tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post7488203237302221765..comments2023-10-14T03:58:59.333-06:00Comments on The Tao of D&D: It Has to Really Hurt to CountAlexis Smolenskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-35724273528628881152015-02-16T15:15:02.042-07:002015-02-16T15:15:02.042-07:00Don't feel bad, Yarivandel,
'Mad Men,'...Don't feel bad, Yarivandel,<br /><br />'Mad Men,' generally considered a brilliant, high-quality TV Show, barely featured the appearance of snow in New York.<br /><br />Why? Because it's expensive and difficult. For people with lots of money and hundreds of available technicians.<br /><br />Think about that.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-7830870850548731982015-02-16T14:50:31.255-07:002015-02-16T14:50:31.255-07:00I am really glad that you took up this subject. Si...I am really glad that you took up this subject. Since very recently (a few months) I realized that when running the game in the wilderness there is hardly any difference for the players if they travel through plains, hills, mountains, forests or open fields. I started asking myself and around what can a DM do to make them feel the difference. Make each natural surrounding have its own feel which would influence the game itself, not just be a nice piece of scenography. This lead me to the weather factor. I currently added a pregenerated weather forecast for each month with temperatures, precipitations, lunar cycles etc. Since one of my players has a spell of summoning lightnings from the sky provided there are some heavy clouds I decided to introduce random weather (appropriate for the geo-region and season). It did have a great effect on the game already, but I did not go as far as to impose roll mods. Not yet, maybe I will give it a try inspired by your posts. I still can't believe I began working on it so late in my DM'ing career :/ At least the effect is that I now feel an eensy weensy bit more satisfied with my game. Still a long way to go. Cheers.Yarivandelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09435729264105444880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-62406169654868729302015-02-16T07:53:53.908-07:002015-02-16T07:53:53.908-07:00Here's an anecdotal reference: I moved from Wi...Here's an anecdotal reference: I moved from Wisconsin to the Middle East in the early '90s, when I just 10-11 years old. For three years I experienced close to the same weather conditions (excepting, of course, the humidity). I acclimated quickly enough. Since then, I've always felt that I fit better into a warm-to-hot, dry climate. Fast forward twenty years and I've changed, of course, but I attribute it to my military training. The bulk of my fitness and combat conditioning have taken place in warm-to-hot, moist climes. When I was deployed to the Middle East a couple years back, I did not feel that the heat was overwhelming. To be sure, when I was dressed in full gear, it got uncomfortable and it did limit my abilities. But when I was in the standard uniform, I felt I could go all day long.<br /><br />From my experience, I suggest two considerations: 1) Warriors acclimate faster than other characters and 2) the young acclimate faster than the old. (I think druids and rangers should get a benefit as well, such that druids acclimate as well as warriors and rangers acclimate faster than the rest.)<br /><br />How's this for a mechanic? Every week during a given season, roll 2d6 and record the result. The goal is to reach 1 roll for every combination on 2d6, for a total of 36 combinations/totals necessary to become fully acclimatized. (Thus, it would take 1 snake-eyes and 1 box cars, 2 3's and 2 11's, etc.) Note that each season must be tracked separately; this way, it's harder to become accustomed to a region that four distinct seasons.Ozymandiashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01065642299277380465noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-68060729647406385592015-02-16T03:07:54.028-07:002015-02-16T03:07:54.028-07:00I think you added to my point, William.
