Traveling over ice and having one character with exhaustion level 2 (speed halved) slowed the party to a dangerous level. In regular conditions, the Player’s Handbook (PHB) tells us you can travel 24 miles in a day. In difficult conditions, however, “you move at half speed in difficult terrain – moving 1 foot in difficult terrain costs 2 feet of speed – so you can cover half the normal distance in a minute, an hour, a day. (PHB p.182)” I reduced the speed furthermore because they are traveling on ice without proper equipment. The players found me rough, but I am being generous, considering.

Rock the Boat & Sinking Feeling - GM Log

As I mention in the episode, we play in “Hard mode.” What I mean is we are in a Gritty Realism setting. There are a couple of rules and mechanics that are added to the game for a more realistic and, let’s be honest, hard feel. The result is also a less high-fantasy world and more like a survival game. Resource management, be it spells and ability as well as food rations and ammunition become more important than a regular D&D game.

Hit the Books - GM Log

On different forums and other podcasts, I’ve often heard that the medicine check is the most useless skill of all, and it is often shunned by players. I had never realized it was so and it came as a big surprise. One of the reasons I believe people think the medicine skill is useless is because they do not see how it can be used in-game. The Player’s Handbook is not very inspiring, telling us that a successful check can stabilize a dying creature and diagnose an illness. Xanathar’s Guide to Everything’s added a couple of ideas for checks but the skill remained a bit bland, in my opinion, so I get the unpopularity.