Hello /tg/.
I'm going to be DMing a campaign in the desert for the first time, and as it's something I've never done before, I'd like to ask you for some ideas for random encounters/situations a party might encounter out in the desert.
The setting itself is a mixture of both sandy and rocky desert, so if possible some situations for both would be nice.
Desert artwork would also be appreciated.
You could always have like, a sinkhole open to ruins of some forgotten civilization from a time when the land was fertile. Finding water is going to be a daily chore, so you'll have ample opportunity to throw random ways to get water in, like cacti or tubers or what have you. These could include fantastic things if it's a campaign with that sort of thing. Desert winds and sun are ample energy sources for all kinds of fun things as well.
>>48282098
You can use Scorpions, Rattlesnakes, Spiders, Javelina (wild boars from the southwestern US), Vultures, Gila Monsters, Coyotes, and other desert creatures.
Heat exhaustion and water supply obviously. Water sources tend to have lots of animals and who knows what hanging around.
It can and does get cold at night during the winter.
Perhaps they stumble upon ruins of an ancient native desert-dwelling society.
>Anasazi ruins in central Arizona.
>>48283094
>>48282098
>>48285126
>>48282098
Nothing -as in they do not see anything for miles, maybe they travel across a couple dunes a day, and you describe the mountain in the distance getting slightly larger as the days go by.
Then, when the party settles in and begins prepping for the long haul and let their guard down, that's when they start seeing...things around the camp as they go to sleep. Have whoever is doing guard duty to do some kind of willpower check. If he fails, he drifts off to sleep, and the party awakens with no horses, food, or water, and a mass of tracks leading off in a direction perpendicular to where they were going, to force the party to decide if they should keep going to their destination, or track down their supplies before they die of thirst.
>>48282098
A strangely convincing fellow selling "slightly used" camels in an incongruous location. You feel strongly compelled to buy a camel from him.
>>48282098
Dune's random enough?
