A good survival game will have a variety of survivor societies and community-based settlements and groups. One of the more interesting and dynamic of these groups are the predators.
Predator societies are based around the hunting of other survivor groups. To a predator, a measure of one’s value and status in the community is his hunting prowess and the collection of trophies he’s collected over his lifetime.
These people use their considerable natural ability combined with rigorous training from the time they can walk to stalk prey in a multitude of different terrains. They make no attempt to communicate with the prey. Also, this culture has it’s own language, both spoken and emotive, making attempts to interrogate captives difficult at best.
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There are several encounter types players might face. The juvenile training patrol consists of 4-8 juveniles and one trainer of considerable ability while the solo hunter is the most common encounter.
Predator outposts are placed about a day’s easy walk from the main base of operations. where pregnant women and young children can be kept and protected near a clean water source. This settlement may be only temporary as the prey move around an area in a semi-nomadic lifestyle hunting a variety of prey groups.
Predator attributes will include high health and physical aspects as well as good reflexes, willpower and movement abilities. Average intelligence or better is common amongst older hunters while younger specimens will have a mix of intelligence and innate cunning. Skills will often include disguise, endurance, an ability to resist physical hardship, awareness of their surroundings, archery, the ability to shadow and track prey, wilderness survival traits, dodge capabilities, a variety of melee skills, stealth, first said, evasion and performance abilities to mimic prey sounds for ambush.
Gear will be lightweight and mobile with leather armor likely being the heaviest a predator would consider wearing. Bow, arrows and a knife are common.
When populating your post-apocalyptic world, keep in mind the prey/predator relationship. There needs to be enough prey to support the predator community and a good ratio is 30-40 prey to 1 predator.
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