RPG Evolution - D&D Tactics: Camping

As we try to makeup for lost time, we've been camping more than ever before. And that got me thinking about what happens when D&D characters camp.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

The Fun of Camping​

All the camping in the past few months has been tent camping: at Boy Scout camp, white water rafting and tubing, and visiting friends including a renaissance festival. We've slept in large family tents and individual tents. Go camping enough, and it becomes clear that being a human in the wilderness has its challenges. This is my experience, which is from modern camping, but others have tried to replicate what their characters go through on a camping trip with sometimes hilarious results.

You Can Hear Everything​

As I've discovered when several nearby campers arrived in the middle of the night, sound travels far. Cars arriving, doors slamming, and talking out loud sounds like they're happening right next to us. You can easily hear conversations even at a distance.

In this environment, a guard should be able to hear (even if they can't see), so the two balance themselves out. Leaves make it particularly difficult to sneak up on someone who is camping. Conversely...

Weather Matters​

Tents aren't very thick. Medieval-era tents were not nearly as sealed as modern tents. I've had to evacuate a campsite when hurricane-level storms passed through. Simply put, when you're in a tent, there's not much between you and the outside, and extreme weather can really ruin your night.

But on a more mundane level, tents aren't cabins and thus don't regulate temperature in the same way. If it rains, tents that aren't waterproof will make it difficult to sleep. Characters who need to rest to regain their spells may have a rough night when the temperature dips or even due to a passing rainstorm.

Secure Your Food​

We've learned the hard way that once the sun goes down, animals come out. And those animals want our food. We've had to fend off swarms of raccoons by tossing food into the forest just to get them away from us. We set up bear bags for our snacks (hanging food from high up so animals can't easily reach it), only to have humans sneak food out of the bag and forget to eat it all ... leaving an incriminating trail of half-eaten wrappers leading to the culprit's tent. And our last camping trip, something big walked up to a table and took a swipe at our garbage bag.

Adventurers likely produce more waste than modern campers and while their nemesis could be a big cat, wild dog, or bear, it's just as likely smaller vermin who are only too eager to dig into rations or drag off a hunk of meat. Characters who don't take appropriate will quickly find themselves without much to eat.

Campfires Are Not Lamps​

By far the most challenging adjustment for my modern lifestyle is realizing that daylight is a precious commodity that is not to be wasted. Fumbling around in the darkness of a tent after sunset makes finding the most basic things challenging. I learned to set out everything I would need at night before dinner so that I could find what I needed later, and woke up when the birds started singing.

Conversely, it's difficult to do precision tasks at night without a steady light. Campfires provide plenty of light, but it it's the same as the glow of an electronic lamp. And it's not all that safe to have an open fire inside a tent anyway. In this regard, being able to see in the dark (with darkvision or magic) is a bit like having an electrical light. You can perform a lot of tasks you could during the day without the inconvenience. But for those species who don't have darkvision like humans, most complex tasks aren't going to be done well in dim light.

Your Turn: How has your camping experienced influenced your character's camping routine?

 

[aco175]

Many years ago I was a US Army infantryman bivouacing in the swamps of GA. It's as close as I'll ever get to "D&D adventurer camping" and No Thank You.

I can 2nd this. Ft Benning was not as bad as Ft Stewart which had swamps up to your waste for half the year with gators and snakes. Had to sleep in the old cemeteries which was at least above swamp level.

 

[Ixal]

Only that D&D tries its best to make all of that irrelevant.
Mundane diseases and other effects of bad resting spots are beneath the heroes, food and water is always just one easy skill roll away or solved by magic, if the DMs even bother to track it and there are several "I solved resting" spells which totally trivializes it.

 

[Mad_Jack]

I can 2nd this. Ft Benning was not as bad as Ft Stewart which had swamps up to your waste for half the year with gators and snakes. Had to sleep in the old cemeteries which was at least above swamp level.

Not nearly as bad as Basic at a military base, but I spend a couple weeks at 4H camp as a teenager...
Connecticut doesn't exactly have the most dangerous wildlife, but we have a lot of it, lol. There were trout, snakes and beavers in the lake we swam in and a small bear raided the dumpster once. There was a lot of deer crap everywhere.
The "cabin" I was assigned to as a counselor-in-training was really just an abandoned hotdog stand with beds in it. There were large holes in the floor and gaps in the walls, so we had a few nighttime visits from curious squirrels and a raccoon. (And the bear.)
I fondly remember shaking earwigs and spiders out of my shoes every morning.
Fortunately, it only rained once - the roof leaked, and there was a bit of a depression under the cabin so we woke up to find ourselves in the middle of a four-inch-deep pond in the morning.
And did I mention I got violently ill, and spent almost a week in the first-aid cabin doing a pretty good impression of a dysentery case? Not sure what I caught, since nobody else got sick, but I have a feeling it came from the lake...

