Life in the desert

alright so im sitting here getting a campaign ready waiting for my 4e dmg to come in so i can look it over to see if it can answer my question but i want to know the answer now. can you help me out?

So i have and idea for a campaign set in the desert. But I dont know any rules to govern traveling acrossed a sand blown desert. Is it easy to get lost, how fast is travel, what about wind storms, etc... I want to make water very vital to this campaign so whats a good rule for water consumption? How much water per day per race?

Any other idea will help tons cause im sure i havent thought of everything.

You could use the "lost in the wilderness" skill challenge, making the PCs use their relevant skills to survive (nature, endurance, etc. etc.) or something close to that.

I have extensive time in desert environments (American Southwest, Sinai, and Saudi Arabia).

The most important thing is water. An active Human needs to drink around a liter every hour when the temp is above 100F (38c). And half a liter per hour in lower temps.

The desert is made up of a wide variety of terrain types. The American southwest is more fertile than the middle of Saudi Arabia. The Sinai and its neighbor the Negev are very dry and rocky, with major mountain ranges. So travel time and navigational difficulties are not consistent.

If you are only focusing on sandy dune desert areas I would cut non combat movement in half, maybe by a third. Getting lost is a real possibility unless one is using the sun, or stars to navigate by, if a major terrain feature is visible (Mountains) than using it as a guide would make it easier to navigate.

I strongly recommend using Google image search and enter the names of any real world desert. This will help you visualize the desert and some of the images may spark adventure ideas and locales.

the setting i had in mind was the whole continent was like a desert... so there would be Arabian, Australian, Sahara, and Mojave deserts

all the farm land would be near the coasts and the valuable metals would be in the mountains so trade between the two is a must. i am going to place well located and rare oasis' where towns may be built

An interesting idea . . .

First thing to consider is that the majority of land on Earth referred to as desert is not covered by sand dunes. Bare rock, compacted gravel and stone, salt flats, and so forth make up significant areas of desert surface on this world. Most sandy deserts are the results of weathering of specific regions of eroded stone, and the sand that results is often the color of said stone. Thus there are deserts with red sand, yellow sand, white sand, and even black sand. While I cannot think of any off hand, I imagine that there are places with brown or gray sand as well.

Furthermore, the defining issue of the desert is the utter lack of moisture upon the surface. This leads to several things: significant wind erosion rather than water (leading to a starker, rougher look to the terrain), a lack of vegetation (leading to stronger winds over the landscape, as no forests exist to slow them), greater differences in day / night temperatures (day might be 100*F, while night might be close to 20*F - even in the summer). However, note that water might still exist well beneath the surface. Indeed, oasis are regions where the land and sand / sediment is low enough that water beneath the surface is revealed upon the surface. If you have an underworld - or underdark as it is sometimes called - then the lower and more stable temperature, combined with the fact that rivers and even lakes might exist there - would likely make it a major strategic region, even for humans.

Note that rivers can still flow for significant distances through a desert. Consider the Nile, for example. Thus you might have a major river running from the equator-side of the continent towards the pole-side of the continent. Along the river - at least nearer the sea - will be a significant region for planting and either city-states or kingdoms. The difference will be determined by the stability of the flooding. If it is regular it will likely give rise to kingdoms, such as the Lower and Upper Kingdoms of Egypt, whereas if it is irregular in its flooding the situation is less stable, and city-states are perhaps more likely to develop.

The river might also run under the ground, erupting from the side of a cliff or out of an oasis at some point - seemingly from nowhere (unless towns exist under the surface along said river's underground length).


One perhaps notable consideration - just how large *is* the continent? Theoretically, I suppose you could make it as large (north to south) as the widest expanse of the Sahara - somewhat over a thousand miles. Length (East to West) could be another issue.

Also, are the locals colonists? Did some kingdom in the ancient past (or recent past) colonize the continent - only to collapse at some point after, leaving the colonists to develop on their own or die out? Or did the locals develop civilization in this place? If that is true, has the land always been desert, or has something happened that has made it desert? Perhaps some deity associated with rain and storms was slain, resulting in a world wide dissication until a new one can replace the lost deity?

Lastly, what races are present on this continent? All of the standard D&D races or only a few? And where on the continent are they located? Or are they evenly mixed in all areas?

