Bear matter (another longish post)

[Bakkat]

  I've noticed how dangerous wolves are, and Njerps as well. Gladly It's been several characters with no robbers at sight, those are dangerous as well. And I'm proud to have taken my first bear down.
   In fact I've taken one down time before, but it doesn't count for me. The character has just been created and encountered a sleeping bear, after walking few miles. Approached with caution, step by step, till the Character was near enough to land an axe hit right over the skull, killing in instantly. That Character was abandoned pretty quickly. Because for me it was more like an experiment. I would never approach an sleeping bear, with little 16 years old in such a manner.

   Now what happent recently was different. I've accepted the quest to recover a valuable woodman's axe from a camp site. The man that asked me for that item was crippled, perhaps never beeing able to walk again. He told me that an agressive bear showed out of nowhere and attacked him. Eventhough he tried to disengage from the combat several times, he couldn't.
   I've succesfully recovered items from camps in similar quests. Stealth, plus patience, some tracking and hearing. I was able to get in, pick them up, and get out without facing the source of danger. Somehow this time, as I couldn't find the camp site, and the tracks of the bear seemed older and older while days and nights passed, the character began to lose the patience, skipped some stealth and kept covering more terrain. Almost considering to abandon the given task.
  Hearing the roar of the bear, as to notice it was rushing towards the Character was alarming. My heart raised. But I knew I had to be still, no keys pressed in the keyboard. I had to be thoughtful in that exact time. The bear came out when less expected, and it was agressive and... it was over me.
  What now?
  If I turn my back and run, well, that could go horribly wrong.
  So, I stand? I can't stand... I can't stand...
  Weapons: I've got Long bow, a set of knives and axes. My strongest hability is the axe. Woodman's axe proves to be a little unhandy in certain face-ups.
  I've got to make a desicion, the hand axe it will be. It is already in my hand.

  I'll run, but facing the animal.
  Get one back-step in, and it tries to bite me.
  So, bite will be met with sharp blow in the head.
  When the claws, I go for the arms, and blunt?
  Holly shit, the weapon is always "almost falling from my hands".
  Some F3 checkings now and then.
  Step back, counter-attack, step back, counter-attack.
  The beast have even another type of attack.
  And each time I have the innitiave, I'll take a step away.

   As the wounded person told me, trying to disengage wasn't possible. And this creature could end the life of the Character for sure.

   After some several actions taking place the bear suddently gets like normal, no agressive, it even seemed as it was going away.
   Another moment to get away of the keyboard and think.
   In one hand, the bear was a little bit tired and with some wounds or bruises...
   In the other hand, I was also injured and a bit tired as well...
   One part of me wanted to go for the kill, the other part wanted to not take the risk, just let the animal go.
   But for any outcome, I'd have to recover those fatigue points.
   Back to Walking, and [.] wait a turn - rest.
   The bear just jumped over the character. Oh-Oh-Oh.

The strategy used was new for me, and it worked. The character could get the skull high up there in a tree, and its skin to preserve near there.
I've been playing this game for years now. And after all these characters and all those hours in-game and several months in real life, I can now say I brought down my first bear.
It was challeging
  and I'm really glad about it.

[Brygun]

Well done.

One of my memories for this game was "hunting gone wrong" start which had the angry bear, my dead pa and the character on... an island! Turned out it was like 3 wilderness tiles big. That's it.

It was early in my game play. Hadn't learn for making ropes from clothes or using mods. I though the only way for me to make a raft was to kill that bear.

For months we lived on that island. Dad-killer and me. Eating berries, catching fish, a few birds and oh yes... Dad-killer wandering up by me over and over again.  Id live on different sides of the island until the bear came.

It taught me to look hard at what this game teaches. Much like your own experience in learning that if you have to fight a way how.

Built the 3 log bear trap and slept in my feeble fort of stake fencing. Slept there and awoken to the pain screams of the bear a few yards away from my sleeping spot. What followed was a three-stooges attempt to kill the bear at range. Throwing every stone, rock and wood hunk on hand. Then collecting the misses to throw them again... and again... and again. Finally risking getting closer to a now moderately injured and massively angry bear under the logs.