Has anyone done a game (at least a full session) where the bulk of the action was, essentially, running an expedition? And not where running an expedition was the frame for a series of combat encounters or colorful "meet the natives" sort of things, but where the excitement & interest came from stuff like crossing rivers, climbing mountains, traversing trackless wastes, managing provisions, running out of water, etc?

Because, you know, those sorts of things can be fascinating in movies and books, but handling them at length in RPGs seems difficult. Especially with multiple players. (I can think of a few board games which handled the theme with vary degrees of success, namely Outdoor Survival, Voyage of the B.S.M Pandora, and Source of the Nile. Balancing personnnel and equipment choices with encumbrance and supply were fun factors.)

Are there any RPG systems that provide good mechanics for this sort of thing?

I've played a session where this was done. It was GURPS Infinite Worlds, there's supposed to be a sort of inter-dimensional exploration and police force, and they have a training world, a world stuck in an ice age. For your final training they turf you out of a helicopter somewhere out in the wilderness and you have to make your way home.

The "conflict" was partly within the team - getting each to give their best, avoiding needless intraparty conflicts - but mostly with the elements and the beasts of the wild.

I don't know much about mountains and ice, but I know a bit about general survival and the bush, as did the GM. So we were able to use out-of-character knowledge to enrich the in-game experience. It was one of the most enjoyable game sessions I've ever been a player in.

You'd need quite some detailed rules if the players and GM didn't have that out-of-character knowledge to liven things up, I think. I don't know of any such games.

Beyond the Mountains of Madness has huge sections, before you get to the Things Man Was Not Meant to Know, that would be entire game sessions of preparing and then going on an antarctic expedition, involving a lot of man vs. nature style survival.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Elliot WilenAre there any RPG systems that provide good mechanics for this sort of thing?

The Environment series for Traveller is supposed to be very good--

http://index.rpg.net/display-series.phtml?seriesid=744

Quote from: Pierce InverarityThe Environment series for Traveller is supposed to be very good--

I seem to remember a few other Traveller Adventures deal with environmental issues (e.g., the corrosive atmosphere in Shadows, Across the Bright Face, Marooned/Marooned Alone, etc.).

That's right, Marooned is all about that!

Ditto AtBF. Is Shadows the one with the aliens in the pyramid?

Those are what you want to check out, El.

Quote from: Pierce InverarityThat's right, Marooned is all about that!

And the flip-side, Marooned Alone wasn't a half-bad solo adventure as I recall.  I'll have to dig it out and give it another spin after 20-odd years.

!i!

Quote from: Pierce InverarityIs Shadows the one with the aliens in the pyramid?

Yes, Shadows is the one with the pyramids.  They are all Double Adventures (Double Adventure 1: Annic Nova/Shadow, Double Adventure 2: Across the Bright Face/Mission on Mithril, Double Adventure 4: Marooned/Marooned Alone).

I've done plenty of sessions of the kit-up-and-travel type, yes. Fun in a workmanlike kind of way. Climbing Griffin Mountain was probably a whole session. And we had several sessions exploring the Russian rivers in Pendragon. Rafts, portage, river crossings etc.

Movies and books, eh?

Firelighting: RPG Adventure in the Frozen North
by London Press

GM: (rolls dice) You've trodden on ice over water and you've gone in up to the waist.
Player: Crap! I'll struggle out. Umm...I'll try to build a fire.
GM: Sure, make your Building Fire in Snow roll...failed? Well, you've just got that sucker going and a whole pile of snow falls out of the tree above and puts it out.
Player: What! As if I'm going to build a fire under a tree!
GM: You failed the roll, all right? It's just colour.
Player: I'll try again!
GM: Time for another CON roll against the cold...failed? Oookaay, your fingers are going numb and you take a -20 to all DEX skills.
Player: Failed the @#$%^&* firelighting roll.
GM: Oh dear, that's terrible! So when you have to make another CON roll, you're at, um, -50 because your feet are wet and you haven't got a fire.
Player: Can I kill the dog and shelter in its warm carcass?
GM: Make a DEX roll at -50...failed? Okaaay...you can barely move your arms and legs and the dog runs away from you. Time for another CON roll...failed? Well, you feel warm all over....

Quote from: Elliot WilenHas anyone done a game (at least a full session) where the bulk of the action was, essentially, running an expedition? And not where running an expedition was the frame for a series of combat encounters or colorful "meet the natives" sort of things, but where the excitement & interest came from stuff like crossing rivers, climbing mountains, traversing trackless wastes, managing provisions, running out of water, etc?

Yeah, inspired by a summer of hiking and hunting and by the ending of  Fellowship of the Ring, I designed an adventure involving lots of outdoor stunts.

Lowly fantasy adventurers had to hunt down and destroy an entity that was created by a mad wizard and managed to escape. The party had to chase this creature before it gained several abilities (including shape-changing) so time was of the essence.

The first story arc involves the story setup and then pure outdoor survival/tracking, with no combat whatsoever (except hunting big game). It took place over a variety of climates and terrain.

Second story arc was a tensed game of cat  and mouse between the creature and the PC. This takes place while the creature slowly grows in power and fierceness.

In the final story arc, the creature has a vast array of abilities and (provided the PCs have survived thus far) tries to lose the party by shape-shifting and entering a large coastal town.

Quote from: Elliot WilenAre there any RPG systems that provide good mechanics for this sort of thing?

I designed it at first for D&D3e. It was my first and only attempt at designing an adventure to be published. I was planning to send it to third party publishers but it lacked something in play.

I ran it again using Story Engine and it was a brilliant success. There are no survival rules in Story Engine but the scene-based resolution handles this kind of stuff really well. Being free of certain fantasy assumptions was also beneficial.

Sourcebooks to design the adventure and handle certain situations were a variety of outdoor/survival/hiking/camping/travelling/medical books, websites and magazines.

Ooh, Mission on Mithril - man vs the elements - traversing the snow planet in a cramped ATV

I suppose I could run a few sessions of this type of adventure, but I think there's only so much dramatic conflict that one could squeeze out of this particular theme. I'm really interested in running a Touching the Void type scenario....but it would be difficult. Resource management during an adventure adds a level of verisimilitude.....but I don't think I could sustain an adventure based on resource management....

Regards,
David R

The dungeoncrawl I'm currently running has some survival elements (provisions, light sources, etc.), but it hasn't been the focus.

I do have a sub-level roughed out that features an underground lake; it can only be reached via a pit trap (directly into the water, of course, ruining torches, lamps and many scrolls).  If the PCs stumble upon this area, I intend to run it with very little in the way of combat encounters, concentating more on dealing with the environment.

There are also a few large treasure items/troves that the PCs are very close to discovering that will present a few new logistical problems: transporting the stuff out of the dungeon and back to town, guarding stuff that has to be left behind and taken back on a second trip, etc.  Not really what the OP is discussing, but a very similar kind of concern.

And I'll second the Gamelords environment books for Traveller.  I have the Mountain and Desert books, and they're full of useful info that can be used with any game.  I particularly like the random mountain generation system in the former book.

I had some players in my memorable Eberron campaign (in the days when there weren't any supplements for the world yet...) that decided to cross country treck (being urbanites) in teh dead of winter...

They absolutely hated it. I punished them mercilessly for not preparing adequetely, and then pulled out the DMG weather tables.  What should have been a day out and a day back to investigate an ambush site became a weeklong struggle for survival in the cold.


From that I learned to never pit players against the wilderness without warning them first that you don't pull punches for mother nature. Still, they must have enjoyed SOMETHING... they kept coming back week after week...