Hunting
Hunting has two distinct mechanics. It can be used as a gathering skill, or it can be used for tracking others. While the mechanics are different, they are fundamentally tied — meaning, you cannot do one without the other.
Hunting as gathering
Hunting as a gathering skill requires a weapon of T1 or greater to perform. Each hunting roll is versus environment, & each roll is 1 daily task for hunting.
The Baseline difficulty for hunting is 30 in and around any town. For every 5 miles outside that town, the difficulty will lower by 5, to a minimum of 5. Spending a few days to travel with an empty cart can bring in large hauls of food & cloth fragments. You’ll likely run out of space before you run out of animals to hunt.
- 5 miles outside a town, you have TN: 25.
- 10 miles out is TN: 20.
- 15 miles out is TN: 15
- 20 miles out is TN: 10
- 25+ miles out is TN: 5.
These are baseline numbers, & GM may adjust that number based on any number of factors, including other hunters that went through that area previously (hunting near roads will often have higher difficulty from previous travelers).
Each day there is a successful hunt, for each “Zone” (1000 tiles by 1000 tiles), the difficulty within that Zone increases by 1. “Zone” is also referred to as a “square mile”.
Each year (at spring) the difficulty of every zone reduces by 1, until they return to baseline. This means that hunting a zone too much will cause it to take many years for that zone to regenerate.
Hunting is performed as a roll of: Hunting skill + Presence + 1d20 vs [that Zone’s difficulty value].
For each number rolled over the target number the hunter gains 5 days of food for 1 person, 1 unit of “Animal Fat” (see “Cooking”), 1 “Bone Shard” (see “Bowyer”), & 4 cloth fragments (see “Tailor”).
If a hunting roll exceeds 30 (regardless of that Zone’s difficulty value), it may become an encounter (at GM’s discretion). This may allow for food, cloth fragments, experience, or other possible loot for the hunter & his party.
Toolkit & workshop bonuses are not available for this skill at this time.
Hunting as tracking
When used to track (no gear requirements): it is a contested roll of: [Hunting skill+ Presence + 1d20 vs the opponent’s Hunting skill + Presence + 1d20] for each day you follow the target (character or animal). It is a simple “Pass or Fail” roll. For every day the target is ahead, the hunter will roll to follow behind. If they lose the target, they may attempt to spend another Daily Task to try to find the trail of their target again.
Narrative effects may effect tracking. For example, the GM may pad a bonus to your target to make it harder to track them if it’s raining. Or the GM may give a +2 to the defender for each day the trail goes cold setting soft time limits to encourage realism. As all terrains of a world can be wildly dynamic, there is no reasonable way for a hard rule to be in place for this skill. But if your target got away yesterday, unless they are a skilled hunter themself, the number should be pretty close to the normal contested skill check with no narrative bonuses in most situations.
Tracking usually ends after the target remains in 1 location long enough to catch up. But for fast moving groups, such as those that forfeit their 2nd Daily Task to travel twice each day, they may catch up sooner than later. It greatly depends on the pace set by the target trying to escape, & when they feel like they’ve gone far enough to be safe. GM may force their NPC to camp for a while to resupply if they are traveling with low food supplies, or have them forage each day slowing their own escape. They cannot spend both tasks to travel indefinitely unless they have infinite food.