251220168 ‘9m techriques- How do! make weather an important part ofthe game? - Role-playing Games Stack Exchange: Role-playing Games Stack Exchange is Here's how it works: question and answer site for samemasters and players of tabletop, aper-and-pencil role-playing games. ‘Join them; it only takes a minute: — Anybody can ask Anybody can Sign up ‘a question answer ‘The best answers are voted uupand rise tothe top How do I make weather an important part of the game? ‘Wee starting up a dark ages fantasy game, using some homebrew rules similar to DRD. Asthe GM, how can I make weather aa important part ofthe game? ‘To be clear, I'm nt tying to just tos in Aiference? 15, Haveltrain ai? — ke Name Oet 291 2810:27 1 Forthose of you sil ooking atthis question, here isa very intresting article by the Angry Gon ‘he top madaventurerscnn/angry.ranteswenther™ Tails My 2538729 12 Answers: ‘Weather affects the overall atmosphere inthe game. To make it relevant, work tint the ‘eserptions of places the PCs vst, people they meet, and challenges they face. Here are just, some examples Rain + Astroe pedir offers them umbrellas Flash-flooding forces a detour, or makes the pety wagon got stuck ‘Mos fying and land-dwellng animals sek shite. Random encounters are more Hkey to come fom swimming eeatues that dwell in swamps or sallow water + Tracking is easier in muddy train ‘Adam bursts, andthe villagers need the party’shelp mending it + People in the ety ae grumpir, and tend to stay indoors + Travels more dfielt Snow + blizzard causes the mountain pass to close, forcing the party to wat or detour + Snow and wind conditions lit silty, affecting the PC’ pereption, and make it Iharder for them ta shoot srrows + Tracking is easier initial, but tacks are cover up after awhile + Houses have angled rooftops, to lit snow accumulation and prevent elapse + The roof ofan abandoned building eaves in from the weight of snow ontop oft + Magical creatures tha resist cold use the storm as cover to hunt the party + Party members might be in danger of freezing if they stay out too long + stough to tata fire, hunt game, or catch fish + People in the cty are grumpier, and tend to stay indoors + Travels more dtficlt + Travelers sunny aete terrain who arent wearing protective gear ean be acted with sow blindness Drought hipstrpgstackexchange comiquestons/10889/han-do--make-weater-ar-Impariantpart-obthe-game nom weather details that the players wil ignore. IT sty atthe start ofeach game day that it's ‘party cloudy" or ight raining’, they all just gnore it, because it doesnt mater to them, What ean Ido to make weather realy makea 168251220168 ‘9m techriques- How do! make weather an important part ofthe game? - Role-playing Games Stack Exchange: + There's been along dey spel so waters rationed. The party has to pay fee tothe township if they want orf thei waterskins here + Crops are suering, People are hungry, and bandit is on the rise + An erant fib causes ire to spread quickly through the forest you get the idea. Weather can be used a a random encounter modifier, dice modifier, ‘atmospheric favor bt, or even a plat hook. eid i 501798 snap 09 831 Moray Right Foramplifetin, having the payers be rendered unable to fight dueto bela rendered cehacsted and numb from exposure ands be aptared by slaves sy, should make your players ay more attention eat me you ware of adverse weather epdiions. PCs who woesip susan ‘orm gods shoud cally pay attention tothe weather, ad might get benefits or penalties rom ‘wether omens ~ alcatlusJan27 248934 2 Note that an writen, fre apel never se anything on fire uns specifiy tated otherwise. A fireball would never star a forest fe. you change this, just make sure your payersknow.~ drasz Agra al 09 ‘5 While ire descriptor splle do aot tomatic set fire ofan thing inthe aes, reall specially does: "The reba ste to combustbes" zoned. or/se spells fireball ht = ‘Duck apeAl Ape 292 at 9:29, [5 @DanRasmosse: That would depend heaviyon the yer ose, wouldnt? —Jouchim Saver Apr ‘@JoachnSauer You absolutely correct. S012 for seeing hls question through ny d20-olored ses. (Original poster id mention rules "similar to D&D?) = dara Mays 'ian 0-29 | would add mechanic bonuses as others have mentioned but I would also makes changes to ‘he other things that are in your coteal a a GML The three that pring to mind are NPC, ‘Monsters and the Environment. Weather could be used to affect them like so: + NPCS react ditferently o break promises, Perhaps the blacksmith won't fx the armour Decause i's oo hot to workal the foundry. Perhaps the Lady of the Manor won't visit Decause is raining Perhaps the bg battle between good and evil ison hold because of Digh winds and rain, ‘Monsters act dtferently- Ores might hte sunny weather. Dragons might not flyin ‘thunder storms. Thetis a tendency for monsters to act with the best acts, esponding to ‘weather conditions gives them depth. + Weather affects the environment. Trees might bow over, felds become muddy bogs, crops dry out and fa, rivers turn to steams (or torrents of rapid). That litle seam you ‘walked through last night i now impassable without magic. 