Since day one of the first part being published, this series has consistently had an entry amongst the top ten here at Campaign Mastery. Whether that magic continues or is subject-dependent remains to be seen, but – for now – I have to consider the serial blog format a success!

Part 1 of this series began a concordance of Seasonal Experiences with Winter descriptions for McMurdo (Antarctica), Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Tahiti, and Cairo.

This is part 2, which will cover Winter in Brazil, Puerto Rico, Miami, New Orleans, and New York City.

Part 3 will contain Omaha, Las Vegas, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Honolulu.

Part 4 will detail Tokyo, Montreal, Madrid, London, Glasgow, and Berlin.

Part 5 will wrap up Winter, dealing with Switzerland, Stockholm, Moscow, Siberia, Anchorage, and Reykjavik.

Thereafter, parts 6-10 will handle Spring (same cities), parts 11-15, Summer, and parts 16-20, Autumn. At about 10,000 words each, the series should total approaching a quarter of a million words by the time it’s done! I intend to put a week’s gap in between each quartet, so it should be finished sometime toward the end of the year!! In fact, the goal is to finish by December at the latest.

8. Winter In Brazil

Although, as a general rule, I have tried to make this about specific locations that could act as exemplars of the weather patterns experienced in that part of the world, it was essential that each location be somewhere that would be immediately recognized by the majority of readers. I didn’t choose French Polynesia, I chose Tahiti; I didn’t choose Egypt, I chose Cairo; and so on. Tropical Jungles are a key environment that needed to be represented, but when you look at a map, there are very few settlements of any size in those central regions of Africa, and certainly none that are household names; and while there are more large settlements to choose from in Brazil (i.e. locations large enough that I might be able to locate weather data for them), most of those hug the coastline and are still not recognizable by name to the majority. Thus, for the first time in this study, I have been forced to report on an entire region.

And it’s no small region, either. While mostly south of the equator, Brazil’s northernmost reaches do penetrate 5 or 600 km (310-373 miles) into the Northern hemisphere, while the southernmost tip of the nation is at roughly the same latitude as the bottom tip of South Africa, which is also the same latitude as Sydney. From it’s most northern projection to it’s most southern, Brazil is roughly 4400 km (2734 miles) in length! That’s the same as from central Guatemala to the northernmost borders of the continental US, or from Cairo to about 200km North of Helsinki, Finland, which shows the scale of the challenge posed by this part of the series!

One of the takeaways from part one that has received a lot of comment is that people never realized before how little distance it took to cause a profound change in the weather patterns experienced. Part of the “mission” for this series is to see whether or not that holds equally true no matter where you go, or do the differences become smaller per km in equatorial regions and/or extreme latitudes. The north-south distance between McMurdo and Hobart is more than TWICE that of Brazil (by a small margin). And if that seems unlikely to you, given the way things look on your world map, I suggest you consult my 2010 article, and still one of the most popular here at Campaign Mastery, Lessons From The West Wing II: The Psychology Of Maps.

This theory – that climatic differences are smaller and more generalized at the equator and the poles than through the temperate regions – will be directly tested by the weather of Brazil, and might just make the whole concept of rationally analyzing the climate of a location this large possible. So let’s get started…

According to Rikshaw Travel, “March to November are dry months and December to February are wet months in Southern Brazil. During the Brazilian winter (June to September) the weather in Rio and the surrounding area is similar to the summertime in Northern Europe. The rainforest areas, Pantanal and the Amazon, are warm and humid all year round. Tropical north eastern Brazil has two seasons, but you’ll hardly notice any difference between the two.”

This seems to divide the nation into three zones (or perhaps four) – a northern and central zone, a coastal zone around the mid-point of the country, and a southern zone. You might get the impression that these are fairly equivalent in size, or at least that the first and last are; and, if South America were rectangular, and you included Argentina on your climate map, the latter impression would be accurate. The reality is that the third zone comprises almost 90% of Brazil, with the second being a very small area in comparison, and the first being somewhere in between these two in size.

Of course, climatologists – who deal with these matters in a far more nuanced way – further subdivide and refine their definitions, as shown by the map to the right.

On the map to the right, the rainforest areas are shown in shades of blue, the Rio areas are a peach color, and the southern area in green.

The Climates To Travel website defines the regions slightly differently. They distinguish between Equatorial Brazil, including the Amazon basin and the Rio pocket, the “almost Mediterranean” Subtropical areas of Southern Brazil, and the Tropical areas consisting of a small portion of the extreme North and the vast majority of the central areas of the nation. This disagreement clearly shows that the differences between regions are of nuanced degrees; you can’t dispute their existence, they are matters of statistical fact, but trying to draw dividing lines is

Because the site provides specifics for each region, the Climates-To-Travel definitions are the areas that I will use for the rest of this section.

But let’s be fair – when you think of Brazil, you think of the legendary weather of Rio writ large over the whole country while thinking of the Amazon rainforest, and that’s an impression that is altogether inaccurate.

Southern Brazil

This part of Brazil is known as the “South Region”. Winter is from June to September. Evenings and nights can be cool; exceptional nights can approach freezing temperature. The farther south you travel, the cooler things get. Some days are cloudy, with rain, but there are also periods with significant sunshine. In fact, the average hours of sunlight per day are a surprisingly consistent 5-6 hours all year round.

Precipitation is the chief differentiation between the seasons. Rainfall is distributed throughout the year, but is less frequent and far less abundant in this time of year. April to September experiences 9 rainy days per month (on average) or less; in June, this tally drops to 6, while in July and August, it is 7. That’s one or two rainy days a week. The typical rainfall is 8-9mm per rainy day (about 1/3 of an inch). Again, the more southerly a location, the more strongly winter becomes the season of predominant rainfall, but the differences are largely statistical and not overly noticeable on the ground.

Although slightly north of the region when state boundaries are used as the basis of definition, Sao Paulo is considered to be on the boundary line between the climates, but is so heavy with atmospheric pollutants that the sunlight is often hazy even on clear days, and visitors frequently suffer nose and throat complaints. The winter weather of this area has been described as being like summer in Europe, especially the Mediterranean regions, as mentioned earlier.

Altitude is also a significant factor, as is proximity to the warmth of the breezes at sea level; the average difference from these factors alone is 3-4°C (up to 7°F), but it can easily be double that on a particular day or when a change comes through. Inland areas at altitude, such as Lages and Sao Joaquim, snow is possible from June to August.

As is typical of coastal areas, the ocean functions as a heat bank, storing vast amounts of energy during the daylight hours (and substantially less when cloud-bound); this produces an increasing pressure differential as the day proceeds, so that morning winds tend to be influenced by the temperatures of the mountains and afternoon/evening by the ocean temperatures. As a general rule, land is hotter than water, unless the land is snow-capped. A significantly cloudy day can lower the temperature of the breezes for several days afterwards even while moderating their strength. From late April through October, the sea temperatures are too cold for swimming, and only truly comfortable from January through March.

Tropical Brazil

Tropical Brazil has two seasons but it can be even more difficult to distinguish between them in the Northeast than it is in the Rainforests. The average temperature is 26°C to 30°C (79-86°F) all year – and remember that the nights will be a little cooler than the heat of the day, so average maximums will be higher. Showers can be refreshing but may seem to do nothing but increase the already-uncomfortable humidity. From Rio south, the variations – night vs day, etc – tend to grow more pronounced, and the occasional sea breeze combines with the high humidity to occasionally cool things down. The rainy season starts in January; the next three months are showers interspersed with periods of sunshine. In April, the rain becomes more frequent and more intense, and the sunshine more and more intermittent, signaling that “winter” (such as it is) is imminent. Warmer weather and sunshine return with the coming of Spring as the rains suddenly become extremely infrequent.

In the areas where the dry season is shortest, the forest can grows as though it were in the equatorial zone, otherwise the vegetation is less dense and more savanna-like, with increasing aridity indicated by the plant life (shrubs, cacti, etc).

In the interiors of states like Bahia and Pernambuco, the annual rainfall is only (on average) 4-500mm (15-20 inches) per year, but rainfall in what is known as the Nordeste is highly irregular, and even though it doesn’t happen often, there can be torrential rainfall leading to the “winter” months (November to March).

Altitude in some areas (500-1000m i.e. 1600-3300′) can temper the heat a little, but has less influence than is expected by those hailing from more temperate climes.

In the far north of Brazil is the Massif of Guyana, another area covered by savannah. Photographs of region are reminiscent of parts of Arizona – if the desert floor were replaced with jungle – and also contain rock formations that are reminiscent of those found in Australia; compare the middle image of the three shown in the montage at the start of this article with that of the Three Sisters (near Sydney) that was included in Part 1 of the series. This region is located just a little north of the equator (from 2.5°N to 5°N), so it is fascinating to observe that the hemispheric seasonal “flip” is so pronounced in the region.

The weather data for Boa Vista, capital of the state of Roraima, and located close to the extreme south of the region shows the pattern very clearly: February and March are very clearly the driest months of the year, though October through January are only marginally wetter: starting with October, the average number of rainy days per month are 5, 5, 5, 5, 3,and 4. This 6-month range is clearly preceded and followed by transitional months, defining a 1-month autumn and 2-month spring. Humidity is noticeably lower during this period, making it far more comfortable than the rest of the year. Temperature averages scarcely change throughout the year – average minimums range annually from 22°C to 24°C (72-75°F), while average maximums range from 30° to 34°C (86-93°F).

Further east, the “least rainy” period is shorter and runs from September to November – again, the pattern is for “winter” to come later, the closer you are to the coast when close to the equator. As you travel further south, the “winter” season becomes more pronounced and also shifts toward the middle of the year; these impacts combine when you consider the climate of Rio de Janeiro.

July and August are clearly the driest months (only 4-5 rainy days per month), though May (6), June (6), and September (7) are only marginally damp more often. The average rainfall for these periods is more compelling; June and August, 45mm (1.8 inches) in the month, July 40mm (1.6 inches). September is only slightly wetter, receiving 55mm (2.2 inches). April-May and October are clearly transitional months.

Rio is far enough south to experience cooler temperatures in winter; highs from May to October fall to around 25-26°C (77-79°F), and this can be the best time of the year to visit the city unless you want to swim; it’s warm but not hot, the sunshine hours count is good, and rainy periods are rare (but still possible). The exception is because the sea is a bit cool at this time, 22°C or so, though it is still possible to swim if you are brave enough.

Rio marks an internal climatic boundary within the region; south of this point (and excluding the pocket of equatorial climate already discussed), the climate begins to be rainy all year and winter becomes progressively cooler. Typical of this region’s climate in the inland is the national capital Brasilia, where the weather is “pleasantly warm all year round”. A perpetual influence on Brasilia’s weather is the altitude of about 1,000m (3300′) above sea level. Average maximums range from 25°-28°C (77°-82°C) all year round, while average minimums, while a less reliable guide to any particular night, vary from 13° to 18°C (25°-27°F). Nighttime temperatures are more variable, but generally cooler in winter. Winter (May to August), short outbreaks of cold air coming from the south can lower night temperatures to 5°C (41 °F) or occasionally less. Precipitation in Rio defines the ‘dry winter’ period as May to August.

Central Brazil

Also known as the Amazon Plain, but that gives the false impression that the two terms are synonymous. The most accurate name is Equatorial Brazil, which encompasses the Amazonian Plain, but extends beyond it. Most of this region was once the floor of a giant sea, and this area is full of places that have never been seen by anyone but native tribes indigenous to the area. The Brazilian rainforest is home to more “uncontacted tribes” than anywhere else in the world, many consisting of no more than a handful of members. Estimates of over 100 isolated groups are accepted internationally, and in September of 2017 it was reported that one such tribe were massacred by gold prospectors.

“Winter” is June and July, but the differences are marginal; the weather is hot and humid all year round, rarely falling below 20°C (68°F). These months are also the middle of the dryer season, when the wildlife is most active, but also notably less aggressive because food is in ample supply and they are aware that other predators are also active.

Rainfall comes as heavy showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon or evening. Winter is when rain events drop from two in three days to one in three or four. On the monthly scale, this drop is precipitous sudden; while there is a slight progressive buildup from the initial decline, there is an equally-sudden escalation in rain events in December.

Manaus, located in the center of the rainforest region, is fairly typical of the region, and provides a basis against which local variations can be measured.

The coastal city of Belem, for example, is hot and humid all year round (like Manaus) but does receive ocean breezes that can be soothing. Rainfall is more abundant, but follows a similar trend through the year, though the “dry” period (“dryer” period?) is delayed until October-November. The average number of sunshine hours per day for Belem is quite revealing of the weather pattern there: starting in January, these numbers are 4, 4, 3, 4, 6, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7, and 6.

The dryer period (“less-rainy” period?) runs from August to November in the northern part of the Amazon, and June to September in the south/central part. Heavy rain remains possible in late afternoon regardless of season; these simply become less frequent.

The Salvadore region of the coast is notable for a very similar climate, though marginally drier; trade winds carry moist air from the ocean producing frequent rainfalls, the only difference is that they don’t last quite as long. This region still gets almost 2000mm (75 inches) of rainfall a year, but the interaction of trade winds and other climatic variables a drier summer, with Winter containing the wettest months. Compared with the main tropical region of Brazil, the weather is extremely topsy-turvy; temperatures and humidity tell one story, while rainfall tells another.

9. Winter In Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico (literally, “Port Rich”) is actually an archipelago among the Greater Antilles, consisting of the main island (also known as Puerto Rico) and 142 other islands, cays, and atolls. Of these, the only inhabited lands are the eponymous main island and the islands of Vieques and Culebra.

A Spanish property from 1493, Puerto Rico was obtained by the US as part of the settling of the Spanish-American War by the Treaty Of Paris. The citizens are, by law, natural-born citizens of the US and able to move freely between the island and the mainland.

Because it is not a state, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the US Congress, though they have a non-voting representative called a Resident Commissioner. American Citizens residing in Puerto Rico are disenfranchised at the national level beyond this representative; they do not vote for the President or Vice-President, do not pay federal income tax, does not elect Senators, and the supreme political document is a constitution which permits residents to elect a Governor as well as local Senate and House.

While the numbers may give the appearance that the majority of citizens are indifferent to the question, a significant number have repeatedly shown a strong preference for full statehood over the present status as an Unincorporated Territory, arguing that the region’s needs are overlooked because of it’s status. The false impression is raised because one of the two major parties boycotted the last referendum on the subject. A second factor involves the government debt crisis that emerged in early 2017 after a decade-long recession. By August of last year, the debt was US$72 billion, the population was about 3.7 million, about 45% of whom lived in poverty.

Less than two months later, the territory was devastated by Hurricane Maria; the main island’s electrical grid was destroyed, creating the largest power outage in American History. Communications were also severely disrupted, roads cut, buildings leveled, etc. The total damage was estimated at US$95 billion, a situation worsened by the economic crisis which left the government ill-equipped to respond. By the end of November, FEMA had received more than a million applications for aid, and approved about a quarter of the requests. Many of the population found themselves without employment.

By the end of November 2017, more than 200,000 residents had relocated to Florida. It is estimated that despite the reported difficulties of the relocatees accessing health care and educational services, up to 14% of the population will depart for the mainland by 2019. Infrastructure and economic recovery is still continuing. It is accepted that completing that process and repairing the already-damaged economy will take years, and may not be complete by the time of the next Hurricane strike. Almost half the residents were still without electricity as of December, 2017, but two-thirds of the hotels have now reopened, for example.

Geographically, the main island is approximately rectangular, with a long-axis length of 180km (110 miles) and a maximum north-south length of 65 km (40 miles). The terrain is mostly mountainous with large coastal regions in the south and especially the north. The main mountain range is “La Cordillera Central” (The Central Range); the tallest peak of this range is Cerro de Punta at 1338m (4390′).

Puerto Rico has 17 lakes, all man-made, and more than 50 rivers, most originating in the Cordillera Central. Rivers in the northern region are typically longer and of higher water flow rates than those to the south, which receives less rain than the central and northern regions.

The Caribbean and North Atlantic tectonic plates intersect about 115km (71 miles) north of Puerto Rico at the Puerto Rico Trench, and the archipelago is being deformed by the resulting stresses, which can cause earthquakes, tsunamis, and (routinely), landslides. There has not been a major earthquake since 1918.

The climate is considered to be that of a Tropical Rainforest. San Juan, the largest city, is at a latitude of almost 18.5° North of the equator, so comparisons with the climate of Rio de Janeiro should be especially interesting (see ‘Tropical Brazil, above). Of course, being on the other side of the equator, the seasons will be reversed relative to that part of the world.

Temperatures are warm to hot all year, averaging near 29°C (85 °F) in lower elevations and 21°C (70°F) in the mountains. Easterly trade winds pass across the island year round. Puerto Rico has a rainy season which stretches from April into November; the winter is the dryer season. The mountains of the Cordillera Central are the main cause of variations in the temperature, wind speed, direction, and rainfall, and these can occur over very short distances and short time-spans. One source describes forecasts as “locally unstable” and indicating a general summary more than an accurate prediction.

Seasonal changes in the daily temperatures of the main island are quite small in the lowlands and coastal areas. The temperature in the south is usually a few degrees higher than the north and temperatures in the central interior mountains are always cooler than those on the rest of the island. The average maximum is 30°C (84.5°F) and the average minimum 19°C (82.4°F). Winter is roughly 3.3°C (6°F) cooler than summer, mainly due to the warm waters of the Atlantic, which significantly moderate cooler air moving in from the north and northwest.

The levels of sunshine scarcely change all year round, being consistently 8-9 hours a day, on average. Winter is the driest period of the year, running from January to March; December and April-June are transitional months, according to the average rainfall levels (with a significant anomaly in June). However, the rainy-day count per month displays the complexity of the local weather systems; January’s average is 17, very similar to that of the rainy period, while those of February, March, and April are 13, 12, and 13, respectively.

Coupling these facts together shows that winter starts with rainy periods declining in intensity and duration; over the next 3 months, they decline in frequency very consistently before abruptly increasing in intensity and/or duration but not frequency at the end of the winter season, as shown by the graph.

San Juan officially has a tropical monsoon climate. In winter, temperatures can drop as low as 16°C (60°F), though the average winter low is 6°C (11°F) warmer than that.

On average, a quarter of the annual rainfall comes from tropical cyclones, which are more prevalent during periods of El Nina than El Nino; a cyclone of tropical storm strength passes near to Puerto Rico every 5 years on average, while a hurricane passes the vicinity once every 7 years. However, a near miss is sufficient to cause significant infrastructure damage, as was the case prior to Hurricane Maria in 2017, another contributing factor to the region’s problems. Half of the hospitals were already operating on emergency generator power, for example.

Following Maria, the Jones Act’s protectionist measures were waived by President Trump for a mere ten days. This act essentially doubles the cost of goods relative to their neighbors. The manifest inadequacy of this relief measure means that tourism is the best means available to the locals for influxes of wealth and a return to (relative) prosperity.

Hence, there were numerous official declarations in the course of December that the island was once again open for tourism, and tourist attractions and accommodations were prioritized in term of restoration of services. This was the cause of some dissatisfaction at the time, but is at least understandable as the least-worst choice under the circumstances.

The peak season for tourism is Winter, but the advice offered by most travel sites is that most people will enjoy a better experience if they visit between mid-April through June, sandwiching your time in between the busy winter season and the rainy summer. Hotel prices can be over US$100 per night in the peak season, and as little as US$80 right after it, which adds up over a week or so.

Key events for this time of year include the San Sebastian Street Festival (January), the Maricao Coffee Festival (February), the Casals Festival (February-March), and the Ponce Carnival (March). The Puerto Rican Tourism Company will reportedly be announcing a series of ‘Rebuild Days’ where supporters of the island can come and contribute to its recovery, but none have yet been added to the event calendar. Some hotels are also organizing their own “voluntourism” efforts for guest volunteers.

Viewing that event calendar makes it clear that the majority of entertainments are smaller and more local in scale than those relatively major festivals – think more of numerous street parties with different themes, leavened with museum tours, historical re-enactments, art classes and demonstrations, and the like.

Puerto Rico is noted for celebrating Christmas/New Year from shortly after Thanksgiving (which is the fourth Thursday of November each year) until three weeks into January – almost 2 months of seasonal festivities, which culminate in the aforementioned San Sebastian Street Festival on the third weekend of January. San Sebastian st in old San Juan closes for four days of music, parades, and religious processions that have been described as the Puerto Rican Mardi Gras.

There are a number of unique cuisine specialties on offer at this time of year, including lechón asado (roasted pork), pollo guisado (chicken stew with potatoes and green olives), pasteles (mashed green bananas stuffed with meat and wrapped in banana leaves) and the coconut-based coquito (the Puerto Rican version of eggnog) which is available at almost every bar.

Some attractions remain closed for post-hurricane repairs, such as the EL Yunque National Park.

Most of the above information derives from Wikipedia and from the US News Travel Site‘s page, among numerous lesser reference sources.

10. Winter In Miami

My first exposure to Miami was almost certainly original episodes of Flipper when I was a child. I saw only one or two episodes of the Golden Girls and knew Miami Vice only through its associations and mentions in other popular culture such as John (Cougar) Mellencamp’s hit, “Miami”. No, until CSI Miami and True Lies came along, I think I knew more about the state of Florida in general than about it’s largest city. My general impression was always that it was “America’s Brisbane”, so it will be interesting to compare the information offered in part 1 for that city to what I’ve been able to glean about the American metropolis!

Well, to start with, Miami is a lot bigger than this impression would convey. Miami is the second-largest city in the South and East combined, by population, and has the third tallest skyline in the US with more than 300 high-rise buildings. It has branches (possibly even head offices) of more international banks than anywhere else in the US, and is second only to New York City as a tourism hub.

Not all of my early impressions are so inaccurate. Miami was ultra-conservative during the 1920s, with the chief of police proud to be a member of the KKK. Populations were relatively low until a land boom in this period, but the triple-punch of the end of that boom, the 1926 hurricane, and the Great depression slowed development. World War II saw Miami become a base for US Submarines defending against German submarines, which increased Miami’s population to a little over the 172,000 mark by 1940 – hardly a huge population!

The 1959 rise to power of Fidel Castro in nearby Cuba saw many Cubans relocate to Miami, and of course, the 1960s brought the Space Race to Florida. Seemingly overnight, the state went from being a half-forgotten backwater to being one of the best-known in the country, and what everyone knew about it was the sunshine. By the late 1970s it was known internationally as one of the favorite retirement destinations in the US, but few stopped to think about what that actually meant.

Every retiree requires several working-age people contributing to the economy in order to support them, and people go where the jobs are. On top of that, tourism was booming for the state, and Miami was the hub of it. By 2006, that 172,000 people had grown to 5.5 million – which means that on average it was doubling every five years. The city acquired the nickname “The Magic City” as a result of this rapid growth, winter visitors remarking that the city had grown so much from one year to the next that it was like magic.

While this growth has slowed, overall, one area in Downtown Miami saw a 2069% increase in population in the 2010 Census. One mitigating factor is that there is an ongoing migration of white residents out of the city, and that is having a profound effect on the demographics.

Racial distribution in Miami is less homogeneous than I would have expected, as shown by the accompanying map. Miami has the highest population of foreign-born residents of any city world-wide (59% in 2004, followed by Toronto, Canada with 50%), but is considered more of a multicultural mosaic than a melting pot; ethnic populations tend to congregate and retain to varying degrees their cultural traits.

The overall culture of Miami is heavily influenced by the large Hispanic population and Caribbean islanders. More than 70% of Miami’s residents over 5 years of age in the 2010 census spoke only Spanish at home, and Miami has the highest proportion of residents who speak languages other than English in the home of all US Cities (74.55% in 2000). Because of the migration of English-speakers out of the state, those percentages are expected both to have risen and to continue to rise, though recent improvements in Cuba-US relations will have an impact that has not yet been assessed.

However, cultural amalgamation has been taking place in the culinary domain, which has blended general American cuisine with strong influences from the Caribbean and Latin America to produce a unique Southern Florida style known as Floribbean Cuisine.

Fifteen miles (24 km) off the coast, the Gulf Stream warms the ocean, producing a climate that is warm and mild all year round. In terms of latitude, Miami is almost 26° North of the equator, which is very comparable to Brisbane’s almost 27.5°S. Officially, Miami has a tropical monsoon climate with a marked dry season in the winter. Winter temperatures generally range between highs of 73-80°F (23-27°C) and lows of 60-63°F (15.6-17.2°C).

However, periodic cold fronts in the course of the season bring cool air which settles over the city and produces much of the rainfall in this time of year; on average, 10-15 nights will experience lows below 50°F (10°C) following the passage of cold fronts.

The coldest temperature ever recorded in Miami is 27°F (-2.8°C) (Feb 3, 1917). Miami has never officially recorded snowfall since records have been kept, but snow flurries fell in some areas on January 19, 1977. There are also anecdotal accounts of flurries that lasted several hours before melting back in February 1899.

Hurricane Season is officially over at the start of Winter, but storms can strike later than the November 30 end-date. Miami experiences more thunderstorms than most US cities, with thunder reported, on average, 80 times a year. These storms are often strong with frequent lightning and very heavy rain; occasionally, they can be severe with damaging winds and large hail. Tornadoes and Waterspouts are also occasionally reported. I have no times of year for these occurrences, but assuming that hurricanes are excluded, it seems most probable that the November and March-April intermediate years are more susceptible.

As usual, though, once you start looking at the finer details, some of those generalizations become obscured (Summer in Miami is especially affected by this).

November is very clearly a transitional month between seasons; it’s temperatures are almost exactly mid-way between those of October (Autumn) and December (Winter). January is slightly colder than either December or February. March and April are, once again, transitional months, with March trending closer to Winter and April being warmer than November by a couple of degrees.

December has slightly more rainy days than January, which in turn has slightly more than February, but the rainfall is clearly monsoonal in pattern; the number of wet days in November is only one higher than those of December, and while the number increases from February to March ever so slightly, it drops to an even lower average in April. Overall, throughout the season, 6.5-7 rainy days will be experienced.

However, the average rainfall received declines from December through January but then begins to increase slightly with each passing month, so even though the number of rainy days may be low, the intensity of precipitation when it does tends to increase, or the rain tends to last longer when it does happen.

It’s worth observing that the southern tip of Florida, which includes Miami, has a very different climate to the majority of the state, which is considered subtropical.

During El Nino periods, Miami becomes cooler than normal in winter with above-average precipitation, while in La Nina, it becomes warmer and drier than normal.

Miami’s winter has a notable ecological impact; the occasional low temperature extremes in January and February, are sufficient to kill several tropical species, opening the environment up to colonization by more northerly species. When the weather returns to normal, the tropical species can and sometimes do return; so the biodiversity of the region is in a constant state of flux.

Miami’s tropical weather permits outdoor activities all year, and the city has numerous marinas, rivers, bays, canals, and of course, the Atlantic Ocean; boating, sailing and fishing are popular activities. Biscayne Bay has numerous coral reefs that make snorkeling and scuba diving popular. Zoo Miami is world-famous.

In recent years, Mayor Manny Diaz has led the city government to an ambitious stance in support of bicycling in Miami both for recreation and commuting. “Bike Miami” is a monthly event in which major streets in Downtown and Brickell are closed to automobiles but not to pedestrians or those riding bicycles. An extensive 20-year plan for the construction of bike routes and paths around the city was approved in 2009, and by law all future construction from that date must accommodate bike parking.

As a general rule, Spring is the peak tourist season for the region. Nevertheless, there are plenty of “winter” activities on offer:

• Every Friday and Saturday in December (often with extra dates as well), hundreds of thousands of fairy lights illuminate the trees at Zoo Miami. This is known as the “Zoo Lights”, and it is one of the most popular attractions at the start of Winter.
• This is also a popular time for Everglades Airboat Tours.
• January is headlined by the Miami Jewish Film Festival, with almost 100 feature-length and short films screened at multiple venues throughout the city.
• There is an annual Arts Festival at the University Of Florida’s Miami Campus in mid-January. This time of year also brings various themed exhibitions, fashion shows, and movie screenings on the sand of the beach; the 2017-18 theme is Art Deco. It isn’t clear from my research whether other years have different themes.
• A week or so later, the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden dedicates three days to it’s annual International Chocolate Festival. Activities include sample tastings, demonstrations, and lectures from some of the worlds leading chocolatiers. This is an event that appears to be growing in reputation and prestige.
• The end of the month brings the richest horse race in the world (a US$16 million purse), the Pegasus World Cup, on the Saturday at Gulfstream Park, with a party atmosphere described as bordering on that a South Beach Nightclub.
• That’s followed the next day by the Miami Marathon and Half Marathon.
• The last Saturday of the month brings the quarterly “Keep Winter Park Beautiful Watershed Cleanup.
• In mid-February the 5-day Miami International Boat Show rounds out the season’s attractions.

Of course, there are also numerous conferences and conventions taking advantage of the off-season discounts to take advantage of the winter sunshine.

And, if you want to get some idea of the retiree lifestyle, check out JAG Season 3 Episode 15, “Yesterday’s Heroes” which includes numerous such details, often in the background of scenes, occasionally more prominently. If you’d seen it, you would probably remember it; there is a prominent guest-star appearance by Ernest Borgnine.

And for more local color, and depending on when your game is set, Miami Vice and/or CSI Miami might be just what you need.

11. Winter In New Orleans

New Orleans seems to always be in one of four situations: Imminent Disaster, Disaster, Recovery, or the Good Times in between each trilogy. You almost need to treat the city as it was prior to Hurricane Katrina as a completely different entity to the one that is there now.

Katrina displaced 800,000 residents according to some reports. Think about that for a moment. Only 15 US cities have a higher population, according to the 2010 Census (the number might be as high as 17, now, according to official estimates). And that’s just the number who were forced out of their homes for an extended period of time.

In 2006, the population was 49% of what it had been prior to Katrina. By 2008, that was back up to about 74% according to census bureau estimates. By 2010, neighborhoods that had not been subjected to flooding were at or near pre-Katrina levels, but those that had been flooded were still only sluggishly recovering, if at all.

Looking at it another way, pre-Katrina, New Orleans was the 31st largest city in the US (2000 census); it is now the 49th, having fallen to the bottom end of the 300 largest cities immediately after the Hurricane struck.

Like many Australians, the situation when Hurricane Katrina struck reminded me of the devastation by Cyclone Tracy of the northern Australian city of Darwin over Christmas, 1974. That storm killed 65, caused AU$837 million in damage (1974 dollars, that’s more than 6.5 Billion today), and leveled 80% of the houses. Virtually the entire city was evacuated, and had to be rebuilt; many residents never returned. Some advocated moving the entire city to a new location. By 1978, much of the city had recovered and was able to house almost the same number of people as it had before the cyclone hit. That was less than four years – to rebuild in a remote location with traumatized citizens, to an entirely new building code, and despite several bungles along the way.

“Surely, no matter how badly the initial response by FEMA had been, a nation with the might and resources of the USA would not take anywhere near so long to rebuild New Orleans,” ran the widespread expectation of those on the outside.

In Episode 3 of Series 9 of Top Gear, the show did a special – The Used American Car for $1000 Challenge – in which the presenters wanted to know if it was easier to buy a cheap car for a holiday rather than buy one. Their journey takes them from Miami to New Orleans, which they expected to have fully recovered by now – after all, Katrina had been more than a year ago. Instead, they found the city still devastated. The planned conclusion had been for the presenters to sell their cars to see how much they could get back of their initial $1000, but upon seeing the damage, they abandoned the challenge and gave the cars away, or tried to.

