Camping Gear

I've noticed that despite going into really impressive quantities of detail about equipment and encumbrance, ACKS doesn't really seem to cover camping equipment. Only one of the templates in the Player's Companion even carries a tent - not even an Explorer template! No-one carries bed-rolls and many don't even have a cloak or blanket. Most have no cooking equipment either. 

Now, the Encumbrance rules make this pretty easy to handle - a tent is a Large Item, a big cookpot is a Large Item, a bedroll a standard one, a blanket another etc. But I can see my players getting a hex out into the map, then going "... um, why do none of us have any camping equipment despite half of us apparently being itinerant travellers of one kind or another by profession?"

Any suggestions? Have I missed something really obvious? I could probably just add relevant bits and pieces to the templates where they seem appropriate, then add the rest to the shopping list so people can Display Their Practicality when doing pre-sojourn prep.

I don’t think there are any rules for camping, so the need for equipment is mostly for flavour. Unless your game master makes up rules for sleeping without a bedroll or tent or not having a cookpot for preparing food, there is no mechanical reason to own them.

This could provide some ideas: http://anarchydice.blogspot.ca/2014/09/camping-and-travel-tool.html

Originally for 5e, but I figure the general idea of different jobs/gear providing benefits or countering dangers could be a good place to start.

[quote="Weron"] I don't think there are any rules for camping, so the need for equipment is mostly for flavour. Unless your game master makes up rules for sleeping without a bedroll or tent or not having a cookpot for preparing food, there is no mechanical reason to own them. [/quote]

Sleeping under a bush by default it is :)

I may well use something like your approach, ZeroSum. Main issue is that Long Rests are significantly less important in ACKS, so I'd need some other bonus... some part of my brain is suggesting a Well Rested XP bonus a la Skyrim. Possibly cumulative with ability pre-reqs, but only up to 10%.

Camping equipment is mostly to protect you from weather, so until you create rules to implement the effects of bad weather, it's hard to know what a tent should do to protect you from them.

Wolf Packs and Winter Snow, a nominally LOTFP based system that is an "Ice Age RPG" has a short rule.

If you're unprotected in wet weather, make a save vs Weather (a save type in WPWS, I'd guess that as either PP or PD in ACKS) or be fatigued. Fatigued is a certain state in WPWS based on their HP/grit system, but in ACKS I'd say it's a penalty to mundane healing and maybe the effects of a forced march.

 

I like that short rule for weather effects!

ACKS has rules for the lack of rest/exhaustion, which I formalize as a fatigued condition (for custom necromantic spells): “A fatigued creature is -1 on attack throws and damage rolls, and may only walk at the normal combat movement rate” (ACKS Rulebook p. 92 rest, p. 94 forced march, and p. 101 running).