Banging My Head

[randalar]

Hey Folks,
I could really use some help. After some reading over Rifts and some of the TMNT stuff (including AtB), I've decided to play around with making an AtB character. The part that is making me bang my head, however, is in regards to a specific skill: Hunting. Characters who start with a Feral Background or a 'Raised on the Frontier' background specifically list Hunting as a primary skill. However, I cannot find a skill description to save my life. The big list of skills prior to the skill descriptions doesn't list it either. Where do I need to look for this skill? Thanks millions for your help! Also, I'm using After the Bomb Complete Role Playing Game if that helps ya know what I'm talking about.
--Joe G.

[gordyzx9r]

They probably just forgot to write the skill in...though, there is the off chance they were debating putting it in...with the advent of the meat potatoe and such...are mutant animals still hunting their former prey? That's a debate that's been played out many times here.

[gordyzx9r]

The original TMNT&OS (not the revised editions) had the hunting skill at 35%+5%. In the revised editions it looks like tracking, trapping, and preserve animal hide skills came about and hunting was dropped. Who knows.

[gordyzx9r]

I was very, very much under the impression from Mutants Down Under that insects make mighty good meat in the setting.

Before AtB2 came out with the meat potatoe...large mutated insects became the new livestock after the crash in my campaigns. It was any easy answer to those PCs who asked "Won't my mutant wolf want to eat his mutant deer and her mutant pheasant?" Kept people from fighting amongst themselves and having to reroll characters.

[Snowtiger]

I checked AtB, and noticed the same you did, however there is a Hunting skill in the Wilderness skills in HU2, sa AtB doesn't have it, you might consider using the HU2 skill instead, the entry goes:

"Hunting: The skill of killing and preparing an animal for food. Special Bonuses:Add the following bonusesto the appropriate skills: +2% prowl, +5% track animals, +5% skin animals, +5% wilderness survival, and +5% to cook the catch only. No base skill."

Skill equivalencies:
prowl = Prowl(both HU2(under Rogue skills) and AtB(under Physical skills))
track animals = Track Animals(HU2) = Track(AtB); given bonus applies only to (non-sentient) animals, and their tracks.
skin animals = Skin and Prepare Animal Hides(both HU2 and AtB)
wilderness survival = Wilderness Survival (both HU2 and AtB, well duh!)
cook the catch only = Cook(both HU2 and AtB); applies only when cooking the caught animal.

And by the way:

"mutant animals eating mutant animals" = "human eating human" = "cannibalism" = considered extremely uncouth(uncivilized) in civilized cultures, to a point of being a taboo.

I was forced to interject, when a Furry Lynx(a PC) started to dream about a Furry Mouse(an NPC) meal while arranging sea charts in the chart storage room aboard a privateer ship in Furry Pirates RPG, when the said Furry Mouse came to bring in a large collection of insect drawings.

[gordyzx9r]

And by the way:

"mutant animals eating mutant animals" = "human eating human" = "cannibalism" = considered extremely uncouth(uncivilized) in civilized cultures, to a point of being a taboo.

I think alot of people try very hard to incorportate that into their campaign, I know I always did.

[randalar]

Wow, thanks for all the responses. You guys are fast! Seriously though, I had never considered the possibility of cannibalism (it's a rather abhorrant idea to me). I presumed the hunting, much like fishing, would apply to non-sentient animals. Perhaps I missed it, but surely not *every single* animal in the world is now mutated? A mutated cat with a weakness of Diet: Carnivore might be more thrilled in chasing down a non-sentient game/food animal rather than just eating an old meat potato (no challange there!).

[glitterboy2098]

a good guide to food gathering in ATB, as voiced by Rizzo the rat.
"mother always told me, never eat talking food."

[gordyzx9r]

Wow, thanks for all the responses. You guys are fast! Seriously though, I had never considered the possibility of cannibalism (it's a rather abhorrant idea to me). I presumed the hunting, much like fishing, would apply to non-sentient animals. Perhaps I missed it, but surely not *every single* animal in the world is now mutated? A mutated cat with a weakness of Diet: Carnivore might be more thrilled in chasing down a non-sentient game/food animal rather than just eating an old meat potato (no challange there!).

My PCs (and myself) still found it immoral to even eat unintelligent, non-mutated animals. But I know there are some people who post here that think otherwise. Have that mutated cat chase down a SL20 Beetle and see how thrilled he is with that.