what is the primary climate/environment of your homebrew?

[GlassJaw]

I'm currently working on a homebrew and I really want to get away from the stereotypical temperate fertile plains/rolling hills/green forest type of setting. I'm thinking of a cold and harsh environment similar to Mongolia or Tibet.

Does anyone have any unique campaign environments? What are some good resources for ideas? What methods do you use to convey the setting and geography to your players?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I use a rather common environment: think Oregon or Washington state.

But if you want some harsh environments try West Texas. Nasty place unless you are a tarantula or road runner. The swamps of Lousiana and Flordia are crazy dangerous. For the most danger, look no further than Australia. I'm convinced that all Australians have Matrix-like super-powers that they use on an hourly basis just to survive.

For something a little weird, take a look at the New Jersey pine barrens. The modifications won't be hard, just slap on a 5' movement penalty. There's a lot of other places like that which are slightly weird and give a little spark to the game.

 

[Wombat]

My current game is set in a coastal, tropical range, something like the coast of Panama, or a bit north.

The group wanted something different and they've got it -- heavy armour is now a major problem, though with some cooling-type spells it can be used. Overall, there have been problems with wind, rain, heat, insects, and the like, in addition to the normal mayhem!

We're lovin' it!

 

[Chimera]

World wide? There is no *one* climate. It is as varied (and then some) as the Earth itself. Me personally, I hate the lazy scifi "every spot on this planet is like this one" monoclimate stuff.

The region where my last and next campaigns is set is a bit warmer and wetter than say, Arkansas to Texas. Warm hills in the north (just south of an inland freshwater "sea") that are described as similar in climate to Arkansas, going south to a wetter coastal region that is subtropical. No deserts in the area. On the west side of the region there is a large cooler freshwater Chesapeake type bay. Many mountain and upland rivers flow into it (several from the Inland Sea) and it in turn empties via a narrow inlet into the ocean, meeting a very warm ocean current and resulting in a lot of storms and rain that buffet the region and a bit of subtropic rain forest action. Over a thousand miles east of that, a vast continent draining "Great River" kinda like the Mississippi, Nile and Amazon all rolled into spills into a tangled delta over 100 miles wide and twice that long.

 

[Buttercup]

My homebrew is an entire planet, though I haven't yet developed the whole thing. The climate is as varied as that of earth. The last campaign I ran that was set in my homebrew started on the northern end of the temperate region and proceeded north to the tundra.

Right now I'm running a Freeport campaign, so the climate is tropical. However, I'm beginning to think the players are not going to want to stay in town forever, so I guess I'll cobble Freeport into my homebrew somewhere.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I keep mine like my location, warm and humid SC

 

[RichCsigs]

In my brother's game, the land we play on is Iceland, but a larger version. All the terrain and weather conditions are the same except that if it would take x days to walk from point a to point b in real world Iceland, it would take 5x days in my brothers world.

In fact, the last two game sessions have been "what happens while we wait around for winter to be over."

 

[Testament]

Firstly, thank you BiggusGeekus! Although, the eastern seabord of Australia is nothing spectacular. Malbourne however (my home town) is literally capable of four seasons in one day. And then there's the interior, the most godforsaken wasteland you can imagine. Beautiful in its own savage way, but dry, dusty and hot.

My world runs the gamut of environments, although my players have mentioned I have a love affair with harsh climates. Where they started, the Republic of Hydebarad is a monsoonal tropical rainforest. Where they are now, the southern tip of the Empire, is a big desert peninsula. Damn rainshadow effect.

The rest of the Empire is similar to North America, moving from tropical and desert climes in the south, up to temperate, and finally to Sub-Arctic. So I cribbed the real world? So sue me.

 

[rounser]

How about climate extremes within 10s of miles of one another? You've got magic as an excuse....you can have jungle here (complete with neanderthal orc tribes and cannibal halflings), frozen wastes there (with thanoi and ice dwarves and their ice yachts), desert over there (with an egyptian-like society of necromancers who use living and undead slaves, complete with pyramids and necropoli), mountain peaks with flying islands floating through them (home to avariel and aaracokra)...you get the idea. Why restrict yourself to one, or put them prohibitively far apart as most campaign settings do?

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Each climate band is one step warmer. The tropical zone is super-tropical and is warmer than humans can comfortably tolerate. The average temperature in ther super-tropical zone during the day is 130 degrees fahrenheit.