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GameMastery Guide / Adventures / Wilderness / Environment

Plains

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 223
Plains are large swaths of flat terrain with few trees. Several types of plains exist in different climates: prairie, savanna, steppe, and the like. The most common place for people to live, plains serve as farmlands, enabling the growth of culture on a huge number of levels. Because plains are so valuable, they are frequently contested, and those who rule the plains defend their turf ferociously. Because they are relatively flat and easy to traverse, plains also make convenient battlefields, as they afford the room needed for large-scale maneuvers. Lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, irrigation ditches, and other natural and man-made features divide plains and serve as impediments to travel.

The following sections of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook can help flesh out plains terrain. Plains terrain is described here. With few terrain features to shield them, plains are often beset by high winds, causing dust storms and even tornadoes. Grassfires are also a danger (treat as forest fires), and they can cause normally placid herd animals to stampede, effectively granting them the stampede and trample special abilities.