Best ways to use Terrain in Your D&D Game Nerdarchy

One of the first thoughts I had watching this video lead me directly to episode 65 of Roll Up and Die. They talk about doing an Egyptian style game and playing in a desert setting. I believe that episode 2 of Something RPG...ish (it might also be the first episode) also talks about environmental effects on PC's, also in more of a desert setting (mind you this episode is talking about developing a character, but they use the environment to do that). I definitely recommend listening to both of these podcasts if you don't already. In Roll Up and Die, they get pretty heavy for a little bit about traveling through a desert and making constitution checks to hopefully avoid exhaustion. That is certainly one way that an environment can impact a game and a combat later on.

The episode of Something RPG...ish mentioned above also talks for a bit about a desert setting and walking through it wearing armor and how that would cause problems for the character. These things will come into play a bit later. Another idea I had was to get on YouTube or whatever and watch videos of actual wooded, forest, swamp, whatever kind of areas you want to visit in your world. Even better, if you can visit these in your own area then do so. Not only will it give you some great ideas but it will give you first-hand experience walking through these environments and how to apply checks if you need to.

My last idea was ask yourself questions about the environment that you want to take them through. How do I want it to affect my players? How might it affect them on its own? Is there magic involved? Is it a dense forest or easier to traverse? Is it more of a tropical style forest, or mountain like? Are there elements that might cause strife to the PC's? These were some of the first questions that came to my mind when this topic came up in this video and these podcasts. I'm certain there are tons more that can be asked, you just have to go there yourself. Don't be afraid to push yourself like that, in the end, if you can't answer it then maybe it doesn't need to fit there.

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