A Guide to Hunting

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Zigg
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A Guide to Hunting

Post by Zigg »

A Guide to Hunting by Adred Koon (With the help of Roddry Perg)

(Ok, the names are silly, but A.K is a clerk/writer dude and R.P a hunter so...)

A. The Basics Behind Hunting

Hunting may seem fairly simple, but is actually very complex, as Roddry Perg taught me. Even the basics are harder than i thought. I shall write them as 'rules'.

1. Be Patient
2. Take a few days food
3. Keep hidden
4. Go for slow or weak prey
5. Keep careful watch of supplies
6. Map your position if possible
7. Keep within a know area, but don't overhunt

B. Supplies

Many believe hunting means pick up a bow, step outside and shoot an animal. In reality, it is a game of staying low, waiting and seizing your chance. I shall present what i have learnt in the way i learnt it, question and answer.

How long will the hunt take?
Anywhere between a few hours and a week.

What food should i take?
Foods that last a while, are light and have little smell, like Hardtack Buiscits.

What about equipment?
You will need your food, a bag for it, a bag for your prey, a bow, knife and arrows.

How much food?
A small meal's worth for each day, so about 12 Hardtack Biscuits and/or slices of Unleavened Bread.

How many arrows?
About 3 to use, and 3 spare. If there are dangerous animals about, or even the dreaded undead, you may want to take a dozen for defense.

How much will everything cost?
For your first hunt, about 3 coins, but after about 1. If you are careful you can make the 1 into 0.

C. Skill

Archery, stealth, preservation, patience and the limbo are all important skills. Except the limbo. Here are a few good ways (according to Roddry) to improve them.

For archery, try placing a piece of fruit on a stall and shooting from various angles at it.
Also for archery, try getting used to how far the arrows go and how strong they are.
For stealth, get a friend to play the child's game, hide and seek, with you but with a twist, you have to keep moving.
For preservation, slice and apple in 4 and limit yourself to a piece a day.
For patience, get a friend to come round when the sky goes pitch black, but do nothing from when it gets dark to when he/she arrives.
For the limbo -

D. Animals Guide

Rabbit - Small, fast and not very tasty, so a bad target.
Forest Cat - Quite small, fast and only slightly tasty, so a bad target.
Deer - Medium sized, fast, herd animal, quite tasty, so an average target.
Bear - Medium-large size, fast, vicious, tastes slightly bad, so a risky target.
Lion - Mostly like the bear, but like the cat in taste, so a terrible target.
Insects - Taste terrible, tiny, crawl in mud, so avoid.
Crab - Small, moderate speed, tastes good, so a slightly bad target.
Wild Pig - Just below medium size, not very fast, very tasty, so an ideal target.
Turkey and Chicken - Just above small size, average speed, very tasty, slightly rare in wild, but a great target.
Mudcrawler - Animated Mud, very bad target.
Gryphons -Quite big, very fast and very tasty, but hard to kill, so a bad target.
Yeti - RUN!!! Huge, faster than you, can kill you as easily as you a fly... You get the idea. Only attack from cover and in very large groups. Also a one in a billion sight.
Wolf - Like a deer, but harder to kill and not as tasty, so a bad target.

E. Conclusion

This guide is intended to help struggling or first time hunters become as good as the best, but Roddry says experience and luck is very important. (I think running from undead is the most important, though!)
Last edited by Zigg on November 9th, 2009, 5:59 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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Aethaeryn
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Re: A Guide to Hunting

Post by Aethaeryn »

Yeti - Tastes just like chicken, and plenty of meat to share with everyone. Perfect target.
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Zigg
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Re: A Guide to Hunting

Post by Zigg »

Aethaeryn wrote:Yeti - Tastes just like chicken, and plenty of meat to share with everyone. Perfect target.
You think a woodsman could kill a YETI, and wesnoth isn't exactly full of Yeti.
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wesfreak
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Re: A Guide to Hunting

Post by wesfreak »

3 or 4 huntsman (lvl 3 poachers) can kill a yeti.

you forgot: can kill you with a punch and very hard to find: incredibly risky target.

also, if you keep with the same area for too much then you could overhunt it and fruit isn't exactly the most filling food.
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Re: A Guide to Hunting

Post by Zigg »

Fixed, i think.
Lyrax
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Re: A Guide to Hunting

Post by Lyrax »

Fruit is a terrible food to take hunting. It has lots of water, which increases the weight and space, it isn't very filling and many fruits are quite full of scent. And they'll give you digestive problems if you eat too much.

Jerked or smoked meat is a great food. Hardtack biscuits or unleavened bread are also good. Dried fruits are good, in small amounts, as are nuts. Hope this helps!
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Re: A Guide to Hunting

Post by melinath »

Is this supposed to be a funny thing for us to read or is it supposed to take place in Wesnoth/be a serious document written by an in-world person?
If the latter is the case, then it's a laudable effort, but there's a long way to go. Working on the assumption that paper would be expensive, this guide would have: a. been written for a reason; b. been fairly long.
Some things to think on:
1. Who is the intended audience? Who will read this guide?
2. Who is paying for the guide to be written? Why?
3. What is the status of hunting in Wesnothian society?
4. What year is this being written in, and where?

