Aboriginal Skills

Note: All skills listed on this page are for the After the Bomb setting of Mutants Down Under. They may be appropriate for similar settings, including Rifts Australia, but that is the GM's call. Under the proper circumstances, some Native American peoples in North, Central, and South America may be able to take the same or similar skills.
Aboriginal Medicine: An Aboriginal form of medical treatment that combines an ancient knowledge of healing plants with modern knowledge of anatomy and physiology. Includes first aid techniques such as bandaging wounds, stopping bleeding, and administering CPR/artificial respiration. Also allows the character to set broken bones, extract bullets, sew up wounds, and diagnose illnesses.
Part of the character's skill comes from the ability to recognize and use natural plants and substances (clawys and mud) for bandages, antiseptics, drugs, and painkillers. Searching for the right leaves for emergency bandages requires a skill roll every five minutes. Finding a specific kind of herb, root, or leaf, to cure a specific ailment requires a skill roll every five minutes. Finding an antitoxin, to help a character who has been poison or injected with venom, will require a skill roll every hour. Failing a roll means the proper item was not found, but can be attempted again, with the same time requirements.
In practice, this allows the character to function like a Paramedic. A failed roll means the patient has not been helped, either because the problem was too serious, or because a mistake was made. Seriousinjury, or coma, will require that the character roll successfully two out of three times in order to help. Base Skill: 50% + 5% per level.
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Australian Nature Lore: Character learns all about the Australian ecology. Among other things, this gives the character the ability to:
1. Keep an accurate calendar; so accurate that the character can tell the specific day of the year according to which plants are flowering. In addition, the character can tell time according to the sun, moon, stars, and the noises of various insects. Base Skill: 50% + 5% per level of experience.
2. Evaluate the temperature and humidity according to the behavior of plants and the condition of the soil. In addition, the character can attempt to predict the weather up to 48 hours in advance. Base Skill: 40% + 5% per level of experience.
3. Identify and track a variety of indiginous creatures, just from their footprints and the signs they make while traveling. The equivalent of the Track Animals skill. Base Skill: 30% + 5% per level of experience.
4. Find north, south, east, and west easily, and estimate the distance between distant objects. Base Skill: 65% + 5% per level of experience.
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Dreamtime Lore: The philosophy/religion/world-view of the Australian Aborigines is a strange blend of animism with the more bizarre aspects of modern physics. In other words, dreamtime is another version of reality. Here are some of the features of dreamtime.

  1. All time, from the remote past to the far future, is together, as if it were all one piece. Practitioners of dreamtime have infinite patience, knowing that if a thing is meant to be, it will happen.
  2. Animals, insects, and plants have voices in dreamtime. They do not speak as individuals, but as a collective. In other words, one could be talking to Emu, but not just any Emu, but the primal Emu, the collective being of all Emus, past, present, and future.
  3. One must dream of lives to come (unborn children) or they will not come. And one must dream of lives that have left. Al the land, the plants, insects, and animals, must be dreamed, or they will not come to exist.
Characters with this skill will know hundreds of stories, mostly about the different features of the landscape and the shapes of the wildlife, and how they relate to the dreamtime. They'll also be able to recognize various supernatural creatures, and will knmow how to appease them or defend against them. Base Skill: 60% + 6% per level of experience.
Note: In Beyond the Supernatural (and presumably others), this character has the Sense Evil ability equal to the psychic sensitive's and the following lore skills: demons & monsters, faerie, and geomancy & ley lines/lines of power. Each skill is +20%.
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Find and Prepare Bush Tucker (Food): Aborigines can make living off the land seem incredibly easy. With just two or three hours work, one person can gather enough for a dozen people to eat well. And all this in a place where a Westerner would see nothing but a barren desert with a few dried up weeds. Finding Bush Tucker only looks easy. Learning the techniques for finding the food, and avoiding poison, takes at least seven years of training.
While searching for food, the character can make an attempt to find Bush Tucker once per hour. If successful, that means a source of food has been found. If the roll fails, it means that no food was found but that the character can try again for another hour.
For example, pine cones from the Bunja Mountain Pines are edible, but only non-poisonous only every third year. Woolybutt grass seeds are also edible, but only if properly sorted, crushed, mixed, adn baked. And although the Koala can eat eucalyptus leaves, they are poisonous to humans and most other animals. Base Skill: 68% + 2% per level of experience.
Special Note: Attempting to eat in the Austalian wild without this skill is very dangerous, even for characters with Wilderness Survival. Ignorant characters have a base chance of 50% for every hour of searching, for finding what seems to be edible food. However, there is a 10% chance of whatever it is will be poisonous.
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Didjeridoo: The traditional musical instrument of the Aborigines. It is made from a hollow bamboo log, at least 5 feet long, but sometimes much longer. Learning to play requires learning how to breathe in a special way. This special breathing, or Circular Breathing, involves constantly breathing in though the nose and out through the mouth, without stopping. The result is the ability to play continuously, without stopping for a breath. Also includes all the knowledge necessary for constructing a new Didjeridoo, which takes about three days. Base Skill: 50% + 5% per level of experience.
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Songlines: A Songline is, first of all, a song. A set of words put to music. But every note of a songline has a meaning. Every Songline describes a path across the land. And it describes it so well that a character with the Songline skill can make an exact map of the area even if he has never visited the area. A computer expert might describe Songlines as an incredibly sophisticated method of data encryption, on par with today's most advanced computer programs. Characters with this skill are specialists who can memorize songs and interperet every feature of the terrain they describe.
1. Songlines describe every feature along its path, as well as the exact distances (in foot strides) between landmarks.
2. Hidden sources of water, which may be completely out of sight, are always described in the Songline. Directions may be as simple as looking over a ridge, or in a thick grove of brush. On the other hand, some desert Songlines describe water holes that can be reached only by digging several feet into the ground, ground that looks just as dry and parched as the ground for miles around.
3. Caches of food, as well as important tools and materials are usually described in Songlines. This makes it easier to find Bush Tucker (+25%). It is also useful for finding the large stone tools that aboriginal people in various areas (reduces the time for making aboriginal items to half).
4. Real songs would have named each water hole the character drank from, each tree he cut a spear from, each cave he slept in, covertin the whole long distance of the way. Stories told to strangers include little or none of these details.
5. A character with Songline also has the equivalent of Land Navigation, as well as map reading.
There are two levels of Songline skill, one for the mere singing and following, the other for the creation, translation, and interpreting. Base Skill: 70% + 5% per level of experience for interpreting Songlines and memorizing new Songlines. Creating new Songlines is 40% + 5% per level of experience.
Incidentally, a useful technological tool for a Songline-skilled character is a tape recorder or other recording device. This allows the character to collect a variety of Songlines, covering different paths throughout Australia and elsewhere.
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