It was one thing to read that the recovery was proving difficult, quite another to see it.

The next media report of impact, internationally, was an episode of the Foo Fighters documentary series, Sonic Highways, in 2014. While much of the episode focused on the unique heritage of New Orleans, both culturally and musically, a sense emerged of a city that was integrating the damage into its collective culture and rediscovering its roots in the process. From the outside, life in New Orleans seemed to be returning not to normal, but to a new “normal” that had been shaped by the challenges of the city’s recent history.

That’s an impression sustained by the third major media appearance of the city outside of feature films – as the host location for NCIS: New Orleans, which actually premiered at about the same time as Sonic Highways. But it’s a significant part of the background that recovery from Katrina has not been equal in all neighborhoods.

So central to the reality of New Orleans is this state of affairs that simply to make the available photographic references relevant to my Zenith-3 campaign, which is based in New Orleans 2056, that I needed to throw another fictitious Hurricane at the city into the campaign’s background some ten years prior to the in-game date of play commencing.

Architecturally, New Orleans is what I would call “differentiated”. Several different parts of the city have unique styles that instantly identify them. Breaking these patterns down is beyond the scope of this article; suffice it to say that the architecture reflects the history, and needs specific research before New Orleans can be used as a template or setting.

The “America” section of the Wikipedia page on French Architecture is a start, but your next stop after absorbing that information should be the Buildings and architecture of New Orleans page, which doesn’t appear to have a link from the main New Orleans page for some reason.

New Orleans is split by the Mississippi River, with both the French Quarter and CBD on the northern side of the river. The CBD is home to skyscrapers that could belong to any metropolis; but the rest of the city is far more distinctive. Wikipedia has a separate article on the French Quarter as well as articles on many of the other districts that can be accessed from links on that page. Ironically, the iconic balconies of the French Quarter that are so recognizable these days were copied from Spanish architecture and then given a trademark stylistic French twist.

That’s actually a reasonably good motif for the city as a whole – selective integration of an outside cultural element which is then modified in style to integrate it with the base culture of the region.

Readers wanting to use New Orleans as a model or setting should also have a link to Wikipedia’s Neighborhoods in New Orleans page. While this page is little more than a collection of links to other pages, and doesn’t even have a map of the city’s districts to which it refers, it is nevertheless a vitally-useful resource that I have employed a number of times.

Geographically, one of the challenges that the city poses is that of determining whether an image is showing the river or Lake Pontchartrain; that 630-square-mile body of water lies to the North of New Orleans, and home to the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which is the longest straight bridge over water, world-wide. In fact, New Orleans started as a Native American portage site between the lake and the river.

The lake is a key geographic feature in terms of its influence over the climate. During a hurricane, wind can push water into the lake from the Gulf Of Mexico, and from there, it spills into New Orleans.

A hurricane in 1947 flooded much of Metairie, a CDP that forms a major part of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area, much of which is slightly below sea level due to land subsidence after marshland was drained. After the storm, hurricane-protection levees were built along Lake Pontchartrain’s south shore to protect New Orleans and nearby communities. A storm surge of 10 feet (3.0 m) from Hurricane Betsy overwhelmed some levees in eastern New Orleans in 1965, while storm surge funneled in by the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal and a levee failure flooded most of the Lower 9th Ward. After this the levees encircling the city and outlying parishes were raised to heights of 14 to 23 feet (4.3 to 7.0 m). Due to cost concerns, the levees were built to protect against only a Category 3 hurricane; however, some of the levees initially withstood the Category 5 storm surge of Hurricane Katrina (August 2005), and post-Katrina investigation showed that they had not actually failed to withstand the storm but had in fact failed due to faulty design, inadequate construction, or some combination of the two.

It’s noteworthy that while repairs have been carried out post-Katrina, any design/construction deficiencies remain, and funding is not available to strengthen the levees; the devastation of Hurricane Katrina will eventually strike again should this not change. This adds to the credibility of my creation of “Hurricane Landau” in the Zenith-3 campaign, which I referred to earlier. In fact, redevelopment of the Pines Village area and attempts to extend the CBD eastward of the Industrial Canal has produced the skyscraper that is the teams Headquarters – again a case of art imitating life, as this district was “significantly impacted” by Katrina, with more than 90% of residential properties as well as nearly all commercial properties in the neighborhood received flood damage, wind damage, or both. So it seemed credible that it could happen again. The pressure for growth of the CBD and the absence of viable alternative directions – the Lake lies to the north, the River to the south, and the tourist/cultural/protected French Quarter to the west – it seemed likely that this residential district would be rezoned and re-imagined. This is a good example of how existing reality can be extrapolated to obtain a credible adventure setting.

Which brings me to the climate. This is information that I’ve been meaning to research for quite some time for use in that campaign, so it’s important for me to get it right – and to use what I need for this to set the standards for climate reports for everywhere else!

To start with, Wikipedia has climate data for two locations: the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, which is the default shown by the site, and Audubon Park in New Orleans. The former is actually about 11 miles west of downtown Los Angeles, and its weather is representative of the “Uptown” region of the city, while the latter is 6 miles west of the CBD. If both were equal in levels of detail, I would unhesitatingly choose the Park as the basis of this part of the article; they aren’t. It follows, based on my local experience here in Sydney, that the weather information available is only going to be generally accurate for most of the city.

Technically, the climate is considered to be “Humid Subtropical” with ‘short, mild, winters’ and ‘hot, humid, summers’. This is a summation that falls short of reality. One nickname for the city is “The Steamy City” – and they aren’t just talking about amorousness in the French Quarter!

Winters are cold in New Orleans and run from December to February, though they can start early and linger for a month, especially in terms of night-time minimums. Days can be warm-to-hot even in winter, however (only the degree varies), and the humidity is around the 75% mark (±3%) all year round.

In December, the typical high is almost 65°F (18°C), and the average of the hottest temperature of the month for the last 30 years is almost 80°F (26.5°C). The record high is four degrees F hotter again.

In January, those numbers are less comfortable: 62.1°F (16.7°C) is the typical high during the month, the average of the hottest temperature for the month is 77.2°F (25.1°C), and the record is 83°F (28°C).

Daytime Temperatures warm noticeably, even if just a little, in February. The typical high is 65.4°F (18.6°C). The 30-year average of the monthly high is 78.9°F (26.1°C), which at the usual humidity levels is warm enough to be just a little uncomfortable. The record high is 85°F (29°C), which is a warm day, anywhere!

At night, temperatures are far less temperate, and nightly lows can be thought of as extending Winter into both November and March. I haven’t done so, instead regarding those numbers as the cooler end of the seasonal transition, but a resident would probably feel differently. As with many places, warning of the oncoming Winter occurs at night, and its memory lingers after dark even after the days begin to warm up.

The normal daily low in December is just below 47°F (8.3°C), with at least one day in the month shivering at an average of just 29.6°F (-1.3°C) – which, of course, means that some years will be warmer than that and some colder. The record low for December is just 11°F (-12°C).

January is, unsurprisingly, cooler again. The average low is 44.7°F (7.1°C), and at least one day will usually experience temperatures on average of 27.6°F (-2.4°C) – which means the same thing in January as in December: some winters will be (relatively) mild, with temperatures that rarely drop below freezing for very long, while others will be bitterly cold. The record low for January is higher: 14°F (-10°C), which gives some indication of the degree of variation around those monthly minimums: 27.6-14=13.6° degrees of variation. Assuming something approaching a normal distribution (a dumbbell curve), you can guesstimate that somewhere between 1/2 and 1/3 of that difference is usually what is experienced – so the coldest night of the month will usually be 27.6°F±5.6°F.

February is noticeably slightly warmer at night than January, too. The average low is 48.0°F (8.9°C), with temperatures as low as 31.3°F (-0.4°C) or less being recorded at some point, most years. The record low is still a chilly 16°F (-9°C), indicating that there is slightly more variability about the nightly temperatures in this month.

On average, New Orleans experiences 8.1 days per winter where the high does not exceed 50°F (10°C), and 8 nights with freezing lows. The temperature rarely falls as low as 20°F (-7°C) but it has happened. A small amount of snow fell during the 2004 Christmas Eve Snowstorm and again on Christmas (December 25) when a combination of rain, sleet, and snow fell on the city, leaving some bridges icy. The New Year’s Eve 1963 snowstorm affected New Orleans and brought 4.5 inches (11 cm). Snow fell again on December 22, 1989, when most of the city received 1-2 inches (2.5-5.1 cm). The last significant snowfall in New Orleans was on the morning of December 11, 2008. That’s 4 times (counting 2004 as one) in 55 years, or an average of once every 13.75 years.

Winter receives noticeably fewer sunshine hours than any other time of year – 157.8, 153, and 161.5, respectively. Compare those numbers with the monthly average over the entire year of more than 220; in late Spring and early summer, the monthly averages peak at 275 or better. That’s a substantially greater average – by about 2 hours less a day – than can be accounted for from shorter days, indicating that cloud cover is far more common and substantial during the winter.

Rainfall patterns are also distinctly different within the four seasons. The easiest way to synopsize them is for the city to have two rainy seasons, one (summer) dramatically greater than the other (winter). Winter rainfall usually accompanies the passage of a cold front; the average number of rainy days in the winter months is 9.2, 9.3, and 8.8, respectively, but if you correct February to a theoretical 30.5 days, you actually get a comparative value of 9.5 rainy days per month. As a general rule of thumb, that’s a consistent 1 day in 3, slightly more in February than December, but the difference is the sort of trend that is only noticeable statistically; daily weather variations are more than enough to completely obliterate it in any given year.

The same distinct pattern appears when you look at the amount of rain received. In fact, if you except the month of June, the rainfall per rainy day average is remarkably consistent over the entire year. Winter falls average slightly heavier (0.6 inches / 15.2 mm) than Spring / Autumn (and most of Summer too) at 0.5 inches but once again annual variations would completely overwhelm this. It’s worth noting that Hurricane Katrina occurred in August, and so is included in that ‘remarkably consistent’ average!

Let’s talk about things to see and do during this season in New Orleans. If you want to avoid Mardi Gras crowds, December and January are considered the best time to visit the city. Note that some of the events listed below appear not to have been reinstated following Hurricane Katrina, but – given the propensities of the locals – that would seem to be but a matter of time.

That doesn’t mean that you would be in for a quiet time! It’s not true that there is a band on every corner – some are in basements, and many in pubs and clubs and the like. Music, especially gospel and Jazz, is everywhere. Frenchmen Street, where an entire block is lined with music clubs, helps raise the average.

On top of that you have the famous New Orleans Funeral processions – somber, mournful, and respectful on the way to the burial, a mobile street party on the way back. If you can play an instrument, you are expected to at least consider joining the ad-hock carnival, and anyone is welcome to participate in the festivities. Many people join in as the ‘party procession’ approaches them, stay for a city block or two, then drop out – quietly relinquishing their places to new arrivals doing exactly the same thing.

New Orleans residents will throw a parade or festival with just about any excuse, and it’s rare for a weekend not to contain at least one.

Once you have your head around the musical ubiquity, the next thing you need to understand is that parties rarely stay confined. It’s perfectly legal and socially acceptable to take a leisurely stroll with a cup of wine or a cold beer, and most venues can’t accommodate the number of patrons who gather, so they spill out onto the streets. This sort of culture will be very familiar to Australians of a certain vintage – before the wowsers began to clamp down.

In December the city is festooned with Christmas-themed decorations in every direction – up, down, left, right, and sideways. Child-friendly activities are commonplace during the season, from the Teddy Bear Tea with Santa at the Royal Sonesta to a festival of lights in City Park known as Celebration Under The Oaks, with rides, displays, wandering characters, stalls, music, and more. Then there is the Reindeer Run and Romp, a ‘marathon’ for kids down Canal Street, the main thoroughfare of the city. Participants receive t-shirts, antlers, and a bag of goodies.

There’s also an adult version held a little later in the month called the Running Of The Santas, which is actually part of a larger social activity in locations both American and International. The notion is that you run a bit, drink some alcohol, run some more, repeat. In Australia, we’d call it a pub crawl with added athletics. Live music and DJs are an essential part of the mix, and entrance fees are donated to charity.

Traditionally, this is also the time when it is most permissible to ‘get creative’ with traditional dishes like Gumbo, so food-wise the city can be an adventure that is perpetually reinventing itself. Also throughout the month, many restaurants serve 5-course “Reveillon Dinners”, a tradition that hearkens back to New Orleans’ time as a predominantly Catholic city and Creoles would end their Advent Fast with a huge celebratory late-night Christmas Eve dinner.

This is Oyster Season in New Orleans; while this romantic delicacy can be enjoyed year-round in the city, months that end in “R” are considered the best time for them.

Football is very popular in New Orleans and December is when the Saints are drawing to the end of their season, so it’s either a good time or an abysmally poor time to mention the subject to a local. Basketball is growing in popularity, with the local team being the Pelicans, and support is no less fervid.

Throughout the month, free classical and jazz music concerts are held many nights of the week in the St. Louis Cathedral in the heart of the French Quarter.

New Orleans has one of the oldest Jewish communities in the United States and during Hanukkah there is usually a full program of festivities such as concerts and other community events, attendance of which is open to all.

There is a tour (expensive) of some of the older homes in the Garden District of New Orleans, often the only opportunity that the public has to view these historical landmarks inside and out. This is a fundraising effort for the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans.

New Years’ Eve sees small celebrations throughout the city but the entire French Quarter essentially erupts into one big party, with fireworks and the unique (and slightly mad) “dropping the baby” New Year’s countdown. Not a real baby, but some sort of confectionery version, as I understand it, which is lowered or dropped from the roof of the Jax Brewery, where the French Quarter meets the River.

January 6th is the traditional date for buying and consuming King Cakes from one of the many vendors who supply them – everyone from bakeries (who you would expect) to Cochon Butcher (who you would not) gets involved. And that is followed (on the 29th this year) by a King Cake Festival.

January also includes the Sugar Bowl, an annual college football game played in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, and the Anniversary of the conclusion of the Battle Of New Orleans pm January 18th. And February-March is the Mardi Gras, of which little more need be said – I’ll save THAT for the Spring section!.

Some activities are all-year around attractions. Magazine Street, for example, is a 6-mile strip of tiny boutiques, snazzy cafes, quirky shops and art galleries.

Bicycle tours are offered by several venues, often with a high-class meal provided as part of the package. Bikes are also popular modes of transport for locals.

There is a National World War II Museum, the Southern Food & Beverage Museum, the Backstreet Cultural Museum, the Audubon Nature Institute (which has a Zoo, an Aquarium, and an Insectarium), the Louisiana Children’s Museum, Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World, the Steamboats, the Whitney Plantation Museum, Swamp Tours, and the New Orleans Museum Of Art amongst other attractions.

Speaking of Swamp Tours, Alligators usually hibernate from October through March, depending on temperatures, so Winter is not the best time of year for this activity, but some people prefer it because the mosquitoes are also asleep. In particular, if you don’t want to use mechanical transport, this is the time of year for alternatives such as Kayaks.

But I do want to correct a common misconception before wrapping up this section. How far are the Swamps from New Orleans? Because the impression an outside often gets from media portrayals is that the area is right outside the city limits.

Well, for once, those portrayals are not far wrong.

There are four primary tracts of Swampland in Louisiana. The most commonly photographed appears to be the westernmost, around Lake Martin, which is 105 miles (170 km) to the West-North-West. The next most distant runs from close to the first almost all the way to New Orleans. The two remaining areas are a short distance west and south of New Orleans and immediately north of west and north of Lake Pontchartrain.

The accompanying map comes from the Ponderosa Stomp Foundation (a not-for-profit whose mission is celebrating the legacy, revitalizing the careers, and preserving the history of American music & musicians), is one of the few that I could find tagged as being legal for reuse (Wikipedia doesn’t have one). I have highlighted the swamp areas. And note that the cropping of the key was a feature of the source map.

Sources:

• Trip Savvy‘s Visiting New Orleans In December page;
• 417 Magazine‘s (December 2015) 10 Reasons To Visit New Orleans This Winter;
• Trip Advisor Australia‘s New Orleans Forum (33,826 topics and counting).
• The Ponderosa Stomp Foundation‘s website.

My Thanks to them all!

12. Winter In New York City

Montage Notes & Credits:
1. NY Boroughs Map courtesy Quora;
2. Manhattan Vs Long Island, based on LIRR map 1876 and edited by Mike;
3. Districts Of Manhattan courtesy Quora (I did my best to clean up this over-compressed map because it was the clearest one I could find but there were two districts on the East Side coastline that I could not make out. One appears to start with a V and have the second word “City” as part of the name; the other is a little North of that, and appears to start with a P and be a word similar to “Passergy”. I also added the “Lower Manhattan” and “Lower West Side” region markers, so any errors in those are completely my responsibility);
4. “Above Gotham” by Anthony Quintano;
5. “Midtown Manhattan as seen from Weehawken, NJ” by Dmitry Avdeev;
6. “Past Vs Present” by Joe Deylamipour, which highlights the Empire State Building as seen at sunset from the top of the Rockefeller building with the one world trade center in the background;
7. “Park and 57th street Manhattan New York” by D Ramey Logan, highlighting the jagged/stepped construction technique that is common to many NYC buildings;
8. “Liberty statue from below” by Derek Jensen (aka “Tysto”);
9. “Gapstow Bridge, Central Park, New York,” public domain image, photographer unknown.

New York city is, if not the largest city in the world (in fact, it’s 27th on that list), almost certainly the most famous. That fame means that it’s also quite possibly the most nebulously-defined in the minds of those who have only ever heard of it.

In fact, what most people think of, when you say New York City is either Manhattan, or Long Island. So we should start with a little clarity of definition.

What Is New York?

According to Quora’s answer to the question, “…the City of Greater New York … consists of five Boroughs: Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.” “Manhattan is an island (plus some outlying islets), as is Staten Island. Brooklyn and Queens are located on Long Island, which also includes two counties not part of New York City. The Bronx is part of the North American mainland” (Refer map 1 of the montage).

In fact, the vast majority of Long Island is not part of New York City, as shown by Map 2 of the montage.

Manhattan Island is further subdivided into a number of districts, some of them famous in their own right, such as Greenwich Village, and is home to a number of equally-famous specific locations and landmarks, such as Times Square and the Empire State Building. (Boroughs are called ‘Cities” here in Australia, while the ‘Districts’ are considered ‘Suburbs’). Don’t fret if the district map (Third item of the montage) is out-of-date, these are ‘common usage’ names that change dynamically as the city changes. Right now, there’s no area known as “Little Albania” to the best of my knowledge; but who knows what next week holds?

Right away, I’m sure that some readers are surprised that Manhattan and Long Island aren’t the same place, and that the Bronx is part of the mainland. How much variation is there in the weather between these Boroughs? I’m quite sure that it’s considerable; they are very distinct, geographically.

So far as this entry of the “Diversity Of Seasons” is concerned (and the same will hold true for “Spring”, “Summer”, and “Autumn” when they happen), “Winter In New York” will refer to the Weather in Manhattan, with such annotations as my research develops regarding the rest of the city.

The Geology of New York

Geologically, New York City is what happens when you take something resembling the Australian Mountains and add thousands of tons of glacial action. The peaks get ground into powder, which – when added to water and colonized by returning ground life when the glaciers recede – produces ripples of bedrock interspersed with depressions and grooves filled with softer earth and gravel.

There wasn’t a lot of room for this illustration but it’s just barely legible and you can click on the thumbnail for the full-sized original in a new tab.

This has a profound impact on the city’s construction – bedrock can support towers of almost unlimited height (other engineering restrictions dominate in determining just how tall you can go) while the softer ground not only requires deeper foundations for stability (adding to construction costs), but it limits the number of floors that can be supported.

Take a closer look at the aerial photo of the southern end of Manhattan, and – now that you know what to look for – you can actually SEE the ripples in the bedrock, amplified by the ease of construction of TALL high-rise buildings. There is one patch of them in the immediate foreground (Midtown) and then it all goes rather flat through Midtown South, Greenwich Village, Soho, Chinatown, etc only to rise again in Civic Center, White Hall, Ten Bridges, and Wall Street.

Some economists have disputed the relationship between the geology and the construction, finding that economic factors were more directly responsible for the locations of the taller skyscrapers. This finding ignores several facts, in my opinion:

• first, it attempts to treat the causes in isolation without looking at interlinks between them (it has already been pointed out that construction cost for smaller structures is lower and for taller structures higher when the bedrock is farther below the surface);
• second, it ignores the fact that even moderate structures generate a lot of capital for an area, i.e. there is a feedback loop involved (skyscrapers produce intensive business activity which produces the money for bigger skyscrapers, meaning that a small initial difference from the geology creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of taller structures);
• third, it ignores the secondary feedback loop in which infrastructure investment follows the money and produces greater wealth in an area, again amplifying even a small initial difference due to the geology.
• and finally, there is an element of “if you build it, they will come” self-fulfilling prophecy to the situations. First, there are competitive advantages to locating a business close to your rivals when your business naturally trades with those rivals, and disadvantages to being removed; that’s why financial “districts” tend to form in a great many cities even when they are initially more homogeneous. The same is true of civil administrations. This displaces unrelated businesses that don’t service the primary industry of the area, which not only creates space within the zone but makes it more economically viable for businesses within the same industry to move closer to their suppliers, i.e. into the forming ‘district’.

The economists findings are accurate in terms of the mechanisms that manifested the growth of the structures, but require the geological difference to ‘seed’ that growth.

This actually has a role to play in the climate experienced, as you will find out a little later in this section.

Winter Weather

At more than 40° north of the equator, New York is farther removed from that geographic reference point than Melbourne is. Officially, it’s considered a Humid Subtropical Climate, which might astonish those who have seen news footage of snow in the streets! It’s the northernmost city in North America to be so designated. The suburbs to the immediate north and west lie in the transitional zone between humid subtropical and humid continental climates. The city averages 234 days with at least some sunshine annually.

Winters are cold and damp, and prevailing wind patterns that blow offshore temper the moderating effects of the Atlantic Ocean; yet the Atlantic and the partial shielding from colder air by the Appalachians keep the city warmer in the winter than inland North American cities at similar or lesser latitudes such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. The weather records clearly establish the Winter months as December, January, and February, with November and March significantly warmer than the Winter averages.

The average high temperature for each of the Winter months is 6.1°C (43°F), 3.5°C (38.3°F), and 5.3°C (41.6°F) respectively, but the average of the single highest temperatures each month is considerably warmer than that at 16.8°C (62.2°F), 15.3°C (59.6°F), and 15.9°C (60.7°F), respectively. That describes a situation in which winter days are occasionally cold but reasonably pleasant and sometimes bitterly cold. This impression is reinforced by the record highs for these months of 24°C (75°F), 22°C (72°F), and 24°C (75°F) again, respectively. Those are considerably warmer even than the typical summer minimums.

The average low temperatures of the winter months tells a slightly different story; Winter seems to linger at night through into March, whose minimums are only slightly warmer than those of February. The specifics are 0°C (32°F), -2.8°C (26.9°F), -1.7°C (28.9°F), and 1.8°C (35.2°F), respectively. The average of the coldest temperatures recorded each month further extends the reach of Winter; November’s values may be warmer than those of December, but the differences aren’t huge. The same is true of March. This seems indicative of sudden changes between the seasons – winter beginning with a cold snap and ending with the arrival of warmer air to begin the spring thaw. Such sudden changes can easily come early or later than the calendar indicates.

In terms of rainy days, Manhattan has a slightly-dryer season (August to November), but when you dig into it, the actual differences are minimal; The wettest month by this measure having 11.5 rainy days and the driest, 8.7 of them. A single shower on one day, five years in fourteen, is quite enough to account for the difference. If you look at the actual records, you will note that February appears to be a drier month, and it is – ever so slightly – until you add in snowy days; doing so makes this month the “wettest” of the year by some margin.

The same pattern of consistent rainfall holds true when you look at the amounts (again excluding snowfalls), with the rain being delivered by summer storms and showers ever so slightly heavier.

Snowy days therefore account for virtually all of the differences between the seasons, in terms of precipitation. These also give a good indication of the persistence of winter and the likelihood of it coming early in an acute form, so I will quote the full range of values: Nov 0.2, Dec 2.3, Jan 4.0, Feb 2.8, Mar 1.8, Apr 0.3 days. Correcting these to a hypothetical fortnightly value for each month gives Nov 0.09, Dec 1.04, Jan 1.81, Feb 1.39, Mar 0.81, Apr 0.14 days in fourteen.

What do these mean? Well, first, they show that winter is far more likely to linger than it is to come early – compare November with March, and October (no snow days) with April.

Second, those fortnightly values – what does 0.09 in 14 days mean, anyway? Well, if we assume that most of the time we’re talking a single snowy day and on rarer occasions, two, this can be used to work out how many years pass (on average) between such occurrences. 1 snowy day / (0.09 in 14) = once in 155.6 years. But we need to round that up to make room for two-snowy-days, so let’s say once in 175 years, or thereabouts. 1×14/175=0.08, so that leaves 0.01 to be accounted for. 2 snowy days / (0.01 in 14) = 2 in 1400 years = once in 700 years. The onset of winter is, therefore either quite remarkably reliable, or “winter weather” doesn’t really start until sometime in December, long after winter has officially started. If there’s a week either way in it, then it will usually commence by Dec 6 (leaving enough room for those rare November events); if two weeks either way, then Dec 13 is the date – and snow is not certain to have fallen on the city by Christmas, though it will have happened more often than not. My personal weather experience suggests that somewhere in between, but closer to the latter, is the most accurate interpretation. Call it December 10th on the average, and a twelve-day plus-or-minus. (To be more accurate, I would need daily statistics and those are not readily available).

The average snowfall per snowy day is also revealing. Nov: 4 cm (1.5”); Dec: 5.3 cm (2.09”); Jan: 4.45 cm (1.75”); Feb: 13 cm (3.29”); Mar: 5.5 cm (2.17”); and Apr: 5 cm (2”).

There is a PDF provided by the US weather bureau listing the biggest snowstorms (1 foot or more) recorded in Central Park from 1869 to the present (last updated Dec 26, 2017). All told, there have been 35 of them – none in November or April, Nine each in December and January, 13 in February, and 4 in March. Dividing the record snowfall for each month by the averages quoted above will give an indication as to the variability. Those records:

• December 26-27 of 1947: 65.5 cm (25.8”);
• January 22-24 of 2016: 69.8 cm (27.5”);
• February 11-12 of 2006: 68.3 cm (26.9”);
• March 12-14 of 1888: 52.34 cm (21”).

As it happens, those are also the four greatest falls on record. Doing the divisions:

• December: 65.5/5.3=×12.264;
• January: 69.8/4.45 =×15.685;
• February: 68.3/13 = ×5.25;
• March: 52.34/5.5 = ×9.516.

Because there always exists the possibility that a worse blizzard will eventually be recorded, any weather table for the area should exceed these values, and because the greater likelihood will be somewhere in the vicinity of the average, rolling 3-5 dice is going to be preferable. Since this is only one side of the possibility (the equal-and-opposite alternative being less snow than the average), we get:

• December: 12.264×2=24.528=25 values. That’s an odd number, so we need an even number of dice. d10+3d6-3 gives the range of results required. a roll of 13 produces the average, each +1 above that giving +100%, each -1 below it giving -10% (starting at 100%); with results of 1-3 meaning effectively “no snow”.
• January: 15.685×2=31.37=32 values. That’s an even number, so we need an odd number of dice, or to add a value for the “average” and an even number of dice – with the latter being the easier choice. So, 33 values: d10+2d8+2d6-4 works. A result of 17 gives the average, +100% for each +1 higher than that, and each -1 giving -4% (so that some snow always falls in the month).
• February: 5.25×2=10.5=11 values. Lets double that so that we have some elbow room: 22 values. d12+2d6-2 works. A result of 11 gives the average snowfall; each +1 above that is +50%, each -1 below that is -5% (so there will be significant snow even on a result of 1).
• March: 9.516×2=19.032= 20 values. As with January, adding an additional value for the “average” result and using an even number of dice is the easiest solution. 4d6-3 works, with 11 indicating the average snowfall; each +1 above that is +100%, each -1 below that is -12%, so results of 1-3 indicate “no snow”.
• Where there is no data available, the easiest answer is to base an answer on the closest month with values known and increase the size of each die by 1 step (greater variability). So, November: d12+3d8-3 gives 33 results. The 17th result would normally indicate the average “4 cm per day” result. A maximum yields 2 days worth at this rate, or 8 cm of snow for the month. 0.2 snowy days in the month is 1 snowy day in 5 years, but we need room for the 2-days result, so that has to blow out to 1 year in 7. That means that 6/7 of the possible results should yield “no snow” – that’s 1-28. So we need to allocate meanings to 29, 30, 31, and 32. I’ll set 31 as indicating the 4cm average, 30 as 2 cm, 29 as 1cm, and 32 as 6cm.
• I’ll leave April as an exercise for the reader, but it will be based on 4d8-3.

The size of buildings has a localized impact on the weather. First, hot air rises, so in winter, greater heating is required for lower floors than for upper floors unless thermal inefficiencies are so high that the heat has dissipated by the time it reaches the upper levels. That can mean that temperatures in some areas in the middle are too high in older buildings, and each will have hot spots and cold spots here and there. Of course, all this heated air has to eventually escape the building or still more energy be expended in pumping it back down for reheating. Modern construction generally means the latter.

Either way, some heat will escape through the roof of the building; each skyscraper is crowned with an invisible plume of heated air. Heated air is, of course, at a higher atmospheric pressure than the surrounding air, so there is a constant breeze outwards from the roof. It’s also a well-known fact that skyscrapers all generate updrafts around their outside walls, which tends to push that expanding plume of hot air upwards quite a bit. This can generate turbulence in the upper atmosphere, generating additional cloud, as well as locally raising the temperature above the dew point. This reduces rainfall downwind of the skyscraper just a little – but a great number of very tall structures in close confinement have a cumulative influence, creating a weather ‘shadow’ that is statistically noteworthy. The turbulence can also be the tipping point in the formation of storm clouds.

Another impact is that the mass of concrete and steel absorbs and retains heat from the sunlight, even in winter. They can remain significantly warmer than their surroundings for hours after sunset. Once they have cooled down, however, they can then absorb a great deal of heat that would otherwise have been received by buildings and terrain to the west and north-west of the building. This can make one side of the building hotter than the other in the mornings. This urban thermal ‘bloom’ thus exerts complex effects over the weather in the vicinity – not enough to alter the gross conditions forecast by the daily news, but more than enough to push conditions past critical thresholds – or prevent the crossing of such thresholds.

Poorly designed/maintained buildings can serve as chimneys, continually drawing in cooler air from the surrounding ground level, heating it, and drawing it up into the atmosphere. This can effectively lower the air pressure slightly in the vicinity, encouraging rain to fall more readily when temperatures were already close to the dew point.

The resulting micro-climates are complex and not readily subject to analysis because of the huge number of variables involved. While almost every city experiences these effects somewhat, New York is exceptional in terms of numbers of tall skyscrapers – and the presence of a large area that is NOT built up in the center of Manhattan Island (i.e. Central Park). As a result, New York experiences this situation more strongly than most cities. Some reports allege that the temperature in high-rise districts can be as much as 5°C (9°F) warmer than those of surrounding districts – and that without taking into account the impact of tall barriers on natural breezes and air currents, and the resulting wind chill effects in winter.

Winter Activities

Winter comprises some of the busiest event months of the city.

The first winter activity of the season is always the lighting of the Christmas Tree in the Rockefeller Center, which occurs late in November just after Thanksgiving (last year it was Nov 29th). The tree remains on display until the evening of January 7th.

