Weather: How much does it matter?

[Gilladian]

One reason my DnD campaign world is set on a pseudo-earth is so I can directly steal climate, weather, geology and geography (with suitable fantastical embellishments and modifications) any time I need semi-accurate info. I've got a world weather almanac and a world atlas at my fingertips whenever I do world-building or plan long travel or even just build random encounter tables for a region. I think it really helps my players feel that the world is alive and "real". Then again, if I want a thunderstorm to happen, it happens. Fog? Flooding, etc....? on Dm's command! Realism is great, right up until it isn't.

But yeah, I still have trouble remembering that it might be raining or muddy, or cold and frosty, any given day the PCs go out the door.

 

[haakon1]

Weather matters three ways:
1) If it's part of the story. For example, "Flood Season", a WOTC adventure, very much depends on the weather. And I remember an old Oriental Adventures adventure where a mountain blizzard traps the PC's at the Inn of the Globe Fish with an assassination about to go down.

2) If it's about setting the atmosphere, as explained above. E.g., it was a dark and stormy night . . .

3) If it's randomly determined and done well, it helps with verisimilitude. Whenever my PC's are outdoors, I'll tell them the weather. It helps remind the players of the season and the geography. I like my players to need to prepare for wilderness dangers as I think the logistics of D&D and "be prepared" are fun . . . caught in one mountain blizzard, and you'll bet cold weather outfits, winter blankets, and tents are going in the Portable Hole, and spells like Leomund's Tiny Hut are going in the spellbooks.

 

[haakon1]

Just like random encounters, I roll up weather in advance. . . . Most of the time, though, it's just a piece of fluff that helps me in describing scenes.

Exactly my approach.

As for climate, I use Greyhawk, so the work is already done for me, even if it's a bit odd in places.

When thinking about climate, I think about my analogy: the Bramblewood Forest is like Vermont, southern Bissel is like the drier parts of interior northern California, Cauldron region is like the Malay peninsula and Cauldron itself is like the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia.

It's fun to look at actual climate classifications:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Köppen_climate_classification