improvised equipment

[thoran]

Ok, this is mainly for role-playing purpose, but still I would like to see ideas about things you could create if lost in the wilderness without any equipment.

We already have leatherworking, that can be used to create armours, sacks etc from skins of hunted animals. Also, we have skills to create bows and arrows.

I already thought up these:
- knives and axes made from stone
- staves, clubs and spears from wood

So, what else is there?

And again, this is mainly for role-playing purpose, the created eq _will_ suck compared to anything smith made and will be worth nothing if sold.

edit: also, if you have suggestions how the presently available skills (leatherworking etc) could be changed to have more possibilities, you can suggest those too. I am trying to make it possible to play a _real_ ranger that lives off the land and only visits city to sell skins

[odovacar]

Here's what I thought of so far:
- Fishing rods
- bone/stone arrowheads (which you can use with fletchery to create arrows)
- Flint and flint (to light fires)
- fur/leather sleeping bags
- waterskins
- sattelite communication devices?

Cheers

[artic]

If you dont manage to kill anything, treepark can be used for some simpler armour such as bracers and leggings.
Moss and vines can be used to make some crappy boots.
Girls can make themselfs a headband out of flowers, just in case someone finds them (they want to look pretty for the prince charming ) (and yeas, guys can do it too...)
If you manage to kill something, bone can me used as a better material as stone, also small bones make excelent fishing hooks.
Some more elastic tree branches can be used to make whip kinda weapons.
Parts of skulls (and skin off head) of greater animals make good headgear (at least a mooses skull with the horns looks cool- and it should make an hell of a headbutt).
Vines and treepark or skin can make a sling.
And why not just hurl boulders if your strong enough.

[aieon]

Slings / staff slings made from skins. could use pinecones or stones as ammo

maybe a raft of sorts, made from a bunch of reeds or something, for smaller races. I can imagine a halfling fishing on a raft made from branches and stuff. It could deteriorate over a short period of time, depending on the skill with which it was done. willow branches, leather strips or some shuch could be used to tie it together.

bones could be used as studding for armour, like shoulderblades oslt, and perhaps helmets could be made of big skulls.

[solar]

Artic mentioned making headbands from flowers. I agree, it would be very stylish and (IMHO) a good addition

[felgand]

Body paint. Could be used to create tattoos that can be looked at separately when examining a person.

[janeti]

Material from hooves can be used to reinforce armour. Historically it was horse but I suppose others could be used (moose for example!).

Moss & skin could make bandages.

Flint or obsidian set into a branch can make an excellent club/maul.

[artic]

By cutting a skin into long strings, adding some medium sized rocks and a sturdy piece of wood a multi headed flail could be made. I wouldnt do much damage, wood could break and the leahter strings could snap under a couple of really hard blows, but it would be better than nothing.

I dont know how its called, but it has 3 strings of leahter tiead together in one end and each heav a rock at the other end. You whirl it above your head and when you throw it at an animal it get tanged in the leather straps. The weight of the spinning stones makes the leather curl around the victim and the stones also hit quite hard.

[thoran]

bola

[belannaer]

Bolas really don't fit the theme of the game and body painting/tattoos would be nice to have in a larger scale in some druid guild or so

[misrobo]

A travois would be nice...

Basically an improvised wagon. Build it in the woods. It would drain mount EP faster than one of those fancy city built wagons with their fancy wheels.

Smaller ones could be man pulled, giving you greater hauling capacity at the expense of much greater EP use.

Encylopedia.com has this to say about them:

(tr?voi´) , device used by Native North Americans of the Great Plains for transporting their tepees and household goods. It consisted of two poles, lashed one on either side of a dog or, later, a horse, with one end of each pole dragging on the ground. It had straps or wooden crosspieces between the poles near the open end that served as a carrier. Like the sledge, the travois was used by Native Americans before any use of wheels was known to them.

(It refers to native americans because of the section of the encylcopedia. I suspect similar devices were used in many cultures.)

[belannaer]

Sounds good

[khade]

how about a possibility of the items being valuable? like adding horns to a helmet and somehow giving it some magical power?

and what about a sledge, for the snowy areas?

[belannaer]

Giving magical powers to items has been reserved elsewhere already.

[thoran]

Artesans can make valuable equipment. This feature is only for role-playing purposes, just to add some flavor to the game.