Codex HOW TO PLAY Hunting & Fishing

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Hunting & Fishing

Meat, hide, bone and fat — most of what feeds and clothes a camp walks on four legs or swims. See BEASTS for each creature and what it gives.

STALKING PREY

  • Prey watches what lies ahead of it. Come within 7 m of its front and it bolts, and every beast of its kind nearby runs with it. Come at it from behind and you can walk right up. Crouch and it notices you only at about half that range; with the Prowler and Shadow skills, closer still.
  • Strike one and every beast within 25 m scatters, whatever its kind. A scattered herd settles in about 30 seconds.
  • A gunshot, or a crossbow's snap, frightens game 30 m off and calls every hostile in earshot. A bow kills quietly.
  • Predators are another matter: they hunt you, and they hunt the prey too. Against them, crouching, the dark, foul weather and coming from behind all shorten how far off they notice you.

THE KILL

  • A Hunting Bow (2 Wood Sticks, 3 Leather Strips) reaches what you cannot catch. Arrows are made five at a time from Feathers and Wood Sticks, and a Swamper's carcass is thick with Feathers. Stand still to loose.
  • An arrow that misses, or sticks in a beast, lies for a minute. Walk up to it without aiming and press E to take it back. A tipped arrow comes back plain; a Fire Arrow burns away.
  • Spears and knives do the work up close, and a thrown spear hits twice as hard (see COMBAT & DANGER).
  • A Bear Trap snaps on beast and man alike. It does not hold its catch, but a beast with a broken leg can only hobble.

BUTCHERING

Aim near a dead beast and press R. Any blade in your pack will do, even a Sharp Stone, and each carcass dulls it a little; bare hands will not. You kneel to the work for a few seconds, and whatever your pack cannot hold falls in a bag at your feet. In a fight R is a kick, so finish the fight first.

A Bushcrafter takes half again as much from every carcass and a Tracker a quarter more; with both, nearly double. Now and then a beast gives up a trophy — a Wolf Head, Lion Head, Raptor Skull or Bull Skull — that a Bushcrafter can work into a headdress or mask. A carcass lies for five minutes, and for as long as you stay beside it. A Hide cuts into three Leather Strips.

FISHING

  • The rod. An Angler makes a Fishing Rod from a Wood Stick, Wood Scraps and Wool String (CRAFT: EQUIPMENT). Every cast wears it a little.
  • Bait. Each cast costs a Worm or a Larva. Worms turn up when you break Clay deposits; Larva hide in Deadwood Piles.
  • The cast. Rod in hand, stand at the water's edge and aim at open water 6 to 15 m out. A white mark means a good cast; red means too near, too far, or water too small to hold fish — a puddle or a little pond holds none. Press Q to cast.
  • The bite comes in 10 to 30 seconds, sooner the sharper your PERCEPTION.
  • Reeling in. Fish swim across a bar: press SPACE as one passes between the brackets and the line comes 1 m closer; miss, and the fish pulls 1 m away. Bring it within 2 m and it is yours. Ten seconds without a good pull, or let it run past 15 m, and it gets away. An Angler's brackets are twice as wide. Q gives up the line.

THE TABLE

Raw Meat and Fish cost a little health eaten raw (Resilience spares you that). Roast them in a campfire's Cook slot, five seconds a piece. At a Cauldron a Cook makes Stew from meat, Animal Fat and Bitterleaf, Fish Soup from fish and oysters, and renders fat down to Oil.

Every kill, every carcass butchered and every fish landed earns experience, and a predator counts for more than prey. Wild game costs you no karma, but a people's tame beasts are theirs: harm one on their land and they will remember it.