The Desert Environment

Review by William A. Barton

Written by William H. Keith, Jr.
Gamelords Ltd, 18616 Grosbeak Terrace, Gaithersburg, MD 20879
Release: 1984
Catalog No. 1988
Price: $6.95
Complexity: Intermediate
Solitaire Suitability: None

The Desert Environment is the third in Gamelords' series of environment supplements for use with Game Designers' Workshop's (GDW) Traveller Science Fiction Role-Playing Game (SFRPG). It follows the same 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" booklet format as its predecessors, though it is a bit longer and printed on a higher grade paper; thus it is priced a bit higher at $6.95. Still, the amount of material of use in gaming in a desert setting-not only for Traveller, but for other role-playing games as wellmakes it well worth the price.

Desert begins by introducing the new skill Desert Survival as a cascade of the regular Traveller Survival skill, and then goes on to note how other skills in the game are altered in the desert environment. it also adds rules for endurance loss in the desert with notes on water requirements and protective clothing. The second section of the book describes the various types of deserts and the variations in terrain found within each-from buttes and mesas to oases and dunes. it also provides rules for generating desert terrain and the temperature gradients found in each, based on Traveller universal planetary profile number. "Survival in the Desert" is a chapter of guidelines on finding water, determining waterhole conditions and quality, and other rules for referee and players who wish to see how well adventurers will fare in the wastes. it even shows how to build a solar still-handy to know in real life, too, should the need ever arise.

Mirages, sunburn, heat exhaustion, flash floods, and sandstorms are among the hazards covered in the "Dangers in the Desert" section. Several useful items of equipment from Desert Survival Suits (Dune fans read "Stillsuits") to Solar Vaporators and five brief adventure possibilities round out the package.

Overall, I find The Desert Environment an excellent piece of work. A Gamemaster (GM) of just about any RPG can have a lot of fun running his players through some of the situations presented in this book. And the vast variations in desert types possible on different planets (and even on Earth) can allow the supplement to be used over and over without exhausting all its possibilities.

Like previous Gamelord environment supplements, this one is user-friendly. It is well organized, easy to use, and has a very adequate table of contents. And it's very complete. About the only thing lacking that I'd personally like to see is a series of already generated encounter and event tables, similar to the samples given for the hammada (rough) terrain. Traveller refs shouldn't have much trouble creating such tables. GMs not familiar with that game but who'd like to use this booklet with another system might. I could also have wished for longer scenario outlines to use with this supplement, though this lack is alleviated by a full-length desert adventure for Travellers that Gamelords released at the same time as this book.

Considering the popularity in science fiction of desert worlds and environments, I'm surprised that no one thought to create a supplement of this kind before, for Traveller or for any other game. It's certainly more innovative and useful than most of the Traveller items released by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) in recent years.

My recommendation? If you intend to run a game that will take your players to a desert clime and you haven't lived in one all your life, buy The Desert Environment. You won't be sorry.

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