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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tovec" data-source="post: 5935723" data-attributes="member: 95493">I definitely agree that survival is campaign dependent and I daresay that in the game you describe above if the skill didn't exist that you would be wise to make it up. However I also see that you aren't really playing a standard or stock campaign as far as the books intended you should. If the skill is only valuable when there is little or no magic (or access to magic) or when there is little or no access to any form of settlements then I can certainly see its reasoning. I just think that both of these things are slightly rare in DnD terms. I can understand where a lot of games will take place in dungeons or away from towns but I don't see most games expecting cities NEVER to show up.As far as my game style, I do enjoy a good urban sprawl but most of my games, or sessions at least, take place outside of civilization. Cities exist to re-equip and restore but I don't ONLY use them. In my setting wilderness exists in the wild where no one patrols. It doesn't exist (much) in between the towns that adventurers are likely to come from. In my games most characters aren't barbarians, rangers and druids. Those classes are played certainly but they aren't the majority. For that reason alone it is good to have cities. In the main area of my world you don't expect to travel along safe roads from one borough to the next. You DO expect there to be LARGE towns, metropolises and small villages scattered throughout the kingdom. I also throw in dungeons, keeps, crypts, and ruins (all in varying state of decay) for monsters to populate as well. (In addition to forests or other areas of "wild".) I just expect that when my players want to gather food they RP it and tell me they are gathering food. They can use a knowledge nature check to ask if a berry is poisonous and they can use an attack roll to kill a wild animal. I don't see where the need for the skill comes in. Yes, I suppose I could have them roll to maintain their tents but beyond a certain level that gets redundant as they easily start to create magical places to rest.I don't mind maintaining fiddly stuff, but I prefer not to be bogged down with it. Unless something is attacking the tent I figure the party can just patch up any minor holes that appear. Unless they are freshly escaped from a prison or traveling across the desert I can generally assume they either have food or can find food along the way. The roll CAN be useful from time to time but the major effect I see for it is Track, otherwise it seems like ALL the other effects can be rolled into something else. Most importantly I can't figure out a reason why the party should expressly have ranks in the skill when they already have ranks in other skills that do the same job.</blockquote>

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