wrong and you're in danger from your surroundings.

[Dalillama]

[QUOTE=Jose;1974492]So it might be a strange question but why take survival?

Why would I want to use this when rations and a tent are available?
Is it for cheapskates?

Because rations and tents aren't always available .
(Also, from a non game mechanical perspective, rations mostly taste pretty crap, and premodern ones usually have some significant nutritional deficiencies).

Do we find landmines or a nuke or several sleeping but somewhat hungry predators, if we crit fail?

Angry animals are a possibility; more likely you slip down a hidden ravine, fall out if a tree, sprain your ankle on a loose rock, etc.

Or a better way to phrase it: What advantage does my witch have over the other player who just buys a tent and rations for the journey?

When a flash flood (or a fire, or bandits, or animals, or...) destroys /removes your gear, they're screwed and you're not.

[Bruno]

I'm quite happy with Dungeon Fantasy's guidelines (And Kromm's rantings here on the forum) about Survival and the damage from bad failures - it's not any one thing, unless some poor guy has Unlucky. Instead, it's The Worst Camping Trip Ever. Sunburn, bad water causing diarrhea and dehydration, getting intestinal parasites, getting stuck in a thorn bush, blisters on your feet from getting sand in your boot, wiping yourself with poison ivy/oak/what-have-you, spending five days being swarmed by so many North-Ontario blackflies that you have to pick them out of your teeth...

It's cumulative misery.

That said, I'm rather inclined to have players roll Survival even if they have a tent and rations, unless they've driven right up to their site on a maintained camping park. It's just that the prepared get a substantial extra bonus, and aren't rolling every day to forage.

[RogerBW]

Apologies for necromancy, but I think this is relevant here: what about Survival for terrain you can't innately live in?

For example, what skill(s) should you learn for knowing what to do in these situations?

• Being adrift in an open boat, on salt water, after your plane's been shot down
• Trekking across the surface of the Moon (in a vacc suit, but you still have to worry about temperature and terrain)