Weather in Campaigns

[billd91]

I've often used the Greyhawk tables. I pre-gen a lot of weather and jot them on my campaign calendar. Then, I can seamlessly handle weather-related issues as they come up. The PCs had to lead a bunch of escaped slaves/refugees out of the Drachensgrab Mountains in a multi-day downpour. Lightning strikes, mudslides, a fight against pursuers in bad weather - it was a good way to add texture to the situation.

 

[haakon1]

I think it adds "character" and "reality-seeming" to the setting. I roll 2d10's for each day. The first is cloud cover: 1 is infinitely blue, 10 is overcast.

The second is windiness: 1 is still, 10 is raging wind.

Combine the two dice with the season and terrain, and the result for the day before, and I get an idea of the weather. For example, in a Western Europe-type climate, 1-1 in summer is a very bright, very hot still day, while 10-10 is serious thunderstorms. In winter, 1-1 is cold and dry -- cloudlessly very cold at night, whereas 10-10 is a blizzard.

 

[Grogg of the North]

The weather is just sorta there. I don't typically roll for it every adventuring day. I'll point out things like "Hey, we're moving out of summer and starting to get into autumn".

If I want to play up the weather it's typically built into the encounter or adventure.

I haven considered playing up the weather more as I DM but mostly as a way to make the PCs paranoid.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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[zipben]

I use the following charts as part of my campaign tracking spreadsheet. I have found weather to be a highly underated tool. Consistant weather makes the world feel alive, and helps mark the passage of time in an interesting way. My players love hearing about how as they leave a dungeon they find that winter has broken and the snow is starting to melt.

 

[gamerprinter]

Yeah, as someone pointed up thread, I used to use the Harn weather charts, but now consider it too much book keeping for such a trivial matter. That said, I do include "weather of the day" for mood whether that's drizzel, rain shower, a storm, or a foggy, though most of the time, its unmentioned, meaning its a clear day. I also like to use catastrophic weather usually as a one time event throughout an entire campaign, like a volcanic eruption, a major earthquake, tornados and hurricanes. I've even used a heavy hail storm to drive the party into a nearby cave providing a back entrance to a catacomb system.

 

[Gilladian]

Seasons are pretty clearly tracked and used, daily weather only when it interests me. I have a weather almanac, and I often check it for general trends when the pcs have a journey to take. They've been traveling recently for over a month, and the early spring weather has been pretty miserable. Fighting goblin monkeys in a downpour was fun!

 

[Grogg of the North]

I had a power gamer in my last group. Any combat encounter was trivial to him due to his build. What did him in? He wandered off into a snowstorm by himself. The party never did find his frozen body....

 

[haakon1]

I had a power gamer in my last group. Any combat encounter was trivial to him due to his build. What did him in? He wandered off into a snowstorm by himself. The party never did find his frozen body....

Once long ago, I was DMing a party that went through the Yatil Mountains of Greyhawk, with some of the members of the party not having tents and winter blankets. Another time they were trapped in a village that was running out of food. They survived both events, but they always have camping gear and a lot of rations along, and Leomund's Hut and Create Food and Water are considered "important" spells to gain.

 

[gamerprinter]

For the Kaidan setting of Japanese horror (PFRPG) there's the free one-shot module from Rite Publishing, Frozen Wind, which is a survivor horror adventure, combining real and supernatural cold weather conditions in a dire situation with undead frozen monks, ice oni, a yuki-onna and a paced timeline in a mountaintop monastery.