There is a red flashing symbol in the bottom right corner of my computer screen at the moment. It is telling me that there is a severe weather warning for this area tonight, and I should take precautions.
I have looked at weather in our campaigns before in this series. Snow Day was about description, but it took us all for a walk in a blizzard. Foliage talked about bringing weather out of the background and making it a major event in a campaign, such as with a severe storm. Obviously Weather was about weather, in that case about how genuinely unpredictable and inconsistent it can be at times. We have not neglected weather, nor have we neglected the idea of severe weather.
Yet this flashing red icon is not warning me of impending blizzard or rainfall; nor is it telling of high winds, hurricanes, tornadoes, or flooding. It is flashing because it is cold outside, and expected to get considerably colder tonight.
Cold weather hardly seems like it warrants a red flashing severe weather warning icon on my computer screen. It’s just cold. If I were to go outside, I would not get wet; there would be no ice hanging off me. The winds won’t buffet me or throw debris at my body or my house. There’s little danger of the power failing due to lightning strikes or high winds or floods, as there would be in many storms. I would realize after a moment that it was cold outside, and I would come inside and have a cup of hot chocolate to warm up, maybe bundle up in a blanket by the heater if I really overdid it, and that would be the end of it. It’s just cold. That’s all. It’s not even that cold, being twenty-three on the Fahrenheit scale sometime after midnight. It’s expected to drop below zero, but it is taking its time about it. There’s a nip in the air; it’s a bit chilly out. Some would call it brisk. My middle son will remember to throw his sweatshirt over his shoulder before he leaves for the bus in the morning. It’s no big deal.
Yet weather like this kills people every year. This particular cold front already has killed several in the Midwest from which it has come. I don’t want to think what would happen if we lost power. Our furnace burns gas to generate heat, but the controls for it and the fan that circulates the air are electric, so it would never light and the faint heat generated by its pilot flame would remain in its basement enclave. Our hot water heater also burns gas, but the pump that pressurizes our well water is electric, so all we’ll have is a large well-insulated tank of inaccessible hot water in the cellar. The gas oven is electronically lit and electronically regulated; it cannot be ignited manually (as I learned when the igniter broke), nor can the gas supply to it be opened when the circuitry is dead. If I found some matches, I could light the stovetop burners. They would generate some heat. We would weather a difficult night, bundled in blankets and hoping the pipes did not freeze.
Without the protection of the house, we would be hard pressed to survive the night.
It’s not impossible to fight the cold. I have been camping in some very cold weather. I remember on one Boy Scout outing the leaders laughed about the fact that the beer they were drinking as they huddled around the after-hours campfire was so cold it was freezing while they were drinking it. I could build some sort of protective shelter; I would find some way to start a fire. I am not helpless against the cold. Yet I might lose. People lose every year, some of them better prepared for that fight and in far better health and physical condition than I. Even if I won, I would not enjoy it. I remember that those winter camping trips were not so much fun; I have difficulty remembering why I wanted to go on them. I was cold.
Cold is an unusual danger. It is not dramatic. It is quiet, and creeps up on its victims. You go outside without your coat, thinking that it’s not really so bad. The atmosphere sucks heat away from you, weakening your resistance and leaving you chilled. At first, you just recognize that the air is cold. You don’t so quickly realize that your body is trying to compensate, redistributing blood flow in a confused effort to prevent your skin and extremities from freezing while maintaining your core temperature. Energy reserves are tapped, and muscles start working to turn sugars into waste products and heat. Gooseflesh is a relatively benign natural protection, as your skin tightens to shut your pores, increasing the amount of insulation provided. More serious, shivering is hard work, as your muscles burn energy reserves to replace body heat that is being carried away by the surrounding air. Every exposed area of skin becomes an open vent for heat to escape. Heads are particularly vulnerable in this regard. Hair serves as insulation, such that bald men lose more heat even on warm days. A single layer of clothing affords significant protection, as it impedes the air near the skin from moving away and being replaced by cooler air. Multiple layers of clothing are the best insulation available. Without such protection, cold steals our energy, leaving us weak and tired. Those who freeze to death become too tired to move, to tired to shiver, to tired even to care.
It is a lesson in subtlety. Not everything that can kill a character does so in one fell stroke. Some dangers wear him down slowly, subtly. He doesn’t know he has been weakened until suddenly he needs his strength and it’s not there. The killer takes him without ever alerting him to his danger.
There are other hazards with similar effects. In tropical and subtropical cities, heat claims the lives of some. I’ve seen radiation used to good effect in a game. Diseases and parasites can play out this way. Magical curses might have this effect, and poisons and traps sometimes have an effect that is at least analogous. In all these, defeat is gradual, but no less serious.
Keep warm.
Next week, something different.
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M. Joseph Young is co-author of Multiverser and Vice President for Development at Valdron Inc. His many contributions to online literature are indexed for convenience, and he looks forward to discussing these things by e-mail or on our Gaming Outpost forums.
