Elemental Reductions

One of my submissions for Santicorn 2026 was for Cold Waste Encounters.  It's here . I'm not happy with it, so here's some additionally brainstorming for this.  There are numbers here, but I haven't had a chance to game them out.   Time The cold wastes are at the ends of the world.  Days pass differently there.  In the middle of summer, a day lasts for weeks.  Similarly, in the middle of the winter, a night lasts for weeks.  Those times are close to normal during the equinoxes. Body Heat In the extreme cold, characters have a freezing track.  It starts at 0, meaning they are kept warm, and goes to 6.   Lose Freezing by Gaining Heat During combat, characters actually get warmer from the motion. Eating a warm cooked meal that fills the belly and carresses the spine as often as once a turn. Drinking a pint of a hot beverage as often as once a turn. Sitting at a warm fire or a stove for an hour. Staying in a winterized shelter. Gain F...

I wrote this up for Secret Santicorn for Khajeet, whose original gift giver had to bow out.  Merry Hannukwanzimas, Khajeet!   Fafhrd was a barbarian from the cold north.  I only recall the vaguest bits of those books, but between that and having snow and ice at home four months of the year, here are some reforgings of those thoughts. Cold Environments When your party is venturing through temperatures around -20°C (that’s -4F°), even hiking in armor isn’t going to get you through those freezing nights.  The party’s going to need some really good gear.   Winged flyers, usually limited in load, do very poorly in these environments if they aren’t similar to their home terrain, because they can’t carry the load of insulating clothes. Survival Gear Clothes Sleeping Gear Effect Full Snow Gear (20 gp): waterproof boots, overcoat, cape, and cap if fully armored, add leggings and a tunic if not, and mitts, all insulated.  Outfits for people from such environment...

This post is part of October's Blog Carnival theme of Horror and Fantasy , hosted Timothy S. Brannan's The Other Side Blog "Another zombie.  Ho hum.  I'll kite it, you stick it with arrows."  Zombies by liftarn, under CC0 There is nothing horrific about zombies.  Here, look, courtesy of Basic Fantasy RPG: Zombie (undead) AC : 7[12] HD : 2 Attack : 2x +1/weapon or swipe (1d8) Mv : 20 ft.   No. Appearing : 2d4 (4d6 in the wild) Save : F2 Morale : 12 Treasure Type : none  XP : 75 It's basically a slightly worse gnoll that never retreats.  This has been a chip on my shoulder for a long time.  Here's what I propose:  First, every undead creature should be freaky: they utterly violate the natural order of the world.  They should be described with that in mind.  Play up the disturbing appearance of their decaying yet animate corpses and their putrefying stench. Mechanically, we might reflect this character reaction i...