Throughout December, there are special holiday-themed tours such as the Holiday Lights Tour.

Starting in early December is the annual Christmas Spectacular at the Radio City Music Hall. This show evolves year-on-year; the 2018 version had nutcrackers, dancing animals, flying presents, amazing special effects, and the world-famous Rockettes®. You can also take a tour and go behind the scenes at other times.

Another Christmas tradition is the New York City Ballet’s production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®. Like the Christmas Spectacular, this evolves from year-to-year. Tickets to the show tend to be expensive, especially if not booked well in advance.

There’s a major congregation every year at Times Square to watch the Superbowl on the big screens.

All winter, you can ice-skate at the Rockefeller Center’s Ice Rink.

In January, you can skate for free in the Bank Of America Winter Village at Bryant Park. Skate rentals, sharpening, lessons, and lockers are available. The Winter Village itself is a collection of eateries and kiosks and a pop-up Restaurant.

You can also skate at the Wollman Rink in Central Park, weather permitting.

Nearby attractions include the Museum of Modern Art, the Lincoln Center, the American Natural History Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum Of Art.

Speaking of Ice Skating, the Hockey Season is about to get underway. For the last ten years that has meant the NHL Winter Classic, with a free pre-game Festival for Hockey fans.

The baseball season may be a distant memory, but you can still take the Yankee Stadium Classic Tour. In fact, since it will not be restricted the way you would expect during a playing season, there are some areas like the dugout and the field that are accessible at this time of the year that you otherwise couldn’t get to.

There are also other annual December festivals and events, such as the Apollo Theater’s Kwanzaa Celebration in the African-American part of town, Good Riddance Day at Times Square (just before the end of the year), featuring the Latin American tradition of burning dolls that represent the current year’s problems.

Of course, the New Years Eve celebrations at Times Square are world-famous. This web-page by Smart Destinations contains tips and practical advice to make that experience more satisfying and memorable. But it all kicks off at about 6PM with the raising of the ball, and if you want to see anything, you’ll want to be there in advance.

The next day is the date of the annual Coney Island Polar Bear’s New Year’s Day Swim when hundreds of New Yorkers jump into the frigid winter Atlantic Ocean to raise money for a non-profit Camp for sick Children.

Starting shortly into the New Year is the “Under The Radar” festival at the Public Theater, which features over a dozen performances by comedy troupes from all over the world. The Festival runs for about a week-and-a-half.

Overlapping it is the New York Botanical Garden’s Holiday Train Show which features miniature New York landmarks built out of living plants.

January 10-17 (or thereabouts) brings the Winter Jazzfest, an event that started as a one-day attraction and has grown into a week-long festival that features some of the biggest names in the genre. This is also the time-frame for the bi-Annual NYC Restaurant Week®, a promotional event in which 380 restaurants offer three-course deals (fixed menus) for lunch and dinner (the other one is around August each year) and the NYC Broadway Week. There is also a Hotel Week that offers discounted accommodations.

Early February (the 7th, this year) sees the Empire State Building Run-Up, a sprint to the top of the 86th floor of the iconic skyscraper. The fastest runners achieve this in 10 minutes (it takes the elevators less than a minute). Just before this event is the Superbowl, a key annual event for the many Sports Bars in the city as well as private and public parties all over the place.

Also around this time is the annual Dog Show at the Westminster Kennel Club, the Chinese New Year Firecracker Ceremony and Cultural Festival, and the Madison Street to Madison Avenue Lunar New Year celebration, a Festival of musical performances, family entertainments, and special discounts from local stores. Not to mention that this is when New York Fashion Week starts!

Those attractions all run down for about a week, which brings the calendar to Mardi Gras. New Orleans might be the most famous celebration of this event, but NYC has celebrations in various parts of the city, too.

Winter in New York encompasses Valentine’s Day and the public event of choice is the Cupid’s Undie Run – when participants strip down to their underwear and run a 1-mile dash to raise funds for the Children’s Tumor Foundation. The New York Planetarium often holds special Valentine’s Day events in the evening, and of course the many restaurants and eateries tend to be booked solid all day.

Sources:

• Wikipedia’s pages on New York City and Manhattan.
• Smart Destinations‘ 10+ Things to Do in New York in Winter 2018 – January & February Activities & More
• TimeOut New York‘s The best things to do in the winter in NYC
• Business Insider Australia‘s 32 Things Every New Yorker Should Do This Winter (Referring to the Winter of 2013)
• The NYC Insider Guide to Things to do in New York in Winter.

You may have noticed that the length of several of the sections in this post have led me to rearrange it into 20 parts instead of 16. The good news is that doing so enables me to fit in those extra locations I was unsure of accommodating. It also means that completing the entry on New York City completes this part of the article. Tomorrow, I start Part 3 and Winter In Omaha!

This weekend’s session of the Zenith-3 campaign was a great success, and one of the big reasons for that was the real sense that the PCs were fully integrated elements within the game world. This article is going to look at some of the major reasons for that so that you can do it in your games, too.

Trends

In a nutshell, I didn’t create static statuses within the campaign. When the PCs first encountered or learned of a situation or group, whatever impression they got of that group or situation was, at best, a freeze-frame of the dynamic processes already acting to evolve the subject.

What’s The Difference?

A status is a fixed statement of the way things are. It’s static and unchanging unless directly acted upon by the PCs (and sometimes even then, when it shouldn’t be).

A Trend defines not only the current status but what it is already on the way to becoming if no intervention takes place, together with some sort of time-frame for that change and how other groups will react to the change.

For example, a government might currently be formal and rigid, but be heading in the direction of practical and flexible, driven by public exasperation with what is seen as excessive inflexibility.

There are three possible subtexts to such a Trend: either the status is a legacy that the current government are trying to change, or the change is an opposition position to an unpopular government, or the change is being driven by public protests, marches, etc.

There will almost always be one or two incidents in the recent past that can be held up as “poster children” for the need for the Trend, and it’s often helpful to specify these in at least general terms. A popular celebrity dying after being turned away from medical treatment because their paperwork wasn’t in order, for example.

Each of the different subtexts has a different time-frame. The first is based on the remaining lifetime of the current government, which may be more than one term if they are still popular enough. The second is the next election plus however long the honeymoon period is – after that, the public would expect to see at least some shifts in policy. The third option is the most open-ended, with a time-frame that largely depends on how repressive the government in question is. The more dictatorial, the more likely that nothing short of revolution will achieve the reforms demanded, and the more subversive and secretive the activities of supporters will need to be. The more flexible and open and democratic the system of government, the greater its capacity to respond to demands for change.

What’s The Impact?

As soon as the PCs came to the attention of some other group, their presence began to influence and shape the already existing dynamic forces as the group began to work out whether the PCs were allies or enemies, and how best to use the fact of their existence or involvement to further their own agendas.

Because the PCs were receiving only the “polarioid moment” of the way things were now, a lot of relationships and plans were able to mature in the background.

This session, for the first time, all these seemingly-isolated events were connected and the relationships between them defined to the PCs for the first time. In other words, patterns within the isolated events began to become apparent to them, revealing a Bigger Picture that had been there all along.

To a certain extent, these were all logical developments of the situations that the PCs were already aware of, and so there was a manifest sense of inevitability to each shoe dropping.

Secondary Impacts

Every character will have some opinion on the subject. The Trend itself, as defined, will generally dictate the majority position, but acceptance of the Trend might be reluctant or eager. Conservatives might have a different position on the subject to Liberals, certain businesses will have positions based on the impact on their vested interests, and every position should have an intelligent opposition – something that I alluded to in Influences, Styles, Trends, and Oscillations.

In the case of the example Trend: Financial markets love stability and hate instability. The proposal would inevitably trade predictability for flexibility, and so the expectation would be that financial markets would fall in value, corporations would pay smaller dividends, and interest rates might need to be lowered to stimulate the economy and buffer against these effects, which would further depress the dividends paid by banks (because they would make less money on loan interest). That would reduce the value of the currency relative to other nations, so importers would need to pay more for their goods, costs that would be passed on to consumers, generating inflation. On the other hand, exporters would make more money from sales.

Already, then, you have some groups who would be opposed, and some who would be concerned about the proposed changes. “Anarchy and Depression,” they would forecast – as loudly as possible.

Another tack that would almost certainly manifest is that flexibility inevitably increases the risk of it being abused; rigidity might be unfair, but it’s equally unfair to everyone. So there would be a middle group on both sides of politics who agreed with the need for change but were concerned over the strength of the proposed safeguards against abuse. “They want to open the door to Corruption” would be a soundbite issuing forth from those opposed, and “Fix the system – don’t tear it down” would be another.

The farther such ripples can spread – no matter how much hyperbole and exaggeration and outright distortion may be involved in creating them – the more people will find a reason to take a stand, and the less clear-cut the whole thing becomes. Which is another way of saying, the more interesting it becomes, and the more susceptible to influence by the PCs. And the more enemies and allies they will make as a result.

The other thing that should be obvious from the example is how much more vibrant and dynamic the political environment becomes as a result.

Of course, the trend might not be so directly political. Equality is an issue that periodically manifests itself as a social dynamic, and we appear to be entering such a phase at the current time, at least in terms of the media and women’s rights. In the past, it might have taken six months or more for tangible manifestations of this stance to begin impacting the opinions of ordinary people and hence society at large, which made change slower and more measured; but we live in a world of Social Media and Mass Communications, much of it unfiltered (or with the filters/bias overwhelmed by the strength and voracity of the movement), so change will be faster and more likely to go too far, too fast – producing an eventual reaction.

Lest readers think that it is impossible for that to happen, we’ve had this situation with regard to the teaching profession for decades now, in which the mere accusation of misdeeds is enough to destroy careers, and there have been some cases of false accusation over the years, but – as yet – there has not been any cause celebre to trigger tightening of evidentiary standards. At the same time, of course, protection of children must be the paramount consideration; what is needed is some way of reconciling the conflicting demands that result. That’s far more easily said than done.

Shown, Not Told

“Show, Don’t Tell” has been a writer’s maxim for a very long time. To a very great extent, the ‘Trends’ technique is a manifestation of this principle, a technique for achieving it.

By making the group aware of a reaction to some past action in which they were involved, and then explaining it in the broader context, I was quite literally showing the PCs what was going on and how the world around them was evolving in response to their presence within it.

For example, through the context of a game show (more on that in a separate post to follow at a later time), I was able to bring back one of the bad guys from very early in the campaign, when the PCs accused him of hiring an assassination team to deal with a political enemy. While the Assassins were stopped, the PCs failed to locate proof of this politician’s involvement – so one of them leaked their suspicions anonymously to the internet, expecting that it would derail the political career of the total sleazeball in question.

His attempts to redeem his reputation in the course of the game show have failed miserably so far, but he was able to establish a political trend towards greater accountability for law-enforcement agencies and operatives, including the PCs, and that this was an election year.

Later, a message from something of an ally (I’ll get to that in a moment) made the PCs aware that because they were seen as allied to the current government, but too highly respected (and too popular) to attack directly, the opposition party would have no alternative but to try and utilize the PCs’ fame for their own political ends, even as they sought to take control of their activities.

This put into context multiple encounters with politicians – some seemingly supportive, some hostile – that had taken place in the past. It revealed a pattern – but not just a static pattern, a dynamic one.

If there is a burning issue of some kind – which is usually the case when there is a significant Trend – everything that is said and done will be interpreted through that filter, forcibly if necessary. That includes anything that the PCs said before they became aware that there was a Trend.

What’s
more, the PCs may well have opinions on the subject of their own – which may or may not match those of the players. That’s when Roleplaying becomes more challenging.

On top of that, if the PCs have been recognized as growing in stature, status, popularity, power, or fame, their very existence will begin having an impact; as they become a factor that could influence a Trend, groups who oppose the perceived direction of that influence will begin to perceive the PCs as political enemies and/or rivals.

Many Threads Winding Together

Many other plot threads formed part of the same picture. For some time, the bureaucrats of the civil service have been inflicting make-work and time-fillers on the party – their own means of taking control of the PCs. At the same time, the Crown Prince has been actively supporting the PCs – but using their association to enhance his own prestige and authority.

Both of these patterns – which the PCs had already recognized – were explained and expanded by this new context. But, even more importantly, they were also rendered parts of a dynamic, evolving picture, whereas in isolation they had seemed to be constants, static Polaroid moments.

Rich Characterization

Another aspect of these revelations was that none of the participating NPCs were cardboard cutouts. “Allies” had dark corners, and “Enemies” had bright spots, even if these had not been apparent at the time the PCs encountered them. In fact, the only outright villain to appear in this entire game session was that corrupt politician.

In an awful lot of cases, people (NPCs, of course) were going to seek to control or restrict the PCs because they genuinely consider that to be the best thing for the nation/Kingdom/empire or whatever.

Of course, they will also win allies, and that can be an even greater problem, because they may well do or say things that the PCs disagree with, or perform actions they can’t sanction in the name of the cause with which the PCs have been linked.

One of the major side-issues to be aired (both sides of the debate) in the course of the game-show related to the social responsibility of the famous – not just to be an example, and therefore held to a stricter code of conduct than that of mainstream society, but whether or not they have an obligation to speak up on social issues. At first, it might have seemed that this was simple color for the campaign; but later roleplay revealed that the PCs were famous, and so the entire question becomes a debate about whether or not the PCs have an obligation to speak up on social issues (something they have done their best to avoid doing, so far). Ultimately, this became a debate in-game over the right to privacy of the famous – and the PC participating was unable to avoid being painted as supporting that right over the obligation to use their fame responsibly.

Established Foundations

Since the campaign started, I’ve been laying foundations for later adventures. To the players, these frozen snapshots of the way things were at the time were undoubtedly taken to be static statuses. The other thing that I’ve been doing is (indirectly, most of the time) forcing the PCs to define the values that they would be perceived by the public as representing, i.e. defining the shape of the influence they would be inadvertently having on the existing Trends, and how the relationships would change as a consequence of these influences.

Suddenly, a whole bunch of unrelated events and relationships have been revealed to be part of a common narrative thread that’s been gestating under their noses the whole time I’ve been putting these building blocks in place.

Of course – and I’m not revealing anything that my players won’t be expecting at this point – this is only the beginning. The current situation is, itself, just a building block that will lead to new and different adventures.

The Core Design Principle

When you put all of this together, you start to realize that the game world as the PCs initially found it to be is not the game world that I “required” or “designed” to be the platform for their adventures in this campaign; instead, I created a game world that could become that platform in the course of play, shaped by decisions made by the players – sometimes in response to direct questions (the media make great mouthpieces), but more often as side-issues to whatever the action was.

For example, the PCs have established a policy of doing what they perceive to be “the right thing” (or “the lesser evil”) whether it conflicts with the law or not. They have sought out and received funding from a known drug dealer in order to secure a contract with the most-wanted freelance espionage operative on the planet.

If that situation had been posed to the players on play-day one, or even ten, the players would not have countenanced it. It took time to establish the trustworthiness of the drug-dealer in question (and that he really wasn’t all that bad a guy) in their minds, and to place limits on the relationship that gave the PCs the confidence to seek him out under these particular circumstances (for that matter, at that point in time, it would have been utterly unrealistic for him to trust them, either). It took time to build up awareness of just how bad the particular crisis was going to be, and to establish the credentials of the espionage operative in question.

But, with that groundwork all laid, I was completely confident of what the PCs would decide to do under the circumstances, and make it the undercoat of a much bigger picture. If you were to define the campaign as having a beginning, middle, and end, they are now transitioning from Beginning to Middle. That’s actually something of a misleading simplification, because I have multiple plotlines taking place concurrently, and more that have not yet started. But, for the first time, that bigger picture is starting to take shape for them.

The orchestra have finished tuning up, it’s time for the dancing to start…

Fear Itself

Fear is an enemy every GM will have to deal with on occasion; that’s simple reality. But fear comes in many different shapes and sizes, and many different intensities.

The level of Fear that few of us ever have to deal with (phobias excepted) is the sort of fear that paralyzes, that washes away moral codes, and causes us to betray friends, family, and principles.

Fear, ultimately, is an instinctive warning of a serious threat to our survival, but such threats do not necessarily induce total fear of the intensity described, which really is disproportionate to the point of being counterproductive.

Those who yield to such fear are often derided for cowardice, even as we feel sympathy for the situation they were placed in, and the opposing quality – courage – is quite properly lauded as a great and admirable virtue in those who demonstrate it.

Phobias are quite a different matter, in which the psychology of the individual over-inflates the danger posed by the phobia trigger. Phobic responses can amplify even something that may not be threatening at all beyond the point of any rational self-control. People can’t be faulted for their behavior under such circumstances, only helped. A phobia, once triggered, can be far more intense and crippling than a genuine threat to one’s safety.

I speak from experience: I was extremely arachnophobic as a child, unable to sleep until the covers and sheets were fully drawn back to show that I would have no ‘company’ while I slept, and still often awakening in the middle of the night screaming in terror from nightmares despite this reassurance. It might be the result of an incident that I now think was real, in which I ran between two rose bushes, and got covered in webbing and baby spiders, or that might be a particularly vivid creation of the phobia. And I have, three times, been threatened by individuals wielding weapons capable of causing severe injury or even death. As a result, I can state two things with certainty:

• When threatened by a weapon, I was able to act rationally and intelligently to minimize the threat to myself and others while retaining the ability to document and process events, despite an appropriate degree of apprehension; whereas,
• Even today, a completely harmless, totally non-venomous spider on my wall causes me greater anxiety and apprehension than being threatened by a deadly weapon in the hands of someone with both motive and intent to use it upon my person.

For the benefit of anyone else who suffers from a phobia, I should probably describe how I mitigated my phobia to the point of being reasonably casual around the trigger of my phobia, Spiders, and honest in describing the extent to which I have been “cured”.

I think I was about 8, and had started to outgrow the recurring nightmares a year or two earlier. I still pulled back each blanket and sheet one at a time on occasion before pulling the linen back up and getting into bed, but even that was growing more infrequent after years of finding nothing. I found that I could look at photos of spiders without panic, at least for a while, so I got a book with many such photos from the library and would stare at each image for as long as I could tolerate it. When I became so used to doing so that I was no longer aware of the exact position of the book within the room at all times, I progressed to trying to imagine each spider on the page (to the same scale as the photograph), and again doing so until I could do so without extreme stress. Finally, I progressed to imagining the spiders (however unrealistic in virtually all cases) as being the same size as the opened book, and moving around the walls, and – most importantly – being afraid of me, scurrying away when I drew closer, and even paralyzed with fear if I got too close.

No-one taught me how to go about this desensitization process; I figured it out for myself.

I was not “cured” yet; I simply had control of myself enough not to scream in fear or act in total panic at the presence of a spider.

By the time I was an adult, I was sufficiently adjusted to spiders that if one invaded my environment, I could – after getting over the initial shock, and with great wariness – kill it as painlessly as possible (keeping my distance at all times). Over the next decade or two, I had to do so perhaps four or five times; it got easier each time to do what had to be done.

About 8 years ago, a male Huntsman (about 7 inches across) found it’s way into my apartment. Because the complex had a problem with cockroaches at the time, having ascertained that it was unlikely to be aggressive, and that it fed on such insects, I decided to leave it be until it decided to leave of it’s own accord in search of a mate. I soon became sufficiently used to its presence that once I had established its location, I could ignore it completely. This almost pet-owner ‘relationship’ persisted for about 3 months before I came in one morning and found it dead on the floor, presumably of old age.

Since moving to my current residence, I have only encountered one spider. I was unsure of the species so I treated it with considerable caution, using a broom to chivy it onto a magazine I had placed on the floor (which also enabled me to estimate it’s speed of motion) and then trapping it under a small see-through bowl – I wanted to be sure of it’s position at all times! I then dragged the whole assembly outdoors by the edge of the magazine while using my other hand to keep the bowl pressed flat and therefore sealed. Once it was outside, I shook it off the insider of the bowl, and let it scurry away, fully prepared to retreat at any signs of threatening behavior.

In other words, while my heart was pounding, I was able to deal with the problem in a rational way that minimized the risk of harm to both myself and to the spider.

Fear is innately incredibly stressful. This is an article about the effects of fear on the GM, but right from the outset, I want to distinguish, and separate out, the effects of stress; those were addressed in my article, New Beginnings: Phase 2: Baggage Dump, starting with the section “Clearing Your Head” about 20% into the article, and continuing to the section “What to dump: Categories of baggage”, which constitutes the bulk of the article..

Fear, in lesser doses, can be a quite useful survival trait. I (quite reasonably) fear burning myself, so I’m cautious when handling saucepans, lighting fires, etc. I fear the consequences of dishonesty, so my nature is to be honest. I have a wary respect of snakes, which are far more aggressive in Australia and more dangerous; were I to encounter one, I know to stand absolutely still until it decides I’m not a threat, and then to get a professional animal control officer to remove it, and so on.

To distinguish between these grades of intensity, let’s define a fear continuity:

1. Acute Fear is crippling. The fear itself matters more than the object of that fear, which exists as a composite of reality and nightmare. And note the yellow waves of panic and how much they conceal.
2. Fear is disabling. Nothing matters except the fear, but action can be taken that removes or mitigates that fear – usually after the individual has had time to build themselves up to performing the task.
3. Extreme Anxiety is disturbing, but the sufferer can still function, albeit at very high stress levels, despite the anxiety.
4. Anxiety is that level of nervousness at which the subject experiences stress as a result of their nerves. That stress often persists beyond the point of no return in decision-making.
5. Nervousness is the level of fear that we experience about everyday decisions and activities, and is generally the result of uncertainty over the outcome. It frequently fades or vanishes once decisions or situations take effect.

When it comes to gaming activities, the highest level of fear to which we should ever be exposed is Anxiety, and even that should be relatively rare. But it’s worth remembering that even nervousness triggers a flood of adrenalin in the body, and that both can have profound impacts on the individual that they should be aware of, watch for, and make allowances for.

Nervous Triggers

I’ve identified a baker’s dozen of triggers that can make a GM nervous. Most of these will be fairly obvious, so I don’t intend to belabor the point.

• New Games – Doing anything for the first time is scary. This is usually a problem of expectations – the GM’s and the Players’, and doubts about whether or not the GM can live up to them.
• New Campaigns – Starting a new campaign brings very similar pressures, stresses, and nerves. While the challenge of a new game system is not involved, expectations about expertise in the game mechanics will be higher.
• New Adventures (investment-dependent) – Starting a new adventure is always a little nerve-wracking. Will it entertain? Will it derail? Is it too GM-dominant, or worse yet, a railroad? Will the spotlight sharing be adequate? Does it make sense? As a general rule of thumb, the more effort that they have invested in the new adventure, the more nervous a GM will be about running it.
• New Adventure Locales – Introducing a new adventuring location to the mix can also be quite nerve-wracking. Has the GM been too subtle? Too obvious? Too simple? Too complex? Will the potential adventures appeal to the players? Is the setting too detailed? Not detailed enough? Will it fit the campaign? The same general rule of thumb applies as for new adventures, but because a new locale is a lot more work to define well, this almost always ranks higher on the anxiety scale. Potentially compounding the problem is the fact that new locales also often mean the start of a new adventure.
• New Players – Introducing one new player is stressful and nerve-wracking. If the new player knows the other players, there may be expectations and baggage; and if not, there will almost certainly be an adjustment period as new and old get used to each other. Introducing more than one new player is exponentially worse. Starting a game with a whole new group is therefore the pinnacle of nervousness in this trigger area. This can be muted somewhat if you are also introducing new locales or campaigns or game elements, as the New Player factor tends to get subordinated by those more intense sources of nerves.
• Important Moments – Some moments are more important than others in a game, and we naturally get more nervous when an important moment approaches. You may have been building up to this moment for weeks, months, or even years; this might be the pivotal heartbeat of the entire campaign. The greater the consequence, the greater the investment that the GM has in the moment, and the greater the investment, the greater the nervousness.
• Stylistic Changes – Trying something in a new style can be exciting and thrilling and a fun change of pace – or it can all crash-and-burn horribly. What’s more, such changes frequently involve a fairly substantial commitment on the part of the GM, with nervousness escalating proportionately. One-offs can be written off; multi-session adventures can be written off less easily; multi-adventure plot arcs can often be written off only with extreme reluctance; and it’s often very hard to completely write off a new campaign because the style just doesn’t work or doesn’t fit what the players want (or worse yet, doesn’t fit what the GM promoted the campaign style to be), or doesn’t meet expectations in some other respect.
• Difficult Relationships – We all experience hurdles in our real-world relationships now and then. Games can either be an escape from those, or an amplifier. Consider the problems if two players happen to be husband and wife: if the relationship is happy, they are more likely to favor each other; if the relationship is strained, they are more likely to take it out on each other; and either way, real-world baggage has a way of leaking into the campaign. Things get even worse when one of the two is the GM. And then there are the problems when two former friends who now have a somewhat strained relationship find themselves playing in the same campaign. Again, baggage. The GM’s problems come when they become aware of any out-of-game baggage because they are the one who will have to deal with it’s potential impact, and they may already be distracted and distressed by virtue of their own relationships with the individuals. Uncertainty always promotes nervousness.
• Difficult Characters – Some characters are easy to run. Some require a lot more effort on the part of the player. And some require a lot more work on the part of the GM. And then there are complicated and complex NPCs. Difficult players always create nerves, usually in the form of anticipating problems that never materialize, and wasting time and energy prepping for them. And the more things that can go wrong, the more likely it is that something will go wrong that the GM didn’t anticipate. More nervousness. And finally, difficult characters often require a level of energy and activity from the GM during actual play that can be hard to achieve consistently, and can be a cause of apprehension.
• Public Exposure – You can’t really GM without your personal opinions and philosophies sneaking into the game – whether you know what they are or not, or realize they are present or not. You’re attaching your name, reputation, and credibility to something and doing it in the glare of a very large spotlight. That’s’ enough to make anyone nervous.
• Public Speaking – Some people have a mortal terror of public speaking. Some take to it like a duck to water. And some fall into the typical middle ground where public speaking makes them nervous. Some people will find their apprehension easing once they actually start, others are more glass-half-empty and will get more nervous if things seem to be going well (“don’t mess up now…”). Public speaking, especially when you know in advance that you have to do it, is frequently a source of nervousness.
• New Technology – It can be stressful, working with a new piece of technology for the first time “live for real” – no matter how much private practice you may have put in. It introduces a new variable that we have at best a vague handle on, and that is enough to make people (quite justifiably) nervous.
• Risks – Finally, there are times when we all need to take a risk of some sort beyond those identified above. Have you ever had the fate of an entire campaign come down to a single die roll? How about the life of your best friend’s favorite PC? Risks can arise anytime, and taking a risk always induces both nervousness and an adrenalin rush.

That list is as comprehensive as I could make it, and the bottom line is this: there are always lots of reasons for a GM to be nervous, most often at the start of a given day’s play or in the period leading up to it.

When you boil most of these down, though, you end up with three basic categories: Meeting Expectations, Excessive investment (too much prep), or Insufficient prep. Clearly there is a very delicate balancing act involved, and one that is changing constantly, and different for every individual.

Well, there are three basic responses to nerves. You can give in to them, you can ignore them, or you can attempt to manage them.

• Giving in basically means there will be no game. That’s a dead end outcome that’s to be avoided.
• Ignoring fears means that the consequences of nervous energy can catch you off-guard, and that can create situations that are even more nerve-wracking.
• That leaves Managing Your Fears, and that usually means acknowledging the fear and managing the consequences of it; in other words, managing your nervous reactions.

Nervous Reactions

I’ve identified ten reactions to nervousness that can afflict GMs, of varying levels of consequence. They are:

• Talking too much
• Giving Away too much
• Talking too fast
• Tendency to fixate
• Shortness of breath
• Disrupted sleep
• Overreact to Criticism
• Irritability
• Aggression
• Feeling Ill

Because there’s rather more to say about these, I’ve given each it’s own section, below.

Talking too much

Nervous babbling is a well-known phenomenon. Once it starts, it can be hard to stop. The best management techniques are to know what you want to say in advance, and say just that. If you have to enter into a dialogue, when in the guise of an NPC for example, if you detect any such tendency, take a deep breath and release it slowly before the scene begins.

Giving Away too much

A lesser form of talking too much is revealing too much. This is essentially a means of seeking reassurance and validation from the others at the game table, of trying to justify yourself and the decisions you’ve made. Unfortunately, in mid-game is hardly the right time for doing so, and seeking it from the people you are supposed to be keeping in the dark about something their characters don’t know is hardly the ideal means of calming your nerves.

This is also one of the hardest symptoms of nervousness to manage. The best technique is to have a third party who you can use as a sounding board in advance, but issues of differing style can complicate that. The second-best technique is to create an imaginary NPC and tell it to them (and have them approve what you’re doing) – because just as your apprehension is the result of imagined shortcomings in what you have planned for the session, so can be the safety valve.

Unfortunately, this can lead to secondary problems – the well-known echo chamber effect of social media has nothing on what can happen inside our own heads! Experienced GMs learn to distinguish between decisions that are really to cause angst at the game table and those that are just nerves on their part, and to ignore the latter and consult others regarding the former – and that’s easier than ever to do thanks to social media. So my advice would be to adapt the first solution to the 21st century if there’s no-one of like mind that you can consult in person.

Of course, this doesn’t eliminate the potential for disaster. The Adventurer’s Club has two full-time GMs who collaborate on everything, and we’ve still managed our share of catastrophically-bad decisions – see An Experimental Failure: 10 lessons from a train-wreck Session for an example. So you will make mistakes, everybody does. Learn from them and they will grow more and more infrequent.

Talking too fast

This is babbling without babbling – you deliver exactly what you wanted to deliver in terms of narrative and roleplay, but you talk so fast
that half of it goes over the intended recipients’ heads.

The solution to this problem is the deep breath mentioned earlier. The challenge is that this is the hardest symptom of nervousness to recognize when it occurring to you, and so you don’t know when to apply it. Players are all-too-prone to assuming that they are being unusually slow-witted, today and are the only person who is struggling with the pace of delivery, and so say nothing.

So the real solution to this problem is to assume that it could happen and to deliberately slow your pace of delivery just a little bit all the time so that you are still intelligible when it does. That takes practice, but it’s worth the effort.

Tendency to fixate

The fight-or-flight instinct that accompanies nervousness evolved as a defense against danger, and that evolution was more successful when those threatened could focus on the source of the danger and ignore distractions. That specific myopia poses a problem in the modern day, because it means that in a crisis (even a rather mild one, like being nervous before a game), the natural tendency is to focus on the trees and lose track of the forest, or even forget that the forest exists. Worse yet, we don’t even focus on all the important trees at once, instead fixating on first one and then the next.

There are two really good defenses against the problems that can quite obviously result, and I rely on both of them on a regular basis. They both take the form of game prep.

Defense one is to do my best to design my adventures in such a way that the big picture is inherently built into events, so that all I need to focus on at the game table is the “tree” in front of me. I’ve actually been working on an article about how to do exactly that, off and on, but it’s grown too large (104 pages containing more than 33,700 words) to actually post here at Campaign Mastery. The problem is that it doesn’t work well when broken up, either – so I’m contemplating publishing it as a low-priced e-book. But that would mean rewriting it as a lot of the contents are instructions to WordPress on how to format it…

Defense two is to structure the campaign in such a way that I naturally get opportunities for “bigger-picture reality checks”. Every adventure has a defined purpose within the context of the campaign; every act has a defined purpose within the adventure; every scene has a defined purpose within the act; every encounter either contributes to the purpose of that scene or it gets extracted and placed into its own scene. At the start of each scene, I remind myself of the purpose in a note to myself, and the same at the start of each act, and so on. Which means that if the players go off-the-rails, I know where I want the scene to go, and don’t really care whether we get there by high road, low road, submarine, helicopter, or parachute. So long as the purpose is achieved, everything else is wherever the players want to take things, and my planning only deals with the path I consider most likely to eventuate. But this also means that if I ever lose sight of the forest for the trees, there’s a built-in reminder.

