DIFFICULT TERRAIN
Terrain types that cost extra movement to cross — mud, rubble, deep snow, water — making the map's surface a tactical variable rather than uniform floor.
- SOLO-DEV COST LOW
- TIMING TURN-BASED
- COMMON IN TACTICS · CRPG · STRATEGY
Tabletop-derived tactics games are the natural home: Baldur's Gate 3 and D&D charge double movement through difficult squares, Into the Breach uses forests and water to alter both movement and damage interactions, and wargames since chess variants have priced terrain. Designers use difficult terrain to give maps texture that matters: a swamp between you and the objective is a real choice (slog through slowly, exposed, or go around and lose a turn), and area-denial abilities that create difficult terrain (grease, ice, caltrops) give support characters a spatial control role. Key decisions: whether terrain costs are visible at a glance (crucial — hidden movement costs feel like the game cheating), whether flying and special movement ignore it (creating unit niches), and whether terrain can be created and removed dynamically during combat. Pitfall: difficult terrain sprinkled decoratively rather than placed to create routing dilemmas is pure friction — every patch should exist to make some specific decision harder.