1 think these narrative hooks ae more engrossing than the mechanical ones. While mechanic ‘updates make the choices players make more involved, neratve effets ad depth to your sword ected Angst romero Ogos 28 Rob Lang 2 fornuratve hooks over meshanieal ones. = Joe Jl 7am 20:04 Probeblythe best way to make anything relevant in a game sto make it consistent. Bven small, onuses can make difference and if you are careful to poat them out tothe players hey catch on soon enough To tha end, you ean have a chat drawn up of what the wether will belike forthe nest year 180 n game tine, and keep track of what day is whea adventures happen. And it does hae to bea bons to rol either. Things ean cast more money during droughts, oe passages will be eu off during Noods. Or things wll mpy tke more ime. Raining? It take an extra day/week to get where you're going. ‘The prerequse to this is that you have to have tine mean things ingame in the fst place. You have to get the antidote tothe palace by midnight onthe third day to prevent the king, from dying ofthe Wasting Sickness; the enemy horde is headed for the City Gates and you have to bet them therein onde to warn the guard _Akecnately, have small bonuses or penalties based on how wet, cold, hot, oF windy itis: Maybe the PCs get attacked on a slippery pass onthe side ofthe mountain by fying beasts, and have 2 penalties to all oftheir attacks and DEX checks, (Lave alt of assumptions about the game youre running, coming from an Old School background; specifica, the PCs ean fal, and can de. Maybe going around the mountains hipstrpgstackexchange comiquestons/10889/han-do--make-weater-ar-Impariantpart-obthe-game251220168 ‘9m techriques- How do! make weather an important part ofthe game? - Role-playing Games Stack Exchange: willbe the safer, but slower choice. In any case, weather affects resoures ik time, fod, and ‘money, and to go by this route, you have to kep track, atleast approximately of thse things) iran astra ane a9 ste Hs ae tee a 4 Your sumptions are spot on. The party can of cura fall, because without the posibliy of aire, sucess has no meaning ~ Joo Oct29"mat4'06 ‘5 Avely easy way to keep tract the weather ito uy an oldalmanae- drt cheap since you doa ‘ypialy want them after the year has assed. Canapeek Oct 2911 9433, Make yourself alist of reasonable effets for exposure to diferent weather conditions. Then, when by whatever method you select the weather fora given span, you can apply the effects ‘So something like: + From: Make survival check att, Pass: No eect. Fil: Suffer rested, t0.CON until warm and 1fyou want random weather, I would build ast of table for my eurent environment / season fn something ike 346 with the most common weather conditions inthe center an les ‘common conditions ner the extremes. That way, youl tend to get the expected weather, but you could always get something harsher / nicer than expected. So.-general mate goes in mad Brak 986 se Another aspost that might be important is the effect weather has on attitudes and Interpersonal dynamics. Think about al of the cultura aiacts atthe macro level around the change of seasons, particularly in societies that are connected tothe land: ‘Winter saow ane rain is dreary, people got the blahs they try to stay inside. Getting them to do anything outside canbe dificult Spring, with its mix of rain end sun, isthe time of rebirth and renewal People are more relaxed and pasfal There are celebrations around fry, the planting of ops, and a on. Summer ia mixture ofthe labor of ling fields and the enjoyment ofthe warm, sunny skis. Fal ia te of preparation, feasting, and relection, as ‘heeat recedes and the rains tart wp again (On a miro lve, when you're out in the ements, as adventurers ate, these effects are ‘magnified. Tudgng on and on through a cold, diving hailstorm isnot just physically dif isa testo weil. You cod husker down and make shelter. You could turn back and go finda warm tavern. But here you are, continuing on your quest. Itmay not bea good See to fore player characters to make willpower rosin order to pres on, but imagine ifn [NPC failed his oll and desided to throw inthe towel. "Te finding The Eye of Schoban worth losing my toes ove?! think not!" ‘The cacest sorts of weather effects to portray are extremes, in particular of hot and cold. When sou are all bundled up and all have no heat, there's a slow, goawingfeling that stn, ike sou'e ebbing avay. I's insidious. All ou want to do is preserve whatever last ember of heat remains in your body: "Walk thre fet to rng the alarm be? Uh, no. 1M cul up in al here, ‘thank you very much." Again, how you want to introduce the willpower element up to you, but there shouldbe some challenge putin frot ofthe players even if its purely oleplayng, such as making them explain to you how theyre going to keep themselves focased onthe task than rather than onthe eal ‘eat isitferen, in that t makes you want to eseape yourself. When you're being there's an intense desire to become non-corporeal, to escape Your body, o drift off to someplace where the heat cant get you. If old ithe abeence oft form of sustenance, heat ea brutal, in your face assault, Where cold makes you aot care, hest makes you agitated end angry: "Derbod, i you whistle that song one more tine, 'm gong trip your throat out.” Where cold wil lead to Sisspation and a show collective wasting way, heat wil lead to violence irthere fs any excuse fort Also dont forget that how well or poorly the PCs prepared for whatever westher they in ean ‘makea huge difference. Thoughts ofthe Get Save invasion of Finland and the German Snvasion of Russia come to mind, yes ‘You can have the PCF opponents make us ofthe westher.Partielany with