Woodcraft

You can't do without the Woodcraft skill in the wild. You won't know how to light a fire, set up camp in adverse conditions, track and hunt game, recognize which roots and berries are edible and above all how not to get lost and find the right way.

Woodcraft goes hand in hand with solitude, a bond with nature, life under the open sky and freedom. A good woodsman doesn't feel comfortable when shut up in a city or in the company of too many people. On the contrary, he looks forward to every opportunity to set out into the wild, on a journey, on a hunt or just to escape the whirl of society.

What will you learn to do with Woodcraft?

Camping, lighting a fire

You can build a camp in the wild and light a fire. Roll the skill in difficult conditions - spending the night in a storm, lighting a fire without a flint and so on.

Knowledge of environment

If you get into a new environment, you have to get used to it. This takes about half a year, and in addition you must raise Woodcraft at least 2x in this environment. To start with, you know well one environment, the one where you learned Woodcraft.

Without this knowledge you cannot recognize animals well or gather food, and in general you find your way worse in such an environment and have a penalty of -5 (in some cases even -10).

Typical environments are:

— temperate (plains, meadows, steppes)

— deserts

— forests

— jungles

— mountains

— swamps

Tracking

You can track and recognize animal tracks. Success depends on the type of terrain, the number of creatures in the group and your experience in Woodcraft.

You can track even without knowledge of the environment.

Recognizing an animal

You can recognize an animal, its approximate stats and habits at a glance. It is a roll:

Knowledge of Animals

You can recognize an animal (its approximate stats and habits) at a glance. It is a roll:

With a total success you learn all of the animal's stats.

* You can try to guess what the animal is thinking or what it intends to do.

Hunting

You can use tracking to obtain food - hunting. It takes about 8 hours and its success depends, besides the conditions (season, terrain), on your Woodcraft and the weapons you use (bows, throwing weapons) or your skill at setting traps. While hunting you may encounter predatory animals (such an encounter is resolved with the combat system).

Finding prey

The GM rolls too, and even with two dice (as do you). This expresses luck and chance, two different activities - Woodcraft and Stealth.

The species of animal (size) and the number of head are determined by the GM (at the start of the hunt you can decide whether you will focus more on large or small animals).

On a success you get to about 50 m from the prey, on a total success to 10 m, or you find a whole herd (or the animal you chose ).

Approach

If you have found prey, you can try to get closer. Remember that game has very sharp senses and it is not easy to get too close to it:

The kill

The kill itself depends on your shooting or throwing abilities (you will only rarely get within reach of melee weapons, for example if someone drives the game toward you).

Hunting with traps

If you hunt game with traps, you must first set them.

Set traps yield a catch within a day; the next roll with the same traps is only after a week.

What matters is the area over which you set them. We assume the basic extent of the traps is medium (this affects the setting time and the cost of the traps).

Then also what traps you set (small / medium / large).

Resolve it the next day, then after a week and then after a month.

Small animals

On a success you catch as many small animals (hares, rabbits, squirrels) as the number by which you beat the difficulty (each provides one ration of food).

Medium animals

On a success you catch one medium animal (roe buck, stag, boar), which provides 1d6 x 10 rations of food. For every 5 points of extra success, another animal is caught in your traps (i.e. if you beat it by 10, you catch 3 animals).

Large animals

Trapping large animals is the hardest, but it can be very profitable. On a success you catch one large animal (bear), which provides 1d6 x 100 rations of food. For every 10 points of extra success, another animal is caught in your traps (i.e. if you beat it by 20 you catch 3 animals).

Simplified hunting

You can also handle hunting in a simplified way - the player rolls only Woodcraft + 1d6 and the GM decides whether the character can feed themselves or not (or how many other people they can feed) - taking into account their weapons / traps and the abundance of prey.

Foraging

If you don't have a ranged weapon, can't set traps or there isn't enough game in the area, you can gather natural food - roots, berries, wild fruit and the like. The quality of such food is nothing special, but at least you won't starve. Foraging takes about 8 hours.

As usual, the GM sets modifiers according to the situation (in winter searching is almost impossible, in an abundant forest in autumn it is easier).

Cooking

To survive in the wild, you learn to cook. At first you will be able to roast meat over a fire or cook porridge. As your knowledge grows, you will learn to cook better.

Orientation

A good woodsman won't get lost even in a dense forest or confusing terrain. In open surroundings you succeed automatically (it is enough that you know Woodcraft); in confusing terrain the GM may ask you to roll for orientation.

Woodsman's signs

In the forest you can leave signs with a short message for your friends. Their meaning will be understood only by those you have familiarized with them in advance (the character must have Woodcraft opened).