D&D 5E When I don’t know what they know (Icewind Dale)

[Ralif Redhammer]

Big Dead Place by the late Nicholas Johnson, about his time in Antarctica, is a good read, too.

 

[Fenris-77]

There are some supplements for extreme environments on DMGuild. I can't think of specific examples off the top of my head though. I happen to live above the arctic circle, so allow me to reassure you there isn't going to be too much to get wrong. A small modicum of research should be all you need. D&D isn't really a survival game anyway, so the level of detail you need isn't too deep.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Every so often I encounter as a DM players that know more about say, wilderness survival, military protocol, horsemanship. Sometimes little mid game discussion is very helpful. Other times we talk after sessions. Either way I'm glad I benefit from their knowledge.

 

[Laurefindel]

I DM Forgotten Realms, and I’d love to run the far north. But, in reality, I’ve only ever lived in or travelled in mid-Europe. I know Quite Warm (well, Very Hot to me), and I know Rather Colder, but I don’t know Icewind-Dale-Cold. Or the environment.

No problem, maybe: just use imagination and resources and describe it anyway?

But…

One of my players has lived above the Arctic Circle.

So whatever I say about truly cold places, I fear I’m going to get it far wrong.

I can’t say, ‘OK, you DM this.’ They wouldn’t want to, and after years of playing - well, I’m the unchanging DM, and that’s the way it is.

Any ideas? Or am I forever going to pretend that The Far North is totally out-of-bounds?

(TL;DR: Between what we can assume will be in the new book and the make-believe nature of D&D, the information you lack is likely to be anecdotal. Anecdotal is really nice for the ambiance, but not having this would not be detrimental to your game IMO. Do some research because research is fun, but don't overthink this.)

One thing you should keep in mind: D&D is, at the root, and exercise in how life/culture could be in a fantasy world. Like the rules, life in D&D is an abstraction of our experience of life. If WotC do their homework right, the Icewind Dale supplement/adventure will give you just enough info to make a believable game in the Far North. I don't think it needs to be much, but more is always better I guess.

Also, Icewind Dale is, by itself, a micro-climate unlike that of the rest of the great north, being temperated by the sea and all. Not unlike how life in the fjords of Norway is not quite like that in deep Siberia. And like everything else in D&D, even the lowest cantrips are real game-changers to what we know of life and survival.

Finally, you don't know less about life in the arctic than life in the underdark or life as a 450 year old elf. There is a form of social contract in fantasy RPGs stating that it's ok not to have everything right (or for that matter, that everything doesn't need to make perfect sense). The only real difference in your case , like you said, is that one of your player has real-life experience of things we can assume would also translate in a fantasy world. Or maybe it wouldn't. I'm sure your player will gladely chip-in when needed, and won't take it against you if your description is ever-so-slightly flawed.

 

[Dausuul]

I think you may be worrying about this too much. I have players who are avid hikers and outdoorsmen. Although I am myself an avid indoorsman, it doesn't stop me from running wilderness adventures.

Keep in mind that none of us really knows this stuff. Your player may know what it's like to live above the Arctic Circle, with modern technology and comforts. Do they know what it's like to survive in the arctic wilderness using medieval technology? Do they know how to find food on the tundra and how to make fur clothes to keep warm and how to care for sled dogs and repair broken gear using the materials to hand?

 

[Forester]

Thank you so much for your replies, they have encouraged me - and yes, I must do a bit of movie-watching/reading ... that kind of research sounds fun.

About 10 years ago, I read 'Frostbite' (I think it was called), with lots about temperature bands, wind chill, snow blindness, and 'snow-impeded movement' or something. I think the memory of that (or, rather, my utter incomprehension of it) hasn't helped my confidence about the north, either!

Anyway, now I'm actually rather enthusiastic about (a) getting to know a little bit more about areas I've never been, and (b) getting the player involved in descriptions - which he'll be happy to do, as he is a big role-player anyway.

 

[Eltab]

You are likely thinking of the 3e supplement Frostfell. You may be able to check it out from a well-stocked library (I can and have).

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Read 'Call of the Wild' by Jack London. There was a movie too but I'm not too sure how good it was. The book will give you much more descriptions that you can use in game.

I played a savant computer hacker in an rpg. I'm fairly computer illiterate and the DM had a PHD in computer... (uh, something or other, I can't remember the name of his specialty). When I tried to explain what my character was doing, he'd help me.

Use words like, 'biting cold, finger numbing, cutting wind. Bitter is another adjective. The cold can be an entity in itself, much like oppressive heat.

But, on a clear, sunny day, it can also be beautiful. 'Still, clear, calm, serene'.

 

[pnewman]

I live in Anchorage Alaska. It rarely gets below -20F [-29 C] but there was that one month in 1989 when Siberia gave us its weather, and this is what it was like one morning when I had to walk 1.5 miles to class:

Dawn, 40 below F [also -40 C] with a wind pushing the chill factor down to about 70 below F [about -57 C] - The snow was hard and crunchy and made an odd sound with every step. I felt the cold in every part of my body, including deep into my lungs. I was wiggling my fingers and toes the whole time to try to stop frost bite.

I was not wearing my glasses, because the metal could have frostbitten my face. I came around a corner and encountered a mother moose (800 pounds?) with a half grown calf (250 pounds?) at a distance of less than ten feet. For an instant I thought that I would die, and then she looked at me with an "I'm too cold to stomp you, just back away from my baby" look; and I did so.