Herobizkit said:
Thing about snowfalls is, unless you're already in an arctic (ie. icy tundra) situation, snow generally falls on or around the freezing point (0 C / 32 F). Once it's down, though, the temperature can dive and the wind can make it feel even colder than it is.
Some added background which I deliberately left out of the OP:
As mentioned, the weather is being magically manipulated. Here's how- Evil Bad Guys from the neighbouring country(s) want to wipe the people of this country off the map, and then move in once all resistance has been negated. Thus far they've done so by holding back the water/rain. Over the course of 50 years, a natural drought which would perhaps have been a nuisance for 2 or 3 years, had been extended and amplified year after year. The country is now dry as tinder. The date (in real world equivalents, for the northern hemisphere) is about 20th December. Throughout all of Autumn, and the first 20 days of winter, there has been less than 1 mm of rain.
Only now is the water getting through, but it's going to do so in a major hit. Temperatures have been below freezing for weeks, but probably still above 0 degrees F. I haven't decided if this sudden release of water is by intent or by some sort of mishap for the bad guys... What I want is to do a total about face regarding the weather.
It will go from no water whatsoever to having WAY too much. Hence the desire for a blizzard.
I'm not sure how well the above ties in with Herobizkit's point about snow falling around freezing point. I think I can safely ignore that based on the magical element. i.e. yes it should have started snowing ages ago, but it hasn't because the DM says so haha
Nellisir said:
If you had steady warmth after the snowfall (above freezing), I'd drop the snow by 6-12" per day. Rivers and streams are going to flood extremely fast - frozen ground does not absorb water, so everything goes into the rivers. Bridges, villages, and towns will be washed away. Roads will disappear.
Over time and with more moderate warming, the snow will settle to about half of it's initial height, so a 4' snowfall would leave about 2' of snow after a week or so, as it slowly compacts.
Noted, for when I decide to let the weather warm up *evil laugh*
Nellisir said:
Movement is pretty much going to stop once the snow hits 3'. If they make two miles a day in 3' of snow, that's excellent. That's without snowshoes. With snowshoes, I'd cut whatever their regular rate would be in half, and leave it at that. Trust me, however awkward snowshoes seem, they're far, far better than not having them.
Now this is exactly the kind of information I require. I had planned on some gnolls attacking the village in the near future, while there would still be 4 or 5 feet of snow by your estimate above. Naturally, gnolls being larger than humans would be less affected by the snow, but not to that degree!
GhostBear said:
Snow blindness is a big problem. All this nice snow, sure is pretty, especially when it's acting like a big mirror. Now you're getting light directly from the sun into your eyes AND off of the ground.
Navigation can be a problem (seeing clearly into the distance is a challenge) and there could be effects in combat as well. But at night... That's awesome stuff.
How might I represent this in game? Let's see...
The party is going to exit from a dark underground cave into broad daylight, but with snow fall. So, I guess point 1 is to talk about the contrast at that moment.
I can give a simple warning about the weather by having a few of their kobold 'allies' react to the snow with fear and bolt for home. If the party is lucky, one of the kobolds that can speak common might explain there is a blizzard approaching.
Once on the way home, they have about half a day of travel in just plain snow-fall. No real wind. Let's say that gets them 1/4 of the way home. I consider this point # 2, speed is reduced to half already.
Point # 3 comes with nightfall and camping... assuming they're not stupid enough to travel at night through relatively unfamiliar territory. I'll have the ranger (in particular) make a survival roll to give them a clue about sleeping under an evergreen or two. How hard should this roll be? How 'common knowledge' would this have been in pre-car, pre-electricity times?
herrozorro said:
Snow drifts are also another hazard, while it might snow only 6 inches heacy winds can make it several feet in places as the snow blows and is redistributed.
The second day, the wind picks up, so this would be when snow first gets redistributed. Towards the latter half of the day I can throw in survival, reflex and similar checks to avoid snow-drifts.
This combined with slower speed due to more snow on the ground can be point # 4
At the end of this day, I estimate they'd be 2/3 of the way home. i.e. not quite as slow as 1/4 speed, starting from already being 1/4 of the way home.
Day 3, now it is windy and snowing more. I'll have survival checks, and perhaps wisdom checks (as a backup) to handle navigation. (Pathfinder doesn't appear to have a separate navigation skill). This is point # 5. If they roll really well, I'll say they make it home. If they roll 'in the middle' I'll go with only 1/4 progress (close to home, but not home yet). If they roll badly, they'll be traveling in the wrong direction for some or all of the day. I'll have them roll once every hour or two. How can I make this set of dice rolls more interesting for the players?
Day 4, conveniently, has not much snowfall, but is still windy. Navigation is still 'check-worthy' but much easier. If they don't make it home today they're going to be screwed.
Throughout this 3 or 4 day trek, they're going to be low on food. Survival checks for hunting will also be a necessity. I'm going to be a bit lenient on this, because otherwise it's just the DM being a bastard - I haven't made them track food properly for most of the campaign, so springing it on them now and actually enforcing it would be unfair. By rights they should have about -5 days worth of food (spread across the party), but I'm going to fudge in their favour and say they've got about 7 days worth, spread across the 5 or 6 characters. i.e. 1 1/2 days worth EACH.
I want this to be point # 6, but again I'm not sure how to represent it in game to make the point stand out. I can say 'You're hungry' but that's not very exciting. As I'm not going to attack them or do anything else too crazy on the way home, I figure saying 'X HP of damage from starvation' will suffice. It'll be easy enough to heal that damage up. It's not very satisfying though, so I'd love alternate suggestions.
Day 5 through 10 is the blizzard. If they aren't home yet, I'll allow a couple of hours of 'free travel' to get them home first. Otherwise, they wake up to find the blizzard already in progress. Even at home, food should now be an issue. As mentioned, 50 year drought, plus absolutely no rain up til now. Plus being snowed in for 5 days... PLUS a neighbouring town was decimated and the refugees have taken up residence here. The houses are over-populated, compounding the food issue.
I want being snowed in to feel like Point #7 and the total lack of food to be point #8. These are really the key issues I'm trying to drive home. The country is totally F'd right now, and the party is going to have to be involved in fixing it. I can reinforce point 7 by having a few houses collapse.
I think I'll have to warm up the subsequent weather in order to melt the snow, at least a bit, because I want the party on the move again, helping with the immediate food and shelter problems. Point 8 can be emphasized by having the party spend time assisting the populate to hunt. This can be glossed over to an extent, but again, any ideas for how to play it out in game would be appreciated. Perhaps scouting for lost sheep or similar?
OOO I just thought of something. There should be some horses around. Time to sacrifice them for the greater good of not being too hungry. I don't want to hit the canabalism point, but the eating of horses should send a clear message.
THEN the gnolls hit
