Hazards during winter

[Magus76]

Hey there,

My players are preparing to go traveling in the middle of winter and I started to pencil down some additional hazards more specific for winter. Any thoughts, comments or ideas?

Severe Cold: The temperature drops dramatically and freezing winds howl over the open plains. Everyone loses 10 minus their Body-rating in Endurance.

Lost in the storm: A storm whirls up a wall of white, and the characters lose their way in the wilds. Roll 1d6 and use the hexagonal pattern on the Loremster’s Map to determine what direction they end up; disregarding the direction they are heading at the moment. They will end up one days worth of travel in this direction before the guide can try and find their way again. Should the company fail to realize their mistake, they will continue in this direction until they do. Adjust the remaining number of Fatigue Tests accordingly.

Heavy Snowfall: During the night snow starts to fall and by the end of the following day it is snowing so heavy that it becomes hard to ignore. After two days of continuous snowfall travel becomes harder and harder, leaving the company slower than usual and more tired from the strenuous journey. The company loses one day’s worth of travel and 2 points of Endurance

Snow-wolves: The wolves of the plains, all white during the winter, are desperately hungry and looking for food. They will track the characters and attack them during the night. Roll 1d6 and add the number of heroes in the company to get the total number of wolves.

Any input is welcome!

/P

[zedturtle]

Severe Cold seems a bit extreme, as it means some folks could lose 8 Endurance.

Otherwise, seems pretty cool. I'm also working on a winter adventure and my thoughts for Hazards were very similar, but with more fixed penalties.

[Magus76]

Thanks for the reply zedturtle

Hmmm yeah you might be right, 8 Endurance is quite strong...
Perhaps a fixed loss of 3 END would be enough to represent severe cold, and several rolls of an Eye of Sauron could optionally prolong the cold as well, making it last for several days?

/p

[Magus76]

...and what about this one?

Trapped in the snow: Large amounts of snow have drifted into a crevasse or a deep hole, hiding it from plain view. One of the heroes in the company accidentally walks right into the treacherous area and sinks down several meters (3+1d6). The rest of the company needs to make an Awareness Test (TN 14) or else fail to notice when the character disappears into the snow. It takes one Success per two meters of snow on an Athletics Test (TN 16) to reach the surface again without the help.

/p

[Falenthal]

The hazards seem very appropiate.

Remember, though, that you can come up with your Hazards in two ways:
Design what you want to happen and look for ways to solve it (your way), or use the table from the Revised Rules where just the consequences are described (Corruption test, loss of Endurance, Weary for the lenght of the journey, etc.). From there, you can come up with multiple ideas of how they come to be.

I normally have 2 or 3 ideas of appropiate Hazards for the region/season/...
In your case, that can be "Snowall", "Blizzard", "Severe Cold", "Hungry White Wolves".
When a Hazard happens, and you roll to see which role is affected and what's the consequence of failing, then you can adapt whichever idea suits you.

If it's the Guide and Corruption, you can tell the players: a blinding blizzard is keeping you wondering if you're still walking in the right direction. The Guide has to roll Travel, or the sense of being lost in walls of white drives you all a little crazy (and have to roll for Corruption).

But also if it's the Scout and Weary, you can use the same idea "Blizzard": as night draws near, a blinding blizzard makes near impossible to look for shelter to rest tonight. If the Scout can't pass an Explore test, you can't rest properly and will be Weary for the rest of the Journey.

You see, with just some sketches of ideas, you can cover every result with appropiate Hazards without having to define everyone of them.

[Magus76]

Thanks Falenthal,

Those are some nice and creative ideas to make the hazards more flexible!

/p

[buddhax]

In some point, I discover the same solution Falenthal expose. I prepare some events and then maybe some ideas to how adapt it to roles and effects.

[Glorelendil]

Concur with Falenthal (as usual). Thematically I love your Hazard ideas, but I think they should conform to the structure in the rules. That is, they should correlate to the generic entries in the Hazard tables.

[Otaku-sempai]

Falling Through Ice: One or more characters have fallen through ice into freezing cold water. A fire must be started immediately to warm the character(s) before hypothermia sets in.

[Glorelendil]

Outh! That Really Hurths: (Hobbits only) Exactly why did it seem like a good idea to put your tongue on your short sword in winter? Lose 1 Endurance.