I have a question regarding what skill check to use for characters who want to light a fire in a frozen, post-apocalyptic wasteland without a lighter, matches, etc. The rules I play by are somewhat gritty and tend towards more realism without being overly complicated or onerous. Knowing how difficult it is to light a fire without a source of sudden ignition, I want it to be relatively difficult and require a fair bit of time to do.

I've scoured the net for clues, and am definitely leaning towards old faithful...the Survival check, but thought I would fly it past other weavers...

Thoughts?

Well if they have kindling, a lens and direct sunlight it isn't too difficult. It's definitely a survival check though.

Make it around DC 20 and a time of, oh, half an hour in-game. Retries possible, but it takes half an hour each time.

You don't even need something like a lens. So long as you have two sticks and shoelace this can be done. It does require work, but an adequate Survival check would be more than sufficient.

No lens, no direct sunlight due to the sun behind the clouds. To me DC 20 seems a bit high and half an hour seems a bit long, unless they only had improvised materials or something like that. I do agree that it could potentially take a long time to get a fire going though but I would think something like 10 minutes per check/retry would be more appropriate. They can gather twigs and make a birds nest out of pieces of dried bark for the base and shavings and dried grass for the nest so I'm happy with the materials on hand.

What about one Survival check for foraging for the materials and another for actually lighting the fire?

Two checks seems somewhat reasonable if the game is fairly gritty as described. In a more heroic game, I'd probably gloss over it entirely. Unless there was a blizzard or something.

...So does that mean you need two checks from me N_P?

*sheepish grin*

Uhhh...why this has nothing to do with anything....

You could make it a skills challenge. One of the few new concepts that I like from WotC.

Thats a godo idea - I liek them too.

Part 1 - checks to find materials

Part 2 - checks to light fire

Makes for an interesting way to Role-Play and Roll-Play lighting the fire.

Of course, only for a gritty game. Most games, you'd jsut say they light a fire! :-)