Mawson who? (and some first cut extreme weather FMA)

> Sir Douglas Mawson is one of the most famour Australian Antarctic
explorers 
> and one of the best known Antarctice explorers becuase he was a
pioneer and 
> one of the few that managed not to get himself killed in the process
;)

Ah, explains then why I never heard of 'im I 
guess. :) 

Note: You get more notoriety out of dying or at 
least eating a few members of your expidition. 
 
> lost one crew member and the supplies down a crevasse and another died
on 
> the haul back (possibly from Vitamin A poisoning from eating the
livers of 
> husky dogs).

Note to self: If eating Husky, avoid the liver. Or 
at least consume in moderation. 

 Mawson survived though after a legendary solo journey during 
> (during which he had to haul himself on the end of a rope out of a
deep 
> crevasse). This could be Aussie bias, but its one of the great polar 
> stories of survival ;)

Is there a book? 

 Later on he lead the first few Australian/NZ expeditions to 
> Antarctica and set-up our territorial claims and our first permanent
base 
> was named after him in 1954.

Like NZ needed to worry about anyone 
encroaching on Antarctic areas! Who would? 
Penguins? Maybe a few crazy Laplanders or an 
Inuit from Northern Canada. It's tooo damn 
cold there even for a Canuck!
 
> There you go more than you ever needed to know about Mawson.... which
is 
> volumes more than I'd know about Canadian Arctic explorers (apart from
the 
> Inuit and Northern passage sagas).

I say again, is there a book or website I should 
visit? Though your quick precis was interesting, 
I'd love to read a full account. 
 
> I'm going to be good and let that one go ;)

First time for everything, I'm told. 
 
>  >See, that's the Scots stock.
> 
> He's Irish decent (can't you tell? ) ;)

Fulton? Find some of them in Scotland, you will. 
Besides, we're mostly all Celts underneath 
anyway. Hairy Picts if you go far enough back.
 
>  >And now, to gracefully bring this back OT, do
>  >we have environmental rules for FMAS yet?
>  >Maybe Beth's climatic experiences make her a
>  >good candidate for writing some "winter" mods?
> 
> Definitely slow down response times and degrade quality levels unless
fully 
> trained and equipped for the conditions - hot or cold - and then there
is 
> associated encumbrance if dealing with low or toxic conditions. Just
as a 
> start, I'd also give suitable terrain modifiers to to reflect snow on
the 
> ground/slush or heat effects at the other extreme.

Okay, let's try this:

Troops in cold weather gear (heavy duty cold, 
not just slightly chilly): treat as encumbered. 

Very hot and very cold weather causes 
fatigue/exhaustion twice as fast. 

Troops who have not had an acclimatization 
period should be considered 1 Q level lower 
until they acclimatize. In a campaign sense, you 
should probably roll a Q die for each at 
scenario start. On a 1, they've done something 
dumb like getting heat stroke or frostbite and 
are out of the scenario. Not likely, but you will 
lose a few in a big formation until they 
acclimatize (probably a month or more?). 

Snow conditions:

Snowing - LoS can be blocked out beyond 10-
50m depending on the thickness of the snow 
(whiteout or full blizzard is nasty). 

Snow on ground - Knee high. Drop 1 
movement die type. Waist high, Drop 2 
movement die types. Shoulder high - what are 
you thinking? 

Snowshoes let you move on top of the snow at 
normal rates once you are familiar with them. 

Skis let you move on top of snow (or through 
it) at rates equivalent to normal movement, but 
you can also go up to twice as fast if you sprint 
or three times as fast if the downhill slope is 
available. 

Snow offers soft cover (concealment more than 
cover, but it can make it hard to tell where to 
shoot) if it is at least knee high. 

Snow will often cover holes, small pits, mines, 
roads/tracks, and small free-standing water 
(maybe over the ice) thus creating possible 
hazards. This could be represented by hidden 
counters scattered around the board. Come 
within 2 or 3" of a real hazard counter (as 
opposed to a dummy), and you might have to 
reaction check at +1 or suffer a result - get 
wet, fall in a pit, whatever. A bad thing to 
happen is to get wet, then get cold, then die of 
hypothermia. 

How's that for a quick first stab from a cold-
worlder?