Anyway, please give us more information on the setting so we can help you further flesh it out.

i would love to give some information on my setting but in reality i just thought of the idea today while making the first dungeon the pc's start in

but here is what i have:
the natives of the land are going to be desert elves, i am going to try to make them like the Fremen in the Dune novels (and im thinking about adding the spice and blue on blue eyes to the campaign as well but not sure how to work that)
besides these desert elves there are no regular elves, yet
the dwarves were the first race to colonize this land but soon left its colony and its people as a great war broke out back home (and i was thinking that great war happened about 2000+ years ago maybe)
there are a few eladrin but are very rare
the haflings live in an arizona type desert
im debating on if i want dragonborn and tiefling there also
humans are new to the land they have been around for some 600 years or so now (idk yet how they got there and why they are stuck with no contact from the old world)

i was planning to have a large river under the desert (that the fremen use/control?) and small rare rivers over land. and a large lake on top of the mountains as for the size of this continent i am unsure of yet

does this help explain what im trying to get at

This will likely be my last posting tonight, so I will not be able to answer your response to this post until tomorrow.

My first thought is to have some dwarves remaining behind in the mountains. The humans may not know about the dwarves, but perhaps the Freman / Desert Elves trade with them. Indeed, the humans might presume that the Desert Elves are the source of ores and various metal crafted items when in fact they are mere tradesmen selling to the humans the fruits of the dwarves mines and forges in the mountains. The main reason for this is twofold: 1) if a PC wishes to be a dwarf it allows for the option, and 2) it allows for further adventure ideas later should the PCs start exploring the mountains. This is just a thought, however.

As you are using Eladrin, perhaps *they* are the 'blue eyed Freman'? This would explain their rarety, the unusual powers they have (compared to desert elves), and so forth.

As you are using Eladrin, I presume this is 4e? If so, then as I recall Halflings are associated with water. Why not have them living on the main river along its (shorter) surface length? Or around the lake in the mountains? Or along the marsh lands near the delta of the main river?

How is the lake in the mountains getting its water? I presume you are basing it off Lake Victoria that feeds the Nile - with the major river being fed in part or whole by this lake before sinking underground for its journey to the coast? But if I recall correctly, Lake Victoria receives much of its water from intermittent or seasonal sub-tropical rains. Are the mountains in which the the lake is located on the equator-side of the continent? Is that coast more akin to savanna or sahel, receiving intermittent or seasonal rains? Or might the Lake have in its depths a portal to the Plane of Water, ever filling it even as it drains away into the major river?

If you are using 4e, then Dragonborn might well fit into the setting you are creating. Perhaps Dragonborn are mostly barbarous and are in fact the original inhabitants of the continent. Tieflings do not really sound as if they would fit, however.

It sounds as if the continent was settled three times: first by the dwarves, who mostly or completely left at some point a few centuries after arriving; then later by the desert elves, who have more or less settled well upon the continent; and lastly by the humans, who have somehow supplanted the desert elves, forcing them away from the coasts and further into the harsher deserts inland. I would expect some conflict between the prior two races.

How did the halflings arrive? Were they perhaps initially slaves of the elves or humans?

Recall that as far as trade goes, salt is almost as important as water in a desert. In fact in Earth history, many that lived in or near a desert traded in salt. Sometimes they carved it from salt flats. At other times they gathered water from drying out / dying inland seas and let the sun remove the water, leaving only salt behind.

It sounds like the desert elves both live upon the surface and under the surface, working as caravans (and raiders?) across the desert and in towns and caravans along the underworld length of the major river. Perhaps they use hidden entrances to this underworld, raiding human settlements only to seemingly vanish into the desert afterward.

well the lake and the rivers it feeds gets its water from a great snow storm that happens only once every
ten years in the mountains and slowly melts to feed the lake... the snow storm is cause by (insert a god here)

here is a ruff draft of the history of the land:

