I asked this on TBP and got a few good responses, but I thought you guys might have more.
I'm designing an adventure (genre is typical vanilla fantasy) where a good part of it is a journey through a frozen wasteland. I want the journey to be a real struggle rather than just glossing over it with a couple paragraphs of descriptive text about how cold it is.
How can I stretch the journey part out and keep it interesting? How can I prolong the feeling of suffering through an inhospitable environment for up to a whole gaming session?
Perhaphs cook up (Or use if available in the system your useing) rules for exposer to cold. Makeing the party/group stop and set up camp at certain intervals. To warm back up.
If it's moderately high magic, it will be tough to have an effect as they can bypass most of the issues.
Exposed skin should risk frostbite, which could have permanent (until magically healed) minor penalties. But thick gloves will have penalties on most actions and a heavy hood will give you tunnel vision making it hard to spot danger.
Especially if it's windy, there's going to be a bunch of white on white, making hard to not get lost and white creatures will be hard to spot.
There can be big crevices to cross. Sometimes, these are hidden by a few inches of snow and they'll fall in if not careful.
Do a quick encumbrance calculation at the beginning to see how fast they can more with all their gear. They're going to have some tough choices - travel slow and safe and warm, and risk running out of supplies, or fast and risk getting lost or falling in a hole or ambushed. They're either going to have to bring a ton of food, risk running out, or take time out to try to hunt the small number of creatures.
Incorporeal creatures and most undead are immune to the cold so will not be impaired.
Have you read the Mountains of Madness sourcebook for CoC?
If not, you really should.
RPGPundit
play the game outside, in summer clothes. wait, you live in florida? play inside, crank the air conditioning, make everyone wear summer clothes. they'll role-play better with teeth a'chatterin' :D
nicephorus has hit most of the major points already, tho. it can get windy, strong and for a while, out on the frozen plains. apply huge penalties for missile weapons.
fatigue modifiers should be the order of the day. either you're warm, and the penalties come from unwieldy multiple layers of furs/clothes; or you have mobility, but slowly dying of frostbite. don't forget snow-blindness too.
Quote from: RPGPunditHave you read the Mountains of Madness sourcebook for CoC?
If not, you really should.
RPGPundit
Is it just called Mountains of Madness, or Beyond the Mountains of Madness?
I can find references to the latter but not the former.
EDIT: Any rules specific to Mentzer D&D would be especially helpful.
Quote from: TechnomancerHow can I stretch the journey part out and keep it interesting?
Create a series of challenges that build on one another, both in positive and negative ways. For example, the group comes across a hidden crevasse. They discover how to navigate it safely. Then they come upon a whole valley full of them. Then them come upon the druid creating them.
Quote from: TechnomancerHow can I prolong the feeling of suffering through an inhospitable environment for up to a whole gaming session?
Penalties that slowly accumulate but never go away.
Seanchai
Quote from: TechnomancerIs it just called Mountains of Madness, or Beyond the Mountains of Madness?
The latter. Easily recognized by its price tag of $75.
Quote from: Pierce InverarityThe latter. Easily recognized by its price tag of $75.
Yikes! That's an onion in the ointment. Might have to take a pass.
What system are you using?
I think some rules about frostbite, hypothermia, exhaustion, etc. could really put the screws on the PCs.
Quote from: Pierce InverarityThe latter. Easily recognized by its price tag of $75.
Or more, when you can find it. So, all in all, not the most practical suggestion.
!i!
You could let them wander just a little ways onto a sheet of moving ice that is so big they wouldn't know it was moving under them in the wrong direction and out to sea until they were FAR off course. Then have it begin to break up.
I was listening to the popular mechanics podcast and they were talking to a guy who went out on a research vessel and got ice locked on purpose. Everything was cool and neat science and all until they began to drift out of radio contact.
Actually the 'out of radio contact' thing might be entirely made up.
Quote from: TechnomancerHow can I stretch the journey part out and keep it interesting? How can I prolong the feeling of suffering through an inhospitable environment for up to a whole gaming session?
Terrain (ice, different textures of snow, fractured ice, crevasses, pack ice, etc.). Blizzards and white outs. Wind and drifts. Having trouble judging distance and direction. Hungry carnivorous critters like polar bears and large potential violent herbivores like moose. Fatigue based on terrain and exposure damage rules. Making the day and night cycle important (as well as the sun never rising or never going down during part of the year in the arctic) because things get colder at night. Ice blindness. Bear in mind that if you don't have the right gear to protect you to a certain temperature, you can freeze to death even if you are bundled up with everything you have.
There are a bunch of shows about surviving in extreme environments on the cable science and learning channels (e.g., Going to Extremes) worth watching for these sorts of things. In particular, a new season of Everest: Beyond the Limit is just starting this week, which deals with both extremely high altitude and the dangers of cold and weather.
Somebody mentioned a blizzard up above, and that's the perfect time to separate the party, or have them attacked by nasties when they can't see each other or even make out what is attacking them- or how many there are of what ever it happens to be. I know that most GMs hate splitting the party, but I've spent a lot of time in the cold, and one thing I can tell you is that the colder you get the more isolated you feel. Snow and wind steal away the noise of your companions, pain from the cold draws you inward, the whiteness of the snow makes you squint and narrows your field of vision, the cold itslef numbs your fingers and hands, and your face- if you get cold enough you will have trouble talking as your jaw numbs. Basically your interface with the world is comprimised. Each step becomes a trial- especially depending on the snow type. Fluffy, powdery snow will find it's way into your clothes, hard crusty snow will slow you down- and depending on what you are wearing, can actually cause injury to your ankles, calves as you slog through it.
Monotony is another constant of travel through the cold. Everything is white, everything is cold, the wind never stops ect...
I'd get some sort of CD with the noise of howliing wind and leave it on all night.
Funny, Aos, you just described eloquently why I used to love skiing so much. :D
Heh, I'm a die hard snowboarder, myself.