Survival

The Survival skill is a Core skill every character receives in their starting package. A character’s Survival skill represents their general ability to provide for their basic needs in unforgiving environments. Characters with a high Survival skill typically are independant foragers with keen tracking senses and good navigational skills.

Survival covers several activities such as: trapping, tracking, foraging, and navigation. Survival does not include hunting as hunting would be determined by the weapon skill of choice (e.x. Bow: Traditional). Survival also only encompasses gathering food and water by various means, making a fire, and navigating the landscape so you don’t get lost. Survival tactics specific to certain biomes like making biome-appropriate shelters, avoiding local hostile fauna, or adapting to the specific difficulties of a biome, like extreme cold or hot, fall under the Wilderness Survival skill. 

Skill Levels

Apprentice 1-25

An Apprentice’s general survival instincts are pretty dull at the lower levels. Not everyone knows how to successfully light a fire without the use of special tools or whether any water they find is safe to drink from. Even as an advanced Apprentice, a character almost solely depends on getting water from bodies of water (lakes or rivers) and starting a fire with wood. Their sense of direction can be rather poor until becoming an advanced Apprentice, not knowing how to tell north from south, etc. without the use of significant landmarks. When attempting to gather food they are only able to find scraps or small amounts of food that still leaves them very hungry instead of starving. But the food they gather can leave them feeling very sick. Tracking is limited to following very noticeable signs (i.e. bear tracks in the mud). Trapping is hard as they do not understand yet where the best location for a trap may be or what type of trap works best. An apprentice is able to find and/or establish shelter that only protects them from the sun and not any other weather/environmental hazards.

Journeyman 26-50

Finding drinkable water is no longer as challenging as it used to be, as the survivalist knows how to take advantage of collecting rainwater with man-made receptacles. Gathering food that doesn’t make the survivalist sick happens more regularly, but it can still require most of their available day to collect it all. Resources needed to build a fire are no longer difficult to find, and starting a fire without specialized tools is not difficult in ideal conditions. With a minute or two of consideration, the survivalist is able to discern which direction is north in case they get lost. Losing their sense of direction occurs rarely in an area they have spent a lot of time in but is not uncommon when in an area they visit infrequently. The survivalist’s tracking abilities are able to see and follow footprints on normal ground, and see signs of broken branches of bushes or snapped twigs. Traps made at this level have some success at capturing small fauna (i.e. rabbits and lizards) with basic traps.

Expert 51-75

An Expert survivalist knows how to gather rainwater from environmentally made rain-catchers, and knows where to gather sufficient food for the day. Gathering ample supplies for fire and lighting it, even in difficult conditions (i.e. heavy rainfall, wet wood, etc.), are within the survivalist’s abilities. Distinguishing all four directions without the use of landmarks can be done in just a moment, and they can even tell exactly how much daylight is left in the day with a quick examination of the sun’s position. They can track a person or creature with the use of small signs that many people may overlook (i.e. a single leaf that’s been stepped on, a small scrape mark on a tree’s bark, etc.). Traps they make are able to capture fauna up to a deer-sized creature, but not elk or larger. 

Master 76-100

Master survivalists know how to find water, even if it is a couple of feet below the surface. Gathering non-sickening food requires very little time. Their sense of direction is so precise that they can tell north, south, east, and west at night without relying on star locations (as that would fall under Astronomy). A Master survivalist is able to see tracking signs in the most unlikely places for a track to be left (i.e. a “footprint” on a solid rock surface). Their traps are now able to capture any fauna whose size is under that of a brown bear.