Unless you have designed your adventures in this way, though, these defenses are not available to you. The only solution is to take that previously-recommended deep breath and deliberately remind yourself at every pause and interval to contemplate, however briefly, the big picture.

Shortness of breath

Another natural tendency from fight-or-flight instincts is the tendency to be as quiet as possible. That often translates into taking shallow breaths, which can mean that you run out of puff before you get to the end of any lengthy narrative passages. It doesn’t matter how easily you were able to get through such passages in rehearsals; this physical reality can still find you caught short.

Worsening this phenomenon is the fact that you have to project you voice loudly enough to be heard over both the ambient noise and everything else that might be going on at the table, and that usually requires a greater expenditure of breath when speaking.

Over time, you’ll learn (almost subconsciously) how much you can fit into a statement or passage of narrative, and begin to reshape them naturally to accommodate your limitations. Until that happens, new GMs can use this rule of thumb: If you can read it aloud one-and-a-half times before you run out of breath, you’re at the limit. If you can read it twice, you have a margin of comfort.

Even without such pro nuances, taking that proverbial deep breath can help oxygenate the blood and mitigate the effects of any shallow breathing.

Disrupted sleep

When nervousness escalates into anxiety, worry can cause disruption to normal sleeping patterns. This probably won’t happen very often, and usually indicates that tolerance for anxiety has been eroded by other problems in life, but it can happen eventually, to any of us.

Adding to the problem is the tendency of a lot of us to leave game prep until the last minute, which – if it runs over-long – then eats into sleeping schedules. I have an unusually low requirement for sleep, and it’s happened to me, so I have no doubts that it happens all the more often to those who need a full eight hours rest in order to function.

I combat this by prioritizing my game prep (as described in Game Prep and the +N to Game Longevity) so that the most vitally important tasks are dealt with first. Knowing that relieves a huge burden from the mind, provided that you have prep time that it anywhere close to adequate; all that adding extra time does is allow you to polish and deal with relatively low-importance items on your prep-list, and means that getting a decent amount of sleep before game-day is something that can naturally be accommodated into the schedule. Not only are you going to get more sleep, you’ll worry less, and so that sleep will be of a better quality. That’s a win-win in my book.

Overreact to Criticism

The knock-on effects of disrupted sleep make a lot of preexisting responses to nervousness more acute, and one of the first is a tendency to overreact to criticism. Impartial and impersonal commentary assumes an unwarranted personal dimension, and thoughtless behavior by which absolutely nothing was meant can be interpreted as a willing, even deliberate, failure to appreciate your efforts.

Fact: Every GM feels underappreciated by their players every now and then.

Fact: Hardly ever do the players in question realize that they are triggering that response in the GM.

Before you respond to anything that has had a negative emotional impact on you at the gaming table, take a deep breath and use the moment to put whatever the “anything” was into a more realistic perspective; you will often find that you don’t actually have to say anything, because nothing was actually meant to be hostile. If you must respond, use the moment to deliberately keep your vocal tone normal – not unnaturally flat, or expressive of anger or impatience, or cold, or with any whine in your voice. Any of these will only escalate problems. And if you still have a problem with behavior at the game table, talk to the player involved during a break or at the end of the session, without interrupting play for the purpose. Why ruin everyone else’s fun? Or worse, force them to choose sides – when they might not choose yours?

Irritability

In fact, it’s fair to say that nervousness can make anyone a bit more irritable than they would otherwise be, and this is only exaggerated and compounded by irritability from any shortage of sleep. Now, some people’s tolerance levels are so high that this increase makes no practical difference whatsoever; in the vast majority, though, it is a factor that we need to take into account. If something is irritating you, ask yourself if it’s just the insomnia talking? Make the deliberate choice, when you think that you might be a little more prickly than usual, to make greater allowances for the irritations that are caused by others, and everyone will have a better time of it – including you.

Aggression

Aggression goes hand-in-hand with irritability, but it can also manifest in more subtle forms, sneaking up on the GM as it were. Grudge-monsters. Nit-picking. Pedanticism. Authoritarianism. Intimidation. Outbursts of anger. Penalties.

The PCs, and the players that control them, are not punching bags present for the GM to use in order to unwind and work out his issues. And, as a general rule of thumb, if the GM relaxes, lightens up, and has more fun, he’ll actually derive more benefit than if he unleashes such abuse of power, anyway.

Feeling Ill

Even quite low levels of nervousness – so low that you aren’t consciously aware of them – can impact on the GM’s sense of well-being, and – like virtually all the symptoms since it was mentioned (which is no accident), this is only exacerbated by inadequate sleep. How can you tell? If the feeling of ill-health goes away when you actually start running the game, the odds are that it was all psychosomatic in the first place, or a minor reaction to adrenalin.

Legends abound – some of them true – of actors and actresses who were so nervous before going on stage or before the cameras that they were physically ill. Being a GM is less stressful and more sheltered an experience, and results in a lesser form of the phenomenon. It’s always better – provided you aren’t infectious – to try to run the game and fail, than it is to call it off for an illness that will never go away if left untreated. If you feel unwell the morning of the game, focus on how much you are looking forward to the game, and on what specifically you are looking forward
to experiencing – for just long enough to get you through the nerves, then forget such expectations (disappointment if they are not forthcoming can feed back into a worse reaction next time).

There’s nothing wrong with being nervous before taking a big step in something that matters to you, or when doing something for the first time, or when you feel inadequate to the demands that are going to be placed on you. That’s life; harness the nervous energy and manage the downsides. Fear’s biggest virtue is that it holds us back when contemplating actions dangerous or foolish; the biggest reason why it is a bad thing is that it can hold us back when there is no real justification for it. Most of the time, we have nothing to fear that is so detrimental to our potential for success as Fear itself. Master your fears and you free yourself up to make rational choices, instead of being at the mercy of an irrational subconscious.

This idea came to me while watching the fifth and final Ashes test on the television. At first, I didn’t quite know exactly what I had, which is why this post has landed in the “short but profound” category!

Let’s try something radical (trust me)! Pick your favorite low-to-mid-level D&D monster. Now, halve it’s AC and write the number down on a piece of paper. Write a slash in front of it. Now multiply the result by the number of HD the monster has, and write that in front of the slash.

Next, take the number of Hit Points the monster typically has. Double it, and divide it by the number of Hit Dice. Round any fractions up.

These simple steps, plus a couple of house rules to frame the game mechanics around them, completely transform combat in any form of D&D (including Pathfinder), radically simplifying it while increasing verisimilitude and drama.

Those house rules:

1. Attempts to hit a target by all attackers reduce the first number, whether successful or not.
2. Until the AC Threshold is achieved, only critical hits do damage.
3. The damage done by a critical hit is halved; one half is applied to reducing the AC threshold to zero (any remainder after this is achieved is taken as actual damage), the other half is applied as damage.
4. The AC Threshold does not reset until the end of combat. It then returns at the rate of 10% per minute of rest.
5. Once the AC Threshold reaches zero, the “Innate AC” becomes the target to achieve in order to do damage. This value persists from attacker to attacker and combat round to combat round.
6. Every 10 points of actual damage inflicted adds 1 minute delay to the commencement of AC Threshold Reset.

That’s it, those are all the rules needed to accomplish this miracle.

So, what happens? What do these changes achieve?

Mechanically

As combat commences, both sides seem invulnerable to harm except through the rare lucky strike. In this phase of combat, participants are looking for weak points, flaws in defensive technique and other protections, etc. Those rare lucky strikes introduce a new weak point, reducing the “safe” period, and hurt the target. Once the threshold is achieved, any character can hit the target and do damage, though it is still not certain. Once you get through a target’s defenses, they tend to not last very long; overall, the length of combats should stay the same.

Cinematic

The flow of combat lends itself naturally to cinematic descriptions. “Malor attacked hard, as did Lulor. By occupying the beast’s attention so fully, Zelov the Mage was able to expose a velnerability, cracking open its defenses with his magic missiles. Crulor the barbarian was then able to savage it by way of that vulnerability, causing it to expose his throat as it attempted to protect itself, enabling Malor to end it’s existence. We recieved only a few scratches from the encounter, but it could have gone very differently had Malor’s initial strike not so threatened the creature.”

Dramatic

In theory at least, combat should be far more dramatic, with more ups and downs. Attackers on both sides should hit more often, but initial hits are unlikely to do damage beyond eroding defenses.

Simplification

Combat becomes far more of a group activity, and far more tactical. Overbearing rules are no longer required, and neither are facing rules, and you can also jetisson any issues with flanking; those are all built into these combat mechanics. In fact, most of the technicalities of combat are abstracted into this simple mechanic.

Faster

You can’t simplify combat without speeding it up, leaving more time for other forms of game-play. That would be a problem for any combat-junkies out there if it weren’t for the other effects, which means they will get more bang for their buck.

Realistic

One of the long-standing debates amongst players and GMs has been whether or not armor should be ablative, i.e. should wear away in effect in the course of combat. I’ve seen a number of proposals for doing this, because it is clearly a more realistic option, but they have all fallen upon the altar of practicality. This is the first proposal that I’ve ever seen that actually simplifies combat.

Strategic

This introduces a new strategic element into combat, encouraging a diversity of combat styles and amplifying existing points of differentiation. How you use a character who strikes often but does relatively little damage vs a heavy hitter becomes important, whereas in the official rules, all that you really care about is the total damage done at the end of the day.

Creature Differentiation

Similarly, this opens the door to a new mechanism for creature differentiation by the GM, enriching the flavor of the game world.

An Owbearish Example

An Owlbear (to pick a creature at random), according to Pathfinder, has AC 15 and 5 Hit Dice. Normal HP are 47.

So, under this set of optional rules, AC becomes 38/7. HP becomes 19.

• Attacker #1 is a 3rd-level fighter – base attack bonus +3, +3 from STR, +1 from a +1 longsword, doing d8+3 (STR) +1 (Magic) against a large creature, with critical threat range 19-20. Attacker #1 has (standard rules) AC 14 HP 29, (House Rules) AC 21/7 HP 20.
• Attacker #2 is also a 3rd-level fighter – base attack bonus +3, +1 from STR, +2 from a +2 longsword, doing d8+1 (STR) +2 (Magic) against a large creature, with critical threat range 19-20, and +1 from a +1 shortbow, doing 1d6 +1 (magic), with a critical threat of 20/x3.
• Attacker #3 is a 2nd-level Wizard – base attack bonus +1, +1 from a +1 dagger, doing d4 +1 (Magic) against a large creature, with critical threat range 19-20.
• Attacker #4 is a 3rd-level Cleric – base attack bonus +2, +1 from a +1 mace, doing d8+1 (STR) +1 (Magic) against a large creature, with critical threat range of 20.>/li>
• Attacker #5 is a 2nd-level Rogue – base attack bonus +1, +1d6 on a sneak attack, +2 from a +2 dagger doing d4 +2 (magic) against a larger creature, with a critical threat range of 20.

Attacker #5 has been scouting and has spotted the Owlbear trailing/persuing the party. Neither side have surprise on the other. The owlbear gets initiative 15 (rolled); the four attackers get initiative 17, 20, 12, 14, and 19, respectively (also rolled), so the combat order is:

Attacker #2 (Fighter)
Attacker #5 (Rogue)
Attacker #1 (Fighter)
Owlbear
Attacker #4 (Cleric)
Attacker #3 (Mage)

Combat proceeds:

• Attacker #2 unlimbers his shortbow and rolls a 6+3+1=10, reducing the owlbear’s AC to 28/7.
• Attacker #5 pulls back and conceals himself. He’ll seize any opportunities but has otherwise done his job.
• Attacker #1 closes on the owlbear and rolls 17+3+3+1=24, reducing the owlbear’s AC to 3/7.
• The Owlbear, stung badly by the ferocity of the attack, is likely to have only one chance to withdraw, but they don’t have a reputation for high intelligence and do have a reputation for aggression, so it will counter-attack Attacker #1, the only target in range, with both claws. He rolls a 19+8=27 and a 7+8=15, respectively. The First claw is more than enough to penetrate Attacker #1’s threshold, so the attack hits, and Attacker #1’s AC for the rest of the battle is 7, which means that the second attack also hits. Between them, these attacks do 2d6+8 which yields 16 points of damage. This isn’t enough to kill or incapacitate Attacker #1, who still has 4 HP left, but is nevertheless a serious injury. With both claws hitting, the Owlbear also grabs his attacker, so Attacker #1 will need to grapple with the Owlbear in his next round instead of attacking.
• Attacker #4 closes on the Owlbear to split it’s attention, but rather than attack, he uses a Cure Light Wounds on Attacker #1, healing 6 points of damage.
• Attacker #3 fires off Magic Missile doing 5 points of damage to the Owlbear. The first three points are consumed getting through the remaining AC threshold, leaving 2. This is the first physical harm actually inflicted on the Owlbear in the course of the battle and reduces its HP to 17.
• With two PCs in melee with the Owlbear, it’s too risky to use the shortbow, so Attacker #2 drops it and draws his sword, advances on the Owlbear, and attacks, rolling 13+1+2=16, hitting the target, and inflicting a further 9 points of damage. The Owlbear’s hit points are down to 8.
• Attacker #5, concerned for Attacker #1, launches a sneak attack, rolling a 5+1+2=8. This hits, though only just, and inflicts d4+2+1d6=10 points (rolled), killing the Owlbear just before things turned nasty.
• Attacker #1 is at least winded from the attack; his normal AC threshold will take 10+16=26 minutes to fully recover. Until then, he will be vulnerable to a greater or lesser extent, something the party will need to take into account before proceding.

Compare this with what would happen under the standard rules (assuming the same rolls): Attacker #2 hits with the shortbow, doing damage. Attacker #5 hides. Attacker #1 closes, hits, and does damage. The owlbear will be at about 30 out of 47 HP. The Owlbear attacks, hitting with both attacks, leaving attacker #1 with 13 out of 29 HP, slightly less than half. Attacker #4 heals 6 points, enough to shift the balance to slightly more than half, and hopefully enough to survive another round of engagement with the Owlbear. Attacker #4 uses his magic missile, getting the Owlbear down to about half hit-points. Attacker #2 attacks and does damage. The Owlbear is down to about 20 hit points. The rogue’s sneak attack won’t do anywhere near enough to kill the Owlbear, and Attacker #1 is not under the same level of threat, so he stays hidden and does nothing. The outcome remains unresolved.

So there’s more combat under the standard rules, but it’s more of the same – hit-and-do-damage-or-don’t, over and over – all the time, and would need a great deal more dramatic license to spin into a narrative. Such a simple change, but so many benefits – for just a few seconds of work with a calculator that can be done in advance!

I’ll be honest about this. I originally put Winter first on my agenda for this series because I thought that it would resonate with the majority of my readers, who live in the Northern Hemisphere. That was before the incredibly brutal conditions descended upon them, however. When that happened, I contemplated starting with Summer, instead, but I decided that would be too much like teasing. No, like winter itself, I ultimately decided, it was better to simply get this season out of the way.

It was unseasonably cold this morning, and that got me to thinking about how different places experience the same season in completely different ways. I realized that while there were descriptions available of the climate in this place or that, I had never seen a comparative climate codex.

Such a reference work is beyond the scope of a blog, but – in a smaller and more literate way – I thought I could hit a few high points along the way, and that the results would be useful to to GMs looking to model a regional climate in their games rather than resorting to stock cliches, or who were running a more modern-day campaign where the PCs did a lot of traveling from place to place.

Because of the amount of research involved, this type of article is perfectly suited to the Serial Blog approach. Four or five locations a week for four or five weeks, and so on. Except that I’m going to get the ball rolling with a big jump-start, right now.

1. Winter In McMurdo

McMurdo Station is a research center in the Antarctic, on the shore of McMurdo Sound, which is the southernmost navigable body of water in the world. Today, it is Antarctica’s largest community and a functional, modern-day science station, which includes a harbor, three airfields (two seasonal), a heliport, and more than 100 buildings.

The pack ice that girdles the shoreline presents a formidable obstacle to surface ships. Vessels require ice-strengthened hulls and often have to rely upon escort by icebreakers. During winter, resupply is all but impossible, though occasional air flights in and out are possible.

The Cold circumpolar currents of the Southern Ocean reduce the flow of warm South Pacific or South Atlantic waters reaching McMurdo Sound and other Antarctic coastal waters.

Bitter katabatic winds (winds that carry higher density air, i.e. colder air, down a slope at up to hurricane speeds) spilling down from the Antarctic polar plateau into McMurdo Sound demonstrate Antarctica’s status as the coldest and windiest continent in the world; The McMurdo Sound freezes over with sea ice about 3 meters (9.8 ft) thick during the winter. Temperatures during the dark winter months at McMurdo Station have dropped as low as -51 °C (-60 °F), but the station is actually sheltered from the worst of the winds by the Transantarctic Mountains, so it’s rare for the temperature to drop below -40°C (which is also -40°F).

McMurdo really only has two seasons – Summer and Winter. The intermediate seasons last a month at most. Winter runs from March to September. There is increasing precipitation from 15 to 28 cm (0.59 to 1.1 inches) from March to June, with the proportion of snowfall also increasing – 11.4 to 17.8 cm (4.49-7.01 inches) over this span. Note however that March is preceded by the heaviest average snowfall of the year, 22.4 cm (8.82 inches) in February. Extreme Conditions recede even faster than they built up; the July average precipitation is already less than that of April, while August is lower than March, and September lower still.

Particularly noteworthy are the number of wet days and the number of rainy days during this period. The averages run from a low of 3.2 to a high of 5.7 (unsurprisingly, in June). Snowy days are more common: from 17.8 (the annual high) to 13.3 in September.

Putting all this together, and you get a situation in which more than 2/3 of the time, Winter in McMurdo means either sleet or snow. Temperatures have to be considered extreme; I found this article at The Atlantic to be especially interesting, though it doesn’t go into too many details about the practices necessary in order to survive the conditions. For that, turn to this page at Cool Antarctica which is comprehensive.

There are proposals to reconstruct the base using demountable universal modules that can be re-purposed as needed – this month, quarters for research staff, next month an enlarged gymnasium and dining area, and so on.

It’s worth observing that diesel engines and generators don’t work as well at extremely cold temperatures – the colder it is, the more unreliable they become. For that reason, from March 1962 to 1972, power was supplied by a nuclear reactor with a core the size of an oil drum. The decommissioning was the result of hairline cracks and water leaks that posed an ongoing safety risk. The cause of these problems does not appear to have been conclusively established, but it is reasonable to point the finger at climatic conditions and temperature differentials. These days, power comes – despite the difficulties described earlier – from a number of 500 kilowatt (670 hp) conventional diesel generators in a central powerhouse used to generate power – with maintaining minimum operating temperature within the powerhouse likely to have first call on the power supply.

You get a very good idea of the conditions and isolation involved from John Carpentier’s film, “The Thing”. But for the real thing, look for Werner Herzog’s 2007 documentary, Encounters at the End of the World and Anthony Powell’s 2013 documentary, Antarctica: A Year On Ice.

2. Winter In Hobart

Hobart is the most southerly state capital in Australia, dominating the island state of Tasmania. It is also the second-oldest capital city and second least-populated Australian Capital with only 225,000 residents. When Australia was a penal colony, Tasmania was the dumping ground for the serious offenders, in part because the severity of conditions made escape and return to the mainland a very difficult proposition (nevertheless, it did happen – once).

The city faces the Tasman Sea that separates Australia from New Zealand, and is located on an estuary of the Derwent River; its harbor us the second-deepest natural port in the world.

In many ways, Hobart’s weather is, at first glance (like that of the other Capitals), quintessentially Australian. The highest temperature recorded there is 41.8°C (107.2°F) on 4 Jan 2013, and the lowest was -2.8°C (27°F), which it achieved twice – once in June 1972 and once in July 1981. It’s an impression that doesn’t stand up to closer scrutiny.

Hobart averages less sunshine than any other Australian capital; a mere 5.9 hours per day on average. However, during the summer, it has more hours of daylight than anywhere else, achieving 15.2 hours on the summer solstice. Of course, the term ‘daylight’ can’t be taken too literally; the skies are frequently clouded over, the city has only 40.8 clear days a year, on average.

It rarely snows in Hobart – it’s happens on average once every 15 years – but the adjacent Mount Wellington is often seen with a snow-cap, and mountain snow has been known to occur in all four seasons.

Winds are very important to the perceived temperature of the residents; when it blows from the northwest, the air is chilled by the snow-cap, and when it blows from the south, frigid antarctic air descends upon the city. The winds over Mount Wellington have been recorded at sustained speeds of over 157 km/h (98 mph), with rare gusts of up to 200 km/h (120 mph).

If it weren’t for those icy winds, Hobart would be an extremely desirable place to live. It lacks the extremes that characterize Australian weather in general, so much so that most Australians think there has been error made when they examine the average high and low temperature records, which – while quite cool – are astonishingly consistent. As a result, it’s actually fairly difficult to draw a line and say that one season starts here and ends there; the differences are quite small. The April average is 17.8°C (64°F); the May average is 15.1°C (59.2°F), and the June is 12.4°C (54.3).

The official Winter Months are June, July, and August, and they do have a consistently lower average temperature, however marginal the difference. But it’s probably more accurate in terms of the experience of visiting the city to suggest that Winter starts in May and runs through to September; these are the only months that don’t have a record high temperature above 30°C (86°F).

It’s the minimums that more revealing. Through the summer months, these average 12°C; in April, they drop a couple of degrees C to 9.4°C, in May, another couple more to 7.6°C, and in Winter, they hover around the 5-5.5°C mark. Warmth returns more slowly than it departed, in part because the second half of the year is wet more often than the first; September and October are the wettest months of the year, on average, though more precipitation actually falls in August than in either of those months.

It’s these factors – rainfall and minimum temperatures – that define the four seasons of Hobart. Winter is when the Antarctic Winds blow, punctuated by the occasional heavy rain event. But at any time of year, the climate is capable of delivering “four seasons in one day”.

Most bars and restaurants maintain an open fire during the winter months; if you would like Winter if it weren’t for the snow, Hobart is likely to be to your liking. The terrain tends to be too rocky for snow-related sports, but outdoors sports are popular in the summer months; expect the average fitness level of the inhabitants to be just a little higher than normal for a Western city.

3. Winter In Melbourne

Melbourne is almost as far south as Hobart, but the small difference has profound effects on the climate. The city – sometimes the largest in Australia, sometimes ceding that honorific to Sydney – is located in the south-facing large natural bay of Port Philip and expands into two separate mountain ranges, down one peninsula, and into a large valley, totaling almost 10,000 square kilometers. The primary water-source is the Yarra River.

Melbourne is the city that “four seasons in one day” is supposed to describe. It’s said that if you don’t like the weather there, just wait an hour or two. The cause is the location; the city is built at the boundary between the very hot inland area and cool southern ocean, but the resulting atmospheric turbulence is at a minimum in Winter; this is the most stable and predictable time of year, weather-wise – damp and often cloudy.

Port Phillip Bay is often warmer than the surrounding oceans and/or the land mass, though this effect is also minimized in winter; this can set up a “bay effect” similar to the “lake effect” seen in colder climates where showers are intensified leeward of the bay. Relatively narrow streams of heavy showers can often affect the same places (usually the eastern suburbs) for an extended period, while the rest of Melbourne and surrounds stays dry. Overall, Melbourne is, owing to the rain shadow of the Otway Ranges, nonetheless drier than average for the southern part of the state of Victoria in general. That means that the eastern suburbs are drier in winter than in other seasons, while those to the north and west are wetter than in other seasons – while both get about the same total rainfall and count of rainy days over the course of the season.

Remembering that the bulk of the city is essentially at Sea Level, snow has not been recorded in the Central Business District since 1986, though it is occasionally seen at higher elevations in the outskirts. Frosts and Fogs are routine occurrences at this time of year, however.

Melbourne’s Winter is marked with a clear beginning, middle, and end, and runs from June to August. The Average number of rainy days increases from the start of winter and stays high throughout most of Spring. The Average high and low temperatures are almost-perfectly symmetrical about mid-winter; between 11.4°C and 11.8°C (52.5-53.2°F) high and just under 8°C (46°F) overnight, respectively, in June and August, falling to 10.7°C (high) and 7.1°C (low) (51.3-44.8°F) in the coldest part of the daily cycle.

It’s also not uncommon for Winter to start or end a couple of weeks late, producing unseasonable warmth in late May or unseasonable cold in early September; this phenomenon is most clearly reflected in the record minimum temperatures for the city. The value for May is almost as cold as that of June, which is virtually identical to the value for August; September’s record minimum is noticeably higher. (-1.1°, -2.2°, -2.8°, -2.1°, -0.5°C, (30°, 28°, 27°, 28.2°, 31.1°F) respectively). Once again, though, “Winter” is clearly discernible in the middle of that series.

This Wikipedia Article lists every recorded extreme weather event in Melbourne’s history, and a very long list it is, too. The list is rather more abbreviated when only Winter events are considered:

• 1 August 1849 – A snowstorm blankets Melbourne for the first and last time in history (with accumulation on the streets).
• 26 July 1882 – Snow falls for half an hour in Melbourne.
• 1951 – A moderate cover of snow blankets the central business district (CBD) and suburbs.
• 31 May 2013 – Melbourne faces heavy rain and thunderstorms; Melbourne Airport records 10mm of rain in 10 minutes just after 9 PM
• 18 July 2013 – Melbourne records the highest July temperature ever, reaching 23.3 °C (73.9 °F).

Lest this list leave readers with the wrong impression, let me hasten to add that 2015 was the coldest winter in 26 years, and just last winter it was described as “Australia’s most livable Ice Palace” – refer 32 thoughts everyone has during a Melbourne winter. However, this is a VERY Australia-centric list in it’s language; many of the entries will need explanation for non-Aussies, such as “5. Does Milo really give you cancer?”. Enough should survive, however, to give a sense of the place.

Readers might also find the general Wikipedia article on the city to be of value; you’ll find that much of the raw information given has been cribbed from it.

The locals respond to the greater consistency of climate with enthusiasm; in many respects this is the height of the social season. You can get a sense of the place at this time of year from this site, which has collated a number of articles on the subject, and from this travel guide devoted to this subject in particular.

There is one other subject that needs to be mentioned before I wrap up this section: Winter is the height of the annual AFL (Australian Football League) season, and Melbourne is the capital of this contest. Loyalties are tribal, almost cult-like, and generally last for life, if not crossing over generational lines. When a Melbournian migrates to another residence within the city, there’s at least a 50-50 chance that his team loyalties will remain unchanged, and if one were to offer an anecdote about a divorce being granted on the grounds of incompatible AFL teams, at least half of Australia would believe it – and half of those remaining would be uncertain. While this contest has been slowly branching out into other states over the last 25 years or so, this is the heartland.

You can’t really talk about Winter in Melbourne without talking about the AFL, though it’s a little beyond the scope of this article; so I’ll simply refer readers who want to know more to a number of other sources:

• Wikipedia’s Article on the sport itself;
• Wikipedia’s Article on the annual contest; and
• The AFL’s Official Website.

And, if you have to pick one of them to barrack for from afar, my Pulp co-GM would insist on my recommending the West Coast Eagles!

More to the point, some observers will swear that each club has it’s own core philosophy and style, and that it attracts supporters who hold a similar ethos in their hearts. How true that may be, I have no idea; I’ve heard the same thought voiced with respect to Americans and their AFL (a completely different game), and to Americans and their Baseball teams, so take it with a grain of salt and season with your own experiences. If the observation is even partially-valid, this is the time of year when it will be at its most extreme and influential, save when teams make the final eight or (better yet) the Grand Final!

4. Winter In Sydney

I’ve lived in Sydney for most of the last 37 years, and for much of it, I’ve been located in one of four adjacent suburbs. The astonishing thing that I have learned in that time is not how similar the weather is between these locations, but how different it can be. Wiley Park’s weather is very much like that of nearby Bankstown; Lakemba, adjacent to Wiley Park, is similar, but a little warmer and wetter; Belmore; adjacent to Lakemba, is cooler and drier (most of the time), and it’s weather varies just a little in every possible parameter from that of it’s neighbors, to the point where a rival forecasting service is more accurate than the one that used to be dead-on when I lived in Lakemba.

Most of Southern Sydney’s cloud-oriented weather comes from the South or the south-west. These suburbs are not very wide; Wiley Park is roughly rectangular, and the long side (about 3:2 ratio) inclined about 30° to the West, so the leading edge of the suburb is about 1 km wide. Lakemba is slightly narrower and longer, with a leading edge of roughly 0.75km. Belmore is much longer, and with a corner removed from the top right of the rectangle; the eastern boundary is also a far more irregular in shape, so this is very much an approximation. Nevertheless, the leading edge is also about 0.75km. I didn’t live on the extreme edges of the suburbs, my location was far more central than that. So I’ve moved a distance (as the crow flies) of about 1.65km and experienced three different forecasts as accurate.

Wet Weather in the southwestern suburbs, in other words, seems to flow down “channels” toward the Hawkesbury River, which bisects, the city east-west, and then flows east toward the CBD and the harbor, which has a quite different forecast again. Farther west, the Blue Mountains are a more dominant influence and the weather comes in more South-westerly or Westerly. North of the Hawkesbury, and the weather source is as likely to be the West as it is the South, but it bends southward in it’s course. In the Eastern Suburbs, beyond the CBD, there is a natural “bowl” centered on the suburb of Randwick, where – it is said – if it rains anywhere in Sydney, it will also rain.

Rain, however, sweeps in from the clouds in bands from the North-east, bands which slip steadily toward the river. As a result, it can be raining in one of those suburbs and bone-dry in it’s neighbors. Part of the reason for all this is local topology, and part is the influence of man-made structures, but that’s more of a summer phenomenon, so I’ll defer discussion of it until part 3 of this series.

In the CBD, it’s quite common for early-morning clouds to roll in from the sea; many a time I have been fooled into dressing for colder, wetter weather only to have the cloud burn off by ten or eleven AM to reveal the blazing hot Australian sun. This effect is even more pronounced in Winter than it is in Summer, though daylight savings exaggerates what effect there is. The CBD, Eastern, and Northern Suburbs are also subject to the occasional coastal storm or wind condition that does not affect the rest of the city, or are substantially diminished.

Winter days in Sydney tend to be characterized either as quite mild and comfortable, or dominated by frigid winds blowing over the mountains. It is not uncommon for cool changes to drop the temperature by 20°C (36°F) or more in the span of minutes. Warmth returns more slowly.

Another substantial contributor to this effect is the size of Sydney. More than 12,000 square km (almost 4800 square miles), and with a population density of 1000 people for each of those square miles. The westernmost suburb is Emu Heights, 60km west of the CBD, with the Easternmost suburb along the same line located 8km further out. Dividing 12000 by 68 gives almost 175, showing that Sydney is more than twice the length north-south as it is east-west, and the average coastline runs slightly east of north. The shape is an indicator of the influence of the blue mountains, which parallel the coastline.

