The cold
How the cold gets at you, what keeps it off, and what being numb with cold means.
There's no bar for the cold. Out in the open, the cold slows down how quickly you get your energy back. That's your chill. A chill of 30% means you rest 30% slower than you would somewhere warm.
In spring and summer you only feel it in the evening and after dark. Once the year turns cold, late in autumn and all through winter, you feel it in the daytime too, and wind makes it worse. Past a chill of 40% it does more than slow you down. Your energy drains away instead of coming back, and once it's gone you're numb with cold. Numb, you walk at 75% of your usual pace and your work takes 40% longer, until you warm up.
The cold never takes your health. Nobody dies of it, so it's never going to catch you out while you're logged off. It just makes you slow and sends you looking for a fire.
What keeps it off#
| Where you are | The cold |
|---|---|
| By a lit fire or stove | None at all, and you rest quicker |
| Down a mine | None, you're out of the wind |
| Under a roof, spring and summer | None |
| Under a roof in the cold months, with no fire | Some gets in. A roof with open sides keeps out the least, a room closed in with walls keeps out more, and a finished house keeps out the most |
| Out in the open | All of it, less what your clothes keep out |
Warm clothes keep out a share of the cold, and a hearty meal keeps out 50% more while you're fed from it. The warmth you need to keep all of it out goes up with the cold and the wind: 100 in mild weather, about 140 on a still day in the deep of winter, and as much as 200 in a blizzard. In the deep of winter, a full set of hide (warmth 50) gives you about twenty minutes of work out in the open by day before you need to warm up, and about half that after dark. Knitted wool over hide (warmth 72) gets you through the day and a good while into the night. Full furs (about 98) keep you comfortable day and night, and only a blizzard gets through them.
How tight a house is counts as well. Walls all round are worth having over a roof on posts, and finishing a house, with round logs, chinking, trim and shutters, makes it the tightest of all. A room only counts as closed in if you can't walk out of it without going through a wall, a window or a door, and up to 120 tiles is a room.
When you first arrive#
For your first 2 h of play the cold only gets at you by about half, easing off to all of it by the end. That gives you time to get a coat sewn and a fire going before winter gets the full measure of you.
In winter, carry a log or two and a couple of flat stones so you can put down a campfire wherever you are. A fire is the quickest way to stop the cold.