It's Friday, we got another foot on snow here. I guess winter is not ready to go into the gentle good night. It got me to thinking (as little as possible of course) about weather in your game. Do you bother with it? Is it important to gameplay? Do you have rules about weather?
I will admit I have no love for the Harn weather charts Rob likes to torment me with on occasion. He tells me what the weather is even if I am two hundred feet beneath ground...dead. I only use weather in rare times. Most of the time I might use it to set a mood. Develop a foreboding atmosphere or have beautiful weather, birds singing in juxtaposition of a villagers being slaughtered by monsters. Like an Enya song playing while a sweet grandma villager gets mauled by a werewolf (tip of the hat to Zevon).
On even more rare occasions I will have the weather effect the players within the rules in extreme circumstances. Wearing metal armor in the desert is not a great combination. Wearing next to nothing in a blizzard is going to make it difficult to much of anything. Of course the solutions to these problems is fairly simple, but not observing them could be a catastrophe for the party.
So I was wondering what people are using for their campaign concerning weather. If you have tables or something that you use at the table let me know I'm interested to hear what's going on at other gaming tables.
Oh, and almost forgot. Have a great Friday. I hope to get some good gaming work done this weekend.
Weather has always been a plot device or something to add atmosphere in my games.
ReplyDeleteI know really I should be rolling on banks of detailed charts, but it's too much hassle.
My attitude is - very broadly - is the weather's awful no-one's going to go adventuring anyway ;)
I usually only mention weather if it 1) it makes sense that it would have a mechanical effect on game play (i.e. armor in a desert or chainmail bikini in the artic) 2) is useful to set mood.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be interesting to include weather as a random encounter (i.e. heavy rains limiting movement and potentially causing mud slides) or getting struck by lightining while riding about on horseback in storm in full plate.
I use an excel sheet with all 365 days listed out, and have some simple random formulates to calculate the weather in advance - so I have a year's worth of weather for the main campaign area!
ReplyDeleteI find as I cross off days, weeks and months on the campaign calendar, it's easy just to cross reference the chart (when relevant) and make the weather part of the game.
It's not very detailed - general temperature, wind and precipitation.
I have used everything from the charts from the Greyhawk box set to actual weather reports. I would usually pick a location in the world similar to wherever the adventure was happening and look up a few weeks of weather from that place. Presto! Instant weather tracking!
ReplyDeleteI like both Grendelwulf's & Beedo's methods. Good stuff.
ReplyDeleteI usually make a passing mention of it, but sometimes forget. It rarely has an effect on gameplay. The exception is when I've run ocean voyages. It seems like then I describe the weather more often and it matters more when I do.
I used to just make it up as I went, but about a yea ror so ago I developed and began using random charts. These are region and time-of-year-specific and I roll for every day that I think about it. The charts are such that a result might be "3 days of rain" or "2 days of snow, accumulation 4d6 inches" so I don't have to actually roll everyday.
ReplyDeleteWhen our current campaign started, the party set off to explore a ruin and on day two of a three-day overland jaunt I rolled up a late-season snowstorm. It really added to the atmosphere and provided a nice added bit of antagonism for the low-level party. Some of my players are survivor-types at heart, so they a tleast two of them really enjoyed planning for and overcoming the weather.
As long as it effects the players badly I use snow, heavy rain or fog so others (bad guys/zombies etc.....) can creep up on them.
ReplyDeleteMy simple weather system: http://beyondtheblackgate.blogspot.com/2009/06/talk-about-weatherwith-your-players.html
ReplyDeleteThe best weather system I've seen (though I haven't read Al's yet) was proposed by Talysman:
ReplyDeletehttp://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2011/03/hows-weather.html
That's brilliant, Carter, I think if I ever felt inclined to bother with "random weather" in my campaign that's the simple route I'd take. Thanks for sharing that.
ReplyDeleteI only mention the weather if it's relevant or will have some sort of impact on the players, in which case I make it up on the spot.
ReplyDeleteUh yeah...I pretty much make up the weather as it occurs to me to do so. Just like in real life. ;)
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