Of course, what we call “Mountains” are not what most Europeans or North Americans would recognize by the name. That’s because they are so old that all the surface soil has eroded and blown away, leaving only the “bones” of the mountains. This played a key role in Australian settlement, as it took a LONG time for a passage to be found across the Blue Mountains. This was because the explorers attempted to follow the valleys and low passes; this works with younger Mountains because softer earth tends to accumulate in the lee of one or both mountains, filling in the cracks and rocks. In the Blue Mountains, that ‘padding’ is long-gone, exposing the rocks; I was about five years of age when I first beheld the Three Sisters, a famous rock formation near Sydney that illustrates the point.

In the short term, weather seems to follow a weekly pattern – if it rained on Tuesday last week, it’s more likely to rain somewhere in between Monday Night and Wednesday Morning this week. Every now and then a more substantial weather change comes along and adjusts this pattern, usually by a day one way or the other, setting a new weekly pattern in motion. This pattern-effect holds true for daily maximums, nightly minimums, wind strengths, and perceived temperatures, as well as rainfall amounts, durations, and start times. In the finer detail, of course, each day and each week is different, but the general impression remains. This is most true in Summer, somewhat less true in Winter and Autumn, and has lowest reliability in early and mid-Spring. As a forecasting principle, it has a 70-80% accuracy – at least in terms of detailed generalities.

Officially, the city has a subtropical climate, which (amongst other things) means that it experiences rainfall distributed equally throughout the year. In reality, things are not quite so simple. Winter is actually the driest season of the year, with rain tending to occur in heavier falls during the season, but more dry days. It’s fairly rare for cloud to persist more than 24 hours without rainfall, however. At Sydney’s official primary weather station (Observatory Hill), extreme temperatures have ranged from 45.8 °C (114.4 °F) on 18 January 2013 to 2.1 °C (35.8 °F) on 22 June 1932. An average of 14.9 days a year have temperatures at or above 30 °C (86 °F) in the CBD.] In contrast, the metropolitan area averages between 35 and 65 days, depending on the suburb.

Due to the inland location, frost is recorded in Western Sydney a few times in winter (it used to be regularly). From 1990-1999, Sydney received around 20 thunderstorms per year, and these are regularly severe; one such storm was the 1999 hailstorm, which produced massive hailstones up to 9 cm (3.5 in) in diameter. In late autumn and winter, east coast lows may bring large amounts of rainfall, especially in the CBD. Snowfall was last reported in the Sydney City area in 1836, while a fall of graupel (soft hail) that was mistaken by many for snow in July 2008, has raised the possibility that the 1836 event was not snow, either. That said, this is the wrong time of year for hail events in Sydney.

The weather in the last 15 years or so has been markedly different to that which I experienced prior to that date. Seasons seem to start 2-4 weeks after their allotted date, and both Summers and Winters have been milder on the average (I can remember 40+°C days occurring in late September / early October. This year, it was late November). This effect has started to distort the temperature records, and is something that needs to be taken into account when assessing those records.

Sydney’s Weather is somewhat more complex than a simple four-season model. Based on average temperatures, Winter runs from June to September. June and July are true winter months, with Average Lows of 9.8°C (49.6°F) and 8.7°C, respectively, but the May averages are more akin to those of Autumn while September is more akin to Winter than Spring. Basically, the weather stays cold until a week or slightly less of strong (even gale-force) winds batters the city, often accompanied by rain and one final plunge in temperatures; a week or two of pleasantly mild conditions (warm with cool breezes) follows, and then temperatures begin to soar.

The average number of rainy days in June and July is 10.5 and 10.2, respectively, plummeting to 8.4 and 8.8 in August and September.

It’s also worth noting, when you go looking for official sources, that the “City” of (Greater) Sydney (usually just called “Sydney” by residents, and nicknamed “The City”, or “The Big Smoke” by non-urban locals) actually comprises a number of smaller “cities”. These are political divisions more than anything else, a limit to the reach of local governments. You observe the same pattern in Los Angeles, where I remember the “City” of Anaheim being something completely separate from the “City” of Los Angeles. As usual, such confusion results from one word being used for two separate jobs.

While Sydney now has two AFL teams (refer “Winter In Melbourne”, above), Rugby League is the dominant winter passion here. Fans are, however, just as tribal, and just as passionate as their southern cousins (see also the section on Brisbane to follow). Soccer is also gaining in popularity. Nevertheless, winter in Sydney is relatively short of season-specific activities, at least in comparison with our Southern neighbors. One notable exception is that this is the season of local street festivals. Another highlight is Vivid Sydney, when various buildings are “painted” using colored lights. It’s notable that number two on this list of 50 Things To Do In Sydney In Winter Under $50 takes you beyond Sydney’s borders, and that most Sydney-siders wouldn’t be caught dead at Number 11, Number 25, Number 26, or at several of the other listed “things to do”. For most, Winter is a time to stay at home close to a heat source, as much possible.

This list of 20 Things to Do In Sydney This Winter For Under $20 (from a completely different site) is probably more responsive in terms of activities the majority might participate in, at least until you get down toward the end of the list. (The prices appear to be in Australian Dollars, multiply by about 7/10 to get USD, or halve it for Euros/Pounds). We’re not an especially art-and-culture -oriented city. As a general rule, you’re more likely to go visit a friend and watch the “footy” together than you are any more organized activity.

It’s also noteworthy that Winter is when all the US “Summer Blockbusters” hit cinema screens. Although cinemas have declined in popularity (due to high prices and the rise of home equivalents), this remains the peak season.

More commonly, though, people drive out of the city to go skiing in the snowfields, hiking in the bush, or simply exploring the state. This is somewhat true in summer (when there is no snow) but is especially true in Winter. Every Friday during the season, there is an exodus sometimes estimated at between 5 and 10% of the population (I think those claims exaggerated, personally). Winter’s also a good time to hop in the car and visit relatives.

The final thing that you need to understand about Sydney In Winter is the diversity of the population. Sydney became one of the most multicultural cities in the world after mass migrations following the second World War. According to the 2011 census, more than 250 different languages were spoken in Sydney and about 40 percent of residents spoke a language other than English at home. Furthermore, 36 percent of the population reported having been born overseas. My own suburb is home to 136 Ancestries, making it one of the most diverse in the city, right down to 3 Fins and 3 Danes who were living here at the time of the last census.

More to the point, Sydney (and Metropolitan Australia in general) is one of the world’s great melting pots, especially when it comes to cuisine. No culture that comes here fails to rub a little of itself off onto the broader community, and to have a little of that broader community rub off onto it. Pizza in Australia – especially at the lower-budget end – is nothing like the Italian dish from which it is sourced, nor is it quite the same as what an American would expect. Chinese food is also just a little different to that which you will get anywhere else. And if there’s a fusion to be tried, an Australian is probably trying it. I don’t think you would be able to buy rattlesnake or moose meat here, because the species are not indigenous to the country; anything more common can probably be sourced! My next grocery order contains Apple and Cider Pork Sausages, French Deserts (instant from the fridge), and Low-fat Greek Yogurt (with Fruit) – to name just three items!

Each ethnic group reacts just a little differently to the change of seasons, whether it be in terms of what they eat, drink, or do, socially. A wintry social life in Sydney is defined by who you know, not what you know!

5. Winter In Brisbane

Brisbane is right next to Sydney on most maps. That’s because the world is such a big place; in fact, the two CBDs are about 915km (570 miles) apart, and that’s more than 2% of the circumference of the planet, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the weather forecasts between the two bears very little resemblance to each other, even though technically, they are both considered “subtropical”.

Brisbanites like to make a big deal out of their winters. The Urban List, based in Brisbane, writes, “Being from Brisbane, we don’t realize how much of a non-event our winter is. There’s always a certain few who insist on donning scarves, gloves, beanies and a jacket when the mercury hits 21. But sorry Brisbanites, our winters just ain’t that bad” in introducing their article, ‘50 Truths about Brisbane’s Winter‘. Because their list conveys a sense of the season and the reactions to it very effectively, let me quote a few of the entries:

• 1. We get excited about actually being able to sleep with a sheet covering us.
• 4. You buy a coat because winter is coming, but it only gets worn once, and even then you probs [probably] could have opted for a cardie [cardigan].
• 17. Your morning greeting is replaced with ‘OMG it’s SOOO cold today!?’
• 25. You hear the daily ‘you guys have nothing to complain about with your winter!’ and shake your head in disbelief; ‘it’s cold’, you argue, ‘it’s cold!’
• 28. Your pride is hurt when you see that the weather in Tasmania is minus 50 [°C, -56°F, an exaggeration], with snow.
• 29. But, you “know” that even though we’re still in double digits, our winter is just as cold as there anyway, when you factor in wind chill…

So, what’s the reality?

Winter in Brisbane is normally blue skies and warm weather. Mean temperatures are between 11 and 21°C (51.8 and 69.8°F, respectively). Early mornings and nights can be crisp, but overnight lows rarely drop below 9°C (48.2°F). It never snows there, though light falls have been reported elsewhere in Southern Queensland at altitudes, i.e. in the Granite Belt, most notably in Stanthorpe, which although 300 km (186 miles) Southwest, sometimes somehow becomes magically conflated with the city in conversations with locals related to winter weather – usually in the form of the local responding to a comment about the mildness of the (typical) weather by mentioning “It did once snow at Stanthorpe” as though that town of 4800 or so were a suburb of the city.

It’s my opinion that the psychological impact of weather that doesn’t threaten to melt the pavement underfoot at any moment is greater than any actual discomfort due to the weather – or, to put it another way, the residents become so acclimatized to baking hot temperatures through the rest of the year that winter is highlighted through sheer contrast. Brisbane is located North (i.e. closer to the equator) than the famous Gold Coast, which provides another clue as to its weather.

The city is centered along the Brisbane River, and its eastern suburbs line the shores of Moreton Bay, which is a downward-pointing teardrop shape, with a number of islands including North Stradbroke Island and Moreton Island forming the eastern “outline” of the bay. The bay is open to the north, and has a few smaller openings to the East, but is sheltered in every other direction. The greater Brisbane region is on the coastal plain east of the Great Dividing Range, with a metropolitan area that sprawls along the Bay floodplain from Caboolture in the north to Beenleigh in the south, and across to Ipswich in the south west.

A lot of the city is hilly; the urban area, including the CBD, are partially elevated by spurs of the Herbert Taylor Range, such as the summit of Mount Coottha, reaching up to 300 meters (980 ft) and the smaller Enoggera Hill. As is often the case, small differences in altitude can mean the difference between catching a breeze or not; in summer in particular, this can make a big difference to the perceived weather, but there is some effect even in winter.

Due to its proximity to the Coral Sea and a warm ocean current, Brisbane’s overall temperature variability is somewhat less than most other Australian capitals, particularly in winter, when maximum temperatures below 20 °C (68 °F) are relatively uncommon. On 19 July 2007, Brisbane’s temperature fell below the freezing point for the first time since records began, registering -0.1 °C (31.8 °F) at the airport station. The city station has never dropped below 2 °C (36 °F). Locations directly west of Brisbane such as Ipswich have dropped as low as -5 °C (23 °F) with heavy ground frost. The average July day is around 22 °C (72 °F) with sunny skies and low humidity, occasionally as high as 27 °C (81 °F), whilst maximum temperatures below 18 °C (64 °F) are usually associated with brief but not uncommon periods of cloud and winter rain. On the penultimate day of winter in 1943, the Brisbane Regional Office station recorded a temperature of 38.3 °C (100.9 °F).

Examining the weather records more closely, it is possible to clearly distinguish two entirely separate winters. If you were to base your climate model on average maximums, you would point to June and July as being the only true winter months; those are the months when the record stands below 30°C and the average high is below 22°C (71.4°F). If you look at minimum temperatures, then there are clear transitions in April-May and September-October, identifying Winter as the period of three months in between (June, July, and August). The average lows in those three months are 11.8°C, 10.2°C, and 10.8°C, (53.2, 50.4, and 51.4°F) respectively, so the early period of winter is slightly warmer than the end. Record Minimums blur this picture slightly; the May record low is identical to that of June (both 5°C 41°F), while July and August have record minimums of 2.6°C and 4.1°C (36.7°F and 44.6°F) respectively.

This paints a picture of a season that creeps up on the city in isolated cold snaps, which gradually even out as the peak warmth of the day diminishes.

For anyone looking to roleplay a visit to the city, one tip: The older architecture is slightly different to that of the rest of the country. Pre-1950, housing was often built in a distinctive style now known as a Queenslander (You know your state’s architecture is unique when it’s named after the state itself!) This features timber construction, large verandas, high ceilings. Many of these houses are elevated on stumps (also called “stilts”), that were originally timber, but are now frequently replaced by steel or concrete; this permits cooler air to circulate beneath the house, assisting in keeping it cool. Queenslander houses are considered iconic to Brisbane and are typically sold at a significant premium to equivalent modern houses. I’ve included a link to the relevant Wikipedia page; residents of the US Southern states will find a lot that looks familiar to them, architecturally.

As usual, let me now turn to the activities that characterize a Brisbane Winter (it’s trite but true to some extent to say, think of what most places do during the spring/summer). The tourist information page ‘30 things to do this winter in Brisbane‘ introduces itself in a manner that should now be familiar: “The closest Brisbane gets to freezing point is the ice in our drinks – so raise ’em high and celebrate crisp, clear days of winter sunshine, our all-seasons event line-up and the joys of wearing a jacket for those three weeks it is possible. In the depths of winter, Brisbane’s overnight temperature may dip below 10 degrees, so pack your walking shoes as being outdoors is always on the agenda.” The site then goes on to list 30 activities (as promised), all related to a winter that has now passed and which is not identified anywhere on the page that I could see – but, being an official site, it seems most likely to have been Winter 2017. Despite the information potentially being a little out of date, this makes a great starting point for research on the city in this time of year thanks to the external links buried throughout the article – and it has the bonus that, as an official site, it is likely to be refreshed annually.

Another great resource, especially when used in conjunction with the above, is the tourist-targeted article ‘Top 10 things to do in Brisbane this winter‘, which captures a bit more of the flavor of the city by looking at the activities in slightly greater depth. GMs may also find the general Wikipedia article about the city to be useful.

I want to explicitly call attention to #11 of the “30 things to do” (it doesn’t even make the “Top 10” list.

When it comes to Rugby League, Brisbane is just like a suburb of Sydney so far as fan tribalism goes. They have a franchise in the New South Wales competition that is treated with no more welcome, hostility, or disdain than any other team that is not your own. All that changes when one particular event rolls around – the one pictured in the “30 things” article: The State Of Origin series.

The idea is that the best players deriving from Queensland (regardless of their playing for different clubs the rest of the time) will get together for an annual three-game series against the best that New South Wales can gather. And, if the typical Australian’s support for his local team is tribal in its dedication, devotion, and intensity, the Blues (New South Wales) vs the Maroons (Queensland) is positively Primal in comparison. During my lifetime, Australia has been involved in three or four wars, and I’ve seen news and archival footage of our involvement in Korea and two World wars. The intensity of passion for all of them pales in comparison to the extremes that crawl out of the woodwork during those few weeks. It’s like the Superbowl in Australia, or the Grand Final for countries where Soccer is the predominant form of football – but it envelopes everyone who follows the code, not just two particular teams.

Supporters sprout team colors – sometimes appropriately for their position within society, sometimes not. Businesses sprout team colors and put on special discounts. Any possible link with the contest is celebrated, no matter how tenuous. During the game, local pubs and clubs are standing room only (or less). All other tourism activities take a remote second place; it’s akin to being the host city of a Summer Olympics (and I use the comparison advisedly), but without the infrastructure and inconvenience.

The three games are held in May, June, and July respectively. Any visitor to Brisbane, or to Sydney for that matter, in the weeks when a game in imminent, will not be able to avoid it. It also forms a shadowy backdrop to three-quarters of the team games in this period; any outstanding plays (good or bad) will automatically yield a discussion of the state of origin implications. This is a piece of local color that has to be incorporated into any post-1970 visit to either city.

6. Winter In Tahiti

Tahiti, Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. would be quick to remind you, is “a magical place”, virtually the archetypal representative of the Tropical Paradise. One of the first things you will discover when researching Tahiti through Wikipedia is that there is not a lot of information on the climate available. Either it is mind-numbingly consistent year after year after year, or you will have to dig a little deeper.

Tahiti is the largest island in the windward group of islands that forms part of French Polynesia in the Central Southern Pacific. There are 118 islands in total within French Polynesia, and they are strewn across four million square km of ocean, clustered into five archipelagos – the Society Islands, the Tuamotu Islands, the Gambier Islands, the Marquesas Islands and the Austral Islands. Tahiti is part of the Society Island archipelago.

I’ve been there once and remember only that it was bakingly hot even in the air-conditioned jet lounge, but not the furnace that crossing the concrete tarmac to reach it had been. French is the official language but the locals also speak Tahitian. Tahiti.Com lists a few common phrases in Tahitian, and can be a handy reference – hello, goodbye, welcome, and thank you.

In actual fact, Tahiti is two volcanic islands that are joined; the larger one lies to the northwest and is known as Tahiti Nui, and the smaller one connects to it and is known as Tahiti Iti. The capital of French Polynesia, Papeete, is on the Northwest coast of the larger island. Tahiti is 5700km from Australia (3078 nautical miles), 7900km (4266 nautical miles) from Chile, and 4400km (2376 nautical miles) south of Hawaii, with whom it shares a Time Zone.

The interior of Tahiti Nui is almost completely uninhabited. The southeastern part of Tahiti Iti can only be reached on foot or by boat, and so Tahiti Iti is largely isolated; the rest of Tahiti is encircled by a main road that cuts between the mountains and the sea, while a scenic interior road winds into higher altitudes past dairy farms and citrus groves.

Tahiti is genuinely tropical in climate, receiving almost continuous sunshine daily – the Tuamoto Islands of French Polynesia receive more than 3000 hours annually – and just enough rain to keep everything lush. The sun rises and sets at the equator at 6am and pm nearly every day; the tropic latitudes at their most extreme see a sunset at about 5:30pm, and sunrise can be as late as about 6:40AM.

The air temperature, which can vary from one archipelago to another (generally, the further south, the cooler), typically stays between 24°C and 30°C (75°F and 85°F), and the water temperature ranges from 22°C to 26°C (73°F to 79°F). In general, the high volcanic islands like Tahiti are more humid than the low coral atolls because the islands are dense with vegetation and the atolls are more exposed to trade winds. The lowest temperature ever recorded at Papeete is 16°C (61°F).

Winter in Tahiti lasts from April to October – some say March to November, others May or even June to October – and is one of only two seasons recognized. For these 7 months of the year, the temperatures are slightly cooler and the humidity reduced; this is considered the ‘dry’ season. July and August (especially the latter) are the coldest months, thanks to the trade wind known as maraamu. As usual, the differences between the different definitions depend on the basis by which the season is identified; Tahiti has 7 warmer months in the year, but 8 dryer months, and they don’t synchronize.

As usual, when you dig a little deeper, interesting details emerge. The number of days in winter which received precipitation, for example, varies from 17 in December to 7 in August and September. 17, of course, is more often than 1 day in 2, while 7 is closer to 1 day in 4 and may well indicate regular intervals of more than a week between rain showers. The average number of rainy days is even lower.

July and August are also the only months that don’t average a single day with a temperature high of better than 32°C (90°F); June and September typically contain 4 each, May and October 6, November 8, December 9, and the rest of the year 10 or more.

Tahiti is not the place to go if you are sensitive to high humidity. The low point of the year (on average) is 78% in October; the high is 82% in April and June.

I found the information at Weatherbase.com to be very helpful in compiling this entry. It is probably worth noting that many of these records have only been kept for the last 5 years, however, unlike other locations that have a century or more of data to draw upon.

May 1 to October 31 is also the peak tourist season, attracting higher prices and greater demand, though some resorts change their prices starting April 1. That advice, and plenty more local color, can be sourced from the Visual Itineraries .com page, ‘Best Time of Year to visit Tahiti‘, which I found to be an excellent resource.

Insects, sunburn, sunstroke, and dehydration are ever-present dangers in Tahiti regardless of the season. You are also likely to be troubled by mosquitoes and a small sand fly known as the no-no unless adequately protected. Less common are encounters with stonefish, which can survive for up to 24 hours out of the water, and which inject highly-lethal neurotoxins when stepped upon.

Winter is also the time of year when visibility for diving is at it’s best, so that quite obviously heads any list of winter activities. For more, check out the “best time of year” article linked to, above, but they include the obvious: hiking, swimming, surfing, and scuba diving. Tahiti is famous for it’s black sand beaches, the results of erosion of the volcanic rock that forms the island. Note that Summer is the best time of year for the local cuisine, however.

7. Winter In Cairo

(Much of the following three paragraphs is quoted directly, or derived, from the very informative Tour Egypt website, quoted because I could not express it any more clearly. There’s a lot more info on the page, I’ve only grabbed the introductory paragraphs!)

Throughout Egypt, days are commonly warm or hot, and nights are cool. Egypt has only two seasons: a mild winter from November to April and a hot summer from May to October. The only differences between the seasons are variations in daytime temperatures and changes in prevailing winds. In the coastal regions, temperatures range between an average minimum of 14°C in winter and an average maximum of 30°C in summer.

Temperatures vary widely in the inland desert areas, especially in summer, when they may range from 7°C at night to 43°C during the day. During winter, temperatures in the desert fluctuate less dramatically, but they can be as low as 0°C at night and as high as 18°C during the day.

The average annual temperature increases moving southward from the Delta to the Sudanese border, where temperatures are similar to those of the open deserts to the east and west. In the north, the cooler temperatures of Alexandria during the summer have made the city a popular resort. Throughout the Delta and the northern Nile Valley, there are occasional winter cold spells accompanied by light frost and even snow. At Aswan, in the south, June temperatures can be as low as 10°C at night and as high as 41°C during the day, when the sky is clear.

In the upper part of the middle of all of this is Cairo, by a substantial margin, the largest city in Egypt. 6.76 million inhabitants are concentrated into 453 square kilometers (175 square miles), and an additional 9.5 million people live in close proximity to the city. That’s a population density of close to 15000 people per square km, or – to put it another way – the average is 67 m from one person to another. This is about one and a half times the population density of New York City. Cairo has more than 82% of the population of NYC crammed into 58% of the area. This is a fact that many GMs often forget; privacy is that much harder to find, and crowds gather more quickly and spontaneously, which is why I’m making a point of it.

Cairo is located 165 kilometers (100 mi) south of the Mediterranean Sea and 120 kilometers (75 mi) west of the Gulf of Suez and Suez Canal, on the Nile River, immediately south of the point where the river leaves its desert-bound valley and branches into the low-lying Nile Delta region. Although the greater Cairo metropolis extends away from the Nile in all directions, the city of Cairo resides only on the east bank of the river and two islands within it. The Western bank of the Nile across from Cairo contains the city and protectorate of Giza (a relationship similar to that between New Jersey and New York City, if Jersey were the dominant cultural and tourism destination of the two).

Until the mid-19th century, when the river was tamed by dams, levees, and other controls, the Nile in the vicinity of Cairo was highly susceptible to changes in course and surface level. Over the years, the Nile gradually shifted westward to it’s present position. The land on which Cairo was established in 969 (present-day Islamic Cairo) was located underwater just over three hundred years earlier. Because of the Nile’s movement, the newer parts of the city – Garden City, Downtown Cairo, and Zamalek – are located closest to the riverbank. These areas are home to most of Cairo’s embassies, and are surrounded on the north, east, and south by the older parts of the city. Since the late 20th Century, the areas of most rapid growth have been to the North and extreme East of Cairo.

Cairo is located in what is officially a Hot Desert Climate, but is atypical of such climates because of the frequent high humidity. Wind storms can be frequent, bringing Saharan dust into the city, sometimes from March to May and the air often becomes uncomfortably dry. The winds responsible are known locally as khamaseen, but are also referred to in other locales as khamsin , chamsin or hamsin. The first of these three is the most common western usage of the word. The Khamsin is a dry, hot, sandy local wind from the south, anywhere in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Similar winds in the area are sirocco and simoom. From the Arabic word for “fifty”, throughout the Levant, these dry, sand-filled windstorms often blow sporadically over a fifty-day period in Spring, hence the name. When the storm passes over an area, lasting for several hours, it carries great quantities of sand and dust from the deserts, with a speed up to 140 kilometers per hour, and the humidity in that area drops below 5%. Even in winter, temperatures can rise above 45°C (113°F) due to the storm winds. These sand storms are reported to have seriously impeded both Napoleon’s military campaigns in Egypt as well as Allied-German fighting in North Africa in World War II. (From the dedicated Wikipedia page on the subject). The most common occurrences are in April but occasionally occur in March and May. They can cause the temperature to rise 20°C or more in just two hours (36°F).

Egypt receives fewer than eighty millimeters of precipitation annually in most areas. Most rain falls along the coast, but even the wettest area, around Alexandria, receives only about 200 mm (7.9 inches) per year. Alexandria has relatively high humidity, but sea breezes help keep the moisture down to a comfortable level; the amount of precipitation decreases suddenly as one moves Southward. Cairo receives a little more than one centimeter (0.8 inches) of precipitation each year. The city reports humidity as high as 77% during the summer, but during the rest of the year, humidity is quite low. The areas south of Cairo receive only traces of rainfall; some will go years without rain and then experience sudden downpours, resulting in flash floods.

In October, night-time temperatures begin to decline markedly, signaling the transition to Winter. In November, both daily minimums and maximums decline, the record highs drop below 40°C (104°F), and the record minimums plunge to single digits centigrade (41.4°F or less) at night. These conditions persist with varying intensity throughout December, January, and February. In March, record maximums again break the 100°F mark, but the average high remains relatively mild at 23.5°C (74.3°F); in April, temperatures a two-month rise, signaling the end of the season. Without having lived there, I suspect that the record maximum has resulted from an early end to the season one year.

You get, perhaps, the clearest delineation between the seasons by studying the rainfall records. For the three hottest months, these are uniformly zero; October, 0.7mm; November 3.8mm; December, 5.9mm; January, 5mm; February and March, back down to 3.8mm; and, as temperatures rise, 1.1mm or less until Summer is once again reached.

In terms of activities, very few sites distinguish the seasons, but it can be convincingly argued that as the cooler temperatures would be more comfortable, winter would be the height of the tourist season, and therefore everything listed would be on the table. Two exceptions to this rule are

• The yTravel Insider’s Guide article What To Do In Egypt, which has specific advice relating to winter amongst a mountain of relevant and useful information. About 1/3 of the way down the page, you might get the impression that it ends; it doesn’t, just keep scrolling. I recommend this site to any GM planning an adventure in Egypt for the sheer depth of information;
• and, secondly, the Daily News Egypt travel article, The Best Winter Getaways In Egypt for the (rare) specifically-seasonal topicality.

More ‘normal’ traveler activity resource sites include (in declining number of entries)

• Trip Advisor‘s page, The Ten Best Things to do in Cairo which lists far more than ten entries and covers the entire Cairo Governate; it’s short on detail but lists prices. For specific information, click on the entry. Quality of information will be variable.
• Planetware.com‘s 15 top tourist attractions in Cairo and easy day trips;
• The Crowded Planet‘s 13 unique things to do in Cairo in 3 days; and
• TravelUSNews‘ 11 Best Things to do in Cairo.

Wikipedia makes a big point of the most popular sporting activity being Football (which Americans will know as Soccer). The last subsection of the Infrastructure section of their Cairo Page provides an excellent jumping-off point to explore this facet of the City. This is followed by a section on the Culture of the city which is also worth reading.

With this final update, this first serial blog post is now considered complete. The series itself continues; you can access the next part using the links below.

If you need to save time or mental bandwidth, consider using dice roll averages for rolls of more than 4 dice.

Disclaimer: nothing in this article should be considered prescriptive. You know your game system, your players, and yourself best. Use what seems useful and put the rest in your back pocket for when you need it.

Dice statistics are commonly recognized as a relatively dry subject in tabletop games. However, the Game Master would do well to respect the power of chance over their games. Success, failure, and their magnitude are at the whim of the roll; understanding how randomness can affect game-play will give the GM some useful tools for controlling the table.

GMs are only human. This is both a boon and a bane to the game; the near infinite flexibility of having a mortal parse game-play competes with the limitations of the GM’s capacity to do so. Quality game design necessarily takes that into account, limiting game mechanics (and their interactions) so that the needs of running the game are within the GM’s bandwidth.

One tool to help do this is by using dice roll averages vice rolling large numbers of dice, but at what point is that a useful tool? Under what conditions are the GM’s bandwidth limited, increasing the value of this tool? What other tools are synergistic, and what tools invalidate the usefulness of average rolls?

Players have similar restrictions. In the absence of interesting game-play, they look to other sources of diversion (these days, it’s often the phone in their pocket). Player engagement is a concern of all GMs, and it’s rare for a player to hang on the edge of their seat for a large dice roll to tally. Opposite this effect is the excitement of the roll itself. A goodly portion of engagement-worthy game-play is the randomness of the roll, and taking that away from the players (either by enforcing roll averages on them or by not rolling yourself) can drive engagement down. Finally, calculating the average dice value takes some mental bandwidth, so economy of calculation vs. roll tallying should be considered.

Process

For reference, calculating the average is simple enough – for N dice of S sides with a modifier M (NdS+M), Avg=(N*S+N)/2+M. This often produces fractional values, so it’s important to understand how your game system deals with fractional numbers.

It should be clear to the GM that at some point, using the roll average will save time. In 5e D&D, the Meteor Swarm spell calls for two rolls of 20d6. Almost nobody has twenty 6-sided dice on hand, and if they do, digging through the rest of their dice to produce them can grind the game to a halt. Likewise, rolling 1d6 forty times can be time consuming (and mentally challenging – was that 18 rolls or 19?). So the GM should be able to understand the value of time saving techniques (and there are others that are discussed elsewhere ? see Mike?s article on using Random Results).

Less clear, perhaps, is there a tipping point between the fun of a roll and the savings of an average? Is it more than 10 dice? More than 5? Let’s look at the math.

I took the dice total probability distributions from anydice.com for 1 to 20 dice of 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20 sides and copied them into a spreadsheet. Next, I looked at three scenarios: the probability of a roll being within 30%, within 15%, and within 10% of the average value. Multiple scenarios will hopefully give the GM the ability to decide for themselves where the break-over point for usefulness of this technique lays. Below you can see the distributions charted, by dice size.

Results & Analysis

Click on this thumbnail to download a zip file containing the spreadsheets and results graphs in a larger size.

Not surprisingly, the more precision demanded by the GM, the less likely it is that a roll will meet the requirement. Also, as the number of dice increases, the likelihood of rolling within the precision required increases (rolls become less random with many dice). Finally, as the number of sides on the dice increases, the likelihood of meeting the required precision increases.

These conclusions hardly warranted the effort of this analysis; the results should have been obvious even before the numbers were crunched. But it?s not this big picture that we really care about ? it?s the thresholds of precisely when randomness becomes too low to matter as much as the time savings.

It’s worth noting that at low number of dice or sides, the discrete nature of dice roll values produces irregular results (1d4, for example, cannot produce the required precision at ±15% and ±10%). If you take a look under the hood and examine the spreadsheets, you’ll also find that the processing of data provided by anydice.com produced some errors. I’m disregarding those errors, since they would not have impacted the results.

What IS worth noting, however, is that generally a roll is within 15% of the average more than 60% of the time when the number of dice is greater than 4. As a GM, I find this precision and frequency “good enough?, especially when you consider that mentally calculating the average requires the same number of operations as rolling when the number of dice is 4 (multiplying two numbers, adding a number, dividing by two, and adding a final number takes me roughly the same amount of time as throwing four dice and adding four values).

