Snowshoes

[Aramis]

Every char should get skis or SS (can be improvised from few spruce twigs) in winter. How get the njerp there in the first place and why is he so pantsy in winter after few steps?

[Råttan]

I haven´t even seen a snowshoe-mod. That would be nice...

[Petike]

Every char should get skis or SS (can be improvised from few spruce twigs) in winter. How get the njerp there in the first place and why is he so pantsy in winter after few steps?

As someone who's made attempts to manufacture snowshoes at home, in the most traditional way possible, I'm also willing to speak up for snowshoes. Though we might need to look into potential historical accuracy issues (I know URW isn't historical, but it is Finnish-inspired), I think snowshoes would be a wonderful addition to the skis.

They'd be slower (basically average walking speed, no speed bonus), but maybe they could help diminish a player character's fatigue from walking in deep snow. That seems like a logical in-game justification for them, at least as far as I'm concerned.

Concerning what cultures you could find them in and buy them from, I think it's rather predictable they'd be the most common among the Northern Region tribes. I don't know how common or uncommon skiis are among all of the cultures in the current game, but if there's already some variation in the quantity of ski usage by the different cultures, it could make sense for there to be some variation in snowshoe usage as well.

[Saukko]

As someone's who made attempts to manufacture snowshoes at home, in the most traditional way possible, I'm also willing to speak up for snowshoes. Though we might need to look into potential historical accuracy issues (I know URW isn't historical, but it is Finnish-inspired), I think snowshoes would be a wonderful addition to the skis.

The ancient Finns are likely to have used a sort of a swampshoe to walk on swampy ground, and this type could be used as a snowshoe as well. You can find a picture of a swampshoe and swampskis here - as you can see the swampshoe bears strong resemblance to the "bearpaw" type of snowshoe, but would carry less weight, being more open design to avoid getting stuck in a swamp. The gap between a swampshoe and a proper snowshoe looks like it's quite short, but it does seem that the type of snowshoe that developed in North America was never really developed in Europe. But it would not be completely anachronistic.

[Petike]

As someone's who made attempts to manufacture snowshoes at home, in the most traditional way possible, I'm also willing to speak up for snowshoes. Though we might need to look into potential historical accuracy issues (I know URW isn't historical, but it is Finnish-inspired), I think snowshoes would be a wonderful addition to the skis.

The ancient Finns are likely to have used a sort of a swampshoe to walk on swampy ground, and this type could be used as a snowshoe as well. You can find a picture of a swampshoe and swampskis here - as you can see the swampshoe bears strong resemblance to the "bearpaw" type of snowshoe, but would carry less weight, being more open design to avoid getting stuck in a swamp. The gap between a swampshoe and a proper snowshoe looks like it's quite short, but it does seem that the type of snowshoe that developed in North America was never really developed in Europe. But it would not be completely anachronistic.

Very interesting, thank you ! Especially for the link.

Looking a bit further back than the Iron Age, at the European Neolithic, we also have some evidence of "ice-shoe" footwear accessories, created as a means to prevent skidding while walking on icy or frozen-over surfaces.

One such type, a sort of detachable outer cover for the simple straw-filled shoes underneath, was found among the equipment and clothing that belonged to "Ötzi", the remains of the famous Chalcolithic era man found in the Alps back in the early 1990s. You can have a look here, I've put a timestamp on the spot where his clothing and footwear is discussed. (A thing that amused me was that his outermost layer of clothing was a cloak made of grass. Reminded me immediately of the cloaks made from nettle fibers we have in URW. )