Answering these questions would put you on the road to making this a more in-world contribution, if that's something you aspire to.
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Zigg
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Re: A Guide to Hunting

Post by Zigg »

1. Read the guide if you want to know
2. A band of writers, send by the King to help the kingdom more pleasent
3. A way to feed yourself and with luck, make money
4. 4 years before the Golden Age, in the Tath Inn
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Cloud
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Re: A Guide to Hunting

Post by Cloud »

I hate to point this out, but surely for those reliant on hunting, they probably wouldn't be able to read this guide. And for those who do it as a sport probably have a very different way of hunting, or would just hire guides who have this knowledge from real world experience.
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Re: A Guide to Hunting

Post by Zigg »

Learn to Read - 0.007 g
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Re: A Guide to Hunting

Post by Cloud »

How many of the poor peoples of Wesnoth would you actually expect to be literate in those times. I somehow doubt there'd be any compulsory or even state provided education. Magi would obvious be snaffled up by the Mage schools, those entering the army might eventually be taught to read and nobles, merchants and other such rich folk would have the money to waste on personal tutors for their children. None of these three groups are going to need or want a hunting guide. I can imagine Magi are pretty rich, the army might do some hunting, but they'd train their own people in it, rather than refer to a book and the rich group can just buy it off the poorer folk.

Leaving only those who can't read with a written guide to hunting. Joy more firewood!

On the animals, rabbits wouldn't be a bad catch, sure there's not much of them, but one could easily make snares near one's camp, which can be left whilst out hunting. Same for forest car.

A deers are fast, but an injured one would be a good meal. The bear would make a good target if one can accept the risk, their pelts are bound to pick up a pretty penny. Same for lion, Gryphon and Yeti, and possibly even the wolf.
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Re: A Guide to Hunting

Post by melinath »

melinath wrote: 1. Who is the intended audience? Who will read this guide?
2. Who is paying for the guide to be written? Why?
3. What is the status of hunting in Wesnothian society?
4. What year is this being written in, and where?
Zigg wrote:1. Read the guide if you want to know
2. A band of writers, send by the King to help the kingdom more pleasent
3. A way to feed yourself and with luck, make money
4. 4 years before the Golden Age, in the Tath Inn
Thank you for your superficial answers.
1. That's not an answer at all. As Cloud pointed out, only people with money, leisure time, and a wish to learn about hunting (like nobles) would be able to read this guide. This is not at all clear from reading the guide, nor is any other interpretation. Generally, a document like this would have an extensive introduction, rather than the three sentences you've written. One of the main purposes of this introduction is to praise the person who's paying for the work. Why? Because the writer is probably living off that person's patronage, so it's good business to flatter them and make the work sound incredibly important. It would also introduce the audience.
2. A band of writers is paying for it? Or the King is? Who is the king? And more importantly: if this is to make the kingdom more pleasant, why would this guide accomplish that goal? (See note on introductions, above.) Also: a band of writers. Who are they? What station do they have? I.e. are they mages? Nobles? Commoners who somehow managed to learn to write proficiently?
3. If that's all it is, this guide would never get used. That's not to say it wouldn't get written, but it would never get used. People who hunt for food because they need to eat will learn from each other much more than they could ever learn from a guide, especially one that's so superficial.
4. OK, 196YW. But the Tath Inn? Why the Tath Inn? Where is the Tath Inn? Is the Tath Inn a great literary center? Keep in mind that this isn't a society where you can just easily write a book while traveling. The necessary supplies are hard to move around - they're heavy and fragile. So wherever the writing is happening, it's probably a fairly well-stocked place.
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Re: A Guide to Hunting

Post by Thrawn »

Maybe if you made it more like a legendary hunter's own personal reflections on the topic (ala musashi's personal way of looking into the Way of Martial Arts), for view by both scholars/philosophers as well as amateur hunters trying to improve their skills?

Because I agree w/ the points brought up against it, but at the same time think that things like this have merit to them.

@Cloud--you remind more of a slightly less educated Turin the more you stick around. (Not that you aren't educated ;) ) However, the upper class who would dabble in sports such as hunting might like a manual like this, even if they had a private tutor (not in it's current form but the general idea). At the vary least, it would be something to *have* even if useless, as bound books were a way of demonstating wealth (If you've read the book "Swordspoint," I'm talking of an attitude sorta like that).

Also, the upper middle class (the bourgeoisie of wesnoth*) would use those, even if unable to get former tutalage, as it would help them put on airs of being nobility.

*I spelled that correctly the first time w/o spellcheck--I'm surprised at myself :mrgreen:
...please remember that "IT'S" ALWAYS MEANS "IT IS" and "ITS" IS WHAT YOU USE TO INDICATE POSSESSION BY "IT".--scott

this goes for they're/their/there as well
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Re: A Guide to Hunting

Post by Cloud »

Thrawn wrote:@Cloud--you remind more of a slightly less educated Turin the more you stick around. (Not that you aren't educated ;) )
I shall take that as a compliment (less educated is probably due to being a few years younger).

And I agree that it's the kind of thing nobles would have, though they might find the current version a little uncouth. With a little refinement and greater details it might be the kind of thing they would like to buy.
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