Rebuttal

There are circumstances where I would not recommend this technique.

• When using digital tools. Digital tools make it very easy to produce a random result while requiring only the bandwidth to make the request.
• When party size is small and other mental distractions are minimized. I still may recommend this technique for very large rolls, but in the narrow range where the number of dice is between 4 and 10, it’s probably worth the increased bandwidth for the fun of rolling the dice.
• I would never recommend enforcing this technique for player rolls. It will reduce player agency and take a vital part of game-play from the player, and save the GM no bandwidth. For very large rolls (see Meteor Swarm above), I may give the player the option before the roll, but otherwise, I’d let it lie.
• If you’re morally, philosophically, or otherwise opposed to the idea. See disclaimer above.

In conclusion, using average values for dice rolls can be a valuable tool for saving GMs time and mental bandwidth, but circumstances and personal preference can invalidate its usefulness.

About The Author:

Clint Hillman has been in love with Sci-Fi and Fantasy since he was very young. When 3rd Edition D&D was launched, he bought himself the core rulebooks and started GMing for his friends. After over a decade of military service, Clint looks to the gaming industry for his next challenge. He lives in Arizona with his wife Ashley and son John. This is his first published article, and he hopes to publish many more.

Part 1: Introduction

This is the first Campaign Mastery post for 2018, and that’s rather significant.

New Years are always a strange synthesis of two things: beginnings and retrospectives. The first is fairly obvious, but the significance of the second often gets overlooked as everyone gets wrapped up in newness and new beginnings. But for me it seems especially significant that the first thing that we generally do at the start of a new year is to reflect back on what happened in the old one – in other words, how we got to “here”, to this particular new beginning.

These retrospectives are usually not all that great; the interval is too short to lend perspective, events too raw to be fully evaluated in the context created by the melange of other events that have occurred. That generally leaves the retrospective feeling superficial and rather hollow, a recitation of events with at best limited appreciation of their significance or ramifications. I have sometimes thought that some of this could be avoided simply by placing the events of the past year into a perspective obtained by looking back a second year, or further if necessary, but further reflection shows that this would contradict the primary purpose – which is the placing of the new year into context.

Nevertheless, there are some useful lessons in this duality for GMs, so it’s worth taking a closer look at the concepts of Beginnings and Legacies. I’ll get to that shortly.

Part 2: Campaign Mastery

The December that has just passed was a significant one for Campaign Mastery, and it’s a significance that will carry on throughout 2018. So that seems to be a good place to start.

You see, sometime in the course of the past month or so is when you have to draw a line and say “This is the 9th anniversary of Campaign Mastery.”

It’s not a simple number to pin down, however. In September or October of 2008 (as I recall), Johnn and I first discussed a blog; in November, he was persuaded and on-board, or was it I that had to be persuaded? Actually, I think we were both half-convinced from the outset, but each was confident that the notion would work in terms of the other’s doubts and uncertainties. In any event, mid-November, we were both on-board with the concept, at least on a trial run. Starting on November 29, and continuing over the next few weeks, we both wrote and posted a few test pieces and began to iron out the administrative protocols . Technically, the anniversary date should be the date we became publicly visible, but it wasn’t until January 2019 that we told anyone about it, having worked out most of the administrative and workflow kinks! So I tend to think of the whole month of December as the site’s “Birthday”.

Which means the buildup to the Tenth Anniversary starts NOW.

We had our first 6 visitors on January 1st. And six more on the second, and five more on the third, and 7 on the fourth. And then the number of readers started going up. As of today, according to Google Analytics, we have had almost 1.3 million page views by more than 488,000 readers. Right now, those numbers are a steady 4000+ a month, with 20% of that 4000 being new readers, 63% of whom will become regular readers. So sometime very early in January, we’ll cross the 1.3 million threshold, and about 2 years from now (at those rates) we’ll have our half-millionth individual visitor.

2017 started out with a bang, I was still getting a huge boost in readership from winning the 2016 silver Ennie for best blog. Heck, I still get a few visitors almost every day from that! As a result, in terms of legitimate readers, the site had never had it so good. Only a couple of spam events from many years earlier beat that month in raw numbers, and those were definitely not real readers. Everything was humming along nicely and I was busy making plans.

May started the big unraveling of many of those plans. First, the laptop that I had been using for just about everything died. This wasn’t a total surprise, it gave several months of increasingly-unreliable service first, so I had some time to prepare. Getting my PC up and running became an ongoing priority – initially a very high one, and slowly lower and lower on the scale as I managed to migrate most of my archived files to the PC and start organizing them.

Then, in September, my telephone line and associated internet service went dead – for 42 long, agonizing, days. To my immense gratitude, most of my readers persisted, even though for almost a month, there was nothing new to read here. After a while, I was able to get up and running using an Internet Cafe, though, and when the service was finally restored, it felt like I had dodged another bullet. By the start of December, or thereabouts, the organization was just about complete and I was preparing to back things up for the first time in months when… the PC died.

Actually, in a real deja-vu moment, the display died. I’m now pretty sure that the rest of the machine is still working perfectly. But this failure gave NO warning – I went to the Doctors for a blood test, leaving the computer to put itself to sleep, and when I came home, it would neither wake up nor boot up.

Back when the first hints of unreliability in the laptop began to surface – more than a year ago, now – I gathered every cent I could get my hands on and bought a replacement. It’s not perfect, not even as good as the machine it was intended to replace, but it works and was the best that I could afford. And it is on that machine that this article is being written. What’s more, through a USB drive-caddy, I’ve been able to recover not only all the files that were lost, but have also retrieved a lot of the lost files from my old Win XP machine – and backed everything up to a 2TB external drive!

And I have high hopes of getting the PC back into service in the near future. So January 2018 is already looking more positive than December 2017 did.

Changes Are Coming

It’s also time to start putting my plans for the tenth anniversary buildup into practice. Some of those plans have already born fruit – you may have noticed some cosmetic changes to the Tag Cloud, for example. Some are still to come – having been in preparation since the site was first launched.

The very plain and unadorned look of CM was never intended to last. I spent almost a month generating graphics for the site – all of them lost when that Windows XP PC died, nine years ago, but now recovered.

The social media plugin that the site uses is no longer supported – I’ve been looking into replacements, but when I deactivate the old plugin, posts won’t display. That’s being looked into.

I’m not even certain that I’ll keep using the same theme, which provides the basic look-and-feel for the site – it’s 9 years old, too. But I haven’t found a replacement that retains all the functionality – yet. So that’s going to be an ongoing investigation in 2018, too.

This is going to be an ongoing process, through the course of the year, a succession of small changes. The Theme, if there is to be a change, or the title graphics if not, will appear in December 2018. Everything else should hopefully be done before then.

Less Posts More Often

Over the last five years or so, there have been articles (and whole series) that I’ve had to set aside because they would not fit the realities of the publishing deadlines set for the site combined with my physical limitations.

While contemplating the tenth anniversary buildup, I finally thought up a way to deal with that problem – but it means changing the structure of the way I’ve been doing these articles. Specifically, it means introducing a new concept to these pages: the Serial Blog.

One post a week – sometimes Mondays, sometimes Thursdays – will be done the old way. But most of the rest will not. Instead, I’ll be doing as much as I can on them in an hour or so, daily, four days a week – and publishing and updating the post each time. That’s right, the incomplete articles will still be live. Some of these articles are partially written already, some are nothing more than an outline. Some of these will take weeks, some may take months, others will take only days – I can write a fair bit in an hour when the muse is playing ball and the topic has been properly organized.

To follow them, you will either have to follow me on Social Media (and pay attention to my announcements), or bookmark them and play catch-up every day or whatever, or post a comment so that you get subscribed to that post – and I will post a comment each time the post is updated so that such subscribers will be notified.

Free Time? What will I do with that?

Actually, most of it will be devoted to prepping some enormous articles to fill the month of December. These will take months to write. There may even have to be more than two of them published a week!

Some of it will be devoted to finishing some of those long-standing articles that don’t suit the Serial Blog approach. Some of it will be devoted to other aspects of the tenth anniversary buildup that I’m keeping under my hat for the moment. And, yes, some small part may be devoted to R&R.

It’s when the tenth anniversary actually starts that this changed approach will bear real fruit. Because that’s when I can turn my attention to producing low-cost high-value e-books for readers, as Campaign Mastery was originally intended to do.

Not only will that give me something else to write about in these pages, but it will permit me to resurrect competitions and other aspects of the site that have been lost over the years. And it will provide another small revenue stream to enable me to keep Campaign Mastery going, economically.

The details of this expansion are another thing to be determined in the course of the year and announced one year from now as part of the climax of the tenth anniversary itself.

Patreon? Or Sponsored Posts?

I make no secret of the fact that some of the articles here at Campaign Mastery have been sponsored. I work hard at these to ensure that not only are the sponsors satisfied, but that the readers get an article at the end of it that can stand or fall on its own merits, in other words that Campaign Mastery’s standards are not compromised. That gets harder and harder with each one; I get more offers than I can possibly accept while maintaining those standards.

But there is another possibility. One of the prospects that I have been investigating is a low-impact Patreon deal whereby only Patrons would get access to every second Serial Blog until it’s ready to be published generally, and for another 30 days or something beyond that.

There are aspects of this notion that I’m still not sure of, so I’m not committing to it – yet. But I would prefer to use this as a way to raise the same level of funding that I receive from these occasional sponsored posts so that the integrity of the site is never compromised. $2 a quarter from 30 patrons would do that.

That will also help keep Campaign Mastery going, while keeping advertising at its current unobtrusive levels – less if you count that sponsorship as advertising!

Campaign Mastery: The Tenth Year

Or, The more things change, the more they stay the same
This isn’t the totality of what I’m planning, and what I’m contemplating. But it should be enough to show that there are many things in the wind to get excited about!

And yet, look at what they actually mean: Bigger articles, with even more in-depth analysis – the very things that have become hallmarks of Campaign Mastery over the last 9 years. If anything, Campaign Mastery will become even more Campaign Mastery-ish as a result.

Which is why these plans are, and should be, a part of the tenth anniversary buildup.

Part 3: Campaigns

The notion of Beginnings and Legacies applies to several aspects of what we all do as GMs.

Consider: You are sitting down to run your first session of a new campaign. One of the first things that you have to supply is a retrospective “how did we get to this point?” from an in-game point of view.

I’ve looked at a lot of different methods for projecting as much of the delivery of campaign background into actual play as possible over the years, from the “big document before play” model all the way through to the “tell them nothing until you have to” approach. But “Beginnings and Legacies” is a great way to sum up one of the simplest.

Simply write 3/4 of a page telling the players how the world got to the point at which their characters are starting play. Leave out explanations, ignore context, touch on only the most important points, tease and hint – and if including an incident takes you over the limit, you have to choose: either that incident is omitted (for now), or – if it is too important – something else has to be left out to make room for it. Then read that page as the prologue to the first adventure of the campaign.

Everything else can be expounded when and where it becomes relevant, and choose your encounters so that each day’s play includes at least one “history lesson” in which it does become relevant. Have your villains monologue, explaining the historical context that has made them a villain.

The more significant you make your backstory, the greater the variety of associations you create to it, the more memorable it will be, and the more it will shape the player’s thought processes while roleplaying their characters.

This technique declares that campaign background should be like an iceberg – nine-tenths of it don’t show, and the only reason you know that they exist is because they hold together the one-tenth that is visible.

Part 4: Adventures

Every campaign develops a ritual of sorts that defines the end of one adventure and the start of another. A common pattern is “last words”, “hand out XP”, “level up/spend XP”, “introduce next adventure”. Some campaigns add things like “sell booty” and “replenish supplies” instead of repeatedly performing those acts in-game.

You can simplify and abbreviate the process down to three simple element categories: “After”, “Transition”, “Before”.

• After deals with the logical consequences of the last adventure, such as healing characters, handing out XP for deeds done, and so on.
• Transition deals with those things that are either a little of both the other categories, or are clearly neither. “Level up” or “Spend XP” (depending on your game system) can clearly be thought of as either an “After” or a “Before”, for example.
• Before permits predefined preparations for play to be hand-waved. They include any changes to a PCs appearance that the other PCs would notice, often symbolic of a changing role within the party.

Things get more interesting when you give individual PCs quick solo games in between group game sessions, rather than playing these scenes and incidents as part of a main adventure, which inherently excludes most of the group and gives the spotlight to the individual for an extended period. Doing so – perhaps using some form of online gaming or play-by-email technique between game sessions – means that the game, and the game background, progress and evolve in between game sessions; there’s always something new to capture and hold the players’ attentions whenever they ‘get the band back together’. The question is, do you consider these as part of the “after” of the previous adventure, the “before” of the next, or the “transition” in between the two? Or sometimes one, sometimes another?

In Fumanor (D&D) I treated them as “after,” because they were often about characters gaining levels and such. My first in-print RPG-related article was Shadow Levels: A way to roleplay the acquisition of Prestige Classes in D&D 3.x, which clearly designates those activities to an “after” phase of the adventure.

I’ve often deferred roleplaying minor solo incidents within an adventure to a brief solo session handled after the fact, simply telling the player what the outcome was at the time insofar as it affects the game going forward. “I’ll explain later,” in other words.

Part 5: (Role-played) Encounters

Not a lot of GMs think of encounters as having a definable beginning and end, but they do. The beginning places the encounter into context, and deals with what players can perceive before the encounter itself starts. It will include physical descriptions, perhaps a description of tone of voice, perhaps a mention of past history with the character. The encounter itself follows, concluding with some obvious verbal conclusion or an action that draws a line under the role-played encounter. That is then followed by the “after” section that deals with any aftermath or actions in response to the conversation.

Quite often, one such encounter will be followed by a passage of exposition by the GM, or by a combat encounter, but it is also not uncommon for one role-played encounter to segue directly into another, and that is why, in my opinion, most GMs don’t think of encounters as a discrete building block within an adventure, but as a component of something larger.

How much of a difference does it really make?Well, the only substantive impact is in the way a GM thinks about his encounters – so that could mean nothing or everything, something in-between, or both at the same time (depending on the encounter). Thinking of encounters as a discrete phase of game-play enables them to be analyzed and characterized and that permits improvement in discrete types of encounter.

But, in practical terms, there isn’t likely to be much impact, if any – any impact will come along when designing subsequent encounters.

Part 6: Combat

Combat is sometimes described as a game-within-a-game. Many rules come into effect that apply at no other time, and the entire focus of the rules changes from simulating a character within an environment to simulating action within an environment, and opposed action at that.

It was in my second or third RPG session as a player that I first encountered a GM who had completely excised the combat system from (then) AD&D and replaced it with another (I forget what, but it was something in between Rolemaster and D&D in it’s subtleties and complexities). I didn’t understand the practice at the time – why? Why not simply play that other game system and be done with it? Or play straight AD&D? It was only when I began to appreciate the change of attitude in terms of what the rules were trying to accomplish during combat that it started making sense to me, at least in an abstract sense.

Like an adventure, entering and exiting combat is usually achieved through a set of almost ritualistic practices. There are things that you always do before combat starts, things that you always do before combat starts if using a particular method of depicting combat (e.g. using minis), and things that you always do at the end of combat, and of course, combat itself tends to follow strongly game-mechanized processes.

Dividing play into two phases – “combat” and “non-combat” – is usually the first refinement that a GM makes in his game-play. It’s certainly the most obvious.

Which only makes it more ironic that some of the best advice I’ve ever received regarding combat was to selectively erase that distinction, and to incorporate more narrative and roleplaying elements into my combat – something I still struggle with at times, I have to admit!

Nevertheless, there are times when it is helpful to think of each combat encounter as a discrete game element. The trick is always to know when to look one way, and when to look the other.

Part 7: The End Of An Article

I started this article by talking about Campaign Mastery, and that’s also where I’m going to end it – by talking about the End of Campaign Mastery, or the lack thereof.

Some readers may feel that the changes that I have announced here represent the end of Campaign Mastery as they know it. But here’s the thing: the number of articles and series that I’ve had to defer because they fell outside the practical scope of what was deliverable within the deadlines of publication has grown longer and longer, and articles that would fit within that publication schedule have become more and more difficult to find. That combination would ultimately signal the end of Campaign Mastery, when there was nothing left that I could say within the time available to me.

Making the changes opens up the site in scope to tackle those lengthier subjects while keeping the articles themselves coherent.

Similarly, it’s getting harder and harder to write sponsored articles that are up to the standards that have been set for the site. So the mooted income streams that become possible under the altered schedule become critically important to the longevity of the site.

Ultimately, that’s what these changes are all about: Ensuring that Campaign Mastery continues beyond it’s tenth year, into an eleventh, and then a twelfth, and… Nevertheless, I have to admit to a certain amount of trepidation, here. I’m messing with a formula that’s been proven successful over the last nine years!

Beginnings and Legacies. That’s what this article, and this year, are all about.

I was reflecting on the process that I use to design NPCs for my campaigns, the other day, and I don’t think that I’ve ever described it here at Campaign Mastery, let alone explained it. That simply won’t do.

There are a number of considerations that go into the design of an NPC, and I have a fairly strict hierarchy in taking them into account. In sequence, they are:

1. [Metagame] Purpose
2. Concept
3. PC Relationships
4. Diversity
5. Genre Conventions
6. Objective and Motive
7. Personality
8. Justification and History
9. Environment
10. Expressive Appearance
11. Personal Limitations
12. Game Mechanics

As usual,let’s look at each of these in turn….

[Metagame] Purpose

My first question is always, “What is this character’s purpose? Why are they appearing in this adventure? In this campaign? What is MY Purpose in having them here?”

There are a wide range of possible answers. Their purpose might be to deliver information (or misinformation) to the PCs, to complicate one or more PCs lives, to be a low-level or a high-level antagonist, to pose a functional challenge for the PCs to overcome in order to progress the adventure, as a stalking horse or red herring, to befriend or ingratiate themselves with one or more PCs, to provide color or verisimilitude, to represent a particular organization, group, race, culture, nationality, or perspective, to facilitate the evolution of a threat to the PCs or their objectives, to gather intelligence on behalf of an enemy, to advance a PC’s current plot arc, or an NPC’s plot arc, or any of several other possibilities.

The important point is this: if the NPC doesn’t serve the purpose that justifies their inclusion in the adventure, you should junk either the NPC (if they haven’t appeared in the campaign previously), choose another NPC to perform the function (if the first choice has appeared before), or even rework the adventure so that this NPC will work in their designated role.

The first two options are first preferences, but things can become trickier when the NPC has multiple functions and it isn’t possible for some reason to separate them. The last choice is generally a lot more work and has far greater risks, especially given my adventure and campaign design processes, most recently described in Tying Plot Threads Together: Concepts to Executable Plot, and Round-Robin Adventure Structure. In essence, if you’ve spent time in previous adventures foreshadowing (refer The Echo Of Events To Come: foreshadowing in a campaign structure) and maneuvering various campaign elements into a position that will produce a particular intersection at the right time, a particular set of in-game circumstances, you are to a certain extent already committed; the problems only get worse if this adventure in turn is supposed to be a stepping stone toward something bigger within the campaign.

So Purpose is an all-important consideration that can override just about anything and everything else.

Concept

There are times when the purpose of an NPC is to embody or reflect a high concept, which in turn manifests as themes and undercurrents that influence and shape everything else. When that’s the case, as it was with Mortus (Pieces of Creation, Dec 31, 2017,) this becomes my number-two consideration. When it isn’t, this is completely ignored.

Everything possible about the NPC – what they can do, how they do it, why they do it, how they think, what they want, and even occasionally their Purpose within the adventure, should be subordinated to the concept. I think of these characters as natural forces within the campaign, and one of the key stages in adventure design is making sure that there are no such forces of nature that should be involved in the adventure and aren’t. It may be necessary to either rework the adventure to incorporate such a force of nature or rework it to include a plot sequence that explains and justifies the absence. Whenever possible, I like to actually dedicate an adventure to that specific purpose – as I said, it’s all about maneuvering campaign elements into the right position for an interesting intersection to take place.

PC Relationships

This can get complicated, too. Not only does the NPC have a potential relationship of some kind with one or more of the PCs, and vice-versa (because the way one side views the relationship may be completely different to the way the other does), but there are also secondary relationships with other PCs, and between those PCs and other NPCs into which this NPC can become a complicating third party.

This diagram contains representations of the complex relationships that an NPC can be a part of. It does not show every possible configuration between these individuals. It’s at the lower limit for resolution of details, or even a little beyond – there are some elements that I can only make out because I know they are there! If you need it, you can access a larger version in a new tab by clicking on the image.

Let’s break down what this illustration is depicting.

• While the primary focus is NPC1, there are two other NPCs, labeled NPC2 and NPC3. These have a relationship of some kind with each other, and have relationships with PC1 and PC4, respectively. In addition, each has a secondary relationship with the other member of that foursome. An example might be two NPCs who meet through their individual relationships with the PCs and who become romantically connected. Their mutual connections force the creation of secondary relationships with the other member of the PC pair. The secondary relationships are in light gray with light gray arrowheads. The primary relationships (NPC2 to NPC3, NPC2 to PC1 and NPC3 to PC4) are in black.
• There are two other PCs, labeled PC2 and PC3, respectively. If you look closely, you will see that each of the PCs has a relationship with each of the others; these are called the Primary Relationships, and they are also represented with Black lines and dark gray arrowheads.
• NPC1 is the central hub of the diagram. He or she is shown as having direct (primary) relationships with each of the PCs
• What isn’t shown are possible Primary relationships between NPC2 and PCs 2 and 3; possible primary relationships between NPC3 and both of these PCs; and any direct relationship between NPC 1 and either of the other NPCs.
• That’s because NPC1 is shown as being a potential complicating factor in every one of the relationships that are depicted. These are shown as red lines with red arrowheads, with silver points with blue arrowheads at the point of intersection.
• These complications differ from the primary relationships in one important respect: Primary relationships are reciprocal, there is a relationship going each way. The complications are all outward, because they don’t represent a relationship, but instead depict a transformative influence on a relationship, an influence that could affect one or both parties to that relationship.

There are so many combinations possible that you have to cut through the fog and focus on one or two specific relationships that are to be affected, or are to develop in a specific way, and just let the rest evolve organically through play (once they do, though, they remain in place and have to be considered elements of the current campaign background by the GM.

In some respects, this comes back to the NPC’s purpose in the adventure, but quite often it will be entirely separate from that. When you want or expect the NPC to become a recurring character within the campaign, the relationships might even be the most significant aspect of the NPCs design, and thee entire justification of the adventure could be to lay the foundations of the relationship that is to develop.

Because you can’t control the PCs reactions, and hence half the relationship is out of your hands, the best that you can usually do is design a character who is likely to ‘fit’ the relationship that you want to develop.

(Note that it is assumed that the character hasn’t already entered play and you aren’t designing the NPC after the fact!)

On top of the roleplaying / personality -based relationship, there will often be the need for an NPC to have the capability of harming one or two PCs in combat; or to be able to resist being harmed by those PCs; or to be able to manipulate, deceive, or evade one or more sensory abilities; or to posses a particular sensory capability; or to otherwise be vulnerable in some way to a specific PC or NPC. These, too, are relationships within the context of the character’s design; they all relate to the relationship between the game mechanics and both the NPC and the other party to be affected.

For example, I can never forget that one of the PCs in my superhero campaign is capable of casual telepathy, at a distance, and in fact has trouble turning this off. Another has the innate ability to sense arcane forces and the arcane qualities of objects.

These are capabilities that I may be able to take advantage of, or that can completely derail a planned plotline or an NPCs intended purpose. Making the NPC resistant to, or able
to deceive, such abilities not only preserves that plot function but often further defines and constrains such casual abilities.

But that doesn’t happen by accident, and it absolutely has to make justifiable sense in the context of what the character can do, and how.

An NPC in a recent adventure was actually the villain responsible for the crime that the PCs were investigating, but was so strongly in denial that they could ever have committed the deeds that no hint of the guilt showed up in casual telepathic communications. The effectiveness of that ability will forevermore be constrained by the psychological condition of the potential target.

Sometimes, an NPC’s entire purpose can be to provide such definition or restriction before it becomes critically important to a subsequent adventure! Once again, it’s moving campaign elements into places and conditions that permit them to intersect in the right way at the right time.

Diversity

While there are times when you need to deliberately embrace the cliche or stock role, whenever it’s not absolutely necessary, I like to at least consider alternatives, always with the question “Does/can this choice add to the character’s interest value or functionality within their campaign role?”

Why not make that business executive Navajo, or Inuit, or Italian, or South Korean, or Baltic, or Female, or Gay, or whatever? You don’t have to consciously run through all the possibilities; simply asking if any ‘unusual’ profiles add to the character’s depth, plausibility, or functionality is enough for the mind to leap to those possibilities which will do so, prompted by cultural knowledge and the specific requirements defined thus far.

It is even more important to think this over when it comes to characters in which no specific profile suggests itself as a definitive enhancement, because that generally means that the character is so bland and generalized at this point that almost any profile could be attached. This is when deliberately choosing something unusual directly adds to the character concept at its most fundamental – it’s an opportunity that you don’t want to miss.

Genre Conventions

It’s always important to know, understand, and incorporate the accepted conventions of the genre you are playing in. You don’t have to adhere strictly to them, you can always choose to play against type when that adds to the specific character, but these have to be conscious choices on the part of the GM. In particular, societal and externally-imposed personal expectations will always derive from the genre stereotypes, and choosing a divergent path requires both more rigorous justification and a defined relationship with those expectations.

You don’t suddenly rebel against social expectations, for example; there will be smaller acts of rebellion, hints and accents of non-conformity, recognizable only in hindsight. Quite often, your early personal achievements will be ones that are laudable within the context of societal expectations, but the person will find the achievements to be far less satisfying than they were led to expect; they will begin to care less about those achievements, putting strain on any resulting relationships, while they begin to explore one or more fringes of acceptable behavior. Ultimately, one of these will provide some measure of satisfaction, and in a lot of cases, things will progress no further; but in others, it will not be enough, and will be the start of a slide into a completely different lifestyle that general society would not understand or approve of. Even then, to external appearances, the character may maintain social norms; taking the additional step of cutting off all ties with the socially-accepted role into which the character has been cast is a big step that takes time or some traumatic trigger.

There are other patterns, of course, but this is a very common one, and serves to illustrate the point.

Objective and Motive

What the character wants to do, and why the character wants to do it, can be something entirely different to the character’s purpose from the GM’s point of view within an adventure.

This will define what the character attempts to do, how he goes about it, how he can be thwarted, the consequences when he either is or isn’t, and how he or she will react.

It defines what preparations the character will have made, what plans they have made, and – in essence – how they will go about fulfilling the metagame purpose that justifies the character’s inclusion in the adventure. And that, in turn, is the entire reason you are designing the character in the first place.

Personality

Often regarded as the fundamental decision, it will probably surprise some readers to find it so low in this sequence.

Personality can sprout like a crystal, branching out to fill any conceptual void through the expression of individuality and expectations, or it can be expressly defined by the traits already identified, their consequences, and/or their justification.

Quite often, it is needed to function both ways – the initial requirements or their consequences mandate certain personality traits, and those then function as a ‘seed’ around which the rest of the snowflake grows.

Every time I start to think that this aspect of the character design process has a more fundamental or functional impact in defining the personality, I find exceptions in which it is not the key to unlocking this most significant of elements.

And the difference that I have identified is simply that when prior steps have not identified any particularly strong trait or requirement, personality grows in significance, but when any of the requirements highlighted by previous steps are dominant, they need to shape the personality before the personality can shape everything else.

And that’s why this particular trait is where it is on the list.

Justification and History

The more specific the requirements that have been set forth thus far, especially those pertaining to abilities, the more strongly you need to be able to justify the character having those specific traits. Specificity of requirements can totally undermine verisimilitude or can enhance and reinforce it; the only difference is in the justification. Given the choice, I would opt for the latter.

It’s a similar story when it comes to personality traits and relationships. If the character’s history supports, justifies, and reflects those capabilities, the character as a whole becomes more believable. If not, the credibility of the NPC (and to some extent, the adventure and the whole campaign, are undermined).

That doesn’t just mean that the history describes how and when the character acquired the traits in question; the history has to reflect the influence of that trait, and the logical consequences of the character possessing it.

Environment

To some extent, the character’s environment may be considered ‘covered’ under the History section, above. However, it’s worth thinking about the character’s current environment as an entirely separate issue because that will impact more directly on their resources, circumstances and mindset.

It is sometimes said that you can “take the boy out of the country but never the country from out of the boy”, and it could be said that I am a living example of this – I come from a small town in rural Australia, my values and personality were shaped there, and I carry some of that with me wherever I go, but other aspects of my personality are definitely the result of having lived in a metropolitan environment for most of the last 35 years. I thrive here in a way that I don’t and perhaps couldn’t in my home town – I’ve always been drawn to the city, and it’s as natural an environment for me as it is an unnatural environment for some of my relatives.

The current environment can sharpen some aspects of a character’s history, contrast with others, and dull some of the remainder. You can’t conclusively consider one without then filtering that through the other. That’s why Environment makes my list.

Expressive Appearance

Sometimes, when there are a wide range of options available, you can have trouble settling on one particular choice or even thinking of a choice in the first place. Decision Paralysis can be a real problem for any of us, from time to time.

One way to break the logjam is to troll Google Image Search for a particularly expressive appearance, then infer and imply and extrapolate the heck out of it.

That is to say, a look that not only fits what little you’ve already nailed down about the NPC but is strongly suggestive of a particular personality or profile.

Most photographic subjects are too bland for this purpose, but some rare images capture the subject with just the right mood and lighting that a personality seems to leap off the page. Capture that, and the rest will follow.

Personality traits and occupations work well as search terms in this context. Abstract qualities and Moods are second-tier choices. Quite often, adding terms such as “dramatic” or “unusual” will bring the better choices to the fore.

The more unusual the term that you come up with, the fewer the choices with which you will be presented, but the greater the percentage of good choices to consider.

For example, I did a search for “Angry Lawyer”. I restricted the images to something large enough to use here, and to images labeled for reuse for the same reason; if I were simply doing it for my own campaign needs, the latter restriction wouldn’t apply, but I would restrict the image size to even larger images. The first thing I noticed was that a number of the images were of people smiling, and of those, the image above of Peter Sellers smiling, at home in 1973, leapt out at me. The immediate thought was of a character who expressed his anger by smiling ever more broadly, becoming increasingly friendly in demeanor, grinning from ear to ear as he laid the legal boot in. That’s a good starting point for a character!

Personal Limitations

Sometimes, the most defining characteristic is what I don’t want the character to be able to do. More often, this refines and shapes other traits that have already been identified.

Game Mechanics

The absolute last consideration is the game mechanics. Nine times out of ten, I will completely ignore this, but occasionally some clever twist will suggest itself and – in the absence of anything else definitive – I’ll design a character around a clever twist in the game mechanics.

Heck, more often than not, I won’t even translate a design into game mechanics. I design the character conceptually and leave it at that. That’s all I need to roleplay the character, and knowledge of the game system is enough to translate any effects that I need to into game mechanics on the spot – and I save a LOT of time by not creating everything in advance.

Characters By Design

It’s important to understand that while I think about each of these things, and normally in strict succession, a definitive requirement may only emerge from one or two of them. The purpose of this process is to identify what I need from the NPC and to ensure that he or she can deliver it. Beyond that, the goal is to make the NPC interesting and distinctive.

