Hurricanes in your Game World?

[mythusmage]

In a game I had a high level druid summon one on the neighboring kingdom cause they insulted him.

But also living in Florida I don't need them in my game.

We had a joke a while ago. From an old White Wolf game the Technocracy had stopped all the Hurricanes from hitting Tampa/orlando area cause that was there base of operations. The Werewolves kept trying to summon them but would always be foiled by the Mages. Last year and apperently this year they are winning.

It is a wonder to me how poorly we comprehend the world we live in.

 

[Clueless]

Mom told us of those days; of forests being torn up, of buildings tossed through the air. You are talking of teratons of tnt.

Sounds like you're describing something nearing a Cat 4 or Cat 5. It also sounds more like what you would commonly see with a tornado than a 'cane. So its possible the storm system she was seeing had some cyclones involves. Most 'cane's don't reach that level of power, so more than likely your mom was describing a handful of very very bad ones as opposed to the usual ones that may sweep through an area. If a location was hit like that monthly or more often - there'd be no one living there.

A cane's damage tends to be worse depending on where you are when it hits, and how much rain it drops. Initial damage is wind and storm surge - the ocean reaching up and trying to punch down everything in front of it. That's usually the really nasty part for folks living right there, and usually the reason why people evacuate. The buildings on their coast are about to be under an impressive amount of water and subject to flying debris. Storm surge is how last year the Outer Banks got a new island (ocean cut a long one in half).

Secondary damage comes from flooding. That's the part that can take forever to do and even a cat 1 has been known to do. When a storm just *sits* on you, raining non stop until rivers overflow, and in some spectacular cases near where I am - entire cities end up underwater for weeks. Flash flooding may be a risk as well depending on how far inland it comes, and how quickly your coast line goes mountianous.

Also remember - without the warm water of an ocean backing it, a cane fades out fast. A curved out coast line is in for it worse than a flat one. A penninsula is worse than a singular coast. And an island is just screwed.

... if you can't guess, the tagline may say I'm from Sigil. I'm in North Carolina. What 'canes don't reach out to smack Florida, are aiming for us.

For a game solution to this? You're going to want to control the storm surge the most. And that takes a collection of wizards/druids/clerics with walls of force, and you're a good way towards dealing with the most destructive aspects. A single druid keeping the winds from hitting over a certain speed over the city - and you have the other half handled. And a good city architect and planner can help them do that with most effeciency. It doesn't take as much power to simply hunker down and wait it out as you'd think.

 

[elforcelf]

In Fantasy world you could have worse than cat.five ones. elforcelf.

 

[Clueless]

Certainly, (though cat 5's don't cap out). But it'll have to take a Lot of time to develop or be a combination of two other strong storms. Rare and with warning I'd say, so time to prepare or run. If those are the *common* storm in a DM's game - I'd be moving with all the major populations... to the mountians. I couldn't see a strong population of people developing in areas that routinely get socked like that.

 

[Tonguez]

Your right Clueless that most Hurricaines don't do the big cat 5 damage but then those don't get the stories told either.
The Pacific Islands (including Guam) get hit by huricanes every year or so and most don't get stories but the ones that do (and which would be worthy of 'gaming' in) are the big legendary storms the ones that do tear up trees dump loads of water and toss buildings around like paper

 

[Teemu]

How many hurricanes or typhoons have you been through? The closest I've ever come was when I was an embryo in my mother; when my father was stationed on Guam. Mom told us of those days; of forests being torn up, of buildings tossed through the air. You are talking of teratons of tnt. Even the most puissant of epic dweomercrafters can handle, at best, mere kilotons. A wizard deals with power. A hurricane is power.

Stop a hurricane? No. Destroy a hurricane? Not hardly. Divert a hurricane? Now there's an idea. But to do that requires more knowledge of how weather works than most wizards will ever possess.

Get the gods involved? Might work, but it would require someone more potent than a local storm god such as Enlil or Thor. For you are talking after all of a weather system that could swallow Iraq entire, and have room left over for Syria and Iran.

Well, I've been through zero hurricanes... Don't often see hurricanes in Finland...

But anyhow, control weather can do away with hurricanes in a 2-mile radius. House Lyrandar's most powerful and senior members surely can use dragonshard focus items to replicate these effects in a larger area. I mean, if they can create an entire paradise-island in a cold climate, protecting one metropolis from the occasional hurricane shouldn't be impossible.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I actually had a hurricane that started up three sessions ago. Its only real role in the campaign was as a harbinger for a Cthuloid god-thing from the undreamt depths, and to drive the PCs into a dungeon to stay out of the storm, but it filled both roles superbly.

What I'd really like to do is have a hurricane (or other extreme weather, maybe a horrific blizzard) force them to ground in a Spelljammer campaign. And then have something nasty on the ground...

 

[Renshai]

The upcoming Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Assault on Stormbringer Castle has an angry Storm Giant hurling Hurricane after Hurricane at a city that has angered it...

The coastal town of Argalis has been struck by three gale-force hurricanes in the last three weeks. While the first two storms succeeded in devastating the town, the final added insult to injury by destroying more lives than property. Argalis' leaders know a local storm giant called Stozari Stormbringer sent the hurricanes against them for failure to pay her annual "good weather" tribute. Argalis' leaders want an end to the storms, and they've decided the best solution is to eliminate the giantess herself. They need heroes willing to storm her castle and kill this storm tyrant once and for all!

 

[Eye Tyrant]

Not to sound High or Mighty folks, but I keep reading how this or that spell can protect a 2 or 3 mile radius from a hurricane... Sure, that particular spot might be protected, but hurricanes can cover HUNDREDs of miles. I am still of the mind that only the most Epic of spells can dissipate a hurricane.

 

[mythusmage]

Well, I've been through zero hurricanes... Don't often see hurricanes in Finland...

So instead of hurricanes you have Russians and Swedes. Don't sound like a fair trade to me.

But anyhow, control weather can do away with hurricanes in a 2-mile radius. House Lyrandar's most powerful and senior members surely can use dragonshard focus items to replicate these effects in a larger area. I mean, if they can create an entire paradise-island in a cold climate, protecting one metropolis from the occasional hurricane shouldn't be impossible.

Think of a hurricane as like a house. An area 4 miles in diameter would then be a shoebox. In Flashman at the Charge a British general studied a map of Russia, then turned to his colleagues and observed, "Big, isn't it?". Even with dragonshard focus items there aren't enough wizards in Sharn to keep anything larger than an anemic category one away.

Them suckers is big.

A hurricane really is not just the area with the hurricane force winds. It is also a huge band of winds and rain that can cover hundreds of thousands of square miles. It is also the subsidiary storms that can extend over an area of a million or more square miles. When we say that a hurricane has come ashore at a particular location, that means the eye of the storm is expected to pass over that spot. The rest of the storm system encompasses much more territory.

Back many years ago a rare event occurred around here. Through the right combination of events an Eastern Pacific hurricane went up the Gulf of California. By the time it reached the Sea of Cortez in the northern gulf it had downgraded to a tropical storm. But it was still strong enough to cause extensive damage when it came ashore at the mouth of the Colorado. Though there are mountains between San Diego and Imperial Counties we still got a lot of rain from that storm. Rain and high winds that did a lot of damage. Had the waters of the Gulf of California been a few degrees warmer that year the story could've been very different.

We like to think we have mastered this world, but natural phenomena such as storms, earthquakes, and fires have a way of pissing on our conceits.