Survival skills

[Mohoender]

I just finish posting on the value of precious stones.

As a result, barter and negotiation are going to be very important skills.

[weswood]

Probably a lot of those kind of skills are covered by house rules. I would think an Animal Handling skill, specific to a chosen animal would cover things like care & feeding of farm animals to training a hunting dog.

I use tracking as a general catch all for hunting related skillsfrom finding the game to butchtering and hide tanning.

[Mohoender]

Could be but I would advise a GM to change that. Caring for a horse, raising a sheep or training a dog have nothing in common. Riding a horse and handling one is even absolutely different.

[Cdnwolf]

You forgot the most valuable resource of all.... BOOKS. All those skills are available in written form and once the end comes... imagine how valuable a copy of the SAS survival guide would be?

[Graebarde]

Originally Posted by Cdnwolf

You forgot the most valuable resource of all.... BOOKS. All those skills are available in written form and once the end comes... imagine how valuable a copy of the SAS survival guide would be?

YES!!! The saving of knowledge.
My very long list of books to have is lead by Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living (ECL), but John Seymour's books are close second. ECL is in it's umpteenth edition and the author died recently (last year or so), but IS chocked full of many many many good ideas and how to's of agriculture (for the US at least). Seymour's estate re-published one of his earlier books but it is NOT as good as the original. Much like movie remakes, it lost alot in the modernization.


Add papermaker, inkmaker, paintmaker to list of skills.

(note: brown ink is easiest to make.)

[weswood]

Originally Posted by Mohoender

Could be but I would advise a GM to change that. Caring for a horse, raising a sheep or training a dog have nothing in common. Riding a horse and handling one is even absolutely different.

Exactly. Maybe I wasn't clear, the character would have to have Animal Handling (guard dog) or Animal Handling (hunting dog). If he wanted to have bothe the skills he would have to learn them seperatley. One skill per animal type.

There used to be a series of books I think called Foxfire(?) that dealt with things from building log cabins to identifying plants that would be very useful.

[Mohoender]

Originally Posted by weswood

Exactly. Maybe I wasn't clear, the character would have to have Animal Handling (guard dog) or Animal Handling (hunting dog). If he wanted to have bothe the skills he would have to learn them seperatley. One skill per animal type.

Thanks. That's about what I'm using.

[Graebarde]

Blacksmith works black metal (iron) on hearth/forge
Tinsmith works white metals
Smelter turns ore into metals useable
Sandcaster cast objects after making molds in sand
Ferrier makes shoes for horses, mules, oxen.. specialized blacksmith
Ironmonger turns iron ore into useable iron for the smith
Miller turns grain into meal/flour for humans and animals
Brewer makes beer and ale
Distiller makes spirits from beer, wine, ale, mead
Vinter makes wine and could also expand the process to vinegar (the next stage)
(mead and cider also fall in there somewhere that a vinter could handle easily)
Maltster turns grain into malt for the brewer
Baker turns the millers meal/flour into breads and pastries.
Butcher kills, skins, and process meat
Tanner takes the hides from the butcher and turns it into leather
Furrier is a specialized tanning with the fur/hair left on.
Leatherworker makes items from leather but general not specialized usually
Cobbler makes shoes and footwear
Saddler makes saddles and harness, and repairs same
Potter makes items from clays..
Cooper is the barrel maker, a very rare skill outside some specialized areas.
Woodworker makes items from wood, not to be confuzed with a carpenter.. more the carver and specialized style
Carpenter makes items from wood from furniture to buildings.
Candlemaker makes candles from rendered fats
Soapmaker makes soap from rendered fats
Spinner makes thread/yarn from fiber..
Weaver turns thread and yarn into cloth
Dyer dyes cloth/threa/yarn
Taylor makes clothing and sews
Dairyman process milk into cheese, butter, and other dairy products
Teamster drives teams of horses, mules or oxen pulling wagons and carts.. should specify if equine or ox though, they are very different.
Ropemaker turns fiber into cordage, not to be confused with spinner though the process is similar
Retter turns flax, hemp and other plants into fiber that the spinner or ropemaker can use. (often a skill the farmer would have in old)
Shearsman one who shears sheep, alpaca, llama, etc for 'wool'

Many of the 'cottage' skills are progressive, such as preparing fiber for the spinner, progresses to spinning, then weaving.. skills many women AND MEN knew how to do. Same with the maltster, brewer, distiller..

Just a SHORT list

[Targan]

Great list Grae. My mum has always had spinning wheels and when I was a kid all my woolen sweaters had been created by my mum from scratch - she would spin yarn from a fleece (sometimes she would even source the fleece herself from road kill) and then knit sweaters. She taught me how to spin yarn but I haven't done it myself since I was a child. Same with knitting.

Mum has a hand loom too (currently disassembled because it takes up a lot of room) and has made several rugs. It took a long time to make each rug though.

Also my mum and her husband keep bees and mum makes mead (only in small amounts). Yum. And mum always has a vegetable and herb garden (she is a botanist as well as being a very avid gardener).