I was a big fan of the 3E "environment" books such as Stormwrack, Sandstorm, and Frostburn - they generated many exciting hours of adventures. Has anyone taken a shot at updating these to fit into the 4E rules, or seen any content designed natively for 4E that fits into this category?
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\$\begingroup\$ What bits do you find most appealing in them? I never really took a close look--is it the equipment, the exposure rules, the monsters? \$\endgroup\$ – Numenetics Aug 20 '10 at 3:02
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\$\begingroup\$ There was a lot to like about them, e.g. Sandstorm: ~10 pages showing the effects of extreme temperatures, things like "At 141-180 degrees F, PCs must make Fort. (DC 15, +1 per previous) check every 10 minutes or take 1d4 points of non-lethal damage"; adjudicating the effects of dehydration; descriptions of different kinds of desert environs (Badlands, Salt Flats, Petrified Forests, &tc.); table describing the effects of sandstorms and whirlwinds &tc; "flavor" components for how the extreme conditions of various deserts might affect different races; I could go on, but I'm out of characters :) \$\endgroup\$ – TML Aug 20 '10 at 6:31
I have seen the Dark Sun rules for travel, and they could indeed be adapted to other environments. The basic framework of sun sickness looks to be very flexible.
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\$\begingroup\$ It seems like this is the best answer I'm likely to get...thanks for the concrete answer on Dark Sun. I hope someone gets around to doing Frostburn and Stormwrack as well - I think these three books might easily be the best role playing value I ever got out of a WotC resource. \$\endgroup\$ – TML Aug 20 '10 at 22:18
Dark Sun contains extended rules for desert travel and the related effects. I haven't seen these yet but they could might be adapted to fit in other environments.