Survival
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Tiered Action — Wisdom
The Survival skill allows characters to operate and survive in the wilderness.
Contents
Specific Uses
Sustenance
This action is used to gather food and supplies and find shelter.
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For every 5 points that a character exceeds the DC, the time is cut by a quarter. Obviously some conditions, such as a large freshwater river or the presence of snow will make a check to find water unnecessary.
Failure to find or create potable water in cases where water is plentiful (i.e. not the desert) can cause Disease by drinking impure water.
Starting a fire requires necessary tools. If no such tools are available, the DC goes up and it takes twice as long.
| Situation | DC mod |
|---|---|
| Dense terrain (jungle) | + 5 |
| Rough terrain (mountains) | + 5 |
This action is used to move through wilderness.
If a character's check to determine direction of travel fail by more than 5, the character selects the wrong direction and becomes lost. Every hour, the character may make a DC 25 survival check to realize that he is lost, allowing him to reassess his direction
| Action | DC |
|---|---|
| Determine Direction of travel | 20 |
| Move at 1/4 Overland Speed | 15 |
| - 1/2 overland speed | 20 |
| - 3/4 overland speed | 25 |
| - full overland speed | 30 |
Tracking
| Situation | Check Mod |
|---|---|
| Terrain is soft (mud, snow) | +5 |
| -- Terrain is spongy (moss, leaves)) | -- |
| -- Terrain is firm (dirt, grass) | -5 |
| -- Terrain is hard (rock, wood) | -10 |
| Every day since the trail was made | -2 |
| -- Every hour of rain | -2 |
| -- Every hour of snow | -5 |
| Every additional character beyond 1 | +1 |
| -- Every horse/pack animal in the group | +2 |
| -- Characters hide their tracks | -5 |
This action is used for tracking characters or groups of characters. The tracker rolls a Survival Check, applies the modifiers to the right, and compares the resulting value to the table below to determine how much information the tracker learns of his quarry.
A character can only move at one-half of what his speed would otherwise be while tracking.
If a character or a group of characters wish to hide their tracks while moving, they may only move at one-half of what their speed would otherwise be. One person makes a general Survival check. Each point by which this check beats a DC of 20 gives the tracker a -1 penalty to his Survival(Track) check.
| Result | Knowledge Gained |
|---|---|
| 20 | Direction of travel |
| 25 | Within 1d4 of the number of characters in the group |
| 30 | The actions of the characters with their movement |
| 35 | Whether or not any of the characters are injured |
| 45+ | Specific details about one or more of the characters |
Skill Tiers
This skill starts at Tier Zero. The upgrade cost of skill tiers is 2 + (Current Skill Tier x2) Upgrade Points.
Tier One
A character with Tier One Survival gains a +2 bonus to Awareness and Stealth checks made in the wilderness.
For every additional Survival tier, the bonus increases by +2.
Tier Two
A character with Tier Two Survival can track at up to his full overland speed.
Tier Three
A character with Tier Three Survival gains a +4 bonus to his Combat Ability while in the wilderness. This bonus can be applied towards any facet of his Combat Ability, in whole or in part.
Limerick
Survival is always quite hard,
You must honestly be on your guard,
And that's why for me,
The sole way to be,
Is a Ranger, and never a Bard.
