Survival skills (3e)

We are still playing in one 3e campaign and while we were out in the
wilderness failed a survival roll (against a 12 skill). Wow! That is
nasty. Every party member takes d6 damage. Thanks to some bad rolls
half our party was half dead.

Anyone ever come up with something better? This is just plain silly.
Someone with a 12 skill is good enough to get a job at something and
not lead people to their dooms like that. Is is quite possible to
actually knock someone out with two failed rolls and with a 12 skill
that will happen with some regularity.

On 27 Mar 2006 15:27:17 -0800, "WDS" <Bill DeleteThis @seurer.net> wrote:

>We are still playing in one 3e campaign and while we were out in the
>wilderness failed a survival roll (against a 12 skill). Wow! That is
>nasty. Every party member takes d6 damage. Thanks to some bad rolls
>half our party was half dead.

Presumably evening out the rolls is the reason why it is now 2d-4.
You might want to switch over to that.

>
>Anyone ever come up with something better? This is just plain silly.
>Someone with a 12 skill is good enough to get a job at something and
>not lead people to their dooms like that.

While 12 is good enough to get a job at something it isn't enough to
be particularly good at that job. However, it is worth remembering
that if you are carrying food, water and shelter there's very little
need to make Survival rolls on a daily basis until your supplies run
out. Also if you are in familiar territory (as a typical wilderness
guide would be), you'd get to make an Area Knowledge roll as well as a
Survival roll to know where food, water and shelter is. The Merry Men
pastiche I came up with actually have very little in the way of
Survival skill. They just know which bushes have edible berries,
where all the creeks are, and how to find their way to their huts.
They'd be screwed if they left their particular forest though.