Highlights
- Consider using enemies and monsters that fit the Arctic setting to maintain immersion and challenge for players.
- The Arctic environment is hazardous, with factors like thin ice and harsh winds that can require skill checks or travel checks.
- Experiment with different forms of travel and consider providing warm clothing or magic items to keep players comfortable in the cold.
More often than not, Dungeons & Dragons campaigns take place in more moderate climates, and understandably so. Moderate climates tend to be easier to navigate, and the environment isn't a challenge for both you, the Dungeon Master, and the players. When you move into harsher climates that offer more difficult terrain than not, you have to start considering how the environment affects everything.
However, for more experienced players and Dungeon Masters, this can prove to be an amazing challenge for you to undertake. The environment provides not only a challenge of survival but also a challenge to make a near-uninhabitable environment interesting and fun to explore.
8 Use Enemies Suited For The Cold
In order to not break immersion when you're playing through your campaign, as the Dungeon Master, you really shouldn't be planning for enemies and monsters to show up that don't fit into an Arctic setting. Be honest, the chances of some rogue bandits showing up in the middle of the Arctic to rob your players while they sleep or travel is probably pretty low, given that the terrain isn't the nicest.
Fortunately, there are quite a few monsters that you can use in an Arctic setting. When all else fails, however, don't be afraid to reskin other monsters and enemies and make them adapt to the setting. Whether it's just through cosmetics or adjusting their stats and abilities a bit, don't be afraid to use your power as the Dungeon Master to make things work how you want and need.
7 The Arctic's Environment Is Hazardous
Even during more gentle weather, the Arctic is not a kind environment and everywhere can be concerned as difficult terrain. However, when the weather is harsh, you shouldn't just consider blizzards to be the only environmental hazard you can use to make things harder for your players.
Frigid waters, thin and slippery ice, and harsh winds are all things to take into consideration, and they may require frequent skill checks or travel checks from your players to get through safely. In fact, if it's not clouded over and the sun is shining brightly, your players shouldn't have any easy route because the sun reflecting off the snow makes it significantly harder to see (assuming that your players don't have visual protection, at least).
6 Offering Ways To Travel
In the Arctic, it's a lot harder to use traditional methods of travel, like horseback, thanks to the harsh environment. In villages, towns, or cities, it might be much easier to have regularly plowed and cleared roads, but the long stretches between settlements won't be able to celebrate the same luxuries.
Consider experimenting with different forms of travel to get between different areas or when moving between the various empty expanses in-between. Things like teleportation between major towns and cities might be fun but too easy for your players to use initially. You could also try using sleds pulled by any kind of creature suited for the environment, though it might be much harder for your players to chat during travel with this method.
5 Keep The Players Warm
You don't technically have to stay on top of how warm your players are at all times or even keep track of how warm their clothes are, but you should probably make sure that they have warm clothes or some way to keep their heat in this brutally cold terrain. Whether they're entering it for the first time or the campaign is starting, having helpful magic items, like the Ring of Warmth, will be important.
However, you should also consider that some players want to try out a race that doesn't need to worry about warmth. It's up to you to suggest some that would fit with the theme of your campaign, though options like the Warforged, a Triton, or even an undead race would be fun to suggest to your players.
4 Build Cities, Towns, And Villages
The Arctic doesn't have to be a completely desolate place, though it certainly isn't the most inhabited; regardless, you shouldn't let that stop you from building both small and large settlements. Maybe some groups have adapted to the weather and are comfortable.
Or, you can dive into the fantasy aspect a little bit deeper and explore how magic may come into play to provide a warm and comfortable city in the midst of a frozen wasteland. The undead could inhabit small towns and villages, though whether they're friendly or hostile is completely up to you.
3 Vary Your Arctic Biomes
The Arctic isn't just made up of tundras of snow that your players need to wade through, and you can easily experiment with and implement different biomes to offer your players new and interesting experiences. Try working with a densely packed forest, where your players can't see what's waiting around the bend for them or what may be weaving through the trees right alongside them.
There are mountain ranges that need to be climbed or caves with so many treasures and cursed items that your players can find. It doesn't have to stop there, and you can explore as many options are you want and offer your players a unique and nuanced experience.
2 Use The Ice To Build The World
Given that your campaign is taking place in a very harsh environment, it only makes sense that, at some point, your players would get to see a glance at the environment that came before. You can use ice like glaciers or lakes to your advantage in this case by having them act somewhat as a way to capture a moment trapped in time.
Your players could come across a village that has been frozen in time or perhaps an enormous ancient dragon that has been trapped in the ice. This could be a very interesting way to start an interesting plot for your characters, especially if you were to introduce something like a lich's den, freshly exposed after centuries of being trapped in ice.
1 Dip Into The Underdark
When the surface is too harsh, where else do people tend to go but the underground? An Arctic campaign could give you the perfect excuse to start exploring the world of the Underdark, whether that's how it stands now or however you decide to homebrew it.
Of course, spending the entirety of your campaign in the Underdark won't make it an Arctic campaign, though that doesn't mean you should ignore it. The Underdark isn't necessarily one large region underground, but you can have small pockets of it scattered throughout as destinations that your players can visit as a break from the winter world above.