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

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by safisher

Survival is about taking care of yourself and others in any environment, and has rather generous defaults as a result. GURPS Space, for instance, has Survival (colony environment) for Colonists. GURPS Ultra-Tech allows a Survival roll when using a rescue bubble, which is gear specifically for non-shirtsleeve environment. Vacc Suit skill can also be used, of course.

Area Knowledge and Expert Skill (Planetology) could certainly work in certain circumstances, and several skills mention having an "eye for country" element, too. But Survival is officially the all-in-one "live off the land" or "what I need to know to save my life" skill.

On the other hand, there is certainly gear that a human being could use to survive in an underwater environment. But the Basic Set rules state explicitly that land-dwellers cannot take any of the eight aquatic skills (though they can take Tropical Lagoon at Island/Beach-4 or River/Stream at Swampland-4, as defaults). And they also say that there is no default at all between Survival skills for terrains on two planets of different types.

And really, that makes sense. The core definition of Survival is as the ability to live off the land; and a failed Survival roll means you suffer 2d-4 injury. But you can't live off the land on a gas giant or an ice world, and the environment there will inflict a lot more than 2d-4 injury per day; in fact it will kill you almost immediately.

It's the GM's option to make up things like Survival (Radioactive Wasteland). But that implies that it's also the GM's option to say there is no relevant survival skill for such places.