I've decided to continue the idea I had in my concept RPG game and bring it to The Crawl. The world, posted prior to this, is divided into four major kingdoms.
One in the North, home to fair skinned, cold climate adapted people, the Western Costal region home to tan and warm climate people, the mid-land desert area which is home to people of a dry hot climate, ranging from tan and dark, and finally the Eastern islands, home to darker skinned and hot, humid climate people.
Boarder towns between these nations tend to be home to hybrids of the four major kingdoms, and tend to be more open to strangers, but as you get deeper into each kingdom, relations become a factor.
After that, each kingdom is broken down into three social classes: low, middle and upper. When creating your character, you'll be prompted much like in the
Concept RPG, to select which kingdom and family your character has come from. The combination of kingdom and family determines your character's starting stats and skills.
For example, lower class tends to be more physical while upper class leans more to social and intelligence. Middle class would be the middle of the spectrum in most regards. Spiritual skill tends to span across evenly while combat tends to be a low-middle class range.
Game wise I've decided to drop the idea of hunger and thirst, as that just drags things down in the end, and I'd like other challenges then basic needs. Disease, poison and curses would be challenge enough then worrying about starving and drying up.
However I do think I'll keep the weather and climate system I had planned. Depending on which kingdom your player comes from, they'll fair differently in each environment. A Northern will experience difficulty in the hot mid-lands, energy and agility will be affected, as would an islander in the North. The western kingdom can more diversely migrate due to its average temperature, but they would also get a penalty in both hot and cold climates, although halved that of the others.
To negate, or reduce the affects of the climate on the character, in addition to armor players also have a clothing equipment slot. Wearing the proper clothing per climate can help negate or reduce the penalties incurred. Heavy clothing for cold climates, while not required by the inhabitant, would benefit a person from the hotter climates.
Only extreme weather would lead to actual damage/death. I'm not certain if this will be a common trend, as in weather event, or more localized like deep caves.
With the four major kingdoms being fairly different, they also have various trade goods which they are dependant on the other to produce, mostly foods and raw materials.
