Calling [Real Life] Outdoor Experts!

[Tequila Sunrise]

I've gone on somewhat of a design tangent that I'd like input for. I'm broadly categorizing climate types as a way to organize natural hazards:

Forests come in three varieties: cold evergreen forests, temperate perennial forests, and hot rain forests. Forest hazards include fires and...?

Grasslands come in three varieties: cold tundras, temperate steppes, and hot plains. Grassland hazards include fires, tornados and...?

Wetlands come in three varieties: cold fens, temperate marshes, and hot swamps. Wetland hazards include fog, quicksand, brackish water and...?

Badlands come in three varieties: cold taigas, temperate deserts, and hot wastes. Badland hazards include sandstorms and...?

My question is: what major climate types and hazards am I missing?

And if you have any terminology suggests, please share. Btw, does anyone know a good word for what's between 'dry' and 'wet'?

 

[S'mon]

Forests come in three varieties: cold evergreen forests, temperate perennial forests, and hot rain forests.

Temperate forests can be higher-latitude deciduous, as in northern Europe, or lower-latitude evergreen, as around the Mediterranean.

 

[Dioltach]

One difficulty in dense forests is disorientation. It's very easy to lose your bearing if everywhere you look all you see is trees.

A hazard in wetlands would be insect-borne disease.

More generally, have you looked at the Köppen climate classification?

 

[Hand of Evil]

Parklands - this is open area grasslands with groves of trees. this could be a sub-cat under Grasslands and can be a transitional area.

Tundra and Grasslands - herd animals, lots and lots of herd animals, millions. This could mean issues crossing the path of these animals for a couple of reasons, some will be protective of the herd and young, or just the size of the herd, if moving you could lose days waiting for them to cross your path (see American Bison and African Wildebeest). You also have predators, while most will not see humaniods as a food source, some will. Watch, the skys in a fantasy game, dragons and ROC will find this as hunting grounds.

Flashfloods - As easy modes of travel, in almost every environment, dry(ish) rivers, lakes and streams make for quick trail paths. People walk them even in light rain not knowning the danger. City streets can also see them. 2 feet of water moving 4 mph is enough to sweep away a SUV.

Lightning - before Ben Franklin's invention of the Lighting Rod, building above 30 feet were asking for it and deaths from lightning may have been as high as 4 for every 1 million people, now days it is 1 for every 1 million. Think about how many strikes your areas will be taking as side event is wild fires.

Wetlands - Peat Bog, moors, shaking lands and such. Area is full of traps, you can fall through peat and shaking lands (litter that is just solid for plant growth but if you stop moving; sinks). Also, gases can be released from underwater (see Lake Nios). Oh, in a fantasy game, watch out for peat mummies!

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Temperate forests can be higher-latitude deciduous, as in northern Europe, or lower-latitude evergreen, as around the Mediterranean.

Evergreens in the Mediterranean area? Had no idea.

More generally, have you looked at the Köppen climate classification?

Not until this morning! Looks like it might be helpful, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. I've been thinking of climates as combinations of several axises: temp, aridity, vegetation, and topography.

...

Thanks, good stuff!

 

[Quickleaf]

http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-pathfinder/271564-random-terrain-features-natural-world.html should be helpful.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Think also about extreme terrians, places like Okefenokee Swamp and Australia. In the Okefenokee preditors outnumber prey animals 7 to 1, this is against the norm and backwards, something is always eating something else. In Australia, the only things that don't have poison came from someplace else, it is like 70% is vemous!

Other extreme terrians, see Africa's Danakil Desert, salt flat on a volcano.

 

[SLOTHmaster]

In forests bears can be a real problem. Not during the day- bear attacks are rare since most bears avoid people- but during the night when they're hungry. Any food left within easy reach is likely to be eaten. Since they are attracted by the scent of the food, they can make an appearance even if the food's all gone if the group forgot to, for example, wash the dishes, or if someone ate inside their tent and left crumbs. Come to think of it, a wizard waking up with a new tentmate wouldn't have yet prepared any new spells for the day... And if you're feeling really cruel, give that player lyme disease from a tick on the bear.

In mountainous areas ice is frequently a serious hazard. And of course, anywhere that's cold could give the unprepared hypothermia.

 

[Nellisir]

Going by what you've written, I'd classify forests as: Cold Forests, Temperate Woodlands, Hot Jungles. If you lose the rainfall stuff, it lines up with the rest of your entries and makes things a little simpler (and there are temperate rain forests, and non-rain forest jungles.)

Taiga is a cold evergreen forest, not a badland. A cold badland might be an ice sheet (ie, antartica or greenland)

 

[Melhaic]

One huge risk across many terrain types you are missing is hypothermia. You can become hypothermic if wet at 60 degrees F. So when you look at someplace that has enough rainfall for a forest that isn't jungle, you risk hypothermia.

Also, RPGs make travelling in wilderness area risky only in a combative sense; this is wildly inaccurate. I've never fought anything in the woods, but have been in some sketchy situations stemming from things like flash floods, injuries, cold, etc. Just within common injuries you have rolled ankles, lacerations, and the biggest baddest wilderness injury: blisters on you feet (from walking/running), hands (from firecraft/climbing/rope/anything), shoulders (packstraps). These often lead to another plague of the wild: infections.

An example, using the southern Appalachians as the setting. You are high up in a river gorge in the fall, and a rainstorm hits. You are now faced with wet conditions that could lead to hypothermia, flash flooding in the streams that you crossed to get where you are now (which are probably several feet higher and running faster than they were before) and lowered visibility (and someone mentioned earlier how disorienting it can be in a densely wooded area w/ no map/compass or landmarks to go by). If you stay where you are, you have to try to make a fire out of sodden wood in the humid drizzle, which is no easy task, as it gets colder. If you try to backtrack, you face treacherous water crossing that could lead to injury. Not to mention the increased exposure to moisture/cold...

As you can see from the above example, it isn't that you can say this hazard or that hazard is dangerous, but it is about the interactions of the dangers and the amount of risks you take relative to preparedness.