Wilderness
GameMastery Guide, page 219
Game Masters frequently use wilderness travel simply as a means for the PCs to get from point A to point B, with an occasional random encounter thrown in to liven up the proceedings. But the wilderness has more to offer than just a path through the wasteland and a few wandering monsters. The GM’s responsibility is to bring the wilds to life. Once he has a living, breathing wilderness, the GM can start to set a variety of adventures in the wild and across the world.
What sets a wilderness adventure apart? First, the obvious answer: the terrain is more open and traversable. The party may travel through declivities, valleys, and gorges, but in general, they’ll have a wider, broader range for their trek. They will not be constrained by dungeon walls or cavern tunnels, and can choose their own pathways to their destination, but with these benefits come a wide variety of additional hazards and a potential for adventure.
In this section
- Climate and Weather Any world that supports life should contain a wide range of environments: diversity in the ecosystem helps support a diversity of life, though of course a fantasy world is subject to its own governing rules of physics…
- Environment In addition to climate and weather, the environment itself can have an impact on adventures. The environment includes both landscapes and ecosystems.
- Encounters on a Journey Depending on how they’re handled, cross-country journeys, voyages by sea, or treks between communities can be time consuming and difficult to run.
- Wilderness Toolbox The wilderness presents a vast range of opportunities for adventure, not just as far as setting and locations go, but also in terms of hazards one might encounter, creatures to be faced, and natives or travelers also…