I break down more skills into CASCADES to take into account some of your list Raelius. For example:
CONSTRUCTION (cascade skill)
- Welding & Metal Fabrication
- Carpentry & Wood Working
- Plumbing & Hydraulics
- Electrical & HVAC
- Concrete Finishing & Bricklaying
PRIMITIVE TRADES (cascade skill)
- Tanning & Leather Working
- Forging & Smithing
- Weaving & Sewing
- Pottery and Sculpting
- Food Preservation & Brewing
I also include QUALIFICATIONS from TW2K13 as a "Skill within a Skill" to address specialty skills (like Hacking as a Qualification of Computer Skill and Rebreather as a Qualification of Scuba skill). This allows the inclusion of specialty skills under the more general skills listed in the game.
Some Skills are very easy to learn. If you use the RUTH STOUT method of gardening, you can grow food almost effortlessly. I've used it for years to great success.
https://youtu.be/bfi-n0Oq38E
Tanning animal hides is another skill that is easy to learn IF you have someone to show you how to do it (I NEED to thank my Amish neighbors for the skills they have taught me). EVERY animal has enough Tannic Acid in their own brain to tan their own skin (even us Humans).
- After carefully skinning the animal and scraping off ALL the excess fat and meat from the hide, you soak the hide for 24 hours in a container with enough water to submerge the hide. In this water, you will have stirred in the animal's ground up brain (to harness the Tannic Acid) and a small amount of vinegar to leven the reaction that will occur.
- You will then remove the hide from the solution and stretch it TAUNT over a framework that supports it. You may need to scape the hide again to get rid of fat that "renders" out from the soaking. BEFORE the hide drys, stretch it over a LOW HEAT fire made from HARDWOOD. The goal here is to provide a uniform low heat (around 200F) with LOTS of SMOKE (as though you were smoking meat). You will keep the hide stretched over this fire for at least 24 hours but potentially as long as THREE days. The hide should be about a foot above the flame. You want the hide to dry SLOWLY while absorbing the smoke from the hardwood to complete the Tanning process.
- After the hide has dried (it will change color slightly) and smoked, you can remove your now-tanned hide from the rack it is stretched over. I treat my skins with neat's foot oil but some people wax them or just leave them "raw."
Welcome to Basic Tanning 101
