It makes you realise why there was a campaign season in the good old days. Sure, you had to get the harvest in and armies were extremely hard to supply between October and March. But getting from place to place on foot is also just a gigantic pain in the arse. Better to just stay at home and wait for spring.
I did some hikes that I have done before and worked out that I was on average travelling at half my usual pace just because I was constantly having to pick my way around impromptu bodies of water where once there was grass. This also meant that I spent most of my time looking at the ground rather than the world around me, because I was more or less constantly picking my way from one patch of firm ground to another - like stepping stones.
We tend to think about the weather and terrain as basically being a matter of movement rates when we remember them at all. Just as relevant, if not more so, is I think the surprise roll. When the weather is bad you have to concentrate. If there had been a gang of goblins out there on the hunt, I would have been a sitting duck. That's not even to mention footprints and the ease of tracking.
Two rule suggestions, then:
1) During heavy rain, in random encounters intelligent creatures (including PCs) are automatically surprised unless they have prepared for rain or their nature suggests otherwise (Trolls, for instance, are unlikely to be concerned by mud)
2) Tracking during heavy rain and the following day is automatically successful
I found the description of winter in Olaus Magnus' Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus to be an interesting contrast to the descriptions I've read from more southern parts of Europe. To him, winter is a time of great activity and increased travel: frozen lakes and rivers make better roads than actual roads, and even become the site of markets and inns. I suppose that once you move to a cold enough climate that freezing temperatures are certain rather than possible, it becomes far easier to plan for and utilise. In general, the book is a wonderful resource of material for games.
ReplyDeleteHuh, I have never heard of that. It sounds fascinating!
DeleteI've been pondering doing a massive read of Olaus Magnus and commenting the chapters with an eye towards games, but it would be quite an undertaking. His Carta Marina could still probably be used as-is as a campaign map, though.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThe eastern european crusades (think Teutonic Knights) usually had campaing season in winter because of this.
DeleteIn summer the area was often mosquito infested swamp. But in winter the ice could be massive enough to carry a knight and horse in full armour. Except for the Battle on the Ice I guess.
Every time I find myself trekking in miserable, muddy conditions my mind recalls the descriptions I've read about the Battle of Agincourt. Imagine treading through the muck in full armor with arrows pelting down on you. Ineffective as they typically were against full plate, they could still make it through a helmet's visor if you were unlucky so the charge forward was apparently a hunched over, head-down affair.
ReplyDeleteFatigue is the main thing muddy terrain should affect, both for overland travel, and in combat (back to Agincourt, remembering those that literally drowned in mud after being grappled to the ground). First I just have to find some fatigue rules that I like...
Yeah - there is a great description in John Keegan's Face of Battle of that.
DeleteThat's why I like your campaign ideas about the fixed sun or the long seasons. Exaggerated weather shoves it in your face well.
ReplyDeleteHad a similar idea while on a morning hike: monsters that live in thick mist which flows in like waterfalls in the evening. Humans live in hilltops and the best way to move between them is at sprints during middday after the fog has burned off.
It does! I am still working on the Fixed World but it's very slow at the minute.
DeleteI have had ideas like that too - mist monsters, rain monsters, mud monsters, etc. Random encounters as products of changes in the weather.
This blog is terrible. A feeble with no talent and no understanding of D&D promotes cold showers and hikes in the countryside for depression.
ReplyDeleteJudge a blog by the average response. Arse kisser dazzled by mediocrity.
Stop reading it then.
DeleteGet out in the fresh air and find a girlfriend.
This reminds me of an idea I had a three years ago. You see that year was shit around here. It started to rain in eraly July and basically did not stop unti mid February. At least light rain every day for months. Unpaved walking paths in parks became mud holes, small rivers carried so much water bridges around where I lived were unusable, harvest did rot on fields that turned into swamps, even wooden doors warped in their frames from moisture.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of apocalypse storries were it get's so hot ervything turns desert. There are also a lot of apocalypse storries were the Ice comes in, and burries everything.
What about an autumn apocalypse? One year the autumn rain came early, and did not stop. When it was time for frost, no frost came, just cold rain everyday. When the time for spring came instead there was a lit drizzel...