Survival
Use: Unskilled use penalized. Macro skill.
Sample specializations: Specific type of terrain or climate (desert, forest, arctic, mountains, urban, etc.)
Survival is the ability to find shelter, procure food, water and other supplies, and avoid natural dangers such as disease, sunstroke, quicksand or other environmental hazards exclusive of creature encounters.
Each general type of wilderness environment has a difficulty number listed on the chart below. The first day a character spends in the hostile environment, she makes a survival skill check. If she succeeds, the result points earned indicate the number of days she can remain in the environment before making another such check. Characters who fail a survival check must make another survival check the day after their failure.
Failing a survival skill check means the character does not find adequate shelter, food or stumbles into some kind of dangerous situation. This can either be roleplayed, such as finding a way to escape from a patch of quicksand, or the gamemaster can assess an appropriate amount of damage to the character that cannot be healed until a successful survival check is made or the character returns to “civilization”.
SURVIVAL CHART
Wilderness type Difficulty
Easy environment (woods, grasslands) 3
Moderate environment (aquatic, swamps) 5
Moderately difficult (mountains, ghost town) 8
Difficult environment (high mountains) 10
Barren environment (desert) 12
Inhospitable environment (tundra) 13
Hostile environment (arctic) 15