Environmental hazards

I'm the kind of guy who likes the outdoors a lot. I enjoy road trips. I enjoy hiking and camping. I love the wilderness, especially the wilderness of the American west and southwest; the Rockies and the deserts, in particular. I've been hiking in multiple spots in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Texas, and Utah, as well as some in Arizona, California and Washington. And of course I've also been hiking in North and South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan and elsewhere in the east or Midwest as well. I could always do more. Especially in Wyoming, which is my favorite of all of those locations, but Colorado, Montana, Utah and Idaho are not at all far behind, and some of them are pleasantly under-rated by the outdoor club, so you can get pretty good solitude out in the wilderness. Which is, along with the awe-inspiring scenery, exactly the reason to do it, of course. 

But one thing that you'll notice if you do this is that it isn't just a boring walk in the park. Wild animals can be legitimately dangerous; big, aggressive guys like moose, buffalo or grizzlies especially, but even a raccoon or squirrel that steals your food overnight can actually create a legitimate crisis if you're unprepared. Weather is similar; your chances of being struck by lightning during a violent storm are greatly increased if you're at high elevation and outside of tree cover. Rain, sleet, hail can get you soaked and cold, and then you're at real risk for hypothermia or other problems. And your food may be ruined too. I thought of this because of our weird weather today. When I left the house this morning at 7:20 AM or so, it was warm; just shy of 70⁰, but dark skies were threatening to change that. Sure enough, within about an hour or so, it was actually darker than before sunrise, pouring rain, and the temperature had dropped 25⁰ to a rather chilly under 45⁰. And I almost came to work in a short-sleeved polo because yesterday had been warm and the morning was warm. Glad I looked at the sky and thought better of it! Now, in the later afternoon, it's become bright and sunny again, but still cool, and the high for the rest of the day is barely going to skim 50⁰ if we're lucky.

I'm not a huge fan of overly complex or involved resource management rules, but I am certainly a fan of creating scenarios where resources actually matter; like what if you get turned around and start to get hungry before you find your destination? What's your plan B to keep yourself fed? What happens if a terrible thunderstorm comes by at night and your Bill the Pony runs away with your food still on his back? Plus, you're now soaking wet and it's 40⁰ and you can't get a fire started because everything else is wet too? What if raccoons steal your food? What if you slip crossing a river, get injured and lose your weapons, or more? What if someone gets giardia and has violent diarrhea for days while traveling? OK, maybe that last one isn't one that I'd be interested in in my fantasy, but the rest are all legitimate things to have to deal with that actually make travel kind of interesting. Plus, there are few things that make the game feel more grounded than having troublesome adventures just trying to get from point A to point B. The adventure isn't a location somewhere else, and the journey to the adventure isn't just a boring commute. The whole thing needs to be the adventure. And even these kind of mundane things—to say nothing of haunts, monsters, or other supernatural or fantastical hazards—emphasize that point.