Cambridge University Treasure Trap

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Wilderness Skills

Scout

Wilderness skills are most often taken by Scout or Ranger style characters. These characters will have spent a long time out of contact with 'normal' civilisation and will often be more at home in the fens or woods, away from large cities.

Wilderness skills available are:

Agility (5xp) [Wilderness n/Subterfuge n]
Provides a point of DAC for each four ranks posessed.
Camouflage (6xp) [Wilderness n]
Grants the ability to hide in terrain features.
Fitness (6xp) [Wilderness n/Warrior n]
Grants more hits with Health and Fortitude.
Fur and Leather Hardening (10xp) [Wilderness III]
Allows a character to enhance their armour.
Light Armour (3xp) [Wilderness n/Subterfuge n]
Grants the ability to wear more armour.
Recognise Scent (1xp) [Wilderness n]
Grants the ability to recognise the smells of specific races.
Targeteer (4xp) [Wilderness n]
Grants a character progressively better skills with ranged weapons.
Thrown Competency (5xp) [Wilderness I/Warrior I/Subterfuge I]
Grants the ability to throw weapons for singles.
Track (6xp) [Wilderness 2n]
Grants the ability to find, read, and follow tracks.
Weapon Competency (6xp) [Wilderness n]
Grants the ability to use basic weapons.
Wilderness (15xp)
Grants a character access to skills in the wilderness tree, and basic survival skills.

The following lists the wilderness skills in detail.

Wilderness (15xp)

The character is used to the outdoor life. This skill may be taken multiple times to reflect greater experience of the wilderness, and is a prerequisite for all other wilderness skills.

At certain levels of wilderness, you gain various outdoor survival skills automatically. These all used to be seperate skills.

  • Level 1: The ability to find north and tell the time of day (sun and star lore).
  • Level 1: The ability to tie secure knots that are difficult to break (knot tying).
  • Level 1: The ability to light fires from things you would find in a forest (firelighting).
  • Level 3: The ability to take less damage from falling (relaxed fall).
  • Level 4: The ability to forage for food (find food and water).
  • Level 5: The ability to create or disarm snares and pits for wildlife (devise and disarm traps).
  • Level 6: The ability to climb nearly any surface (spider climb).
  • Level 8: The ability to communicate with animals for basic information (communicate with animals).

These abilities have little effect in actual play, but represent an increasing amount of skill in scouting that allows the character to better scout out areas in downtime.

Where we have skills that require "Wilderness of equal level", you are required to purchase all levels of that skill, with the Wilderness giving you an upper limit of the number of levels you may have.

Agility (5xp) [Requires Subterfuge or Wilderness of equal level] info

The character grows more agile and flexible, able to dodge or roll with a blow in order to avoid damage. If you have N points of DAC, you have the option of calling NEGATE to any of the first N blows you take from a melee weapon in combat. You cannot exercise this option if you are halted or frozen, or if the damage call from that weapon includes THROUGH or VENOM.

For every 4 ranks a character possesses in this skill they gain 1 point of dexterity armour (DAC). This ability is cancelled when wearing any armour that is Level 3 or greater (anything more than heavy/studded leather). This skill may be taken multiple times. You may not buy two levels of Combat Awareness and two levels of Agility to gain a point of DAC, but they will stack if you have four levels of both to give two points of DAC.

Recognise Scent (1xp) [Requires Wilderness of equal level]

The character has an acute sense of smell and familiarity with the scent of a particular race. This is a family of skill trees, one for each race of interest. You may only buy this skill for a particular race if you have had some exposure to a member of that race. For example, a character who's met nightmares, humans and bunny rabbits may buy Recognise Scent Nightmare I, Recognise Scent Human I, and Recognise Scent Bunny I in the same level without double-buying penalties. They would pay double-buying penalties if they bought Recognise Scent Human I and Recognise Scent Human II in the same level, and they would not be able to buy Recognise Scent Undead at all before they encountered some undead.

The first level of this skill allows the character to call DETECT (race) on one individual if within close range of them (about 1m). The second level of this skill allows the character to call WIDE DETECT (race) for the given race.

Light Armour (3xp) [Requires Subterfuge or Wilderness of equal level]

Each level of Light Armour taken allows the character to wear an additional 2 points' worth of armour. Will not stack with Armour skill. May be taken multiple times.

Camouflage (6xp) [Requires Wilderness of equal level]

A character with levels of this skill is able to conceal themselves in natural surroundings. This is not magical - you need suitable cover to make use of this skill. Suitable cover includes bushes, trees, long grass and similar. Unless these rules state otherwise, you may take no action while stealthed. Coming out of stealth takes five seconds, during which you are crawling out of your hiding place. You are visible and vulnerable during this time, but may take no action.

