Weather: How much does it matter?

[Hand of Evil]

The bigger question, that does fall into weather is zones as this will reflect in armor and type of plants (wine, etc.) that may be found in the area. Size of your campaign area can then cross over into others, changing the enviroment.

 

[Hussar]

The bigger question, that does fall into weather is zones as this will reflect in armor and type of plants (wine, etc.) that may be found in the area. Size of your campaign area can then cross over into others, changing the enviroment.

Well yes, but, that presumes that your campaign world is built with that in mind. For example I played Scarred Lands quite extensively and the design of SL from the perspective of a functioning world is atrocious. It's terrible. There's just no way that it would work. So, it can really depend on how much detail you want to go into when building worlds.

 

[billd91]

Well yes, but, that presumes that your campaign world is built with that in mind. For example I played Scarred Lands quite extensively and the design of SL from the perspective of a functioning world is atrocious. It's terrible. There's just no way that it would work. So, it can really depend on how much detail you want to go into when building worlds.

This is one reason using real maps can be very helpful in world building. The geography, including the local flora and fauna, are all plausible.

 

[billd91]

Just like random encounters, I roll up weather in advance. This allows me to give correct information if a pc attempts to predict weather and in the (rare) case of weather resulting in conditions that actually affect encounters to look up the pertinent rules. Most of the time, though, it's just a piece of fluff that helps me in describing scenes.

I try to do this too. In fact, using the old Greyhawk weather tables, I usually generate a month at a time and print it out. I put it with the calendar in which I keep notes and timelines and, voila, I've got the current weather and the forecast for characters savvy in that kind of thing.

 

[Stormonu]

Weather is certainly more important in games that are, for example, based on the sea - where at the very least the wind plays an important factor. It's less relevant in a dungeon - but I'll add that just like [MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION] stated, I've surprised one adventuring group when the limestone cavern/dungeon they were exploring started flooding and they got unexpectedly washed into a cordoned-off area of said dungeon.

Personally, I find it fun, if I have about 10 or 15 minutes time, to thing about and generate weather ahead for the next week in the game. It's thrown a few curveballs into what might have been a rather hum-drum "go into the wilderness and slay some monsters" adventures (including one close shave with a hurricane and another where the party missed stopping part of a BBEG's plot because they decided not to travel to the next town during a torrential downpour).

 

[Hand of Evil]

Well yes, but, that presumes that your campaign world is built with that in mind. For example I played Scarred Lands quite extensively and the design of SL from the perspective of a functioning world is atrocious. It's terrible. There's just no way that it would work. So, it can really depend on how much detail you want to go into when building worlds.

And that is a big problem to me. This means trade good, careers, look of homes, clothing, monsters, wars, etc. I know, fantasy.

 

[Umbran]

This means trade good, careers, look of homes, clothing, monsters, wars, etc.

Note that most of those are actually results of climate, not weather. Most of this gets easily handled by just saying, "This area has climate like X-place on Earth."

What remains is then the question of whether the GM is really going to bother reporting on the weather such that it conforms closely to the stated climate. I don't expect most games have sufficient weather reports to really contradict the stated climate.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Note that most of those are actually results of climate, not weather. Most of this gets easily handled by just saying, "This area has climate like X-place on Earth."

What remains is then the question of whether the GM is really going to bother reporting on the weather such that it conforms closely to the stated climate. I don't expect most games have sufficient weather reports to really contradict the stated climate.

yea, that is why I like the almanac lots of information at your finger tips.

 

[delericho]

It doesn't matter... except when it matters.

That is, most of the time I'll throw in a reference to the weather when setting the scene, but otherwise ignore it. No big deal.

But, every so often, the PCs will engage in a fight in a thunderstorm, or in heavy fog, or... in which case, the weather will serve to add an environmental factor of some sort to the combat.

 

[3catcircus]

I've tried to spend some time regarding weather. Most of the time, the players either won't notice, or won't care unless you are trying to use weather as a challenge - in which case they'll likely complain instead of viewing it like they would a lock or a trap or a dungeon hazard.

In the past I've used Weathermaster and it has been a great tool - unfortunately, I'm fairly certain the one-man company that developed it is out of business.