Fishing is the taking of fish and other water creatures by whatever means the water rewards — hook and line, spear, net, weir, or bare hands. Culture, geography and quarry decide which technique is favoured; the skill covers competence in all of them.
A Fishing Success Value test is made once per four hours, modified for technique and water. What it yields is food-days: a day’s fish weighs about six pounds, of which half is edible.
| SV | Catch |
|---|---|
| ≤ 0 | Nothing at all over the four hours. |
| 1–2 | Roll two d10 separately against the conditions Target Number; each success is one food-day. |
| 3–4 | As above, but roll four d10. |
| 5+ | One food-day per Value Diamond, plus four separate d10 against the conditions TN, each success adding a further food-day. If all four of those d10 succeed, double the whole take. |
A Critical Failure means trouble with the gear or the water: the fisher tests Dexterity if the units digit was 0, Agility if it was 5. Failure costs lost or damaged equipment; a Critical Failure means a random impact injury.
Conditions. The GM rolls or chooses the water’s Target Number. Reduce it further where too many people are working the same water — several lines in one small stream compete with each other.
| d100 | Conditions | TN |
|---|---|---|
| 01–05 | Poor | 1 |
| 06–25 | Fair | 3 |
| 26–75 | Average | 5 |
| 76–95 | Good | 7 |
| 96–00 | Excellent | 9 |
Technique. Fishing bare-handed is a Fishing (Dexterity) Success Value test at −2 SV, and is really only practical in shallow streams and coastal shallows. A net doubles the food-days taken. A spear makes it a Fishing (Melee or Dexterity) test.
Water. The base test assumes fresh water. In salt water, a Critical Success adds two to the Success Value rather than the usual one. Offshore — the deeper, richer water beyond inland lakes, rivers and shallow coast — doubles the food-days taken, cumulatively with everything else.