Skiis, snow and the enviroment in general

[Irda Ranger]

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.

As much as it pains me (I love environmental stuff), I'm with Umbran on this. The DMG really does need to be "Core", and environmental stuff will always be campaign specific.

I hope though that there's a Wilderness Survival Guide that comes out fairly quickly though, which can devote a chapter to each of the main environments you'll encounter. I don't need a whole book like Frostburn, but a good 10 pages of concise and helpful rules would be great.

Personally I think ship voyages and snow shoes are big part of what adventuring is, far more so than special rules for making icicle daggers. It think it's important to have this stuff in D&D ... but for the DMG, I think past editions have gotten the balance right (a chart for movement costs here, rules for drowning there), and that 4E should stick to that.

Though to place a bet, I'm actually expecting that the better (and more timely) environmental or special-rules supplements (like a naval warfare system) will come from the Indy presses, not WotC.

 

[Stalker0]

I think we will get some of this with 4e "encounter trap" design. Hopefully traps are more environmental based, like quicksand, that effects an encounter as opposed to a static pit trap that either kills someone or is ignored.

 

[JDJblatherings]

About 90% of the camapigns I've played have neded up in deserts, jungles, forests, swamps,rivers, seas, undersea, in frozen places, on mountain sides. A page or two on each biggie envrionment woud be a boon to the game. Not that i mind most of my adventuring in dugeons but it's fun to get outside and have the outside be more then inside with less walls.

 

[The Merciful]

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.

Then again, pretty much everything in the rules is specialized. I'd argue freezing on a glazier, getting diseased in a jungle or picking herbs in an idyllic forest is more generic than, say, the Red Wizard prestige class.

ps. Ahnehnois, I stand corrected. As a matter of fact, I think the icicle dagger was from Icewind Dale computer game.

 

[Klaus]

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?

I want more and easier ways of incorporating the environment in the game. Back in 2e one of my players joked that my games always took place in spring or summer, because it never snowed or anything! Of course, the very next arc began with autmn giving way to winter, which I forgot after three sessions.

 

[I'm A Banana]

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.

I think what 3e did for environment rules was pretty ok. There were rules for percipitation, snow, rain, tornados, blizzards, dust storms, forest fires, deep snow, ice, lava, underwater, aerial, etc. all in the core, and all those things really do belong there. 4e could give them some real teeth, but keep them simple in the core.

Environment books are solid supplemental material in general, though their appeal is very niche unless it's padded out.

Thankfully, 4e's supplemental plan seems ripe to pad it out. Instead of just rules and magic items and prestige classes, we'll get a full-fledged PHBX: THE FROSTFELL with races, classes, and all the setting material needed to play a fully arctic game, or just to sojourn there for a while.

 

[RangerWickett]

I want more and easier ways of incorporating the environment in the game. Back in 2e one of my players joked that my games always took place in spring or summer, because it never snowed or anything! Of course, the very next arc began with autmn giving way to winter, which I forgot after three sessions.

Dude, you live in Brasil.

 

[The Merciful]

Dude, you live in Brasil.

That's the beauty of RPGs - you get to visit places you never tought seeing.

 

[Irda Ranger]

That's the beauty of RPGs - you get to visit places you never tought seeing.

Like places where it's not winter?

 

[Klaus]

Dude, you live in Brasil.

Don't get me started on the lack of tropical regions in RPGs!

:fist:

:goes back to writing: