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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yama Dai O" data-source="post: 7235419" data-attributes="member: 6799286">I have been mulling over ways to make the players feel as if they are a part of the in-game world, as opposed to it being just a static background that affects them very little. One way I want to do this is to play up the importance of the world's natural cycles, in particular seasonal and the day-night cycles. I thought I'd post my ideas here and get some feedback.Seasonal cycles I think are missing from way too many games, in which the season is left undefined, usually something like summer but without the increased temperature. The obvious way to emphasize the passage of seasons is to keep track of the date on a calendar and season (sorry) your descriptions of the outdoor environment appropriately. But that pretty much leaves the whole thing just window dressing. To make the world like winter, spring, summer or autumn, the season will have to affect what the players do.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mark passes and fords on your world map as unpassable in winter and spring, respectively. When the players need to travel near the beginning of that season, have the threat of getting there too late hang over them. They could even get stuck and have to overwinter.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Players travelling in winter need warm clothes and other equipment; as long as they do, they auto-succeed on most tedious survival checks.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make animals and monsters behave differently depending on the season, like owlbears becoming aggressive in their mating season or when they have young to care for, but more reclusive otherwise. Extreme cases could make some regions nearly impassable, like a forest infested with ravenous swarms of stirges in autumn, when food gets scarce but the giant spiders didn't yet eat the excess stirges.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Have local people celebrate seasonal festivals, like after a successful harvest or when the grasp of winter finally relents and hey! Everyone made it through just fine!</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tempt the players to make a nice tidy profit trading goods like an especially famous mead that ripens over winter.</li> </ul>The day-night cycle is not neglected as much, but most games could still get much more mileage out of leveraging the proper atmosphere, especially with a little tweaking. I am thinking of stuff like the introduction adventure in (IIRC) the Mentzer boxed set, where ghouls do not pursue the player character into broad daylight, or the old Arena CRPG where the night is full of monsters, or the original Witcher game where in addition, certain magics work only at night.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make the night feel more dangerous especially in low-level adventures. This could be concrete danger like more wandering monsters or implied danger like unpleasant noises in the deep of night. When the players finish their rest and get going, occassionally have them find signs of monsters (tracks, droppings, gnawed bones) that passed at night.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make undead more of a threat (in numbers or relative threat) but add a type of sunlight vulnerability. Exposure turns (and destroys) undead, perhaps at different cleric levels for indirect and direct, broad daylight. The idea is not to put a powerful new weapon in the players' hands, but to make them feel dependent on the safety of daytime. I'd like some advice on how to implement this in particular.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Once or twice put in a local nocturnal threat that the players might have to identify, track and maybe build some sort of trap for during daytime because it is too dangerous to face head-on. Encourage them to keep track of the time of day versus their distance to the town walls. Then they'd better get back 'cause it'll be dark soon and they mostly come at night. Mostly.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Healing magic might be more effective in daylight (perhaps have them make the roll with advantage). Some ritual spells might have to be cast at night.</li> </ul>I would really like feedback on these, especially if you implemented similar ideas and can tell me how it panned out in your game.</blockquote>

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