You can never tell when a character will assume greater significance; I try never to populate my campaign with throwaway characters so that they always have the potential to become something more. This is in marked contrast to the process in writing other forms of literature, where you want to give background and minor characters no more color than they need in order to seem real, lest they distract the attention of the reader away from the plotline and characters that the author really wants you to focus on.

For example, as a character subplot, one of the PCs has gotten himself involved in a sort of “foodie club” in the Zenith-3 campaign. This came about because I needed the character to get out and about so that there could be an interaction with a mysterious figure in black; everything else and everyone else was, in theory, a disposable NPC.

Here’s the complete excerpt from my adventure notes:

Blackwing, meanwhile, has assumed human form to meet up with a group that he has become acquainted with in much the same way that Runeweaver found his rock-climbing companions. The name of the group is NOCAS, which stands for the New Orleans Culinary Appreciation Society. Once a fortnight, they get together and each secretly places in a hat the name of a new eatery that they have discovered in the last week; they then draw one of the names out of the hat, leaving the others for next time. The name drawn is the venue for their next gathering; they then go out together to sample the cuisine of the establishment drawn from the hat previously.

The only restriction is that the group can never have visited it before, though individual members may have done so. With six members, the number of names in the hat rises far more quickly than they are drawn, but this restriction means that the first four or five names drawn are usually invalidated. The system works because if there is somewhere that most of the members are interested in trying, it will accumulate multiple ‘votes’ in the hat, making it more likely for that name to be drawn. What it guarantees is that a new and interesting food experience will take place.

Last time, the name of “Nxehta Dhe Djega Mexicale” was drawn from the hat, an Albanian restaurant specializing in ‘hot and spicy’ food based on a fusion between traditional Eastern Europe and the cuisine of Mexico. Located in the suburb of River Ridge, an hour’s drive from the Knightly Building, it promises to be a unique Foodie adventure.

Of course, Blackwing has an unfair advantage over the others – while he still tastes flavors the same as anyone else, he is not doing so with his physical body; rather, his dimensional interface mimics the function of taste buds, and the connection between the suit and his real body (whether that’s mental or arcane or whatever) conveys the taste to his awareness as though his own body had tasted the food.

That means that he can use his shape-changing to strengthen or diminish any flavoring to whatever level he desires, and usually does so subconsciously without even being aware of it. No food is ever too spicy for Blackwing, just as no coffee is too strong.

As usual, the group gathers at one of the major bus interchanges. Greetings are exchanged. The other members of the group – no pictures of them yet, I’m afraid – are Lindy Armstrong, a 24-year-old postal clerk within IMAGE who works in the mail center of the Knightly Building, and the direct recruiter of Blackwing (under the name Paul Delacourt, Private Security Consultant, of course); Macey Vespers, a 32-year old black woman who scratches out a living as a clairvoyant for tourists; Jeremy Dashel-Kent, a 48-year old accountant; Adrian deChamps, a 52-year old oil & energy lawyer; and Zonk Lily, the 62-year old granddaughter of hippies who thinks its fun to dress and act the way she thinks her grandparents did back in the 60s, and who made a fortune in the renewable-energy industry while in her late twenties and early thirties, and who is always excited by some new and promising technology. Jeremy, Adrian, and Zonk have professional ties that go back to the first decade of the century, and are co-founders of the group, which has now been meeting regularly for 46 years. Members have come and gone, but the group and its founders have endured.

* roleplay greetings

Today, Zonk is excited about a new form of energy supply which she’s been hearing rumors about called the Zero Point Energy Siphon (Pic 012b8), generating power from the natural wrinkling of space caused by the uncertainty principle and captured by some mysterious crystal forms. Of course, she has taken this as affirmation that the flower-children were right about the mysterious healing powers of crystals all along, and so she has brought some for everyone in the group (Pic012b9) (a fact which has the others rolling their eyes as though to say, ‘here we go again’.

* roleplay

The food experience at Nxehta Dhe Djega Mexicale is indeed one-of-a-kind, and yet there is something appetizing about the unlikely culinary marriage. Blackwing cannot say that he completely enjoyed the experience, however, as there were a couple of things weighing on his mind. The first is the possibility that this ‘Zero Point Energy Siphon’ is an adaption of Vala’s crystal tech, retro-engineered from her missing ship – a ship that will eventually explode destroying a continent or so if it isn’t found.

* roleplay

The second is a mysterious figure in black (Pic 012b10). Blackwing first noticed him at the bus interchange, but didn’t think too much about it – until he saw him again at the restaurant, already in place when the group arrived.

The original image that I used had neither hat nor face, and can be found with an image search for “man in gothic suit”. It was actually a promotional image for a photo-editing app, but the makers of the app are now using different images for the purpose; you can check out the app by visiting this page at Google Play. There is also some suggestion in the Google results that Fantasmagoria.eu, a clothing supplier specializing in Gothic apparral, may have been the source of the original image, which can also be found on Pinterest. I’m happy to promote all of the above as providers of the image, which was perfect for my needs with respect of this character. But I’ll take it down if any of them insist.

* roleplay

In his human form, Blackwing has only limited access to his heightened senses, which are largely the product of using shape-change to distort his gargoylian eyes, enlarging the ‘skull’ as necessary (it helps him to think of his structure in more-or-less humanoid form). What those limited senses suggested was that the stranger’s face was deeply shadowed independently of the local light source and that it was so deep that his senses couldn’t penetrate it to see the face. All he could say is that the person was of athletic build, about 6′ tall, and pale-skinned, probably Caucasian. And that both hat and coat were strangely out-of-fashion.

His curiosity eventually got the better of him, and he excused himself to visit the men’s room – where he could shape-change privately into full gargoyle mode and get a good look at the mysterious figure – but while he was shape-changing, the figure left without anyone noticing (including Blackwing). What’s more, the crystal he had been given by Zonk was also mysteriously found to be missing at the end of the dinner, something he didn’t mention to the others – why upset Zonk by implying that
he had lost her gift already?

* roleplay

As the group’s hired bus drove off after the meal to return them to the interchange from which they would go their separate ways, Blackwing would almost swear he caught a glimpse of the same figure in black standing on a rooftop across the road, just as the figure turned away and was lost from sight.

* roleplay

As soon as you get back from your evening sojourn, you should probably tell Vala about the siphon. And maybe, tell St Barbara about the mysterious figure in black. But that’s up to you…

* roleplay

There are a couple of things to note about this little scene.

• First, while the character had previously expressed an interest in food, he hadn’t previously done anything about it. Hence the relating of an off-camera series of events connecting the character to the Foodie group.
• Second, the player had never thought about the implications of his powers with respect to food flavoring and, in particular, spiciness. By adding these characteristics to the character that he was running, that PC became even more “real”.
• Third, none of the NPCs are throwaways, which is rather the point that was being made. None of them have been fully defined – there are lots of gray areas to explore – but they are all distinctive, and their shared history is made strongly palpable by their interrelationships.
• Fourth, I took advantage of the situation to present a connection to another character’s plotline, showing the spread of technology derived from her lost ship and the influence that it was beginning to have on society.
• Fifth, “Nxehta Dhe Djega Mexicale” is part-real and part-fictional, based on a real restaurant that was found through a google image search of the type described earlier in this article. Unfortunately, the image itself wasn’t quite as interesting as the concept, and (from memory) it was located in Europe somewhere, with a slightly different name.
• Sixth, the whole point of the whole encounter was to get the PC – Blackwing – into a position where he could encounter the Mystery Figure In Black under tightly controlled circumstances. The entire point of this subplot was to provide a vehicle for that encounter to take place. Everything else that comes from it, in either this or any other adventure, is a bonus.
• Seventh, while my outline proceeds on the assumption that the player will react the way I expect him to, while providing several opportunities for him to diverge from or participate in, that expectation. As it happened, my expectations were pretty much right on the money.

By seeding my campaign with interesting characters, it doesn’t matter which ones come to the fore in any given encounter or adventure, they will all give “value for money” in roleplaying time. And that makes the exercise worthwhile.

Although I am writing this article in advance, it will be published on what is a fairly significant date in Australia: Boxing Day. It wasn’t until I saw a particular episode of M*A*S*H that I realized that many parts of the Western World don’t celebrate this particular holiday, December 26th – it’s a British Commonwealth thing. It’s origins are uncertain in modern times; Wikipedia lists several competing theories. But the key point is that this is a post-Christmas public holiday that forms part of the rich tapestry of traditions that surround the Festive Season in this part of the world, and several others.

Another of those traditions, here in Australia, is that a major cricket Test, known as the Boxing Day Test, starts today. Every two years or so, this forms part of the Ashes campaign; at other times, it is part of a Test series against another cricketing nation, often India, the West Indies, or New Zealand. And those games are important, but it’s The Ashes campaigns that are a vital ingredient in understanding the national characters and relationships of the two national participants.

How Important Are They?

Prime Ministers of both countries have stated that the Second most important job in the nation is the Captaincy of their respective Cricket teams. Success leads to national euphoria and pride, failure is considered utter humiliation. I’ll be touching on this question repeatedly, but – when The Ashes are underway – these slightly tongue-in-cheek declarations often feel like the literal truth. The Ashes aren’t just another sporting contest; they are part of the foundations of both national cultures.

Introducing The Ashes

To understand the Ashes, you have to first understand a little of the History. Australia was settled by Europeans as a series of Penal Colonies. They brought with them many of the rituals and cultural elements of the mother country, including their games, and in particular, the game of Cricket. As part of A Legacy Of War: The Founding Of National Identities, I briefly synopsized what subsequently transpired: in 1882, a team from Australia returned to play cricket against the English national team, and – for the first time – won. This led to a British Newspaper, The Sporting Times, running an obituary which announced ‘the death of English Cricket’, and that the “body” would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. This reportedly struck the fancy of a humorist and cricket fan, the wife of the English Captain who was to lead a team to Australia the next year, and after a Christmas game at their estates, she took two of the bails and burned them, placing the ashes in a small, symbolic urn (now believed to be an empty perfume jar) for her husband to carry with him to the antipodes.

The newspapers, meanwhile, had latched onto the symbolism of the rivalry, fueled by the vow by that Captain before departing for the 1882-83 series to “regain those ashes”; the British media then dubbed the tour “the quest to regain the Ashes”, i.e. to restore national pride.

And national pride was very much on the line. At the time, Australians were viewed as rude, crude, colonial nobodies from the lower classes, while to the English, the game was the province of the social elite. The ambition was very much to put these upstart colonials in their place.

This elitism didn’t survive, of course; after another humiliation or two, it began to decay, as ability became the more important factor in selection to play the games. World Wars I and II further broke it down, but by then the bitter rivalry had been established.

Since that first game, the two sides have competed for the Ashes some 70 times, and – until today (as I write this), the tally stood at 32 wins apiece. Ashes success or failure can cement or devastate careers of professional sportsmen, turning some into legends and others into feet of clay.

An Introduction To Cricket For The Lay Reader

The closest game with which to compare cricket in terms meaningful to a reader not familiar with the game is baseball. The ball isn’t pitched, it is bowled, and the actions are quite different – I’ll get back to that in a moment – but the speed of delivery is fairly comparable. If anything, baseball speeds are slightly higher, and the peaks are hit more consistently. A baseball is 9 to 9.25 inches in circumference, while a cricket ball is smaller and denser, measuring between 8 13/16 and 9 in in circumference. Cricket balls have a slightly off-center stitching around the circumference, unlike the baseball stitching pattern. Cricket Balls are much harder than baseballs, something that is necessary because of those differences in actions.

Baseballs have to be pitched through the air toward the batter. Cricket balls have to be bounced off the hard “pitch” or playing surface. Different pitches have different characteristics of bounce, but the fundamentals remain the same; the length down the pitch from bowler toward batsman that the ball lands dictates how high it bounces.

There are different terms for the different “lengths” of delivery, which have a profound effect on what shots can be successfully played against the delivery.

In addition, over the course of a game, the ball will be kept polished on one side and permitted to deteriorate on the other, so that the position of the seam when the ball is delivered has profound effects, speeding or slowing the ball slightly in the air, permitting it to bounce at somewhat predictable angles into or away from the batsman, or producing a curving trajectory through the air.

There’s a lot more to the game’s technicalities, but I only want to cover the essentials here. Batsmen stay “in” and scoring until dismissed. To score, the batsman either has to run from one end of the pitch to the other without being dismissed, or hit the ball to the boundary rope for 4 runs, or hit it over that rope on the full for 6 runs. There are other ways of adding to the score, but those are the main things.

Bowlers take it in turn to deliver the ball, grouped into “overs”, that are bowled from successive ends of the pitch. An over is six legal deliveries in length, so bowler one delivers six legal deliveries from one end to whatever batsman is at the far end, then another bowler delivers six legal deliveries from the other end of the pitch at whichever batsman is at the end closest to where the first bowler was delivering from. Unlike baseball, bowlers are allowed to take whatever run-up they feel necessary.

There are three primary forms of the game. 20/20 is the most explosive and newest format of the game; each team gets 20 overs, or until they dismiss the entire opposition team of 11 players as batsmen. Scoring is fast and dramatic and designed to look great on TV and deliver a result in a few hours play – if they start early enough, you can see two games in a single evening for the one ticket. This is the format that I expect to become popular viewing in the US if it gets the chance. There are a lot more technicalities like restrictions some of the time on where fielders can be placed.

“One-day” cricket is 50 overs to a side. Typically, one side will bat in the afternoon and the other under lights, or sometimes one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. It is also designed to be television-friendly and deliver a result in a single day, but unlike 20/20, there is a lot more scope for tactics. Most of the technicalities like fielding restrictions were initially tried out in One-day cricket, and most of those remain.

Test Cricket is a little different. While there are three- and four- and even six-day tests, the typical length is five days to a single game. One side bats while the other side fields until either the entire batting side is dismissed or their captain decides they have scored enough runs. The second team then bats until they are all dismissed, all “out”, at which point the relative scores are compared. If the first side has scored 200 more than the second, the first can choose to bat again, or to force the other side to bat again, hoping to dismiss the entire side before they can score enough runs to force the first team to bat again.

I realize that’s not terribly clear, so here’s an actual example from the most recent Ashes match: England batted first, and scored a total of 403 runs from their 11 batsmen. Since you need batsmen at both ends of the pitch, that means that Australia had to get 10 batsmen dismissed. Australia then batted and scored 662 runs, declaring their “innings” to be at an end before 10 batsmen were dismissed. England then had to bat again; in order to win, they had to score first the 259 runs that they were behind, and then enough on top of that to give them a chance to dismiss all Australia’s batsmen for less than the number of runs required to exceed the combined English total. They failed, scoring only 218 runs, so Australia won the match.

England could have forced a draw if they had been more successful with the bat; let’s say, for example that their second Innings had yielded a score of 662, the same as Australia’s first innings. Australia would have need 403 runs to win, but by then at least 4-and-a-half of the five days would be gone; there simply would not have been enough time unless an extraordinary bowling and fielding performance followed.

Imagine for a moment that the Innings had occurred in the reverse sequence – Australia scoring first and England “replying” with their 403 runs. Because they were more than 200 runs behind, Australia could have forced them to bat again – and would still have won the match.

Okay, with that very basic grounding, I can get back to the significance of the Ashes as a contest.

English Wickets vs Australian Wickets

Different climates and soils produce very different playing conditions and ball behavior in the two nations. In England, the ball tends to swing (curve) or seam (deflect off the seam in the ball) more than it does in Australia. Australian wickets tend to be faster (slowing the ball less when it bounces off the pitch) and bouncier.

But those are just the headlines; the cultural significance is greater. In essence, the playing conditions tend to be a reflection of something fundamental about the nation. Teams have to adjust the way they bowl and where they field and how they bat, in order to conquer the conditions and have a chance at victory. This is something that it often seems Australian teams do better at when touring England than English teams do when they come here.

English Cricket Balls vs Australian Cricket Balls

Games in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, all use the Australian Kookaburra ball. Games in the UK and West Indies use the Duke ball, manufactured in England. The main difference is often thought to be in the stitching prominence and position, producing different behaviors. This is another element that teams playing overseas have to adjust to, and both Australian and English teams are adamant that the balls they use are superior to those used by the others. The Kookaburra has a relatively low seam that encourages Swing in the first 20 overs before become fairly neutral in its handling. It is also softer and less resilient than the Duke ball, according to some reports. But, in general, it’s better for batting.

The Duke ball has a more prominent and durable seam that is more pronouncedly off-center, encouraging spin bowling and ‘reverse swing’ where the ball moves in the opposite direction to that expected. The seam can last 50-55 overs if cared for, and swings a lot more. It tends to be a lot more bowler-friendly.

To some extent, the differences in design and construction (the Duke is made from horse hide and the Kookaburra from cow hide, and the stitching material is also different) are a reflection of the different playing conditions. Which makes the Duke Vs Kookaburra argument another extension of the nationalistic attitudes described earlier.

Passion

The two teams are equally-matched in this regard, though Australians tend to be more boisterously vehement in exhibiting their passion for the game. But there are major psychological and attitudinal differences between the two sides; there is far more cohesion and “us against the world, all for one and one for all” in the Australian team, while England is all about individual performance and seem to chop and change their roster more frequently.

But it’s the Bodyline story that really displays the depths of the Passion both sides have for the game, and displays some of the character traits of the respective nations.

In the 1927-28 season, a Batsman emerged who is now widely regarded around the world as the best ever, Don Bradman. Over his professional playing career, he averaged just short of 100 runs an innings – by comparison, the best contemporary players are considered exceptional if they have averages of better than 40-odd. It’s a piece of Australian folk-lore that if he had scored one more four in his final game, instead of being dismissed on nought (a “duck”, no runs), he would have achieved that lifetime average of 100.

At first, England were inclined to consider him just another Batsman, but the 1930 Ashes tour of England soon disabused them of this notion; in his first appearance in England, he scored 236; in his first test, he got 131 runs in the second innings (though England won the match); and in the second test he scored 254 against the best bowling attack England could produce at the time. In the third test, by lunch of the first day he had scored more than a century (100 runs), between lunch and afternoon tea he added another, and he finished the day with a score of 309 not out; he remains the only player ever to score more than 300 in one day’s play.

These were early Depression years, and the public badly needed popular folk heroes; Bradman, reluctantly, found himself cast in that role. But the English, especially “Plum” Warner, who would become the Team Manager, came to the conclusion that they needed to completely overhaul the way they played the game in order to counter Bradman, who would be even more at home when England next toured Australia.

Their answer was to appoint Douglas Jardine as Captain and a new tactic – eventually dubbed “Bodyline” by the media – in which the fast bowlers deliberately bowled at the Batsmen’s bodies. It’s hard to describe the controversy that this caused; Cricket had always been seen as a “Gentleman’s Game”, leading to the British phrase “It’s just not cricket” to describe unfair behavior. The tactic, while legal, was regarded by the Australians as underhanded and malicious, a betrayal of the principles of Cricket in order to win. Before the controversial tour concluded, Governments had been drawn into the debate, and passions inflamed to the point of near-rioting at some of the games.

The players reached the point of voting on whether or not to go on strike, which would have been calamitous for both nations, and almost certainly have triggered those riots. Instead, they chose what they considered the softer option of protesting the “unsportsmanlike behavior” to the Marylbone Cricket Club, who had arranged the tour. The accusation of poor sportsmanship stung the English to the core, especially Jardine; his attitude was that anything that was legal within the rules was fair game, and that this was in fact exactly what the rules were there to codify. He in turn issued a complaint against the Australians, demanding that they withdraw the word “Unsportsmanlike” from their complaint.

But the MCC was still the home of the landed gentry and lesser nobility of Britain, and the complaint was enough to cause the matter to be raised in the British Parliament, who saw this as an attack on Britain’s national character itself, and sent a cable demanding that the Australian Prime Minister take action to bring his fractious players into line.

This put the Prime Minister in a very difficult position; he couldn’t be seen to kowtow to the English demands without losing an already tenuous grip on power, but neither could he do nothing; Australia was still a member of the Commonwealth and the ties to the mother country were still strong in all sorts of areas like trade and commerce.

He attempted to defuse the matter by having a quiet word with two of the leading members of the team, an attempt that only further inflamed the players at first, but his diplomacy eventually persuaded them that for the good of the country, they needed to withdraw the word, even though it left their protest sounding weak and inane. And so, the series rolled on; the English continued to employ Bodyline, and the Australians continued to bear being repeatedly hit with potentially-lethal missiles.

Despite this assault on their international relations, both the Australian team and cricket survived; a year or two later, the Bodyline tactic was outlawed, but by now batsmen had started learning to cope with it, and that ban was quietly ignored from a few years thereafter – with some limitations. Currently, for example, the rules state that no more than two bouncers – a key element of Bodyline – are permitted in an over during a Test Match. Equipment has also evolved to cope.

But no matter how relations have improved in the years since, when the Ashes are on, the British remain “Whinging Poms” to Australian cricket fans – used as much as a term of endearment as an earnest criticism, and Australians remain “Uncultured Colonials” to the British, likewise.

Today

World War Two intervened, and for a while, the Ashes seemed to lose their significance. But the passions were reignited in the 1970s, and while they have waxed and waned since, every high point is more substantial than the one before.

Winning the Ashes isn’t quite like winning the World Cup (there’s one of those for Cricket, too). Many people in both countries think it more significant than that. It has a profound resonance with the national confidence, which can translate into everything from politics to the stock market. As a general rule of thumb, whichever side holds the Ashes is considered to represent the superior nation – an attitude that goes well beyond mere superiority on the playing field.

But, at the same time, in many ways, the game has returned to its gentlemanly sporting roots. Both sides play with respect, and both sides seem to lift above their usual performance levels when fighting for the Ashes, especially when fighting at home.

You can’t fully understand or play British or Australian characters without understanding this rivalry, and a surprising number of nations around the world play cricket.

Having some awareness of the game beyond it being “the local baseball” – which I have heard more than once – adds greatly to the verisimilitude that you can bring to those nations, too. Cricket really is the game-you-needed-to-know-about-that-you-didn’t-know-you-needed-to-know-about, and nothing exemplifies the reasons for that more than the Ashes.

There’s a documentary series that airs on Australian TV sourced from an American Cable channel, or maybe an Internet platform, called Cyberwar. As part of the advertising for the series, one of the people interviewed offers the statement, “The next war will be cyber.” And that got me thinking: what if there was a global war and no-one outside of the combatants knew about it because it was all taking place behind the scenes, online?

To the outside world, all that would be visible would be one egregious hacking incident after another, a long succession of cyber-security scares, and a measurable increase in the unreliability of technology due to the underlying infrastructure being compromised. Of course, the occasional misdeed would also have to be attributable to one or two unfriendly nation-states, and people would have to warn of the coming Cyberwar – because not talking about those things would be a huge tip-off as to what was really happening. That’s right – this is exactly the world that we appear to live in, right now.

That’s the power of this concept: it takes the world around us, with all its source material, and reinterprets it through a prism of paranoia laced with this particular conspiracy theory, and yet the internet touches us all so often and in so many different ways that everything is reshaped by this perspective.

It could work in a couple of different ways. First, you could use the idea in a campaign where something else was the primary adventure focus and the PCs had to piece together the cause of the world around them slowly falling apart before they could graduate from tail-chasing. There would naturally be four, or perhaps five, phases to such a campaign: (1) Ignorance & Paranoia (2) Suspicion and Conspiracies (3) Revelation, Recruitment, and Retraining (4) Defending The Faith and (5) Combat in the Digital Zone.

It would be necessary to detail the political situation and present to the players in such a way that they don’t know when you are spelling out sides in the War. That suggests a plotline at the Beginning that’s based around the United Nations. The nature of this adventure will spell out the genre of the campaign, bearing in mind that you want the PCs to play a pivotal role in the big picture when the ShadowWar is finally revealed to them.

A James-Bond style adventure campaign, or an Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. – based campaign in which the PCs are agents from a country not entrusted with the secret of the ShadowWar. In the background, with each adventure, alliances in the ShadowWar will shift this way and that, triggering other missions for the PCs.

This would give the PCs a chance to undertake adventures in a world that is constantly evolving, seemingly without rhyme or reason – and yet, there would be a thread of coherence running throughout it. Cyberwar attacks would have ‘real-world’ consequences and ramifications, and a number of adventures would have strategic implications in terms of the Cyberwar. Every mission would have two objectives – and the PCs would only know about one of them!

A former enemy experiences an oil field fire and comes to the US to negotiate a new trade deal for skilled technicians who can repair the damage. Were they a secret ally in the ShadowWar, with this visit a consequence of that relationship? Or were they an enemy that the PCs government have crippled, and who are now suing for peace? The ShadowWar introduces an entirely new level of diplomacy and diplomatic relations, and nations can be overt enemies in one and allies – reluctant or earnest – in the other at the same time. Every adventure would inherently have multiple layers of plot:

• Individual PCs should always have their own little plotlines, stories that make them individuals, usually driven by whatever the players want to do.
• “Cover Stories” are what the PCs are supposed to be able to “claim” to be doing while on missions. Sometimes there won’t be one, but Cover stories so often conflict with true motives and objectives in ways that can generate drama, humor, or both, that this should be the exception rather than the rule. True Lies (the movie) and a recent season or two of NCIS: LA will give you all the grounding you need to do this.
• “Event (Main) Plotline” is whatever the actual mission objectives are, outside of the cyberworld. This is the relatively “episodic” component of the campaign, and deals only with the immediate situation, whatever it may be. It could be providing protection to a dignitary or target, investigation of criminal activities (murder or grand theft in particular), surveillance, counterintelligence, a raid, subversion or counter-subversion, anti-terrorism, getting mixed up in someone else’s case because there is a connection to your official jurisdiction, rescue, courier or escort duties, or intelligence gathering in nature – assuming that more extreme missions like assassinations are done off the books! Enemies can be official or rogue, foreign or domestic, criminal or sanctioned, sane or insane, political or apolitical, secular or religious, supposed or official “allies”, true allies, or avowed enemies. It’s a rich field to choose from!
• The main plotline usually has to be placed in the context of the evolving political situation as the public perceives it, and so it has been coupled with the overt politics of the day. Overt Politics is what you can read in the papers or view on CNN.
• The “Deeper Plotline” contains the usual inter-connective broader plotlines that tie the campaign’s main plotlines together into a bigger picture. While this usually provides a second layer of context to the main plotline, it rarely has a direct impact on the current immediate mission objectives.
• Coupled with the “Deeper Plotline” are the more Covert and Clandestine aspects of the Evolving Political Background. Covert political developments are normally classified, and deal in hidden agendas, brinkmanship, statesmanship, and all the other things that only the intelligence communities are aware of. Overt political developments frequently have their roots in Covert activities.
• The “Shadow Games” are the Cyberwar, a hidden layer that not even the PCs are initially aware of. Ruthlessly pragmatic considerations can cause overt or even covert enemies to cooperate at this level, while staunch allies in the more accessible worlds function at complete cross-purposes. Half the time, you are dealing with faceless state-sanctioned (but strictly unofficial) enemies and the other half are subject to the whims and vagaries of individuals. “Shadow Games” manifest as cyber-intrusions, hacks, covert secrets being exposed or used as currency, infrastructure breakdowns, and so on, and most of these HAVE to remain totally secret or the public would lose trust in the infrastructure of their society. At it’s simplest level, the ShadowWar is a series of ongoing conflicts for control over the truth itself. Shadow Game players manipulate deeper plotlines and covert politics. And, for (almost) every move in a Shadow Game, there is a necessary response: investigate, analyze, contain, neutralize, infiltrate, spread misinformation, expose, counter, retaliate, negotiate.
• This necessarily and obviously ties into the Shadow Political Background. Politics that can never be publicly acknowledged or condoned, or the authorities would be ousted because they run contrary to what the public expect those authorities to be doing. There are no rules, only unwritten guidelines, and you need a scorecard to keep track of who’s who. Situations change fast, and the only overt impact might be someone resigning from office or some domestic political crisis or opportunity. Not even the intelligence services are privy to this level of diplomatic maneuvering, and even most of the participants only have access to strictly compartmentalized need-to-know information. Only a few shadowy figures on each side have access to the whole picture; they are the grand strategists, the players of the Shadow Games.

Similarly, every character – PC or NPC – should be an onion. Cover identities should be designed to let them go various places and do various things, “official” identities give them an overt role within the intelligence community, “unofficial” identities made up of relationships within their own and related intelligence communities, and – most deeply-buried of them all – the real person, his values and ambitions. Sandwiching each of these layers would be a sub-layer of education and training and another of personal history, occasionally real but often completely fictitious. Maintaining these activities would be a full-time job if you actually had to do all the things that you are supposed to be doing.

And, of course, at each of these levels, characters can have secrets, be living double-lives. “Alejandro” may be a minor Argentinian diplomat, spying on the British on behalf of the British, but secretly a Chinese mole into MI5, who has been suborned into fighting the Shadow War against a Japanese Tycoon or Russian General by a North Korean Spymaster. Oh yes, and he’s having an affair with the Spanish Ambassador’s wife.

I think by now you can begin to see the extraordinary layers of fun that you can have with this concept, as these various lives and identities and functions come into conflict.

But it doesn’t stop there! It’s easy to recast the whole ShadowWar as a secret conflict between religious doctrines, or between Heaven and Hell, or to control Magic, or between Humanity and Alien Pod-people, or between Humanity and Cthulhoid Greeblies from Beyond space and
time, or between modern Humanity and their fallen Atlantean masters. There are a great many variations possible – one for just about any genre you can imagine!

You could run a Fantasy-based campaign using D&D / Pathfinder; or a superhero campaign oriented around Agents Of T.H.U.N.D.E.R., or a Call Of Cthulhu campaign, or….

Ultimately, the Shadow War is a means by which the overt in-game “players” can be recast and the world turned upside down whenever it amuses the GM, but in a controlled way that maintains a logical consistency – once you know the real story. At first, it may seem like a government in crisis and a society in a state of near-anarchy, but slowly that underlying connection between cause and effect will get noticed by the players and they will begin to sense the underlying consistency of which I spoke. And that’s when they become dangerous, and in real danger. When that happens, you have only two options: eliminate or recruit. If they are at all competent, the latter would be the favored option.

That bespectacled 14-year old who you knew in High School that spends all his time playing video-games and being totally socially isolated, voted most likely to perpetrate a mass shooting incident, is secretly a General in the Cyberwar, and the last best hope for the survival of… well, who can say?

Don’t expect the Truth in this game to set you free. It won’t. But it might just keep you alive long enough to become a player in the Shadow Games yourself…

Let me challenge your perceptions. Almost everything modern physics thinks it knows about reality is wrong, and I can prove it!

The last time I did one of these articles, it was looking at Parallel Worlds, and it was such fun that I have turned around to go again! A long time ago (August 2011, in fact), I wrote Fascinating Topological Limits: FTL in Gaming, which made the basic assumption that Faster-Than-Light travel was possible because RPGs required it to be so – hence any in-game physics needed to stretch to incorporate it. So this time around, I’m going down the opposite rabbit-hole and assuming that FTL is Not possible, and discovering that physics needs to evolve even more if that’s the case…!

The speed of light is a finite value, which – according to current physics – limits the speed of propagation of phenomena throughout space-time. That doesn’t mean that any given phenomenon will propagate at that speed, only that it won’t go faster.

It follows that we never see the stars and other celestial bodies as they are, only as they were. The light and other phenomena that characterize the object takes as many years, weeks, minutes, and seconds to reach us as the object was distant at the time the phenomena originated at the distant body (it will have moved since), measured in light-years, -days, -weeks, -minutes and -seconds.

