GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 16: Wilderness Adventures

[Kromm]

Into wilderness
Where the monsters are bigger
And the night, darker

— Some munchkin

Dungeons are great. They're convenient, self-contained packages of loot and violence. With the right hand-waving, the GM could run an entire campaign that bounces from dungeon, to town, to another dungeon, and back to town ad infinitum . . . and it would probably be fun and awesome. That is why the series is called GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, after all!

Yet somebody will inevitably ask, "What happens along the way to the dungeon?", or "Why do all our quests lead to dungeons?", or most likely "When do I get to use all these outdoor abilities I paid points for?" Here with the answers is GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 16: Wilderness Adventures.

This supplement tackles a big subject – the great outdoors – in detail. At 60 pages, it's about as long as GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers and GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons put together. And it covers the works:

• Heroes: Barbarians, druids, and scouts – and elves, faerie folk, and wildmen of all stripes – are cut out for this stuff. Still, a member of any profession or race could become a wilderness explorer with the right choice of abilities, especially the new Wilderness-Trained lens. Wilderness Adventures covers this ground, and also offers advice on what Allies, henchmen (including the new native guide), and pets are best-suited to outdoor challenges.
  
  
• Equipment: Learn what items of existing Dungeon Fantasy kit are (and aren't) worth bringing on outdoor treks. Pick from a range of new gear. Shop for mounts and vehicles. And when it all falls overboard, take advantage of the rules for improvising replacements from Nature's bounty.
  
  
• Feats: Those who want to make wilderness skills pay off will get their fill with extended rules for hiking, boating, riding, climbing, camping, foraging, signaling, scouting, tracking, mapping, and even field engineering. (See, even city-boy artificers have their uses!)
  
  
• Dangers: Rough terrain, menacing obstacles, harsh climates, and nasty weather offer serious challenges without anybody drawing a sword. So do missteps such as getting lost, separated, and run down by fatigue, disease, and starvation. And so do surprises like avalanches, falling trees, quicksand, and wildfires. Then there's deliberate violence, from cunning wilderness traps through outdoor ambushes to mounted combat. And then there's Nature's vengeance on despoilers . . .

The GM gets solid advice on how to plan the campaign, map and populate the game world, assess risks, set limits, and engage the heroes – including thoughts on how to change "the heroes are ambushed, lost, or shipwrecked" from a TPK situation to the start of a new adventure. There's also plenty of guidance on using all this stuff for everything from the trip from town to the dungeon, through purpose-built outdoor quests, to wide-open sandbox play . . . and even hints on how to repurpose the supplement for mega-dungeons and underworlds, if wilderness just isn't your thing. The delvers might be lost in the woods, but the GM need never be!

No matter how you run things, GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 16: Wilderness Adventures is a breath of fresh air!

—

Store Link: http://www.warehouse23.com/products/SJG37-0327

[Pip Boy]

Great!

I'll buy that, for sure. I've been waiting for something like this since I wanted to create a fantasy survivalist PC. Kudos!

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Hurrah! I'm hoping to mine this for ideas for the inevitable plant level of my dungeon. :)

[Crakkerjakk]

Gorilla warfare? *Groooooaaaannnnnn*

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

Gorilla warfare? *Groooooaaaannnnnn*

It had to be written.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by Kromm

It had to be written.

Psi-related supplement addressing the "gorilla my dreams" in 3, 2, 1...

(Also, much, much, much stuff here. Much. I can use this.)

[b-dog]

I bought this book and I like it. I tend to like adventures where PCs travel to get to the dungeon and this will help a lot. I would like 2 books to go along with this book; nature spirits and faerie. They would be very appropriate for wilderness based adventures.

[Pragmatic]

Next up, Urban Adventures? To complete the set? :-)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

Am I to assume this rule does not apply in DF, as the details in this supplement take care of this roll?

Didn't DF2 already replace that for DF with the much less harsh foraging rule?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Didn't DF2 already replace that for DF with the much less harsh foraging rule?

Eh, in proper DF style 2d-4 damage is too low, it's just that you took the 2d-4 damage from wandering monsters, not starvation.