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Fishing (Revised)

Revision draft. Original preserved at Fishing (WIP) for comparison.

What changed at a glance
  1. Landing Attempt added — Proximity and Stamina now combine into one DC instead of running as two separate tracks you empty.
  2. Contests resolve by margin. The old note never said how much a roll reduced a pool.
  3. Pools rescaled. Proximity is a flat value per cast band; Stamina counts cut by ~6x.
  4. Fish Behavior decides which maneuver is good that round, so the choice stops being "use your better stat."
  5. Escape Counter → Line Strain, with capacity set by rod.
  6. fishStrength scales with size instead of being a flat −1.

1. The Cast

Declare a band before rolling. The band sets your starting Proximity and limits what can bite.

Line Cast:

Band Table Limit Starting Proximity
Shallows Treat any result over 63 as 63 12
Shelf Read the table straight 20
Deep Any result under 48 is a miss 30
  • Shallows is reliable and capped at Trout. Deep is where the money is and where you whiff.
  • A natural total above 100 on a Deep cast means you've hooked something that isn't a fish. See 6. Beyond the Table.
  • Rod and Strength now push you up the table instead of inflating Proximity, so a better rod is a straight upgrade.

Fish Table

% Chance Dice Roll Size Rarity Fish Type Value
15% 1-15 N/A N/A N/A N/A
16% 16-31 Small Common Perch 2 sp
16% 32-47 Small Common Walleye 2 sp
16% 48-63 Small Common Trout 2 sp
12% 64-75 Medium Uncommon Salmon 8 sp
10% 76-85 Medium Rare Catfish 16 sp
8% 86-93 Large Very Rare Sturgeon 64 sp
7% 94-100 Large Very Rare Paddlefish 64 sp

2. The Fish

Stamina

Rarity sets the number of dice, size sets the die.

Stamina Calculator Tiny Small Medium Large Huge Gargantuan
Common 2d4 2d6 2d8 2d10 2d12 2d20
Uncommon 3d4 3d6 3d8 3d10 3d12 3d20
Rare 4d4 4d6 4d8 4d10 4d12 4d20
Very Rare 5d4 5d6 5d8 5d10 5d12 5d20
Legendary 6d4 6d6 6d8 6d10 6d12 6d20

Perch (Small Common) ≈ 7. Catfish (Medium Rare) ≈ 18. Sturgeon (Large Very Rare) ≈ 27.

fishStrength

Size Tiny Small Medium Large Huge Gargantuan
Mod −2 −1 +2 +5 +8 +11

Thrash:
Half Thrash: (Round Up)
Strong Thrash:

3. The Round

Step 1 — Behavior. DM rolls and describes it without naming it. Owen reads the water and decides.

d6 Behavior What he sees Effect
1–2 Running Line peeling off the reel, rod tip dragged low Drag-Hold reduction doubled. Speed-Crank fails outright on a tie.
3–4 Sounding Dead weight, straight down, no give Speed-Crank reduction doubled.
5 Rolling Breaking the surface, twisting against the line Either works normally, but any fish win adds +1 extra Strain.
6 Tiring Coming up sideways, drifting with the pull Both doubled. This is the landing window.

If Stamina is at or below a quarter of its starting value, the fish is Tiring regardless of the roll.

Step 2 — Declare. Speed-Crank, Drag-Hold, or Landing Attempt.

Step 3 — Contest. Caster and fish both roll. Compare totals.

Outcome Result
Caster wins Reduce the targeted pool by the margin.
Fish wins No progress. +1 Strain. If Running, Proximity increases by the margin.
Tie Nothing happens. Fish's next Thrash is a Strong Thrash.
Caster nat 20 Reduce both pools by the margin.
Fish nat 20 +2 Strain and the fish's next Thrash is a Strong Thrash.
Caster nat 1 +1 Strain on top of any other result.

4. Maneuvers

Speed-Crank


Reduces Proximity.
Cost: fish's next roll is a Strong Thrash.
Doubled while Sounding.

Drag-Hold


Reduces Stamina.
Benefit: fish's next roll is a Half Thrash.
Cost: on a fish win, +1 extra Strain.
Doubled while Running.

Landing Attempt

At the start of any round, in place of a maneuver:
DC = current Proximity + current Stamina
Roll
Failure: the fish gets a free Thrash and you take +1 Strain.