 

[deganawida]

I can 2nd this. Ft Benning was not as bad as Ft Stewart which had swamps up to your waste for half the year with gators and snakes. Had to sleep in the old cemeteries which was at least above swamp level.

Heh, not far from Hinesville, about an hour, and you won't find me ground camping anywhere in SE GA. Up in North Georgia? Sure, especially if I can sneak away for some fly fishing.

Still, the OP brings back fond memories of my Scouting days.

 

[Dioltach]

Most of human civilisation has been about getting as far away from camping as possible. I like to think of myself as the pinnacle of those efforts.

 

[Reynard]

I can 2nd this. Ft Benning was not as bad as Ft Stewart which had swamps up to your waste for half the year with gators and snakes. Had to sleep in the old cemeteries which was at least above swamp level.

Yup. Fort Stewart. Snakes, boars and drunk locals...

 

[GMMichael]

As we try to makeup for lost time, we've been camping more than ever before. And that got me thinking about what happens when D&D characters camp.

View attachment 261049
Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

The Fun of Camping​

All the camping in the past few months has been tent camping: at Boy Scout camp, white water rafting and tubing, and visiting friends including a renaissance festival. We've slept in large family tents and individual tents. Go camping enough, and it becomes clear that being a human in the wilderness has its challenges. This is my experience, which is from modern camping, but others have tried to replicate what their characters go through on a camping trip with sometimes hilarious results.

You Can Hear Everything​

As I've discovered when several nearby campers arrived in the middle of the night, sound travels far. Cars arriving, doors slamming, and talking out loud sounds like they're happening right next to us. You can easily hear conversations even at a distance.

In this environment, a guard should be able to hear (even if they can't see), so the two balance themselves out. Leaves make it particularly difficult to sneak up on someone who is camping. Conversely...

Weather Matters​

Tents aren't very thick. Medieval-era tents were not nearly as sealed as modern tents. I've had to evacuate a campsite when hurricane-level storms passed through. Simply put, when you're in a tent, there's not much between you and the outside, and extreme weather can really ruin your night.

But on a more mundane level, tents aren't cabins and thus don't regulate temperature in the same way. If it rains, tents that aren't waterproof will make it difficult to sleep. Characters who need to rest to regain their spells may have a rough night when the temperature dips or even due to a passing rainstorm.

Secure Your Food​

We've learned the hard way that once the sun goes down, animals come out. And those animals want our food. We've had to fend off swarms of raccoons by tossing food into the forest just to get them away from us. We set up bear bags for our snacks (hanging food from high up so animals can't easily reach it), only to have humans sneak food out of the bag and forget to eat it all ... leaving an incriminating trail of half-eaten wrappers leading to the culprit's tent. And our last camping trip, something big walked up to a table and took a swipe at our garbage bag.

Adventurers likely produce more waste than modern campers and while their nemesis could be a big cat, wild dog, or bear, it's just as likely smaller vermin who are only too eager to dig into rations or drag off a hunk of meat. Characters who don't take appropriate will quickly find themselves without much to eat.

Campfires Are Not Lamps​

By far the most challenging adjustment for my modern lifestyle is realizing that daylight is a precious commodity that is not to be wasted. Fumbling around in the darkness of a tent after sunset makes finding the most basic things challenging. I learned to set out everything I would need at night before dinner so that I could find what I needed later, and woke up when the birds started singing.

Conversely, it's difficult to do precision tasks at night without a steady light. Campfires provide plenty of light, but it it's the same as the glow of an electronic lamp. And it's not all that safe to have an open fire inside a tent anyway. In this regard, being able to see in the dark (with darkvision or magic) is a bit like having an electrical light. You can perform a lot of tasks you could during the day without the inconvenience. But for those species who don't have darkvision like humans, most complex tasks aren't going to be done well in dim light.

Your Turn: How has your camping experienced influenced your character's camping routine?

It's actually a good thing to have the local wildlife swarming your campsite; it's a great source of food as long as you have a net, traps, or trusty throwing axe. (unless local wildlife is an owlbear?)

Camping taught me that if you don't set up your camp before dark, you're begging to have a rough night with a rock in your back, or worse. Also, adventurers either find a horse or wheels to transport their camping gear - or they spend most of their days sore and exhausted from carrying too much gear.