Skiis, snow and the enviroment in general

[The Merciful]

The question in nutshell: Should the 4th Ed make the enviroment or climate the PCs are operating in more prominent feature in the game than what the 3rd Ed did?

The more verbose version: I recall browsing trough the artic themed D&D splat book, and seeing all sorts of cold enemating weapons like icicle daggers, but not mundane equimpment that would actually be beneficial in snowy and freezing cold enviroment, like skiis, snowshoes or sledges for movement, eskimo style gogles to avoid snow blindness and so on. Same with other climates. Since the upcoming edition is supposed to cut in magic gatgedgery, as well making dungeon traps more like encounters, it seems to me it might be interesting to give the enviroment a bigger role. In part due immersion, in part to make the envoriment into a kind of a encounter type trap in a grand scale.

Am I onto something?

 

[Umbran]

4E should make it easy for a GM to include environment as a more prominent feature. However, that should be in the form of optional rules in an appendix or supplement, not as something in the core of the system.

I think they're having a hard enough time packing the necessary stuff into three core books, I don't want them displacing more valuable stuff for... snowshoes.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I'm on the other side of the fence from Umbran here - I love the idea that 4e is going to include encounter mechanics other than merely creatures, and the possibility of having some environmental effects expressly laid out in the core rules is something I would love to see, especially if they were categorised to make it easy to see what icy things or rocky things or jungle things could go together

e.g. an encounter might be set up as "3 yetis, icy footing and a crevasse".

(doesn't mean I want to see reams of equipment to overcome the things though - leave that for the DMs!)

 

[WyzardWhately]

I absolutely want stuff like this, although I guess it doesn't need to be in the core. Blizzards, swamps, steaming jungles, and of course the chill, damp, and filth of the dungeon. I think it'd be pretty cool for all of these to have their own effects.

 

[Aeolius]

:: insert obligatory rant, requesting the 4e equivalents of Races of Water, The Hydronomicon, Complete Aquan, and Waterscape, here ::

Not all campaigns center around cleaning out dungeons, you know. Granted, I realize that is the staple of D&D, so my water stuff can wait for the appropriate supplement.

 

[vagabundo]

Some of this stuff needs to be in the DMG, I'd rather see pages given to treasure tables and magic items and more space for interesting stuff like this for campaigns.

 

[Ahnehnois]

The more verbose version: I recall browsing trough the artic themed D&D splat book, and seeing all sorts of cold enemating weapons like icicle daggers, but not mundane equimpment that would actually be beneficial in snowy and freezing cold enviroment, like skiis, snowshoes or sledges for movement, eskimo style gogles to avoid snow blindness and so on.

Actually, Frostburn does have skis and snow shoes and snow goggles (p. 78).

Having just recently acquired the 3.5 environment books, I must say they add a lot to the game. However, I don't think any of it needed to be core, there's way too much in those books to fit in a DMG/PHB/MM. The 3.5 DMG had so much more environment stuff than the 3.0 version-I think 3.5 got it right.

There do however need to be 4e equivalents of the environment books a lot sooner. Stormwrack is great, but where ws it when I spent two months of gaming on a ship I had no idea how to run.

 

[Masquerade]

I don't need a book to tell me that I can buy or make skiis. It's mundane and obvious, and any price tag they could possibly stick on it would be insignificant by 3rd or 4th level. Compare that with, say, a new magic item, which requires imagination to devise and a keen sense of the rules to price and balance.

As for the environment in general playing a role, I'm for it. I'm interested in seeing what they do.

 

[JDJblatherings]

I think they're having a hard enough time packing the necessary stuff into three core books, I don't want them displacing more valuable stuff for... snowshoes.

Depends on where and when those adventures are taking place. Where I live (half hour north of Boston) we can have snow 7 months a year. So adventures taking place here-ish really could use some guidelines beyond the freezing to death too easy rules.

 

[Umbran]

Depends on where and when those adventures are taking place. Where I live (half hour north of Boston) we can have snow 7 months a year. So adventures taking place here-ish really could use some guidelines beyond the freezing to death too easy rules.

Yes, but then the people who play on the ocean want aquatic rules. The people in the desert want desert rules. The people in the mountains want mountain rules. The people in the topics want jungle rules....

And suddenly you have a whole book of environment rules, and no room for the things that aren't specialized to a small number of campaigns, that all those characters need.