the dragonborn ruled the continent for many centuries but then the temperature of the land started getting warmer and changing the land
so they fled only a few remained behind. only two dragonborn ships returned back to the continent and it brought some passangers, the elves. Soon the elves discovered the spice in the desert and became addicted. without any way to mass produce the spice the elves left the coast line and started living in the desert. thats how they became the fremen.
after about 250 years the spice suddenly disappeared. this caused many of the fremen to die off. many of them blamed the dragonborn. after about a year they begain to die from the lack of spice, some the ones that died came back to life within hours of their death like nothing happened but they were different from the way they were before they died, they became the eladrin. feeling this difference the eladrin left their brothers looking for their own
home. after five years the spice reappeared
Then the dwarves came to this land looking for new metals for trade. The dwarves came and went freely between their kingdom and this new
colonly for 100 years without ever finding the dragonborn or the fremen. then the last dwarven ship left the colonly only to never return. after about 50 years the dwarves discovered the dragonborn and the fremen.
the dragonborn and the fremen were at war with eachother over a large salt mine.
the dwarves began playing sides. this lasted for 95 years then an eclipes happened.
when the sky went dark at high noon the war between the dragonborn and fremen ended for there was a new enemy.
monsters not natural to this land appeared in mass and attacked everything in sight. populations were destroyed and then there was a balance between the monsters and the three races
the dwarves and fremen traded between eachother while the dragonborn became more and more like the monsters themselves
then the humans arrived with halfling slaves. the humans built towns on the coast and used the haflings to do the farming. life was good for the humans until the dragonborn attacked. these dragonborn were not like the ones they knew back home. the humans began getting sick and forced the haflings to do most of the fighting. after many years of fighting the haflings began to fight back against the humans. with the humans suffering from a plague they sent word back home for help. before help returned the haflings killed all the humans and began looking for a safe place to live away from the human settlement. the dragonborn not seeing a human for years forgot about them
and went after the ones they have been fighting, the haflings
15 ships of humans came to help and brought news that a large army of the underworld was attacking the kingdom. but all they found was a ruined city with dead bodies everywhere. while burning the bodies many of the people got sick and died. most of the sailors died of illness leaving no one knowing the way back home. the ones that thought they knew the way took some ships and sailed off only to never be heard from again. So the humans began again on this land. they met the fremen and began trading with them for their metals.
it has been 200 years since the those 15 ships arrived from the old kingdom.

any holes im missing? i know im missing some if not many

Raiding party...

This is something that came to me after reading your description; it has the character of a party of elves preparing to raid a caravanserai on one of the trade roads. It's basically a mish-mash of images from different sources, but it mostly holds together; just a late-night thought.

=====

[Scene: a camp, on a ridge above the trading route from al-Iskandariya to ai-Yafa. In the distance, along the trade road, the lights of a serai can be made out in the distance. There are perhaps forty naurael, elves of the high desert, seated irregularly around a fire-pit; it is the full dark of night. The elves have been silent for some time, entranced by the flames.]

An elderly elf near the fire rises to his feet, supporting himself on a staff of stout ironwood, wrapped with the hide and teeth of some reptilian beast. He throws back the hood of his intricately embroidered robes, swaying in time with the dancing of the flames. He reaches into a pouch suspended from the wide sash about his waist, and casts a handful of powder into the fire. As the aroma of cinnamon fills the air, the gathered naurael sigh deeply and begin to rock gently back and forth with the old one's swaying. He nods, then begins to speak:

Ai! Ai! Naura, kri! Hear! Hear! O elves, and attend my words!
Now is an-Thelur—the Sun—hidden from the sky! Now is al-Senan—the Moon—not yet risen!
Now is the time of an-Sehr, when secrets are told to urachim, the stones, and to elchim, the stars!

[the assembled elves whisper: iurachim, kri! ielchim, kri! ]

It was dawn in a fair country, that the bones of our ancestors remember, where green things grew, and all had their fill of water. The sons of dragons came, and took us from that place; to the beat of drums—tan! tan! tan!—they made us march. From the places of our ancestors they took us, and across the Great Sea.

[the assembled elves whisper: iurachim, kri! ielchim, kri! ]

To this land, this land of fire in the light of an-Thelur, this land of ice in the light of al-Senan they brought us, and here did our ancestors weep, remembering—glug, glug,glug—the waters of their home. In the light of an-Thelur did we learn to hide by day, and in the light of al-Senan did we learn to revel in the night, and in the darkness and the silence of an-Sehr did we learn patience.

[the assembled elves whisper: iurachim, kri! ielchim, kri! ]

Then woe came to us, then weal came to us, then an-Sehr, the darkness, led us to al-tinam, the spice. Ai, Ai! Al-tinam is sweet! Ai, ai! Al-tinam is bitter! For the love of al-tinam did our we dry our tears, for the love of al-tinam did our ancestors forsake the land of green and water!

[the assembled elves whisper: iurachim, kri! ielchim, kri! ]

Many times has an-Thelur gone into the darkness! Many time has al-Senan gone into the east! Many times has al-Khusre the Lady of Shadows crossed the land, and yet we remain! The sweetness of al-tinam we remember, the bitterness of al-tiname we do not forget! But with our swords—ket, ket, ket—we are revenged on those whose ancestors brought ours to this land!

[the assembled elves whisper: iurachim, kri! ielchim, kri! ]

With our swords and our knives and our fleetness—esh, esh, esh—we take what is ours...

—Siran Dunmorgan

not just water. but food. not many things live in the desert. finding things to kill to eat is hard too.

and minerals. salt is/was worth more when it was hard to get and transport.