Discomfort niggles, nags, distracts, and exhausts – for everyone. Until now, there have been no rules for simulating this. If it’s good enough for elite athletes to take into account, it’s good enough for an RPG.

Image by Christian Dorn from Pixabay

Another quick World Cup -inspired post today. During the Qatar v. Switzerland match (in Portland, I think), played in the blazing midday sun, one of the commentators remarked, “If it was too cold, players would be anxious to get off [the field] and into the dressing rooms, and if it was too hot, the same would be true,” or words to that effect. And that got me thinking…

A Question Of Discomfort

There are all sorts of environmental conditions that, at one extreme or another, will be uncomfortable even in short-sleeves, never mind in heavy armor, but not all creatures would be affected the same way or to the same degree.

When conditions are really extreme, significant penalties and bonuses get applied, but when situations fall short of that level, there should still be a range of lesser modifiers from environmental circumstances that could make a huge cumulative difference in play and especially in combat.

There’s temperature (high and low), humidity (high and low), wind (strong and none, cool and hot), atmospheric pressure (high and low), oxygen levels (normal and low), atmospheric contaminants (pollen, noxious gasses), rain / snow / hail, mental ‘static’, tilted or uneven ground, mud (sticky or slippery)… and that’s just off the top of my head.

That’s a list of 11 (counting wind as two).

The question is, always, how to express this in game mechanics terms? It shouldn’t be an overwhelming advantage (most of the time) but it should nevertheless be present. And I think I’ve found a way.

Baselines

Let’s start by defining the normal game mechanics as the baseline, the normal determinant of success or failure. Our goal is to tweak that baseline if and only if it’s appropriate to do so.

Relevant Conditions

Each side then determines, via the GM, what environmental conditions are relevant. The best approach is to list them on a whiteboard or for the GM to note them in his adventure reference. He can even determine them in advance when doing his adventure prep, specifically any time the weather for the day is determined.

While weather-related events aren’t the only items on the list given earlier, it does account for more than half (if you count mud).

This requires the GM to think about the creatures, their basic form and function. Do they have more limbs (increases stability)? A lower center of gravity (increases stability)? A higher center of gravity (more susceptible to treacherous footing)? Natural flight (ignore ground conditions)? Better armor and not due to speed (better protection against hail)? Larger lungs relative to their Oxygen needs? A swampy or a desert natural habitat (increases humidity effects in the opposite environment)? And so on.

Scales of Impact

Next, each of those layers of discomfort is assessed on the scales below, and the discomfort level noted.

GENERAL SCALE
Slight &Plusminus;1/4
Moderate &Plusminus;1/2
High &Plusminus;1
Extreme &Plusminus;2

HEAT IN HIGH HUMIDITY
Slight &Plusminus;1/2
Moderate &Plusminus;1
High &Plusminus;2
Extreme &Plusminus;4

COLD IN HIGH HUMIDITY & WIND
Slight &Plusminus;1/4
Moderate &Plusminus;3/4
High &Plusminus; 1 1/2
Extreme &Plusminus;3

Score each item a plus if the creature is more comfortable or better able to cope with the conditions – a swamp dweller in high humidity, for example – and a minus if it suffers in the conditions more than most.

Add them all up and divide the total by 5.

Translation To Discomfort Differential Index

For narrative purposes, and using the absolute values for simplicity:

NET NEGATIVE:
<0.5: No notable discomfort
0.5 – 1: Slight Discomfort
1 – 1.5: Discomfort
1.5 – 2: Suffering
2 – 2.5: Distress
>2.5: Acute Distress

NET POSITIVE:
<0.5: No notable comfort
0.5 – 1: Slightly comfortable
1 – 1.5 Comfortable
1.5 – 2: Pleasant Conditions
2 – 2.5: Extremely Comfortable
>2.5: Near Perfect Conditions

The Distributed Advantage Principle

How can an advantage or liability be less than plus or minus one? Game mechanics generally use dice and dice yield integer values. The obvious answer is to distribute a potential +1 over multiple active events – rounds of combat, hours of activity. If you experience a bonus only once in multiple events, that bonus or penalty is effectively distributed over the span of those events.

+1 over 2 events is effectively +1/2. -3 over 4 events is -3/4.

If the total merely added up over successive active events until it exceeded a threshold, that would be fine in the long term, but many combats don’t last 4 or 5 rounds; if you never reach the threshold, the advantage or disadvantage might as well not be there.