Yet, we are so accustomed to our position of privilege as the observers of these phenomena that we treat what we perceive “now” as being contemporary with us. Only if we were somehow able to travel fast enough, far enough, could we reach a position of knowing the way these phenomena really are, right now.

There really is no substitute for going there and looking for ourselves; anything else leaves us with yesterday’s news, or that of the day before, or… well, you take the point.

Anyone got the time?

Earth has a series of wholly-artificial lines that delineate “Time Zones” which signify what the time, and therefore the date, is – locally.

If the moon were to be stolen, dragged away by some cosmic dustbin-cleaner in the twinkling of an eye, the effects would be felt instantly, or almost so (see the sidebar below), all over the world, but every different time-zone would have a different local time at which the effects would begin to be experienced.

Sidebar: Oh, Yeah?

The effects of the moon effectively vanishing would be felt instantly only if gravity has an infinite speed of propagation, which kind of violates the premise of paragraph one.

Gravity is, these days, considered to be a deformation in the “shape” of space-time resulting from the concentration of energy in the form of mass (which, generally speaking, has a higher energy density than any other conceivable form, all the way up to an effectively infinite value beyond the event horizon of a black hole). When an object with mass moves, it’s something like a heavy ball rolling across a rubber sheet suspended from the sides, the sheet stretches and deforms underneath the mass, wherever it happens to be located.

But does that mean that if someone were to pick up the ball, the sheet would spring back into position perfectly and instantaneously? Or would there be some elastic delay, however minuscule? It’s a really unpleasant question for a physicist, who really hate the concept of anything “instantaneous” happening, because it violates the cosmic speed limit.

Wait – are there any natural phenomena in which mass changes? Sure there are – atomic reactions of any sort qualify – but these are generally changes in ‘objects” (particles) so small that detecting the changes is extraordinarily difficult. Of course, in a chain reaction, you get a lot of these changes happening in a very short span of time – but that might turn out to be a very long span of time relative to the time required for light to cross the intervening distance.

A collision between two planetary-sized objects, one composed of antimatter, might yield some interesting results! The mass doesn’t go away, but it is explosively dispersed in all directions, pushing the two bodies apart with explosive force, which might be enough to render the question macroscopically answerable for an infinitesimally-short span of time. The smaller we make those masses, the more any measurement we might try to make would get drowned out by other quantum-level interactions.

Even then, an effect might be observable statistically by conducting a whole lot of experiments. But all that you can really do in that way unless you can actually detect a finite limit to the elasticity of space-time is establish a minimum level of elastic rebound; you can’t ever say for certain that it’s infinitely quick, only that any rate of rebound is greater than the limit of statistical collection.

But I won’t tell physicists about their glaring inconsistency if you don’t.

The Shape Of A Day

Where we we? Oh, yeah – Time Zones.

At a particular tick of the clock, the hour advances. At some specific tick, the day advances.

Assuming for a moment that all motion is relative to the Earth, i.e. the observer, simply because in this case that’s more convenient, that gives us the following:

I wanted this to show a full day out from the Earth, but it simply wasn’t legible. The best I could manage was the 13 hours shown here. While it would be correct to think of a day as being a 24-light-hour-long bar rising directly from the Earth’s surface, it’s equally correct to view it as a spiral outward – the zones of space highlighted in red are ALL 1 AM on the same day, at the same time. The arrow at the center shows the rotation of the Earth on it’s axis as viewed from the North Pole. Because this image is right at the limit of resolution, it can be hard to see clearly; if you have trouble, or want to see it in more detail, click the thumbnail for a larger image.

If we map a single day of the calendar, the space occupied by that day therefore has two partial rings divided at the place on the planet where it’s midnight, except for the one instant each day when that mark falls at the international date line, when the momentarily one whole and complete circle.

The larger shape of a day

Earth’s orbit around the sun takes roughly 365 days, but that’s very tricky to illustrate at this scale. It’s also roughly 52 weeks, which is a little more practical to show, and can then be subdivided:

Because a year is a solar phenomenon, and we have defined a week as a specific fraction of the period of that event, weeks (and week-days within successive weeks) spiral outward from the sun in a similar fashion to the way hours spiral out from the earth. There is one significant difference: Because the week is the fundamental unit being mapped, the entire week occupies part of a ring, with previous weeks farther out. There’s a lot going on in this illustration, so if you have trouble making it out, click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

As you can see, the days of the week spiral outward, wrapping themselves around the sun approximately 52 times in the space of one light-year. And that means that what might at first glance be a mere mathematical tool, the application of statistics to the calendars that we have constructed for our convenience here on Earth, in fact describe a completely unfamiliar reality – when viewed in exactly the right way.

If, in fact, we define the limiting speed of the universe to be anything – the speed of light, or the speed with which pigs might fly, or the speed of propagation of rumors and paranoia, or anything,, time itself propagates through observable space-time from the observer at that speed.

But that’s getting a little off-track, again.

The Emotive context of Weekdays

There’s exactly one Monday in the week, and one Friday that gets followed by two days of weekend. But back when I was a working stiff, though, we always considered the weekend to start whenever we finished work on the Friday (and all sympathy for those who have to work on Saturdays). So let’s call that two-and-a-half days of weekend.

In exactly 5/14ths of the universe, it is the weekend at any given instant. In only 2/14ths is it a Monday. Remember that when the start of the working week gets you down!

You could even say that the weekend has an inexorable momentum, inevitably rushing toward you at the speed of light itself. It will not be denied!

Over The Martian Moon And Far Away

All this becomes far more interesting when we introduce other habitats for life into the discussion. Let us, for example, talk about Mars. The martian year is 687 days long – that’s how long it takes to complete an orbit around the sun. In that span of time, the Earth completes almost one and 322/365ths rotations about the sun.

That’s very close to two years. For all but about 6 weeks, any given earth date will roll around twice in each martian year. If that martian year were to be divided up into 52 weeks, each would be 13, almost 14, days long!

Actually, I should clarify that and say “13, almost 14, Earth-days long.” The martian day is more than 37 minutes longer than ours – not all that noticeable over the span of a single day, but over a 14-day period, that adds up to around eight-and-a-half hours difference – about 1/3rd of a day, not enough to completely eat that almost-day, but enough that every third 14-day week would actually have to be a 13-day week.

And yet, the neatness implicit in a usually-14-day week means that humans would have little difficulty adjusting or normal working practices to fit.

The pattern would be something like:

• Mon, Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat, Sun;
• Mon, Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat, Sun;
• Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat, Sun;
• Mon, Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat, Sun;
• Mon, Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat, Sun;
• Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat, Sun.

If we were to call this 6-earth-week pattern a Martian Month, we would end up with 16 of them in a Martian Year, with almost another left over (31 days).

The “16” seems workable enough, dividing the year into four approximately-equal seasons. Most of the 31-day remainder can be solved by tacking on an extra 7-day week to each season, leaving just three days to be added to the calendar somewhere – public holidays to commemorate First Landing, perhaps?

Further Afield

If we look even further out, say to Alpha Centauri, what do we find? If one of us can be said to revolve around the other, it is exceedingly slowly, to the point of illegibility. In effect, time is a straight line outwards, relative to the sun, in any units larger than a light-week (assuming that our time units derive from the rotation of The Earth, of course).

Another Ginormous Image (2200 pixels across) which is only marginally legible at the size available here. You can click the thumbnail to open the full image in a new tab.

It would even be true to consider Earth Time to be like a strip of film, each frame containing a day, or an hour, each sliding over the top of the point of measurement, as though it were feeding past the bulb of a projector.

(In fact, Alpha Centauri is approaching Earth at a speed of 14 miles a second, which means that in about 56,922 years, we’ll have a real problem on our hands. Somehow, I think other problems should have a higher priority in the meantime, though.)

Right now, as I write this, it’s 4 years and 134 days into the past on Alpha Centauri, according to Einstein. That makes it October 1, 2014. The first Ebola case has just been diagnosed from within the US, the Secret Service is under fire for a White House security Breach, there’s a major protest going on in Hong Kong, a Federal Judge has just ruled against some Obamacare subsidies, and Microsoft has just introduced Windows 10. It’s also a Wednesday.

On Epsilon Eridani, home to the Vulcans in Star Trek lore, it’s 10 1/2 years ago – early may of 2007. The Scottish National Party has just won the general election for the first time ever, there are riots in Karachi, Spider-man 3 is about two weeks old, as is the Virginia Tech massacre.

On Vega, where E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith placed a race of cat-people, it’s 25 years ago, and the millennium is still only a distant threat. The Airbus A330 has just had it’s first test flight, Bill Clinton has just been elected, Whitney Houston has just released “I Will Always Love You”, and Carol Moseley Brown has just become the first African American Woman in the US Senate. In less than a week, Nigel Mansell will win the Formula One World Championship and a week from now, the Church Of England will approve the ordination of Female Priests.

On Capella (alpha Aurigae), which was the brightest star in Earth’s Sky for almost 50,000 years starting 210,000 years ago, it’s August of 1975. Springsteen’s “Born To Run” album has just been released, the defendants of the Kent State University shootings have just been acquitted of responsibility, PVC is about to be banned as a food packaging because of its carcinogenic potential, the founder of Cosmetics company Revlon has just passed away, Charlize Theron is about two weeks old, and Gerald Ford will be US President for another two years, when he will be succeeded by Jimmy Carter.

Somewhere out there, Man has just walked on the Moon, Adolf Hitler has just come to power, World War I has just been won, Henry VIII has just been divorced for the first time, and the Romans have just invaded England. I’m sure you can sympathize with this confused and befuddled would-be historian:

The Outer Limits: Is This All There Is?

There’s a concept called “the Observable Universe”. It’s radius is that distance away at which the travel time from there to us for light equals the known lifespan of the universe, to date. If the physicists are right, and the speed of light is an absolute limiting velocity, we can never be aware of anything outside this ‘bubble’ of space-time; for all intents and purposes, it is the totality of the universe so far as we are concerned.

Except that it’s not. This is another suggestion that has logical holes of such magnitude that the whole concept falls over – unless we add one key word to the definition: “we can never be directly aware of anything outside….” Don’t see why that word makes such a big difference?

It’s easy to show that this cannot possibly be the sum total of the universe, simply by considering what someone located close to the edge of that wave front “now” could perceive. The answer is that they would be at the center of an “Observable Universe” of their own – one which would contain some of the same cosmic phenomena that we observe (because they lie between us), and some that we can’t, because they lie outside our Observable Universe.

Sidebar:

I want to interrupt with a couple of notes that didn’t quite fit into the main text, but that are important enough to justify inclusion. First, because they are closer to some phenomena than we are, they would observe a more contemporarily-accurate view of those objects. Evolutionary changes in stars, for example, that we are only just becoming aware of, happened quite a long time ago from their perceptions. Equally, there are some phenomena that would be a lot closer to us, in which we have the more modern view, and they are seeing the same object farther back in time. Only at the exact midpoint between us would both of us get exactly the same view.

And second, this all exposes a logical flaw in the concept of the speed of light as a limiting factor. You see, the universe has to be larger than the Observable Universe, as I was in the middle of explaining, and we have defined the Observable Universe as being the age of the Universe in light-years – and the universe is believes to have started as just a single point at the instant of the Big Bang, which means that the only way the universe could be larger than the observable universe is if it expanded faster than the speed of light following the big bang.

One way out of this is to state that no such observer could actually exist, but then you have to explain why not. One physics student with whom I discussed the subject made the classic mistake of arguing that for them, it would be mere seconds after the Big Bang, completely ignoring the requirement for light to move at the speed of light or less (if it’s passing through certain materials). So far as we can detect the edge of our observable space-time, that vicinity is indeed mere moments after the big bang – but that was the age of the universe ago, because it’s taken that long for the information we are observing to reach us. So there has been plenty of time for the universe to have evolved there to the point of supporting life of some sort.

No, you either have to radically redefine the nature of the Big Bang, or lose the notion that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, granting an exception for the growth of space-time itself. But that solution opens other cans of worms – for example, the deformation of space-time is what causes the phenomenon called gravity, and that in turn expresses itself by accelerating objects relative to other gravitational fields. The expansion of the universe can carry matter with it, in other words, and that requires matter to also exceed that speed of light limitation.

Solving that requires another shakeup in modern physics – the suggestion that space-time’s rate of expansion can only exceed the speed of light when there is no matter in it. So, for the first few milliseconds or whatever after the big bang, the universe is capable of infinite or near-infinite expansion, but as soon as it’s energy density cools enough for particles to coalesce, the brakes slam on. But under close examination, that theory falls apart, too:

Counter-argument number one derives from the question, “what is space time that has no matter in it?” If we have a cubic meter of space-time that’s completely empty, except for a single proton or photon or whatever, doesn’t that mean that the 99.9999999% or whatever of that space-time that isn’t actually occupied by that particle is still capable of infinite or near-infinite expansion? It doesn’t matter what your particle density is, even the most solid matter known to exist outside of Neutronium contains more “empty space” than it does particles – unless we redefine our particles as being the size of the influence they can have over other particles. Redefining the nature of matter can get us out of this mess, and bring objective reality a step closer to according with quantum theory in the process. But doesn’t all this also mean that the speed-of-light limit is actually a property of matter, and not of the universe itself?

Counter-argument two points out that matter is just a highly structured form of energy, and that there was plenty of energy around long before particles could coalesce. Doesn’t that mean that the speed of light is actually a consequence of the structuring of energy in this way, and not a property of energy itself? Einstein’s famous “E=MC squared” has often been described as stating the equivalence of mass and energy, but that too needs to change before this lot can be untangled. It still works – if we redefine it as describing the equivalence of the structure of energy into matter and ‘raw’ energy. It says nothing about the equivalence of matter and energy at all, only about the equivalence of the structuring process.

Where was I? Oh yes, our almost-outside observer, with his own Observable Universe that partially overlaps with out own:

As soon as you get intelligent observation from somewhere else in the universe – it could be the Milk Way or some galaxy on the fringes of detection such as z8 GND 5296 (13.41 Billion light years, and the most distant confirmed galaxy – you are required to differentiate between reality as you perceive it and an objective reality that we can never fully observe. Trying to twist that objective reality to conform to our ability to observe events results in those obviously nonsensical “at a distance of X the date is Y” results.

At a distance of X, the date is today. But if we were there, and the speed of light was a true limitation, what we would (theoretically) see happening on Earth through our telescope would be the long-past date of Y – events that could be years or millennia out of date in terms of the objective reality.

Light is like an inefficient postal service delivering the newspaper that is some shut-in’s only source of news. It’s always behind, always later, always distorting out views of the objective reality into an observable reality.

Planet X

So, let’s assume that there is a planet out there, at the very fringes of our Observable Universe
at the current instant (give it a year and our observable universe will be a light-year bigger in that direction, and Planet X will no longer be at the very fringe) (and so will his, and we will no longer be at the very fringe of His Observable Universe).

So far as an observer on Planet X is concerned, his universe looks pretty similar to our own. There are stars all around, and galaxies, and his planet is part of a solar system, and so on., And, just to make things more interesting, let’s say that Solar System X is traveling away from us at something close to the speed of light, so that it stays at the fringe for an appreciable length of time.

We can’t observe anything that’s outside our Observable Universe, but those stars and planets and so on are still there in the objective reality, and we CAN see the influence they have, through that objective reality, on the objects that we CAN see (if we wait long enough for the light to reach us). We can detect things outside our Observable Universe even if we can’t actually see them.

Interstellar Civilization

All this starts to really matter when you start setting up Interstellar Empires and Alien Civilizations and all the other staples of space-fairing science fiction, because as soon as you introduce FTL, you put your astronauts in a position to become those “alien observers at a distance” – once again, objective reality becomes the only valid common ground because that’s what you find when you go there.

Let’s say that there’s a habitable world exactly 5 light-years away from Earth, and that in 2150, humans successfully colonize it, a date determined by adding the objective length of the journey to the launch date. As soon as they land, they send a signal back to earth to tell them “We made it!” When that signal arrives, the date on Earth will presumably be 2155. Upon what date will the Earth record the success of the mission – 2150, or 2155? The human habit of dating stellar events as occurring on the date of observation suggests the latter.

Mission Control on Earth immediately sends out a reply of congratulations, which also contains information on various scientific and social developments that have taken place. It is received by the colonists five years later, when they have completed ten years of construction and progress toward their colony. On what date will the colonists record that the home world became aware of the successful landing? Assuming that the human social convention was carried with them, they will record that in 2060 ties with home were reestablished. The histories of neither world will ever be accurate with respect to the other, they will always be five or ten years removed – five years in terms of isolated events, ten years in terms of any dialogue or interaction.

If you were an archaeologist studying the records of a species or culture that had long ago vanished, and you discovered these mutually-contradictory histories, you would forever be unsure of the actual dates of singular events. Until sufficient correlations were obtained between the two histories, you might even be unsure that they two were related.

But human experience with Time Zones holds the solution. Humans would probably create an entirely artificial social device, the “Date Zone”, based purely upon the distance between the two, and times be measured against some objective standard of reality based around am agreed-upon standard calendar. Just as various parts of the White House have multiple clocks, one set to local time, another to the local time wherever the President is, and a third set to local time at some point of contemporary interest – be that London, or Moscow, or wherever – so, in the future, multiple calendars side-by-side would become the norm wherever it was relevant; and just as it is commonplace to presage any communications to elsewhere with “Here, it’s X O’clock, but where you are, it must be Y O’clock”, so the pattern would be, “Here, it’s 2055, but you’re in Date Zone +5 years, so it will be 2060 by the time you hear this”.

Establishing a mutual synchronization of time will be a fundamental stage in understanding any messages received. In other words, for meaningful communications without the confusion, we have to employ a standard based on Objective Reality and some defined standard, just as we do with GMT and Time Zones.

Time is a human construct, built upon our perceptions of the world around us, and one that will have to be redefined from the ground up when we travel to the stars – or receive a communication from them. Or, as Douglas Adams put it, “Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so.”

But it’s always the weekend right now in almost 36% of the universe. If that condition doesn’t happen to be the case for you, wherever you are, whenever you are, be a little patient; the weekend is inevitable and will not be denied. It’s got Mondays outnumbered, two-and-a-half to one. And that thought should give everyone some comfort!

Why should the GM care about Marching Order?

After all, it’s purely in the hands of the players what order their characters are in.

Well, as usual, it’s not quite that simple. First, if you can anticipate the marching order, you can plan encounters either to take advantage of it, or to share the spotlight around. Planning encounters based on the marching order is not about benefiting the GM or handicapping the PCs, it’s a case of manifesting the consequences of the PCs choice.

You see, there is a – somewhat vague – logic to who goes where in the marching order. Smart enemies should recognize that and employ tactics accordingly.

The whole concept is utterly fair if the GM makes his assumptions and preps his “counter-order” in advance of knowing what the marching order will be.

Another reason is to understand why the marching order chosen by the players is what it is, enabling the GM to adjudicate encounters more quickly and accurately.

Finally, using these criteria when creating a party of NPC adventurers constitutes a logical arrangement of that group.

1. Who’s in Front?

If only it were that simple! There are several different positions within the marching order that can be defined logically, starting with the character who is out in front, but there are multiple criteria that can be applied to each of these. When it comes to the leading character in the PC train, there are lots of major reasons for placing a character in that position.

Sensory

The Number one reason is often the character’s sensory capabilities. A few extra minutes of warning can make a big difference in combat, and a character who can detect traps and secret ways without triggering them is an obvious asset to the group.

Power

The second major reason why a character might front up is because he is the best in a fight. This is a preferred arrangement when you are expecting a fight.

Skill

There are times when you need to put a specialist up-front. This is usually a mage or a cleric, but there have been times when archers in the front row can take the sting out of an encounter – especially when there’s enough room for them to stop and fire while other characters move past them.

Stealth

It’s really difficult to be sneaky when you’re in the middle of a herd of metal-wearing elephants, and that’s what most characters are in comparison to a rogue. Sure, the mage is unlikely to do too much clinking and clanking, but he’s far more likely to be busy wheezing and gasping; Constitution is rarely a priority when creating such characters. So you put the rogue out front, scouting some distance ahead of the rest of the party, effectively making the number two your front line.

The fact that such characters can also tick some of the sensory boxes listed earlier and do something about anything they detect in the way of traps or hidden paths. In particular, Elves in this role work well up front, because they also bring other senses to the mix.

Speed

The penultimate reason for putting a character up front is because he is mobile. That gives you a lot of tactical flexibility, because the character can swing off to the side to clear a path for the number two character in line, or take point, depending on the circumstances. By comparison, putting a slower character up front can bottle the fast-moving characters up, denying them – and hence the party – of the maneuverability that speed offers.

Cultural Knowledge

There are occasions when a character has specialized cultural knowledge or racial relationships that can be exploited (or that won’t be denied). In Dwarven Tunnels, putting a Dwarf up front can be a sound tactical decision; in an Elven Forest, the same is true of an Elf; and in Drow Infested locations, most groups of adventurers would be hard-pressed to keep Elves from pushing through to the front, regardless of what the smarter tactical decision might be.

Analysis

While any one of these can be the decisive factor that puts a character up front, as a general rule of thumb, the more of these boxes that any given character ticks, the more likely he is to be an asset in the front line.

2. Who’s at the Rear?

Once you have your front line chosen, the next most important decision is usually the character who is bringing up the rear.

Force

Attacking from behind can confer a winning tactical advantage, and so it’s not at all uncommon for your second-best fighter to adopt the rearward position.

Resilience

It can be argued, however, that resilience is an even more important trait. The character with the most hit points can anchor the party, can effectively become an adequate front-line in the event that a retreat is required, and can hang about in combat long enough for the rest of the party to reorient themselves tactically in the event of an attack on the party’s rear.

Mobility

The final criteria makes the choice based on tactical flexibility – the capacity to serve as the party’s rearward shield or move forwards or to reach anywhere else on the battlefield as necessary.

Consider that if your front-line character moves at 30′, your second-line character moves at 40′ (and is 10′ further back), and your rearward character moves at 60′ (and is another 10′ further removed from the front), the characters have enough movement that all three of them can reach and attack a single target in one move.

Analysis

Ruling out the character already allocated to the front row, picking the character who ticks two of these boxes (if not all three) makes for a compelling choice.

There is also one negative trait that is worth considering: if the character at the rear of the party has the worst initiative, it effectively means that everyone in front of him has time to get out of the way before he gets to act. While this doesn’t render this trait an asset, it does minimize the downside that it creates.

3. Who’s in Second?

With the two extreme ends resolved, the next most important position is second-in-line, especially given some of the criteria for the front-line. Depending on the choice made, the second-in-line may in fact be the front-line fighter, or if the front-line fighter falls, this is the natural stand-in – whether the character likes it or not.

Firepower

That means that the character should be a combat effective – either the best such in the outfit (should that character not already be positioned) or the next best – all else being equal.

Mobility

All else is rarely equal. If you go with a mobility option for position one, you may need a second row that can retrieve or back up that character if he gets into trouble. At other times, your front-line character may need to head right while your second-line character holds ’em off to the left (and vice-versa).

Sensory

The other choice that should be given high priority, especially if the senses are different to those of character 1. You can never tell what clues to what is coming up will be revealed by looking over the front-line character’s shoulder..

Analysis

There are ultimately two schools of thought as to who should be number two in line – either someone who can back up, and (in a pinch) substitute for, the character in the lead; or someone whose abilities compliment the character who is up front. And sometimes, the most clever players will choose between those options depending on the situation they find themselves in.

4. Who’s on Third?

It might seem that the positions to be filled have grown less important or less significant as we’ve worked down the list, and while there is some truth to that impression, it’s far from the whole story. Think of an RPG party as a palette of paint – for any given picture, three or four pigments will be dominant, but you can’t complete the picture without the rest of them.

Which brings me to the character in third place in the line. This is a character who has to be flexible, though there may be priority requirements even then:

Expertise

Top priority is often some particular expertise or skill. That generally puts a mage or cleric at the top of the list, but not so fast; there is a lot to be said, given their relatively low hit points, for placing the rogue in this position when heading into known danger.

Utility

As I said a few minutes ago, flexibility is often the highest priority in this position. Some parties feel that the combat expertise of the Cleric coupled with the professional expertise and spell-casting capabilities of the class makes it the perfect choice for third in line, especially if the front two are a rogue and the main combat specialist..



The Pivot Model of Character Placement

Centrality

Another way of looking at this position is as the pivot around which the rest of the group rotates, as shown to the left. Think about that for a moment.

This concept treats each of the other positions as a vacancy into which specialists rotate according to the current tactical situation and anticipated need. At the center is the pivot character, who is often tasked with the burden of selecting the current occupants of the other positions. If, for example, the ruby spot is a scout and the yellow a fighter, he would rotate a fighter into the green position. If the scout returns with a warning about hostile forces, the primary fighter rotates into the ruby position while the scout drops back to safety, and the second-best fighter moves into green from purple or aqua, and so on.

This model works fine so long as there is room to make the positional changes, and it defines the central position as the one fixed element. More complex arrangements are also possible, for example, there might be a separate rotational option linking yellow, purple, and aqua, or even yellow, purple, aqua, and the central brown position, and/or a tertiary loop connecting yellow and green.

Adopting this model or one of the variations mentioned is fundamentally about defining the criteria of selection for the central position and the tactical advantages and needs to be filled by the other positions.

Mobility

Finally, since this position is normally in the middle of the group, having a character in the slot who can move forwards or back as needed can be a sensible choice. The primary benefit for the party is healing – I have seen very effective parties who place a mobile character in that position equipped with a wand of Cure Light Wounds.

Analysis

The central position can be the defining position, or it can be defined by the choices made for the positions forward of it. It should only ever be assigned by default if there are four or less party members; the rest of the time it should be a deliberate choice grounded in logic..

5. Stuck In The Middle with You and You and You

Some groups think that once the four primary positions are filled, the rest are pretty interchangeable. I never think that way; if the leading position is a scout, it will effectively be empty whenever the scout is out fulfilling his tactical function, leaving the fourth position in line as de-facto the third. The same thing happens if the front-line fighter gets taken down, something that is more likely to happen just because he is the front-line fighter. And, of course, the combination of circumstances is also valid, elevating the fourth position into an effective second-row. So, even if there are no other considerations, combat ability is a differentiator. The same is true of the second-last position and the fighter in back, and this is arguably an even more sensitive choice. Trying to settle that debate is the sort of thing that gives tacticians gray hairs!

So this is definitely not a trivial choice; rather it is one that needs to be made based on just how effective the other positions are likely to be when needed – how vulnerable one is, relative to the other, and how likely it is that the party will be put under pressure in that direction.

But, on top of that, there are a few other considerations.

Mobility

And the first of these, as discussed earlier, is mobility. The arrowhead arrangement is all well and good for dealing with narrow corridors, or moving as a compact group, but it’s not all that relevant when the group needs to fan out or achieve multiple objectives in different sub-locations at the same time. When that happens, having additional mobility in the forward positions always increases tactical flexibility.

As I’ve indicated before, you can do worse than sequence the characters in marching order from front to back in descending order of mobility.

Wide vs Narrow

The problem is that characters with high mobility are often not as effective at being a spearhead; they are fast but fragile. That leads to alternate formations being considered, and tactical maneuvers to take advantage of them. One of the big considerations is area of effectiveness.

Archers have a very wide area of effectiveness, but are very pin-point; they can only really be effective in one direction at a time. Melee specialists have a relatively small area of effectiveness, but can attack anyone or anything located within that zone. Characters with area-effect spells are somewhere in-between (at low-to-moderate levels) to extremely wide (at higher levels) areas of effectiveness, and affect the entire area in question equally. That means that positioning those characters to confer maximum effectiveness and protecting them from distracting enemy attackers are primary tactical goals – especially since these characters are usually the physically least-resilient amongst the party.

In a number of the old TSR computer-based games based on AD&D, I had good success pairing a mage with an archer – the mage did the heavy hitting, while the archer was used to keep enemies off the mage’s back. This enabled me to send the pair wide of the main group of combatants to give maximum opportunities for tactical spell-based support, or keep them in close at the heart of a hemispherical grouping, as shown below.



The wide model has one (protected) central character around which all the others face outward either in a circle or semi-circle, meaning that the character in front can rotate like a gear in machinery around the pivot and be ANY of the other characters as fits the needs of the moment.

This approach assumes that everyone except the spell-caster is at least reasonably competent at melee combat in their own way, at least sufficiently so to serve as a “Meat Shield” between the mage and harm. Again, there is a variant in which one of the PCs drops out of the “front line” (causing a redistribution of the remaining 4) and takes up a place next to the mage. This could be a rogue/scout with archery skills (precision point-defense for the mage, in other words), or it could be a cleric, who is this in a position to support the remainder of the front line with healing.

The “Narrow” Model, in comparison, can be best described as a triangular or diamond formation with the vulnerable members packed inside. You have one character at the front, another at the rear, and two flankers who are usually adept at, and equipped for, ranged combat, but who are not as vulnerable as a mage. A rogue may be one of the flankers, but usually flanks the rearmost character, a “loose” character who can sneak off whenever the group engages an enemy, only to reengage from an unexpected direction.

Vulnerability

Both the Wide and Narrow Models are indicative of another consideration that may be the decision-maker for some parties at times: the notion of shielding or protecting the most vulnerable as the number one priority. The vulnerability concept posits that the collective party is only as strong as its most vulnerable member, which is an implicit implication of the notion that all members of the party make an equal contribution to its success and well-being in the longer term. The latter is clearly something that GMs strive to achieve, so the concept appears to be on solid footing, even though the notion of equating a plate-mail-clad fighter with a mage in silken robes in terms of vulnerability seems initially absurd on its face.

Analysis

If nothing else, this section should have dispelled any notion that the fourth and fifth positions is not every bit a subject for serious thought as the others discussed. In fact, for the entire marching order, ideally, you should be able to point to any single character and explain exactly why that character has been positioned in that location. In fact, there are times when the decisive positioning criteria relate to the character’s unsuitability to be anywhere else.

Conclusion

Deciding a party’s marching order and tactical positioning when maneuvering as a group is a far more complex issue than it appears at first glance. In theory, a group with any sort of rational order of march will eat an identical group without such sensible positioning for breakfast, every time, and that’s even before terrain advantages are taken into account. Certainly, if the GM hands the players a rousing defeat with a lower-level party purely because their tactics are superior, the players will bellyache for a while but will also pay close attention.

As this article has shown, there can be many different considerations at play when choosing such a tactical formation, and the “right” one can vary with great regularity. Ultimately, that puts a combination of resilience and flexibility high on the list of default configurations.

If the game world was real, intelligent parties would, upon encountering an enemy group, always ask four critical questions:

• What is the enemy group’s tactical configuration?
• Why are they in that formation?
• How can they take advantage of that formation to achieve tactical superiority?
• How can we take advantage of that formation in the event that they are hostile?<>li>

Experience shows, however, that most parties and most GMs do not give this question anywhere near enough thought, giving rise to an unfortunate fifth question – “Why aren’t we in a matching tactical configuration?”

If you want to empower your players to take control of their lives and the world around them, a necessary first step has to be forcing them to confront inefficiencies and inadequacies in the way they currently do things. The lessons learned may be painful, but the players themselves will be empowered as a consequence – and the first time they are the ones to achieve victory over a superior force by virtue of superior tactics, the pain will all be worth it to them.

Most GMs like to encourage their players to think about their game. This is an oft-neglected aspect of that game, and remedying this shortsightedness benefits both players and GM alike. It makes the game more fun for everyone, and that’s the ultimate reward!