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Just curious if weather is an issue in your games. I roll randomly for weather conditions based on season and area session is taking place in. Wether it's an overcast night, raining, snowing, etc. Plus how severe the conditions are. Blizzard, tornadoes, ligft drizzle, etc. I consider fog and/or mist thickness. High winds to light breeze, to no wind.

Thoughts and ideas to share with others on weather issues.

Using the Earth model is easiest since we at least understand the fundamentals of the world's climate. Game world climate is like game world physics.

With Second Edition Warlocks, knowing the weather now and in the future is a little more important. I noticed weather happening more in our RECON games than our fantasy games, for example, although it's always there - only the extent changes. In RECON weather can dictate the mission. I guess that's why. In our other games it's mostly flavour ("it's unusually cold today") but sometimes important ("it's rained for days, the road's impassible by wagon").

Misfit KotLD wrote:I never rolled for weather, but when whim strikes, weather does turn foul.

*Edit* Of course my game was in Juarez, so the weather was usually sunny and hot, but sometimes it rained hard and flooded.

The desert after a rain
Is a beautiful thang.

Unless you're trapped in a gulch or wash, of course. Then you're probably dead.

gadrin wrote:It's just an additional way to suddenly surprise the players a bit, but if they're smart they can utilize it to their advantage too, so I'm not just trapping or cornering them unfairly.

Yip. The cover of darkness or low visibility does go both ways, sometimes simultaneously.

I have used blizzards twice for Beyond the Supernatural victim games. It worked out well and added tension to the game by isolating the players. I don't roll on tables though just picking what conditions are best for the game.

Isolation is good for BtS.

And weather's very effective by all means for it.

The fog in old London at night to me has always been the most creepiest effect of the old B&W films. Nothing like cutting down the visibility of the PCs to few feet...............is there?

I don't know about nothing but yea it's pretty cool.

Cool stuff

Once upon a time, I never used weather in my campaigns. I figured out that it was because my stories were so detailed I could never take the time to include weather except as a flavor thing. But now, perhaps due to greater experience as a GM, I use weather all the time. Weather conditions have killed players characters, and I will use weather as a cause for negative effects in skill attempts or combat. So yeah, weather is intense and helpful. It just depends on your storytelling style.

Actually, the planet that my current PC Party is marooned on is about to enter its annual meteorite season... when rocks and chunks of ice will rain down daily for the next several months!

Their goal is to find some way off the planet before then...

Braden Campbell wrote:Actually, the planet that my current PC Party is marooned on is about to enter its annual meteorite season... when rocks and chunks of ice will rain down daily for the next several months!

Their goal is to find some way off the planet before then...

Uhm.... yeah. That's a good goal. (sheesh)

Braden Campbell wrote:Actually, the planet that my current PC Party is marooned on is about to enter its annual meteorite season... when rocks and chunks of ice will rain down daily for the next several months!

Their goal is to find some way off the planet before then...

Good stuff.

bigbobsr6000 wrote:

Braden Campbell wrote:Actually, the planet that my current PC Party is marooned on is about to enter its annual meteorite season... when rocks and chunks of ice will rain down daily for the next several months!

Their goal is to find some way off the planet before then...

Good stuff.

I had a similar plot once. The planet's name was Gideon E...

love using weather. i have my special weather dice for when i'm feeling saucey.

Usually a minor issue.
I always include it when describing a new area or a big trip to an old area.

But so far I've never made it a hinderance in combat or exploring. Also never had the PC's ask about weather if they were in a bind and needed to escape.

Weather is very important in my games. I have had whole sessions taken over by the players trying to survive to weather alone. Mudslides, flash floods, sandstorms, et al, they can all be very deadly in the right circumstances.

That and some types of weather are just so amazing while having the greatest effects on characters. Ice Fog (a common occurrance in Alaska and the Northern Climes), for instance, is a normal fog but the water vapor has frozen and continues to hang in the air; visibility is greater than in a normal fog, but the ice freezes to any exposed skin, respiration holes on face masks, goggle lenses, exposed metal, etc. The players have to contend with both the build-up of ice as well as the original situation they had.

Ah the skill and action modifiers in multiples!!

I use this weather generator. I went through and created a "standard" weather document for each month, by copying and pasting the random results into a word document. Then I created a standard set of variations from the norm (which is temperate / plains / 3000 ft.). These variations are based on climatic zone, geography and elevation and add +/- to the wind, temperature and precipitation amount. Then I printed it all out and put it in my three ring binder of handy things to have.

It took a little while and some paper and ink but I think it was worth it.