Tracking Wiki

[Gossamer]

Matt, lets get this finished. What can we do to help you complete it?

[Crush]

It's literally just the urban tracking part. I have no idea what to put for that.

[Gossamer]

Well, in urban tracking there are similar problems to forest tracking but the area might be contaminated through other prints and the heavy populations found in urban settings. What about if a tracker switches gears in an urban setting and while still using his skill set (watching for prints, scuffs, trash, etc) he also switches to verbal cues and reads clues off eye-witnesses or observers meaning he can start questioning people, asking 'have you seen this individual' etc? Its still technically tracking, but its more sleuthing... and I would advocate this is fine in that type of environment.

You can also add a sense of who the pc is thats tracking. With a game half full of kelvics, most of them do have a sense of smell or keen eyesight... so do other races as well.

[Gromhir]

Ok, i've made some changes based on your recommendations and added interrogation to related skills.

How's it look?

[Cayenne]

I like it! I don't really have anything to add or correct.

[Crush]

If nobody has anymore issues, I'll slot this in the wiki at some point this week.

[Gossamer]

I'll look at it tomorrow when its earlier for me. You need an 'approval' stamp before you can add it to the Wiki.

[Gromhir]

I figured as much. I just want this finished now to be honest.

[Eanos]

One thing I would add is that it's all very well getting down on your hands and knees and staring at tracks to identify pressure releases, getting out your measuring stick to check the stride and so forth, but even when you uprate your skills so that you can do that with a glance, still its a slow method.

Trackers tend to understand the mind of what they are following so that they can predict the next action. Deer for example when travelling, not in a flat out run but away perhaps from a perceived danger (hearing the tracker) or heading for new feeding areas will take the easiest route and head along paths and through gaps in hedges. Having seen the trail, which is not just prints but grass brushed down and so forth, the tracker can make an educated guess as to where the animal is going next and leapfrog ahead. Sometimes this does of course not work but in those cases you go back and pick up the trail again, following it more closely to see why it didn't go where it was expected and then leapfrog again.

Tracking then also means that there is much to learn about the habits of the thing being followed - where does it eat, where does it live? A tracker will know these things too, it's not just about identifying and following tracks. This too ties in heavily with urban and hard surface tracking.

[Gossamer]

Prerequisites and Related Skills

Wilderness Survival
Hunting
Interrogation (Urban Environments)

You don't say whether these are prerequisits or related skills and how they interact with the Tracking Skill itself. This was a list, I believe, that was included in the stub as part of a suggestion... it needs to be expanded. Other things could be included... Lore of Animal Tracks, Lore of Local Geography, perhaps land navigation, etc. Animal behavior or whatever your tracking's behavior should be included on this list as well.

Also, you need to add a section on how someone learns tracking. It doesn't need to be very large, but indeed it should include how one learns to track - both singularly and with a teacher.

Novice:

A Novice has barely begun to track and does not do so very often.

Time spent doing tracking shouldn't factor in. Someone sees this and they might think.. wow I can't track very often at this level. Sure they can. They can track as much as they want.. they just aren't great at it.

Tracking humans and other such creatures is generally far out of their reach.

Why in the world? Humans are some of the easiest things to track in the woods. They aren't trying NOT go get eaten. They stumble and bumble around leaving footprints in soft soils and grabbing at branches breaking them.

Competent:

You mentioned spotting marks on trees twice - it sounds repetitive... And the human thing again... like I said.. humans are some of the easiest. I would remove this altogether. Otherwise, good work here.

Expert:

I wouldn't start out with who seeks them... I'd talk about their skill level instead and what they can do... an end message about how sought out they are might be nice though.

They enjoy being outdoors are it is like being in a different world to them.

Awkward.

An expert tracker is able to track their foes through grassland.

Trackers track all sorts of things... lost kids, prey, etc. I woudln't say foes here, I'd use a different word like targets.

They can pick up tracks through the movement of leaves, pine needles and hard packed ground.

Trackers should be able to do this at virtually every level, especially starting at competent. Duff - the debris under pine trees that comprise old needles and fallen twigs etc is extremely easy to leave tracks through and for a novice tracker to follow. Leaves are a bit more trickier but it depends on how old they are... really old ones its easy peasy to track through. New crunchy ones... a lot harder. So I'd add this at lower levels and change this sentence to read 'hard packed ground' only.

Master:

I like what you did for this.

I also think Eanos had some good suggestions.