Prospecting (sage ability)

Prospecting is an amateur-status sage ability, in the study of Geology, that gives skill at combing through an untapped wilderness, often through creek beds or along ridgelines and hilltops, often on hands and knees, seeking signs of mineralization in rock outcroppings. This sign is generally called show - the glint of colour, which gives away the presence of metal (particularly gold or silver) in what is then called a dig or trap site.

Once a show is found, the area must be worked over with a pick and shovel, often with the need to construct sluice boxes, races and cradles in order to winnow placer deposits from gravel and sand. Most shows are short-lived, exhausted and abandoned quickly, requiring the prospector to move on.

There will be potentially be 0-4 shows (2d4-4) per two-mile hex covered by wilderness (Type VIII). The number of shows need to be determined before a chance for finding them is rolled.

During the course of a month of steady prospecting, a character with knowledge of doing so has a base 7 in 20 chance of locating and identifying a show in a two-mile hex, if one exists (offer non-prospectors a chance of 1 in 1000). After a month of searching a hex where there's no show to be found, the character will feel the hex is a wasted effort and any chance of prospecting being done must be in some other hex.

If the prospector succeeds, roll a d30 to determine how many days were needed to find the show.

Further determination of finds, their size and their fiscal value should be created under a heading, Mining.