  1. You can hide yourself within a terrain feature given suitable camouflage. You must go to the edge of the terrain feature, assume 'hidden' position and spend 60 seconds 'hiding yourself'; you are then hidden within the terrain feature and are invisible as per invisibility rules. Being watched while concealing yourself is not enough to prevent you hiding; any call other than Nothing will interrupt you, as per casting. A terrain feature is defined as an inanimate object or plant large enough to physically hide you.
  2. You may move slowly (i.e. not running) around the edge of (and through) this terrain feature up to the limits of physrepping. If you move more than a metre from the terrain feature this breaks invisibility. Two terrain features are considered separate features (and thus moving between them requires you making yourself visible while you hide yourself in the new one) if they are physically separated by more than a metre.
  3. It now only takes you 30 seconds to hide in a terrain feature.
  4. You may run while hidden in a terrain feature.
  5. It now only takes you 10 seconds to hide in a terrain feature.
  6. You may break camouflage instantly by making a melee attack.
  7. It now only takes you 3 seconds to hide in a terrain feature.
  8. You may break camouflage instantly by making a ranged attack.

Fur and Leather Hardening (10xp) [Requires Wilderness III]

The character can cure and harden one set of 1 or 2 point fur or leather armour, so that it counts as armour worth 1 more point for the purposes of protection. That is, any 1pt armour is counted as 2pt, and any 2pt armour is counted as 3pt. The armour must be continually maintained by the character to maintain its properties. The armour is considered to have its unmodified protection value for the purposes of calculating how much armour the character can wear (so a hardened fur vest will provide 2 points of armour, but count as 1 for working out how much armour you are wearing), and for the purposes of DAC skills.

Thrown Competency (5xp) [Requires Warrior I, Wilderness I or Subterfuge I]

You have learnt to improvise in your surroundings, and can use nearly anything as an effective offensive weapon. You can use larpsafe throwing weapons for SINGLE, if you hit.

Fitness (6xp) [Requires Warrior or Wilderness of equal level]

For every 4 levels of Health (see General Skills page), Fitness and Fortitude (in any combination) you gain 2 extra hit points on your chest and head, and 1 on each limb. This skill may be taken multiple times.

Targeteer (4xp) [Requires Wilderness of equal level]

You have received specialised training with ranged weapons. You gain the following abilities at the given level:

  1. Gains the ability to call SINGLE THROUGH with a bow or a crossbow.
  2. Gains the ability to call SINGLE STRIKEDOWN with a bow or crossbow.
  3. Gains the ability to call DOUBLE THROUGH with a bow or crossbow.
  4. Gains the ability to call DOUBLE STRIKEDOWN with a bow or crossbow.
  5. Gains the ability to call TRIPLE THROUGH with a bow or crossbow.
  6. Gains the ability to call TRIPLE STRIKEDOWN with a bow or crossbow.
  7. Gains the ability to call QUAD THROUGH with a bow or crossbow.
  8. Gains the ability to call QUAD STRIKEDOWN with a bow or crossbow.

If you wish to take the Targeteer skill, you must first pass an OOC safety test, as LARP bows are the most potentially dangerous of all the LARP weapons we use.

Weapon Competency (6xp) [Requires Wilderness of equal level]

A character with ranks in this skill has some familiarity with armed combat.

  1. Call SINGLE with one type of short (less than 36") weapon.
  2. Either call SINGLE with any type of short weapon, or call SINGLE by staff.
  3. The ability not granted at level 2.
  4. Wield two weapons at once, one in each hand, both 36" or shorter, for SINGLE with each.

Track (6xp) [Requires Wilderness of double level]

This skill may be taken multiple times. Each level enables you to do the following:

  1. You can track things that would normally leave tracks and are taking only moderate precautions against being tracked, in the wilderness only. You may not track competently in the city. You may conceal your tracks from anyone with Track I, 2nd level spells or below. You can recognise the method used to defeat your tracking if you cannot track something, unless Track II+ or equivalent is used to defeat your skill in which case you do not even see covered tracks. Can generally tell what kind of creature made a track even if you haven't seen them start making it.
  2. You can track things that would normally leave tracks and are taking only moderate or insufficiently trained precautions against being tracked, anywhere on the surface of the Material Plane. You may conceal your tracks from anyone with Track II, 4th level spells or below. You can recognise the method used to defeat your tracking if you cannot track something, unless Track III+ or equivalent is used to defeat your skill in which case you do not even see covered tracks. Can generally tell what person made a track as long as you have seen the person.
  3. You can track anything that is not capable of becoming incorporeal or teleporting and is taking only moderate or insufficiently trained precautions against being tracked, anywhere on the Material Plane. You may conceal your tracks from anyone with Track III, 6th level spells or below. You can recognise the method used to defeat your tracking if you cannot track something, unless Track IV or equivalent is used to defeat your skill in which case you do not even see covered tracks. Can generally tell what person made a track even if you haven't seen the start of it as long as you have a decent description of the person (including their footwear!) - by corollary, you get a decent description of the footwear of anyone you're tracking.
  4. You can track anything that exists, anywhere that you can follow - and if you can't follow, you know where they went. You may conceal your tracks such that nothing short of divine intervention or the direct action of an elemental lord can follow them. If you cannot track something, you will know what covered the tracks (and probably where it came from, and where it went). You get a reasonably good description of whatever you're tracking, and if you have a description or a scent you can identify a particular person's tracks.