Hunting, Fishing & Gathering

Often times a player will state that their character is going to hunt for dinner for the rest of the group. As GM it is up to you to decide the outcome of this expedition, these rules are an attempt to provide a coherent framework for GM's faced with this situation.

Food Requirements

Without going into excessive detail about caloric content, an average human requires the following amounts of food per day to remain healthy and in optimum condition.

Wild food 6.5 lbs.

20th Century processed food 4.5 lbs.

This takes into account the additional nutritional elements in modern processed food, it is not meant to mean that 4.5 pounds of Twinkies are the nutritional equivalent of 6.5 pounds of meat and vegetables. It does mean that 4.5 pounds of nutritionally enhanced modern food will sustain a person as well as 6.5 pounds of the same meat and vegetables. The GM should be the final arbiter as always on whether something counts as "processed".

The effects of not getting enough food to sustain you vary with the degree of starvation you are experiencing.

Less than required but at least half; One point of Long Term Fatigue (LTF), which lasts until you have had full rations for as many days as you were on half rations, (maximum 10 days).

Less than half the requirement; One LTF per day of less than half rations, until Fatigue reaches 3, at which time Hit Points is lost at the same rate. All LTF but the last point is regained for each day at half rations or better, the last point is regained after having full rations for a number of days equal to those spent starving. Health lost from starvation is regained normally once at least half rations are available. Characters that have their Hit Points fall below 1 due to starvation do not have to roll to remain conscious each round, rather they have to make WILL rolls, to initiate any physical action. Each round the character must make a roll to continue the action, failure means that the character has not been able to continue, and may attempt again next round. If a character falls to negative Hit Points x1 they must make a HT roll to avoid death as normal.

 

Hunting

Hunting can be handled two different ways. The detailed way requires a Tracking roll to find an animal's tracks, a Vision or Hearing roll to notice when you approach it, a Stealth roll to avoid spooking it, and finally a weapon roll to bring the animal down. A simpler way is to average the above four rolls into a "hunting" score, which must be made to come up with the game. Using this method a character with Tracking 12, Vision of 10, Stealth of 14, and Bow at 9 would have a "hunting" score of 11. The first method should only be used when the hunt is a part of the adventure, rather than a declaration that the party's guide will hunt for dinner.

The following table will give a good idea of how much meat an animal will provide. Simply multiply the weight of the animal by the amount shown.

Food Provided Table

Deer & Horses Weight x 0.25
Bovines Weight x 0.40
Predators Weight x 0.20
Small Game Weight x 0.25
Fowl Weight x 0.20

Examples

Animal Average Weight Food Provided Animal Average Weight Food Provided
 Cow 1,150 lbs  460 lbs  Beaver  55 lbs  14 lbs 
 Calf  350 lbs  140 lbs  Goose  5 lbs  1 lb
 Mule Deer  225 lbs  56 lbs  Grouse  1 lb  0.2 lb
 Brown Bear  700 lbs  140 lbs  Caribou  350 lbs  88 lbs
 Bison  1,500 lbs  600 lbs  Harbor Seal  180 lbs  45 lbs
 Rabbit  6 lbs  1.5 lbs  Moose  1,300 lbs  325 lbs

 

Fishing

A 4-hour period is required to catch the following amount of fish. The weight of fish caught is multiplied by the amount that the Fishing roll succeeds by. Fishing is -2 if using inadequate equipment (string and safety pin). The amount is doubled if a net is being used from a boat, either at sea or in a large lake. A failed roll halves the weight caught for each point the roll was missed by.

Ex; While fishing during the spring a Fishing roll that was missed by 1 would still provide about 2.2 lbs. of fish.

Fishing Table

Season  Winter   Spring  Summer  Fall
 Fish x (Skill - roll)  1 lb 4.5 lbs   2 lbs  2 lbs

 

Foraging

Foraging takes approximately 4 hours and will cover an area of about 1 square kilometer and will usually forage the area out. Having more than one person can reduce the time spent foraging, but will not increase the amount of food. If desired, the GM can pro rate the time to account for hurried foraging. Foraging can be attempted using Naturalist, Panhandling or an applicable Survival skill. Simply determine the amount the roll was made by (or failed) and finding the proper multiplier, then apply that multiplier to the amount shown on the appropriate terrain and season. Note that the Urban heading gives the same amount all year long, because of the availability of discarded food. The result could also represent several hours of panhandling or even shoplifting something to eat.

Foraging Table

 Terrain  Winter  Spring  Summer  Fall
 Woods/ Scrub 2 lbs  6.5 lbs  13 lbs  13 lbs 
 Meadow/ Swamp  0  2 lbs  4.5 lbs  4.5 lbs
 Field  0  0  55 lbs (grain)  110 lbs (grain)
 Urban  4 lbs  4 lbs  4 lbs  4 lbs

Foraging Modifiers

 Foraging Roll  Forage Multiplier
 Critical Success x 3 
 Succeeded by 7-9 x 2 
 Succeeded by 5-6  x 1.5
 Succeeded by 3-4  x 1.25
 Succeeded by 1-2  x 1.1
 Succeeded exactly  x 1
 Failed by 1  x 1/2
 Failed by 2-3  x 1/4
 Failed by 4-5  x 1/10

Back