Low-Tech Survival Skills

[fritzbc]

Suppose you’re in the wilderness. It’s the summer solstice, in 160 days there will be the first snow. It’s a temperate environment, Tech-Level is 2, with realistic survival mechanics. For the sake of simplicity, you can assume that you’ll have relevant basic equipment for skills. As well as that, you assume all attributes are 10 and you have 60 points to spend on just skills.

Now, I’m curious; What skills would you take? What are absolutely necessary, what could you need but not require? What could you forgo and what will you ignore entirely? Why? How long do you think you could realistically survive? If you’d like, you can also ask further questions about my little “Scenario”.

For me? I’d take Carpentry, Fishing, Gardening, Weather Sense, Cooking (iirc you need it to preserve food), Survival (Woodlands and Plains), and most likely Axe and Bow. I’m eager to see your responses.

[Pursuivant]

High levels of Area Knowledge, on the assumption that they'd be complementary to Survival and other useful skills. Area Knowledge tells you where local resources are available.

If you have the ability to quickly clear land and suitable seeds, Farming and Gardening skills become viable for quickly-growing crops, although planting in late June is several months too late for most temperate climate grain crops. Sowing winter wheat or similar crops which overwinter and which can be harvested in June of next year is a more viable option, but that doesn't help you get through the winter.

Stealth and Tracking are requirements for most game hunting. Armoury skill is needed to make replacement arrows and weapons. Depending on the terrain, however, Fishing or Traps/Camouflage might be the better option for obtaining protein that resists becoming protein.

Naturalist skill might be useful for telling you know details about the natural environment, such as when herd animals migrate, fish spawn or fruits ripen or how prey animals behave.

Axe isn't necessarily useful as a craft skill. If you want to turn trees into lumber, Carpentry or Survival might allow decent defaults, especially at TL2, but the proper skill is PS (Lumberjack).

Other useful skills are First Aid, Leatherworking (to turn hides into leather and to make leather into shoes, etc.) and Sewing (to turn hides into clothing).

Given the long list of skills, it's clear that wilderness survival is a cooperative venture with different specialists needed. A loner would need very good Survival skill, possibly other skills, like Armoury (Bows & Arrows), Stealth and Tracking and some luck, particularly in the matter of finding good, defensible waterproof, wind-proof shelter, like a cave.

[fritzbc]

Interesting. I took Axe, not because of felling trees, but because if I had an axe, I might as well fend off any animals that would mess with me. However, I know it’s not common. PS (Lumberjack) is something I didn’t think about, but Gardening was for after the first winter (if I even made it though).

Now, do you think you could make anything more than clay and thatch huts? Realistically, it wouldn’t be easy, especially with a lack of nails, spending time to make dowels would slow down the process a decent bit. I am not also sure that you can replace nails with dowels in every scenario, either.

[jason taylor]

Area knowledge (Oregon) and Common Sense would tell me,"Walk downhill". Sooner or later you find water (there is always water in Oregon). Water will take you to civilization.

Now if you would rather NOT be near civilization-say you are flying Over the Hump and don't know whether or not you crashed in Japanese held territory, it is different.

But in Oregon survival is rather elementary as long as you do not go into actual D.B. Cooper country.

[fritzbc]

I suppose survival in Oregon would be rather simple. Now try rural North Dakota or Wisconsin, maybe even Finland or North Karelia.

[dcarson]

Housekeeping covers basic cooking, sewing etc. So that instead of the seperate skills might be more useful.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by fritzbc

I suppose survival in Oregon would be rather simple. Now try rural North Dakota or Wisconsin, maybe even Finland or North Karelia.

That would depend where in Oregon you are and when, because what might be a 'live for a few days while you walk back to civilisation' event today might well be a 'fend for yourself for months or more' a couple of centuries ago.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by fritzbc

Now, do you think you could make anything more than clay and thatch huts? Realistically, it wouldn’t be easy, especially with a lack of nails, spending time to make dowels would slow down the process a decent bit.

At TL2, a wattle-and-daub-walled house with a thatched roof was pretty much state of the art technology and probably the most complex structure you could build using Carpentry skill alone.

Wooden "treenails" were pretty much the norm at TL2. If you have access to reasonably straight saplings, you don't need to whittle or turn dowels.

Someone living solo in the wilderness with just a few months before Autumn would do better to create a small, weatherproof shelter like an improved lean-to, however, and spend the bulk of their time foraging and preserving food.

Access to a reliable, clean, defensible water source and a defensible, windproof, waterproof shelter are the first priorities, however.

Machinist/TL0, as others have mentioned, is also a handy skill, since it covers things like flint, horn and bone-working. Since metal is going to be scarce and you lack the tools, forge and fuel to do metalworking, it will be hard to keep TL2 hardened bronze or copper or unalloyed iron tools in good condition. That makes stone and bone tools a more available option.

Masonry is also a potentially useful skill if you have access to clay and the ability to make mud bricks. Do like the Anasazi did and build a mud brick building under a rock outcropping.

[fritzbc]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

At TL2, a wattle-and-daub-walled house with a thatched roof was pretty much state of the art technology and probably the most complex structure you could build using Carpentry skill alone.

Carpentry was to build proper utensils, tool handles, "proper" furniture, etc. A proper home was never the goal.

[Donny Brook]

Assuming that you're staying in the wilderness:
Survival [8]
Area Knowledge [4]
Carpentry [4]
Fishing [4]
Cooking [4]
Sewing [4]
Knife [4]
Stealth [4]
Machinist [4]
Tracking [4]
Traps [4]
Spear Throwing (Atlatl) [4)
Spear [4]
Climbing [4]