Beginner’s Guide – New Game+

Creation of a balanced party is key to success. Whenever possible, the group should work together at character creation. Overlapping skills rarely have much use if the group finds themselves reliant on each other for survival. By default, the character with the highest level in any skill will likely be the only one performing that task. Meanwhile the other character would likely be delegated to other work with their limited “Daily Tasks” they have available.

Picking races can be very impactful on how the character will be played. Large races have higher daily food requirements & equipment costs, but will dominate in battle. For first time groups, it is probably best practice to choose from the medium races. But having 1-2 small characters will offset the food needs of some large races. Extra Large races require much more coordination, & depending on the environment you are dropped into, could become a liability to the group quite quickly.

Advice on Stats

This game has no dump stats. While bullet pointing a character will make them much more effective in a role, it will leave gaps in their defenses tactically. Taking a zero in a stat is legal, but highly unadvised.

A zero in Body would limit daily travel for the whole group, lock a character at 20HP, disallow cloaks, armor & shields, & would limit weapons to only Unarmed, crossbows, & firearms.
A zero in Mind would disallow all skill points, & would lock a character at 20MP.
A zero in Reflex would have much lower chances of success in dealing damage in combat, & much higher chances of receiving damage when attacked.
A zero in Presence would get back-stabbed constantly in battle, & would get wrecked by traps.

If you coordinate as a group, you can easily get away with having a couple characters that compliment each other by filling in gaps to allow bullet-pointing. But if the tank decides to frell off to Narnia – that squishy, low armor, low Reflex, high Presence, high stealth, bow user is going to get rocked.

Advice on Skills

Some skills won’t help you much in the wilderness. You’re group isn’t likely to stay in town forever (assuming your GM even starts you near a town). Highly important skills for a group of adventurers get lost in the large list of skills available to take. If survival is key, then these are good starting skills for a group to spread out. Remember the “Daily Task” limit is 2 each day. So you would be doing a disservice to your group if you try to lump them all onto one character.

Bushcraft – All the things you need to survive, even if you have nothing. I would recommend having a skill level at least as high as the number of characters in your group.
Woodworks, Metalworks, & Tailor – These skills can craft several objects & are prerequisite skills for more advanced crafting skills. It is important that a group has at least a 1 in each of these skills for repairs & material recycling. Remember that you need a high level in Metalworks to create high Tier crafting materials. Wood is simpler, as it has no Tier values. Cloth adopts the Tier value assigned at their creation by a Tailor. Each Tier requires higher Tailor levels & slightly more Cloth Fragments to create.
Mining, & Logging – Logging, & Mining allow gathering of wood & ores with zero skill. However, the rates are drastically faster with more skill points assigned. If you don’t want to slowly gather Beams & Ores, you can assign a few points to these skills, or you can just recycle loot.
Cooking – Food expires very quickly. Unless you want your group to be permanently living a “hand to mouth” lifestyle, they will need this skill at 1 or higher. Eos has long winters. Narratively, most of the food sources will be harder to obtain for several months each year. If your food expired after a week, you won’t survive another 3 months of snow unless you get incredibly clever or lucky. While Bushcraft can gather food as part of their tasks, even in snow, it would be an uphill battle. Especially once the Environmental damage from the cold exceeds their clothing bonuses & they start taking damage for each hour they are exposed.
Farming, Hunting, Traps, Bushcraft, & Fishing – Each of these skills will help gather food. Each has their own benefits to a group. Even if a character in the group has a high Bushcraft skill, it would be greatly beneficial for any group to have at least one of the other food gathering skills. Farming takes a month to produce anything. It’s good, but requires group consensus to remain locked in one zone.
Armorsmith – Looted armor must be fitted. The required skill level to refit armor to another character is equal to the Tier value of the armor. Additionally, the Armorsmith can create new armor once they have the time, tools, & resources.
Bowyer, Weaponsmith, & Crossbow Smith – These skills allow you to make decent weapons. You don’t need them all, but having at least one at a moderate level would be nice.

Advice to Survive

Worst case game loop. If your GM drops you in the middle of nowhere with no gear or supplies. This may be the start of the game, or a shipwreck late in a campaign, or a banishment from a kingdom after arrest. However you got to this point, we want to make the best of our time to survive.

Find or create shelter – It halves damage from the elements. If it gets cold overnight, your characters will start their day with less HP. If it is cold enough, they’ll just die.
Fire – if used with shelter, it will negate all cold damage while inside. More critical in colder environments or seasons. If it’s warm, fire can go lower on the list, but you’ll still need it from time to time.
Secure food – Several skills can gather food. Many of them require tools to do so.
Craft Crude Toolkits – A spear for your hunter, a trap toolkit for your trapper, a net for your fisher. The Bushcraft-skilled survivor in your group must work overtime. After food is more secure, they will spend more time crafting some Toolkits for the characters that can gather resources or craft items.
Cloaks – Cloaks can be made by a character with Bushcraft. If you have a hunter or trapper, they can gather cloth fragments fairly quickly. If you have a Tailor, they can craft Tier 1+ Clothing, which has no Body stat requirement. Make enough coverings for the characters to survive & preferably be able to work outside without taking too much damage.
Find a mine – These ores will be used to craft Basic Toolkits, weapons & armor.
Craft Basic Toolkits – Basic Toolkits require at least level 2 in Metalworks. These tools drastically cut down the time needed to craft items. Gathering skills get huge bonuses from better tools. Basic tools take a while to craft, so set up a priority order for the environment your in.
Craft gear – Balance your time. Starting with a bunch of Tier 2-4 gear will greatly swing battle, & not cost months to produce. After everyone is initially geared, start churning better gear in the background for each character.
Craft containers – If you want to be on the move, high level backpacks & pouches will allow you to keep enough on you to survive & travel. If anyone uses projectile weapons (bow, crossbow), it would be good to get them a pouch for ammunition so they don’t have to waste actions pulling them from their backpack.
Settle in or get moving – Use Woodworks to craft more permanent structures… Establish Farming… Build Workshops… let time slide by as your character ages in the vast wilderness or desert isle. Or, high tail it out of there. Vehicles are useful. The “Skids” from Bushcraft are better than nothing. Much of the finishing touches to gear can be made while traveling. Besides. There’s interesting things to do out there.