Z is for Zat's it: Hitting the Trail with the Wilderness Survival Guide

Well Zat's it. I made it but only just this year, with flagging energy toward the end.

I stand by what I have said already,

"What would I have liked to have seen then and what would I like to see now.

I think if the book had been broken into terrains, it would have been stronger, far more useful and have become inspirational.

e.g. Arctic - with rules for cold, a new equipment list (sleds, warm clothes, eye protection, new spells, and monster section (including huskies, polar bears etc).

And so on for desert, forest, plains, mountains

You see as DM, the setting can often fire the imagination. Rules don't do it alone, and I like rules. Wilderness is just too broad a terrain type!

I might want to take my players to Hoth - if so I want rules that deal with this easily accessible, not rules on cold spread throughout the entire guide. After reading these imagined arctic rules, perhaps I may have been inspired to take take my players to Hoth, even if it had never occurred to me before.

Or Tatooine, or up the mountains. Or in the open plains, where horse lords rule.

I also think these guides would have been more effective if sold with a DM screen - all relevant tables must be on the DM screen. How much can one remember otherwise?

My dormant Old School Adventure Guide - of course gives Kim the last laugh. He has published I have not! So, take a bow Kim for the WSG, you at least were an important part of the silver age of D&D

Y is for Yeoman: Hitting the Trail with the Wilderness Survival Guide

If I was a yeoman adventurer,

the WSG

would not be my SAS survival guide.

X is for Xeno: Hitting the Trail with the Wilderness Survival Guide

Weird monsters - nup.

Weird terrain - nup.

Wacky - nup.

Wealistic - maybe.

W is for World of Weather: Hitting the Trail with the Wilderness Survival Guide

A whole appendix on Weather...

with tables like

You know... I am losing interest. Maybe another day.

V is for Vitals: Hitting the Trail with the Wilderness Survival Guide

Grub, food, water, sustenance, it's all needed in the wilderness.

Going without
Food
Combined Strength and Constitution     Tolerance level (days)
<=15                                                             4
16-19                                                            5
20-24                                                            6
25-30                                                            7
31-35                                                            8
36+                                                              10

Then every 12 hours make a Str or Con check (at +1 cumulative per check) or else... you are weakened (-1 on attack rolls and reflex saving throws cumulative per day in this state). Also now cumulative +2 on subsequent checks. Fail again... distressed (max 2 hours strenuous activity per day). Fail again.... incapacitated (no voluntary physical activity) and in danger of starving to death within hours (losing 1d6 hit points per hour)!

Going without
Water
Max 3 days without water until bad things happen!
Females can manage an extra day! Get that - something in the rules making it advantageous to be a female character.
Other modifiers depending on type of food if available (watermelon a good one to have), heat etc

After this time weakened, then as above to the worsening states, except 1d8 hit points loss per hour when incapacitated.

How much must one eat in a day?
Human, dwarf, half-elf, half-orc = 1-2 pounds of solid nourishment per day.
Elf 3/4 this much, halfling or gnome 1/2.

In game terms...

Standard rations = 200gp encumbrance. Assume 140gp is food, 60 is bulkiness. 140gp = 14 pounds. 2 pounds of standard rations must be eaten per day for a human, meaning standard rations last 1 week.

Iron rations encumbrance is 75gp. 5 gp is bulkiness, since the food is more concentrated and occupied less space)  therefore 70gp or 7 pounds remains. 1 pound of iron rations must be eaten per day for a human, meaning iron rations last 1 week.

Ok, I know the author Kim Mohan completely fudged this so that rations last one week. But it aint a bad fudge!

There is even a table on water requirements per day depending on activity and temperature; range 5-16 pints per day for a human.

U is for Unusual Hazard: Hitting the Trail with the Wilderness Survival Guide

An unusual hazard, one best to avoid, is being struck by lightning.

I reproduce here what the WSG says about this unusual event. I found it quite amusing.

The exact chance of lightning hitting a character is left up to the Dungeon Master, but this list does offer relative rankings, using 1 to represent the smallest chance. In all cases except the last, this list assumes that the character has divested himself of armor and other large items of metal and has taken the best available opportunity to  protect himself.

1: Inside a solid, nonmetallic structure and not touching the structure itself. (If someone is sitting or leaning against the side of the structure, treat this as a relative chance of 10.)

5: Protected beneath or within a natural shelter that is not the highest point on nonfeatureless terrain, or a shelter that is expansive enough to absorb the force of the lightning (under a large rock overhang; beneath a thick grove of equally tall trees).

15: Partially protected on featureless terrain (lying in a ditch in the middle of a field, or at the bottom of a gently sloping hill).

30: Scantily protected beneath a large object in the middle of otherwise featureless terrain (standing or lying under a big tree in a field).

50: Unprotected on featureless terrain (standing, sitting or lying in the middle of a field).

100: Unprotected, and asking for it, on featureless terrain (standing fully armored in the middle of a field).

The damage that can be suffered from a lightning strike extends through a wide range of possibilities. A character who has taken no precautions to prevent injury will be killed on a 4 in 6 chance, and if he doesn’t die outright he will lose 40-90% of his maximum total hit points (which may still result in death if  the character was not at or near full hit points to begin with). A character who has taken the best precautions available to him and still gets hit will be killed on a 2 in 6 chance, and otherwise will lose 10-60% of his current hit points.

T is for Terrain Hierarchy: Hitting the Trail with the Wilderness Survival Guide

This may not sound like much but I think quite useful. Page9.

1. Seacoast

2. Swamp

3. Forest

4. Plains

5. Desert

6. Hills

7. Mountains

A hierarchy of terrain. If a territory has two or more different types of terrain consider it the higher terrain (1 highest, 7 lowest). The examples given are a sandy beach bordering an ocean is a seacoast not a desert. A low lying area with standing water with lots of trees is a swamp not a forest.

Common sense is advised but may help to guide which wandering monster table to use, which terrain movement modifier etc.