Is it just me or does the Hooktongue Slough seem out of place in this far north. I geuss it is possible but because of the climate I don't think the creatures you would normally associate with a swamp would be present [croc's, gaters, large snakes], but yet we have lizard men and frog people ....? Magic I geuss. I'm just trying to get my mind around what the enviroment for my upcoming Kingmaker campaign. I remember reading the area described as cold northern region. I invisioned southern Canada or northern Europe, was I wrong.
Greetings, fellow traveller.
I always thought of it being more like a bog. About the creatures: well, magic, I guess *wink*
Ruyan.
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The river kingdoms are supposed to be like the bread basket or farm belt for all of Golarion if I am not mistaken. Also, southern Brevoy pretty much feeds all of Brevoy since it is the only place crops grow well. So I would guess that the cold line is somewhere around central Brevoy rather than thru the Stolen Lands.
How may DM's use the weather in there game?
This will help at the beginning as they will need to return to homebase more often as food will not be as easy to find.
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I use weather a lot for several reasons:
1. Weather and seasons were a big factor in mass combat and when kingdoms went to war.
2. There are winter court and summer court Fey in my game, whose strengths are affected which season is happening in the game currently.
3. Using weather helps make your druid and nature oriented PCs that much more useful and important. Gives them another way to shine.
According to Wikipedia - both Frogs and Lizards are found in Northern Europe - although they appear to be absent from Canada.
I have just looked through the random encounter table for the Slough (in book 4) and the only one I really questioned was Constrictor Snake. All the others were fantasy - and most work well with Northern fantasy as well.However, Wikipedia (yeah I know) shows snakes in Scandinavia. *Shrug*
I tend to think of The Stolen Lands as being towards the very north of these things natural range ...
I slow down building over winter and encourage my guys to stay home and plan expansions. That way they can be away from home more in the summer when travel is easier and there are more things to do.
There are a couple of small snake varieties in Scandinavia. However, I see the River Kingdoms as more German in terms of climate than northern (it's a good deal further south than, for instance, the Lands of the Linnorm Kings).
Ok, lets agree Goloran is very Earthlike in allot of ways (its actually one of my criticisms of the game world too much is clearly identifiable.) Those that know history and geography can probably tell you one of the most river heavy areas of the world is Western Europe. This is a fact the Vikings found rather convenient as to their ships the whole continent was essentially like a paved highway.
After Russia and England, France was one of the more heavily raided areas both due to its proximity and its rivers. France has a winter that's stronger in its norther region and very mild in its southern region. France is also considered to be a hotbed for revolutionary thinking in politics, philosophy, and various forms of art. The fencing schools and swashbuckler-esc themes also point to one of France's iconic heroes, the musketeer, you know minus the musket I guess.
France has some of the moderating effects of the gulf stream, along with the rest of the western coast of the Northern Europe - so Northern French winters aren't particularly extreme.
As for the Musketeers - there were plenty of duelling schools in Germanic Eastern Europe - that is where the majority of the dudes with duelling scars on their cheeks came from.
Ukraine is often called The Bread Basket of Europe - apparently it was reputed to produce 1/4 of all the agricultural output of the old Soviet Union.
So I use Northern Europe / Northern Asia as my reference setting for The Stolen Land.
I always assume (in my head) that Baron First disappeared off to "The East" to learn his fighting skills and came back skilled in a Katana like weapon - it fits with both the description of the weapon and the one/two handed fighting style.
As for how we get larger forms of Earthy Creatures somewhere they shouldn't be - I just assume that biology works slightly differently to the way it does on this planet.*Shrug*
I made the Slough Ilthuliak's old lair. She just wanted to feel more at home from whatever it was before.
How may DM's use the weather in there game?
This will help at the beginning as they will need to return to homebase more often as food will not be as easy to find.
IMO, most -- at least if they're trying to be good GMs.
For any level of immersion beyond a beer-and-pretzels dungeon crawl, a GM better put at least enough effort to not throw a snowstorm into mid-summer by way of ignorance/carelessness.
Weather can be used to great effect in enhancing a game. I'm not trying to be rude, but if a GM said this to me, I'd think that person was a lazy GM.
I rarely use weather in my games - UNLESS it is really extreme and going to be a feature of the session. Characters from a region are used to the weather they get and know how to deal with it, get on with life and let the weather happen in the background.
After the first (or second) time round they all have rain capes to pull around them, or furs to 'slip over the top' and they just carry on. After all, playing the same weather scenario (soggy and damp or cold and freezing) each week gets boring quite fast.
I suppose it depends on the type of players you have and whether it means much to them. Most of my guys will listen patiently to a hugely descriptive, immersive description, and then switch straight to asking key questions about the width of the road, the height of the tree cover, and what they can see 'of interest' along the road.
I make travel slower in winter and restrict building etc - but weather, per se, rarely affects game sessions too much.
I once shocked my players, when I told them it's not raining on their way to [enter encounter area XYZ].
On a more serious note, weather has a huge impact in my game: travel speed (they like to ride on horseback when visiting their citizens), vision, difficult terrain during combat, getting lost, diseases, natural hazards.
Building/kingdom enhancement is usually happening during late autumn/winter time.
Ruyan.
I am modeling my Brevoy on Michigan, with Issia being like the UP (Superior makes a good Lake of Mists and Veils), and Rostland being the southern half of the Mitten, where most of our farms are in reality. That would make the Stolen Lands sort of Ohio or Illinois. Still not a place to find great swamps, but there are some bogs and marshes.
I've been trying to pay better attention to it. We had to completely rearrange a few months' planning of kingdom building because I forgot that my homebrew puts the Stolen Lands in the southern hemisphere so it was actually winter when I thought it was summer.
Orthos: freak winter, so strange... But it happens!
Fey lands are strange lands ;)
Oh I intend to play that up more and more the closer they get to the end. What is initially going to be perceived as merely a string of mild winters is going to quickly become a bad case of HEAAAATWAAAAAVE since I put Nyrissa as ex-Summer Court >=)
Travel speed is a natural rule to use.
I don't remember the kingdom building rules having any seasonal related rules. I guess I could use a minor versions of the 'good weather', 'disaster', 'food shortage' and 'food surplus' effects during the appropriate times. Home brewing rules to let the players roll if the weather improves, stays the same, or gets worse. I'm sure I've seen something like this before.