Weather in your Games?

[steeldragons]

I pretty much handle it like everyone else. Sometimes it's just window dressing/seasonal flavor. Sometimes (a blizzard or flooding or what have you) it's the/an "encounter" all on its own.

I basically just keep track of the days (for the purposes of tracking how long/far the party travels, regaining of spells, etc.) so I know, roughly, when one season turns to another. But I don't usually mark down weather notes from day-to-day. Suppose I could, but I usually just "tik" down the days passing, not actual note/entries from each game day (unless something significant happens or the party is on a deadline -"must rescue the princess before the next new moon, in 4 days, or all is lost"- or something like that.)

Some regions have repeating/common storms or rain. Some regions have 4 seasons, some 3. General terrain feautres, like places close to water getting/having more regular precip and higher winds, the occasional more furious storm than inland. Very high elevations (and those more north/closer to the arctic regions) are more prone to snow than lower (more south). Swamps and lowlands that are prone to [thick] fog...

Just general weather patterns and seasonal parameters. Not a "day by day" thing. I can usually keep things "common sense" and recall that if there was a big rain storm two days ago, I'm not going to have it rain again/right away (though sometimes, in spring, rain in some region may last 3-5 days in a row. The PCs usually hate that! Slogging through rain and mud is not nearly as fun as snow.

--SD

 

[Aramax]

use it once in a while,more so in one city in particular as it rains a lot
but I am a big fan of wierd supernatural weather effects

 

[Lanefan]

Seeing as some spells depend on weather (e.g. Call Lightning needs clouds in the sky), one predicts it (Predict Weather) and some others affect it (several high-level Druid-type spells) I can't imagine not using weather in the game. Also, anybody in flight or on any kind of boat is directly affected by even relatively mundane weather.

A very long time ago I dreamed up some random tables for weather; I don't use them verbatim any more but I still roll every game-morning to see what the weather's doing and kind of wing it based on those old tables. For my current campaign I drew up a rough climate and patterns chart during world design. My world has seasons - for a long time I toyed with the idea of having a vertical axis i.e. no seasons but that seemed boring.

But most importantly, I mention weather often so that when the weather really is relevant it's not quite so obvious.

Lan-"yes, among my other types of geekery I am also a weather geek"-efan

 

[S'mon]

I just started running an online Yggsburgh campaign, the Yggsburgh book comes with a lovely "roll a d8" weather generator by season, so I am now finally using random weather generation.

 

[haakon1]

I roll two d10: one for cloud cover/precipitation/storminess, and one for temperature.

I use that to adjust off what I said about the weather for the previous day, and of course it is adjusted by the season and the terrain (e.g., mountains).

Simple and it works.

I was inspired to care about weather by an old Oriental Adventures module in the 1980s, at which the PC's were snowed in at an inn in the mountains, the Inn of the Globefish.

 

[.5 Elf]

I am in the TAG camp (The Auld Grump).

I am a graduate of the Mountain Leaders course and Cold Weather Survival courses. I have also run the gamut of other extreme environments anything from arctic circle in Norway to Deserts and plenty of Jungle and Swamp in between. Got a chance to do a special Mountaineering course hosted by our buddies in Slovenia so got to play in the Julian Alps too.

Those days are behind me but the lessons imparted remain - I know weather is no joke.

In previous games my players learned to have a healthy appreciation for the weather. This time around I will be starting out with complete strangers so it will be interesting to see how long it takes or if it takes time at all for them to respect the environment.

I never had occasion to kill PCs with weather yet but I certainly would if the situation called for it.

As for systems - 1st Wilderness Survival Guide works fine for me so chalk up another vote there. I am a "Springtime Start" kinda guy too when I start campaigns. It just fits with my sense of when it makes sense logistically to have conflicts / start adventures I guess. I do love it when I get a chance to explore harsh environments / seasonal effects in my games tho.

Lots of good tips & suggestions for stuff to check out in this thread tho! As always EN World doesn't disappoint.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I make sure to give the daily weather to my players, and will inform them of extreme conditions where necessary - i.e., the heavy winds mean a -2 penalty to ranged attacks or the heavy rains mean Perception checks are at a -5.

Recently, the players were trekking through a recently opened mountain pass in the Spring and had to make athletics or acrobatics checks each round (if they moved) when it snowed and they had an encounter. (They were informed they were needed on the other side of the mountains in the equivalent of December, but decided to hole up on their side until the Spring rather than risk a winter trek through the mountains - visions of Caradhras, maybe? So, that delayed their journey 4 months or so)

However, most of the time, the weather does not play a huge role in the game.

 

[Mark CMG]

Even though no one voted the "We don't use weather" option, I have a sneaking suspicion that many who figured this thread wasn't worth opening might fall into this camp. I get this from the number of players I have talked to over the years who primarily play quick dungeon crawl type games where weather is a non-factor and also from other discussions where I hear of whole storylines from campaigns and yet not a single reference to weather. I could be wrong but it does seem odd that no one chose that option.

 

[S'mon]

In my Yggsburgh campaign I've been using the random weather roll to indicate the mood of the session and the sort of encounter, eg:

Bright & sunny: gypsies & highwaymen
Grey and overcast: Ghoul hunting from the Swamp

 

[Hand of Evil]

Use weather all the time in my games but do not use charts. What I do use is almanacs!

reasons:
Phases of the moon, when it rises and sets.
Sun again rises and sets.
Tides! Ships leave ports with the tides!
Weather
and a rather bit more.