Outdoorsman

Outdoorsman is a Fallout, Fallout 2, Van Buren, J.E. Sawyer's Fallout Role-Playing Game and Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel skill. Fallout: New Vegas adds a skill called survival which is very similar.

Fallout
$$\text{Initial level}\%=$$ $$5+(.5\times\text{Endurance})+(.5\times\text{Intelligence})$$

Example: A starting Endurance of 5 and Intelligence of 5. $$5+(.5\times5)+(.5\times5)=10\%$$

Fallout 2
$$\text{Initial level}\%=$$ $$(2\times\text{Endurance})+(2\times\text{Intelligence})$$

Example: A starting Endurance of 5 and Intelligence of 5.

$$(2\times5)+(2\times5)=20\%$$

Description
In Fallout 2, the Outdoorsman skill's job is to decrease the effects of bad random encounters with the possibility of increasing the odds of special encounters. A successful outdoorsman check will give you the choice of whether or not to have an encounter at all. This does not apply for special encounters however. You are forced to enter the scene.

In Fallout, Outdoorsman is used in random encounters that involve dehydration and rockfalls, to see how many hours it takes (dehydration only) and how much damage you take, if any (dehydration and rockfalls).

Though you are granted the ability to raise the Outdoorsman to 200%, or 300% for Fallout 2, the real cap would be around 100%. Raising it to ridiculous levels will have no effect, and will waste your skill points.

Ways to increase

 * Read a Scout Handbook. They increase Outdoorsman skill depending on your current skill level, ranging from 6-7 points at low skill levels (20-30%) to 1-2 points at high skill levels (70-90%). You get twice that amount if the skill is tagged. You can reach a maximum skill level of 91% this way.
 * (Fallout 2) Talk with Slim Picket. Depending on your Barter, you can buy 5% worth of Outdoorsman for $100 or $50.
 * (Fallout 2) Save Smiley the trapper. Once you bring him back to Klammath, you can get a 1% to 6% increase in Outdoorsman from him.
 * (Fallout) Talk to Tycho about his life.

Behind the scenes
The icon is most probably a reference to the Looney Tunes, as the Vault Boy is dressed as Elmer Fudd and is hunting a mutated version of Bugs Bunny.

Cut content
The Fallout scripts contain two other uses for Outdoorsman, however neither are used in the game. The first is a message displayed when discovering a Mutated Fruit. The other is for generating messages about where the Radscorpions came from in random encounters. (Assumedly related to being able to find the Radscorpion Caves for the Shady Sands quest.)

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