The perils of winter

[Zustiur]

I ran my game last night. It all went very smoothly, and my goals were met:
* Entire game session with no combat? Check
* Got to introduce skill challenges in a concise and interesting way? Check
* Made overland travel interesting? Check
* More than one day passed to achieve a goal? Check
* The absence of food became a point of interest? Check. Coincidentally the cleric just reached 5th level and was able to create food and water. Timing!
* The party went where I wanted them to? Check... initially. They then took a very logical turn immediately after the blizzard which I should have predicted but didn't.
* The players were given a sense of just how messed up the weather is right now? Check. 8 feet of snow can do that
* The players started thinking about other forms of transport? Check, although they didn't end up using one, I'm still glad that they thought about it.
* I got to introduce the new player's character in a creative way? Check - he turned up in a snowman in the middle of no-where.
* I was able to answer any odd queries about the weather and snow? Check, except for one, which thankfully another player answered.

So thank you all, you have been extremely helpful and made this game session work wonderfully.

 

[Scott DeWar]

*jumps and leaps with joy!*

 

[falcarrion]

during a blizzard you can have what we call whiteout conditions. the blowing snow brings visabiltiy to 2 to 3 feet.
Another thing you can throw at them since they made it through. Is a quick melt off causing flash floods. bridges being destroyed by ice flow etc.

 

[Scott DeWar]

former hill top homes now islands threatened by critters and monsters for shrinking realestate

 

[Janx]

during a blizzard you can have what we call whiteout conditions. the blowing snow brings visabiltiy to 2 to 3 feet.
Another thing you can throw at them since they made it through. Is a quick melt off causing flash floods. bridges being destroyed by ice flow etc.

melting and flash floods might depend on where you live. Up in the cold lands, rapid melt-off ain't too likely. I never saw anything like that.

And flash floods hadn't ever happened in my lifetime (except this year. Flooding hit MN pretty hard in places we ain't ever seen. the old Soo line behind my friend's place got washed out completely in places. That thing was build in the 1800's. there were old railroad ties UNDER the grade that got revealed, with dates from back then.

That means that kind of water movement doesn't happen too often.

Other places (like them tricksy mountains) may be more prone to highly variable weather conditions. But winter climate regions, the weather is usually pretty stable (as in always cold in the winter).

 

[Gilladian]

For future reference, I thought this link was very telling: http://boingboing.net/2012/12/11/the-meteorology-of-little-hous.html

"The Meteorology of Little House" (the Long Winter - a novel I referred to in an earlier post - which occurred in 1881).

 

[Scott DeWar]

I can only say WOW!