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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Laurefindel" data-source="post: 8013134" data-attributes="member: 67296">(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.</blockquote>

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