Survival

[rafial]

At least two life paths (Forester and Dwarven Adventurer) list Survival as a training. However, in the skill writeup, it reads more like a regular skill, including "suggested FoRKS", although type is listed as "Forester Training".

So: is it a skill or a training these days?

[luke]

Survival is listed as a training, so it's a training.
But you are perceptive, sir. In the last days of development, the fate of Survival was bandied back and forth. I think at first it was a skill, then I was going to cut it from the list altogether. But then a Survival lobby group formed and we compromised on making it a training.

In its current state, preferrably you won't have to test for it. "Roll to see if you survive the night!" I'd rather use the default training mode: "Oh, you have Survival Training? You manage to build a shelter and find water. It's rough, but you pull through ok."

But if need be, you can test it; like Observation Training it is one of the few that can be actually tested and rolled (using the root stat, but at full dice, not half).

[rafial]

But then a Survival lobby group formed and we compromised on making it a training.

Yes, I admit to being a little puzzled at its presence, since its component parts are also found as real live skills in their own right: Firebuilding, Hunting, Foraging...

[luke]

yes, that's what i said. But then the powerful Survival Lobby group pointed out to me that wilderness survival encompasses much more than that. It includes: finding and/or building shelter, staying warm without fire, finding water, staying hydrated, staying cool in hot weather and a bunch of other incredibly important minor details that I can't remember.

Even I had to bow to the pressure of such a powerful lobby.

[rafial]

I can see the argument here... I just started reading "Years of Rice and Salt" (Kim Stanley Robinson), and it opens with a lone Mongol travelling through an Eastern Europe that has been utterly depopulated by plague. Even though he has a bow and can hunt and build fires, things get progressively worse for him as he tries to survive on his own.

BTW, so far its a really great book. :)