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Hi all,
while foraging food / fishing / hunting is clear, foraging water says: "When foraging for water, success means that you find enough drinkable water to fill your water bottles." (p 146)

So I guess one person goes off, takes all the bottles with it and returns with all bottles filled. Can be as much as 7-8 bottles per group member because that's what they could start with: D6 Rations of clean water individually and another D6 as a group gear. Of course the person has to be able to carry all the full bottles back, but Strength B-Backpack allows for 20 bottles in the backpack alone.

Do you play it like this? Makes water not so scarce after all, right? (Only limitation is the constant burden of carrying around so much water all the time, but once you got a horse or vehicle, water problem is solved.)

Haven't played yet, so happy to hear your thoughts!

In our group we assume that whatever the number of rations of water you start with is how many water bottles you have. So if you start with three rations of water, you have water bottles that is enough for three rations of water. If you want to have more bottles, you have to find more bottles somewhere or find someone who is willing to trade.

In our group, we decided that 'one canteen /bottle' [or roughly 1.5 liters] was one 'ration'. Different situations [hot weather, heavy work, military rations, etc.] will require the consumption of more than one water ration per person per day.

If a person goes off with 5 canteens to scrounge water, it is presumed that whatever they scrounge is a well, a water tap, a stream, etc. If the referee specifies that they found a 12-pack of bottled water, that's an item scrounge, not a survival roll.

As an aside, our group also came up with an SOP that has us boiling all water and washing our canteens out every time we scavenge water with them. Yeah, it's a pain in the butt, but so is dysentery If the water is really suspect, we run the water through a gas mask filter after boiling. It won't get everything, but it goes a long way towards preventing cholera, dysentery, and other water-borne illnesses that we don't have the drugs or hospital to treat.

As an aside, our group also came up with an SOP that has us boiling all water and washing our canteens out every time we scavenge water with them. Yeah, it's a pain in the butt, but so is dysentery If the water is really suspect, we run the water through a gas mask filter after boiling. It won't get everything, but it goes a long way towards preventing cholera, dysentery, and other water-borne illnesses that we don't have the drugs or hospital to treat.

but yeah, fits the game

Thanks for your answers so far!

I guess it is very much like the little guidance given in the book about making resources available at times (when the gang is occupied with other stuff) and scarce at other times (when it adds tension)

As an aside, our group also came up with an SOP that has us boiling all water and washing our canteens out every time we scavenge water with them. Yeah, it's a pain in the butt, but so is dysentery If the water is really suspect, we run the water through a gas mask filter after boiling. It won't get everything, but it goes a long way towards preventing cholera, dysentery, and other water-borne illnesses that we don't have the drugs or hospital to treat.

but yeah, fits the game

Thanks for your answers so far!

I guess it is very much like the little guidance given in the book about making resources available at times (when the gang is occupied with other stuff) and scarce at other times (when it adds tension)

Well, I think all stuff like this [food, water, medicine, scrounging] should be plot points instead of specifically listed on c-sheets.
By 'now' in game terms, the characters have had a minimum of 18 months of active duty service in a war zone, or else are refugees [which is an even harder teacher]. They already know to make sure they keep a spare set of boot laces in a pocket and to carry more than one canteen, you know? There is a real danger in survival games of them becoming too picky about listing each and every ounce /gram carried, and that's no fun for anyone. Life is already unpleasant, so why make your games that way too? Yeah, we're playing in a harder-core environment than most games... there aren't any Cure Potions or Automeds out there... but that's no reason to turn the game into 'Actuaries and Accountants'.
Interjecting a certain bit of realism here and there let's the referee know that we're taking the environment seriously without having to list our toothbrush on a gear list.