How do you do extreme weather conditions/survival? (Extreme cold/heat/ect...)

[Prince_Vorrel]

was wondering if a more survival focused game would be interesting. Maybe set in a more skyrim-esque setting with serious cold if players went too far north and would have issues with food and heat.

Would you say give the whole fatigue/exhaustion thing happen quicker? Make con checks if in the cold too long without fire to not get frostbite? Would make rangers/druids/barbarians a lot more useful out of combat for sure and would probably be the ones keeping the party alive while getting between places.

also a druid of the north sounds cool :3

[Sigreid]

I believe there are rules for exposure in the PHB. As I recall, afb, you do get exhaustion faster as the temperatures become more extreme. Resistance to cold or fire relieves the burden. And there was something about requiring more water as it got hotter.

[Prince_Vorrel]

I believe there are rules for exposure in the PHB. As I recall, afb, you do get exhaustion faster as the temperatures become more extreme. Resistance to cold or fire relieves the burden. And there was something about requiring more water as it got hotter.

oh nice i'll have to go looking for that in my PHB! thanks :O

[Notafish]

It's in the DMG, not the PHB. look on pages 109-110: "Wilderness Survival". :smallsmile:

[Cespenar]

Our DM ran the Legacy of the Shard adventure with survival rules, and it was quite enjoyable. Though he may have added a few things of his own, I'm not sure.

[Sigreid]

It's in the DMG, not the PHB. look on pages 109-110: "Wilderness Survival". :smallsmile:

New I read it somewhere, thanks!

[djreynolds]

Good old caravan of people.

You must get the whole group from a to b, alive.

Must defend say 15 villagers, set camp, find food, navigate...etc.

A wizard has a shopping list of stuff... you must obtain... all of it located in areas of vast antimagic.... and beholders.

[Specter]

The tricky part in survival games is to not make resources too easy to obtain with money. If your players find 50gp in a dungeon, they can buy a whole town's supply of food, and that ends the fun.

Spells like goodberry and create food and water also need to be erradicated.

[MasterMercury]

The tricky part in survival games is to not make resources too easy to obtain with money. If your players find 50gp in a dungeon, they can buy a whole town's supply of food, and that ends the fun.

Spells like goodberry and create food and water also need to be erradicated.

Then raise the prices of the food, or maybe there isn't any. Water costs far more in a desert, bread costs more in the cold.
Or have the food go bad, infested with bugs under a curse, or burned by bandits.

The spell part is a bit more tricky. I don't like to take away spells, but there are other solutions. The goodberries don't provide hydration, or give you intestinal issues if eaten constantly?

Create Food and Water is fine. It's a somewhat highish level spell, and as long as there is some combat, the wizard might be recluctant to use it.

I do agree though. If a survival game has bountiful resources, then there's no fun in surviving.

[Sigreid]

Then raise the prices of the food, or maybe there isn't any. Water costs far more in a desert, bread costs more in the cold.
Or have the food go bad, infested with bugs under a curse, or burned by bandits.

The spell part is a bit more tricky. I don't like to take away spells, but there are other solutions. The goodberries don't provide hydration, or give you intestinal issues if eaten constantly?

Create Food and Water is fine. It's a somewhat highish level spell, and as long as there is some combat, the wizard might be recluctant to use it.

I do agree though. If a survival game has bountiful resources, then there's no fun in surviving.

On the other hand, rangers and druids should SHINE and make it a lot easier for the party. They can fight ok, but the survival game is their pigeon.

[Specter]

Yeah, but once they get ahold of those spells and know they will have to use it, it's no longer a survival game, it's 'normal D&D with utility-reserved slots'.

Same goes for gold; if you don't adjust treasure, sooner or later they will wine and dine as much as they want.

[Sigreid]

Yeah, but once they get ahold of those spells and know they will have to use it, it's no longer a survival game, it's 'normal D&D with utility-reserved slots'.

Same goes for gold; if you don't adjust treasure, sooner or later they will wine and dine as much as they want.

You could make it difficult to get a full nights sleep due to threats or even just the environment. A caster that isn't sleeping also isn't getting spells back. One of the things that make survival difficult in the wilderness is the constant threat from god knows what ranging from flash floods to lightning strikes to venomous critters.

[Notafish]

Looking at the DMG rules, it looks like they make more sense for small chapters of the game (the abovementioned caravan with civilians; having supplies stolen while you're in the wilderness; falling through a portal and waking up in the Arctic with no cold-weather gear...). However, in order to simulate the constant threat of environmental hazards in the wilderness I think you might need to tweak the rules -- adopting the Gritty Realism recovery rules, for example. If a short rest=8 hours and a long rest=1 week, overland travel is not something to be taken lightly, even if your party has a druid.

The general rules for travel (like how fast the party can travel without penalty and how much they need to eat and drink to stay healthy) ARE in the PHB starting on page 181.

[Saeviomage]

The tricky part in survival games is to not make resources too easy to obtain with money.

No, the tricky part is making them fun and not tedious. Survival games tend to end up inherently reactive (especially if the DM is trying to quash any effort to overcome the hazard), and so end up being about as fun as a one-room dungeon that spawns the same monsters over and over again.

Make sure you have meaningful choices that the PCs can make, and preferably DO make ways to eventually overcome the hazard. Battling through a blizzard might be fun once, but the second time isn't going to be entertaining unless you throw something else into the mix. Once you've played out the interesting scenarios for your hazard, let it go and let the PCs face up to something else.