  • With a net or gaff in hand (or an assisting party member holding one), use Dexterity instead of Strength.
  • This is the decision the whole system hangs on: take the DC you have now, or spend another round grinding it down and risk the Strain.

5. Line Strain

Replaces the Escape Counter. The rod fails, rather than the fish choosing to leave.

Rod Bonus Strain Capacity
Handline +0 2
Bamboo +1 3
Baatorian +3 5

Strain accrues from: fish wins a contest (+1) · fish wins while you were Drag-Holding (+1 more) · fish wins while Rolling (+1 more) · caster nat 1 (+1) · fish nat 20 (+2) · failed Landing Attempt (+1).

When Strain fills: the line snaps. The fish is gone, and the rod takes a permanent notch — reduce its capacity by 1 until it's repaired.

Keep the counter face-up on the table. It's the tension meter.

Assists

Other players, usually by magic. One assist per round.

Assist Effect
Shape Water, Gust, similar Force a behavior reroll
Mage Hand, a steadying grip on the rod +2 to the caster's roll
Minor Illusion, bait dropped downstream Remove 1 Strain
Net or gaff held ready Landing Attempt uses Dexterity

6. Beyond the Table

A natural total above 100 on a Deep cast hooks something that has no business being on a line — dragon turtle, giant salamander, whatever Umberlee felt like sending.

  • Stamina = normal size/rarity value + (CR × Size Category), where Tiny = 1 through Gargantuan = 6.
  • fishStrength = the creature's actual STR modifier.
  • Line Strain fills at double rate. Getting it to shore is usually the wrong goal.

7. Value

Base value is 2 sp, multiplied by size and rarity. Every price on the Fish Table already follows this.

Size Tiny Small Medium Large Huge Gargantuan
Multiplier 0.5x 1x 2x 4x 8x 16x
Rarity Common Uncommon Rare Very Rare Legendary
Multiplier 1x 2x 4x 8x 16x

8. Worked Example

Fisher Wizard: STR +1, DEX +2, Baatorian rod (+3, capacity 5). Casts Deep.

Cast: rolls 88 + 1 + 3 = 92 → Sturgeon, Large Very Rare.
Proximity 30 · Stamina rolled 5d10 = 26 · Strain 0/5 · fishStrength +5

Rd Behavior Declared Caster Fish Result
1 Running (peeling) Drag-Hold 17 12 Margin 5, doubled → Stamina 26 → 16
2 Sounding (weight) Speed-Crank 14 21 Fish wins. +1 Strain (1/5)
3 Sounding Speed-Crank 22 9 Margin 13, doubled → Proximity 30 → 4
4 Tiring Land 18 — DC = 4 + 16 = 20. 18 fails. Free Thrash, +1 Strain (2/5)
5 Tiring Drag-Hold 19 11 Margin 8, doubled → Stamina 16 → 0
6 Tiring Land 11 — DC = 4 + 0 = 4. Caught.

Six rounds, two real decisions that could have gone either way, and a failed grab that cost him. A perch off the Shallows would have run two rounds.

9. Carried Over from the Original

Still worth building, unchanged from your notes:

  • Fishing variants — Ice Fishing, Fly Fishing, etc.
  • Downtime research on a specific species for a permanent bonus against it.
  • Auto-catch threshold — once his cast and reel bonuses clear a species' numbers, assume the catch and skip the minigame. Keeps the loop from going stale at high level.
  • Casts per time slot, increased by bait, and by "good fishing spots" found in downtime or stumbled into.
  • Bait should shift the d100 (say +10, or let you reroll a miss) and be a consumable. That's what ties the cast economy together.
  • Fish rolling at disadvantage to double their Strain contribution — this one may be redundant now that behaviors handle fish aggression. Worth cutting unless you want a desperation move for the big ones.

Dataview

Fishing Rods
Handline0
Bamboo1
Baatorian3
Rod Strain Capacity
HandlineStrain2
BambooStrain3
BaatorianStrain5
Stats
Strength0
Dexterity0
Fish Stats
fishStrength-1
fishSize0.5
Typo in the original

fishSize: 0.5 had a single colon in Fishing (WIP), so it wasn't registering as an inline field. Fixed above.