I conveni...I think you added to my point, William.<br /><br />I conveniently run the real world - where I determine everyone's place of birth depending upon where they are found when they 'join' the party.<br /><br />Suppose we start with Asyut, Egypt (where my offline party is ultimately bound). Look at <a href="http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=N27E031+1202+0009380G2" rel="nofollow">this link</a>. It does not only give a breakdown for Asyut by month, but also by YEAR - in this case, 72.7 F/22.6 C.<br /><br />For someone from Asyut, effectively, 'pleasant' means 1 weather level hotter than the post describes. The character originating in the Asyut climate thus does not begin to -1 to all stats until the weather reaches 'balmy.'<br /><br />Compare this is <a href="http://www.worldclimate.com/cgi-bin/data.pl?ref=N45E126+1202+0003302G2" rel="nofollow">Haerbin, China</a>: where the year's average is 38.3 F/3.5 C. For this character, 'pleasant' is what everyone in a typical temperate climate would consider 'chilly.'<br /><br />This provides perfectly the differing standards for temperature for everyone - without actually changing the system. The fellow from Haerbin would begin losing ability stats as soon as the temperature rose above 'chilly' - making that character hard to play in a warm climate. Conversely, the Egyptian would have a lot of trouble in Manchuria.<br /><br />IF the party remained in one place for a time, everyone would eventually adjust to the climate in that one place.<br /><br />A short attempt to locate the amount of time has failed. I don't know, a year? Two seasons? My partner has been here in Canada for 14 years and she still wouldn't say she's acclimatized from her Kentucky upbringing. I guess this is a shot in the dark - short of someone providing some useful data.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-40366749967161753682015-02-16T02:14:13.664-07:002015-02-16T02:14:13.664-07:00Coincidently, I started to completely overhaul my ...Coincidently, I started to completely overhaul my weather and temperature system last night, for the exact same reasons, overly complicated and too little teeth. Without skirting too close to rule 2 (hopefully), this was something I thought about:<br /><br />Many years ago, I went to my brothers wedding, from the UK to Australia. the day I got off the plane, I had to rush to a suit fitting with a british ex-pat. While I was being measured, she apologised for the cold weather. I looked around and every single person was wearing coats. The weather was 26 C (79 F).<br /><br />This led me too two considerations:<br /><br />1) Along the lines of the experiment where you put your hands under the cold and hot tap for a minute then dunk them both in average water, noting that one hand feels it as cold, the other as hot - people acclimatise to the local weather. How quickly is debatable, but I wonder if it's worth talking about relative temperatures rather than absolutes, or adding something to character sheets in which you write your acclimatised temperature and the penalties take that into account. Thus the "zulu", fresh of the boat from close to the equator is not at his best in temperate lands, neither is the siberian who spent his life in the arctic circle.<br /><br />2) Once you have a system in place for this, what else can it apply too - altitude for example is perhaps something that can use the same thing to represent, what about tolerance to magic, foreign food etc etc<br /><br />Hopefully I provided enough interest to negate the skirting of rule 2 I did!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00640140513753627174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-17834502071071206462015-02-16T00:17:54.181-07:002015-02-16T00:17:54.181-07:00If the weather is already high, then the negatives...If the weather is already high, then the negatives hit -7 at scorching (130+ degrees). But then, this wouldn't kick in until 256 rounds, and I don't know if I've ever run a combat that came anywhere close to that. Even so, we still have to include rules for heat exhaustion, heat craps and heat stroke, even though the real temperature was not actually that high - as these things can result from too much exertion.<br /><br />To your one-on-one battle (which could be the situation all over a battlefield after the first 40 rounds) add that both combatants would concede to stepping back and waiting to cool down, or quitting entirely. Add also a social acceptance that when such a standoff occurs in a battle, neither side wants to intervene, perhaps taking bets on the issue. It might even happen that both armies quit and decide the battle on that one single combat, if it becomes titanic enough.<br /><br />THAT'S fantasy!Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-77742829978563392702015-02-15T23:22:49.444-07:002015-02-15T23:22:49.444-07:00Clear, easy to run, and nasty. Love it.
B/c it hi...Clear, easy to run, and nasty. Love it.<br /><br />B/c it hits ability scores it needs little tweaking: ability minuses are bad while traveling, they're bad while fighting, they're bad while exploring. That's the right way to do this.<br /><br />Regarding the heating-up rule: also good, and in particular I think that having this component of "exhaustion" handled directly by the weather-penalty rule is very slick. <br /><br />An edge case to consider: what if the weather's already high and a fight drags on in that weather? Do the negatives pile on past the "end" of the scale? I suppose "no" is the answer - and that furthermore it would be unlikely for any creature other than a heat-adapted monster to get in a fight with someone in such weather. It'd be an exhausting slugfest, slow and with ragged breathing all around ... but not lacking tension.<br /><br />That immediately brought to mind the two lone survivors of two parties fighting, both with weather penalties at maximum, ability scores too low to hit well, HP slowly draining off from one's wound ... maybe the other guy's cavalry will come soon but be demoralized if he's dead on their arrival ... so much fun!<br /><br />Who says weather is boring? (too many people I know)Maxwell Joslynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02309867478186083339noreply@blogger.com