DnD Desert Raiders Campaign Conditional Temperature Variations

Back to Main Page

Conditional Temperature Variations

Temperatures can vary significantly with decreasing elevation or time of day. The presence of wind can also affect the relative heat and drying effect of a waste environment. A character might require no special precautions during the evening or at higher elevations, bur at noon or inside a deep caldera, otherwise tolerable conditions can become dangerously hot. Conversely, with the onset of night, the temperature in a desert can drop sharply, producing conditions of cold even in the most torrid latitudes. The most common factors that affect temperature are described below.

Altitude

Regions that are comfortable at higher elevations can become very hot at lower levels. Some waste regions, particularly dry seabeds, are depressions in the surrounding landscape and might even be below sea level. The temperature increases by one band when descending from low peak or high pass elevations (5.000 feet to 15,000 feet) to hills. It increases by one additional band at extremely low elevation (200 feet or more below sea level). For example, a day of moderate heat at higher elevations is hot at medium elevation and becomes a climate of severe heat at the bottom of a dry salt lake. In addition, moving deeper into the earth raises the ambient temperature as the pressure of surrounding rock increases. This increase is approximately 1° F per 75 feet of depth; this can be much faster if there is geothermic activity in the region (magma, hot springs, and so on).

Night

When most people think of the desert, they conjure up visions of shimmering heat haze, sand, and blazing sun. These features do exist-during the day. At night, the clear, dry air allows the land to give up the day's heat with frightening rapidity. Within a few hours, the killing heat of the day is replaced by the chill of the night. It is quite possible to succumb to cold in the middle of the desert. The temperature drop might be as much as three or even four temperature bands, and characters without adequate protection against cold run the risk of hypothermia (see Cold Dangers. page 302 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, or consult the Frostburn accessory).

Noon

In many climates, high noon (and a few hours afterward) is the hottest time of the day, as the sun shines directly onto the planet's surface. In the arid, cloudless environment of the waste, there is no barrier against the sun's blaze. Rocks can get hot enough to cook food or even produce first-degree burns. In most places, temperatures rise by one band after sunrise, and sometime even by two bands by high noon. In the waste, this increase is more pronounced, with temperatures rising by three or even [our bands between the chill of night and the heat of midday.

Wind

Although a cool breeze on the skin can be a blessing during [he day, many waste environments have winds that actually exacerbate the hot, dry conditions. A furnace blast blowing over a barren plain not only heats the air, it carries away precious moisture from the surface of the skin. If enough fluid is lost, the body responds by constricting surface blood vessels-which increases core body temperature and raises the risk of heatstroke. Winds that are hot or hotter, as well as strong or more powerful (see page 95 of the Dungeon Master's Guide), increase the effective temperature by one band.

Suggestion for temperature variations in different terrain types;