The solution is to offer an equivalent chance on d6 in each combat round. Roll above the threshold, and the +1 or -1 takes effect; roll below it, and the advantage or disadvantage can be ignored for this event.

Accumulating distress also seems to compound over protracted events, as anyone who’s tried working on a hot, humid, day will know. So adding +1 to the die result after each event, cumulative, would mimic that.

This is the distributed advantage principle.

If your basic system uses d6:

Multiply the result (after noting the narrative equivalent) by 1.333 and use a d8, or by 1.666 and use a d10, or by 2 and use a d12 – anything that isn’t a d6 – just to avoid confusion over which die is for what.

Selective Interpretation

Normally, a +1 is an advantage to hit, a -1 is a disadvantage to hit. But the GM can decree, if he feels it appropriate, that these advantages or disadvantages are applied to damage inflicted, instead. But he needs to have a clear justification for that choice that can be defended if challenged.

If the GM makes no such declaration, the option devolves to the player, but it must be made and declared before he actually rolls an attack. And, of course, the GM can also make this choice on behalf of any NPCs / monsters.

As a general rule, if the average damage is more than the chance to hit on d20 or equivalent, a bonus or penalty to damage is more effective than a bonus or penalty to hit. GMs should bear that in mind.

The differences between event types

The same potential modifiers can be applied to skill use, saving throws, etc. That’s up to the GM, but I recommend it. The major differences between combat rounds as events and non-combat hours as events is this: advantages in combat come and go as soon as they take effect. Advantages and Disadvantages outside combat accumulate until discharged by Relief from the conditions. So if you get a -1 due to environmental conditions, that -1 will apply (with no need to roll again) for the entirety of the next hour, all rolls.

Entering Combat

When you first enter combat, you are still suffering from whatever non-combat advantage or liability had built up prior to combat. You check for additional bonus or penalty each round, as usual, and add it to this base level modifier each round if the threshold is reached on your roll. However, if an additional bonus or penalty is applied because of this roll, the accumulated advantage or liability is reduced by 2 or until it reaches zero.

Exiting Combat

When you exit combat, whatever pre-combat modifiers had accumulated return, worsened by 1 for every 2 rounds of combat. The combination of fatigue and discomfort literally wash over you, once adrenaline is no longer buffering you.

If your accumulation was -3, ‘worsened’ makes the minus bigger. If your accumulation was +3, ‘worsened’ makes it smaller.

Totals more than the die size

If the total chance accumulates by time modifiers to more than the die size, a single occurrence of the modifier becomes automatic and you are now rolling for a second dose; subtract the die size from the accumulated chance.

The Net Effect

Discomfort can add up to a modifier that persists over time until relieved. It makes everything from combat to concentration more difficult. But most of the time, the resulting modifier can be applied almost automatically after consulting the ‘odd die’ result to see if it gets better or worse. This slows combat events and skill checks by a minute amount, but that is somewhat offset by being able to roll everything at the same time.

The Power Of Relief

What constitutes Relief, which resets everything to the baseline and restarts the ‘clock’ at zero is up to the GM, but it has to involve doing something to actively overcome the conditions and their cumulative stresses. 5 minutes of rest per (‘permanent’ adjustment plus 1), and rehydrating, would suffice for hot, arid conditions. Erecting some sort of shelter from the wind, if that’s a factor. Doing SOMETHING to make yourself more comfortable.

A GM acquaintance of mine from WAAAY back – in 1981 or 2 – once implemented a similar set of rules to these. The party in his campaign divided themselves into two halves, ‘A’ squad and ‘The’ Squad (rhymes with ‘B’). One squad would stand watch while the others retreated into a portable hole to rest and recover – the environment within was always relatively neutral, neither hot not cold, dry nor humid, and there was no wind, etc. After 30 minutes or so, those on watch would ‘retrieve’ their companions from the bag and take their own turn at leisure and recuperation while the newly-rested stood watch. The teams strictly alternated who was going first.

As GM, he had no problem with this. Any attacking force capable of challenging the whole group would be at a 2-1 advantage until those in the hole were both retrieved AND assessed the combat situation, while the defensive force would be weakened by one who had to actually retrieve the resting characters from the hole. The penalties of discomfort were being transformed by the players into a tactical disadvantage of comparable or even greater scope – so if they were happy with the arrangement, so was he.

But he did rule that it became slightly habit-forming when implemented for weeks at a stretch in the wilderness, so that the first time they returned to an urban setting where there was no need to hide from the conditions, those who would otherwise have rested became slightly listless and uncomfortable simply because they didn’t rest when they expected to!