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...

Elven Trinkets Gifts from elves! They have a detectable but faint aura of magic. The mechanics should not be disclosed to the player, except through game play.   If more than one token is carried at a time, only the one closest to the token carrier's body is the one that is in effect.  If there is any contention or ambiguity, none work.   Some GMs may want a token to have been carried for a full day before the bearer can activate it. d100 Item Mechanics 1 Panther Claw The bearer deals 1d4 normal combat damage with unarmed combat. 2 Golden Egg If the person carrying this dies, they are reincarnated, consuming the egg in a small spontaneous fire.  They appear within a turn knowing the party and 75% of their previous incarnation's memories, although their knowledge may be different. 3 Golden Twig If the person carrying this suffers a hit which would kill them , the twig instead turns into a normal dried twig, and crumbles into multiple pieces, and t...

♠ Spades ♠ Dungeon  ( 2♠ ): Character is instantly transported and trapped in a dungeon within four days of travel from the current location. The character's equipment other than clothes are left where the character was. with a note to his approximate location (where the entrance of the dungeon is). The character is actually restrained to a particular room (something similar to a jail cell, where movement is free but constrained to an uncomfortably small space). The character is not kept under guard, and the restraints in place may actually protect the character. There are 1d3+2 iron rations in the cell.No further draws are possible, and all cards already drawn from  any  deck of many things disappear Prisoner  ( 3♠ ): Character is instantly transported to an encampment, caravan, or marching army within four days travel of their current location. The character is kept prisoner by those of the caravan, the majority of whom hold values strongly removed from those ...