westher magi, but alo taking advantage of weather conditions to put one over an the PCS. hipstrpgstackexchange comiquestons/10889/han-do--make-weater-ar-Impariantpart-obthe-game251220168 ‘9m techriques- How do! make weather an important part ofthe game? - Role-playing Games Stack Exchange: So, fist, woather magic Going near the tower of Boron the Weathermage in cloudy weather i foolish; hell se his magi to eal dawn lightning. Doing so ina storm is actively suid because he gets contact high from i, and consequently acts ike he's drunk Clear days are really the only way to get there (On the other hand, approaching the domain of Gos the Artifier ona clear day is madness; he ‘uses magical mirrors and magailying glasses to fous the sua’ ays int ke beams of heat and Tight. And you dont want to kaaw what hecan do with moonlight, ‘Make the weather known, and then, ithe PCs don’ take account of, apply consequences ‘Marching in your semour on a hot day? Fatigue penalties. Didn't bother wit the waterproof tents in the ain? Spelbook sake, everyone has niles, which impose penalties on xing ‘and social rls Dedicated enemies can move past PC seoutsin bad weather. Storms hold ships in pot. Floods ‘destroy bridges, bock travel routes and may even cause enough damage to make all the peasants that area fle elsewhere giving reams of refugees onthe roads and overcrowding sn nearby towns. And where there's overcrowding, crime and disease rv, stb ‘reat answer, and weleome to thesite!~ Joe Jul36 "28016559 [Ade minor effets of the weather on magic? Rain = «1 tolighting based spells sunny sky +1%0| fire? +1 on 546 might not be much, but knowing players they want every point they can get wor Get an old eopy ofthe Wilderness Survival Guide, it was designed for ADKD 2nd ed, but most of itis sistem agnostic. You'l have to modify any eombat or damage mechanies to suit your game, but most oft will still be relevant eo ‘Lots of great answers here, but I waat to give it shot with my own perspective. You're really asking how to make in-game weather matter to the players. 14 touch onal aspects ofthe game, including socal contract, sting, characters, stution, and sytem, Social Contract By which 1 mean the agreement of all participants to pay this game, at hitmen this way This isthe fundamental layer of ll play. As such, i the mos important and the frst place Ta focus ‘Tall your players you want to make weather an important pat ofthe game. Explain why. Get ‘ther o buy into this dea. If theyre not behind it, nating else you do wll work. ‘Here's the thing: generally players don't care about weather. They want to play larger-than-Lfe heros and do heroic things, Getting rained on orgeiting « sunburn ruins the mage. ‘weather is going to play a part in your fantasy game, you have to make it cool Setting Other folks have offered ways to bring weather into your setting, Your game fantasy dark ages so you don't have to sik to boring, eal-word weather patterns. Go big. Thunderstorms ‘Should split castles in hal The Summer son should burn people's skin in minutes theyre ‘unprotected, Decide that all major weather iscatsod by actual elemental, The characters can then go fight the weather Characters ‘Te every character tothe weather. Everyone gels a weather sign, like the Zodiac but more chaotic. Ifyou were born under the rain, then you get some kind of perk when it rains. Now ‘very players asking yon wh the weathers ike, boss they want to pres he baton on their character sheet. Replace & bunch of eharacter abilities (especialy the magical ones) with \weather-specfc versions. Eschew magic mise; embrace lung rain (which does the same thing mechanically) Situation hipstrpgstackexchange comiquestons/10889/han-do--make-weater-ar-Impariantpart-obthe-game251220168 ‘9m techriques- How do! make weather an important part ofthe game? - Role-playing Games Stack Exchange: Stuation is where charactor and setting meet, and sjstom carves it forward in time. Bld ‘world events around the weather. Fr epic fantasy, considera global warming pla, only faster fctng, Every month, more weather elementals enter this world and theyre wreaking havo: ‘dust storms tornadoes, sanamis, voleanoes droughl, foods, and 50 on ‘Too gonzo for your game? Make sue the in-game weather ia strategy element that the characters (and thelr enemies) can use to thei advantage. Lots of real-world battles were won forlostbeeause of rain of fog. Ifthe characters have some means to aetually contol the ‘weather, then they cam use it more, ofcourse System ‘Show the players big red button and they will push it 1 the button gives them some ‘advantage they figure out how to push it soften as posble. Rules that the players can use to take advantage of in-game weather are that zed button Alot of the other answers talk about stuff forthe GM. Thats gest, but it won hook the players. They need to get thet hands on the new rules for you to grab them. Figure aut what ‘ew rales every player gel to interact withthe weather systems in your game das, Dy weak 2 7 ‘Not sure about he social contract eve! inches, you don think he queens powerfl and ‘portant because you have a personal agreement io think that just a peru plee (in egards ‘o-end gare) So you mipht thinks powerfl-beeause ts 1 ot always a ate of supporting perepton sometimes the perception ied x somthing le indeed tanec level, ery Smportnt. Callan. Ags2 ¥9 a 6:09 1 @Callas. The allowance thatthe opponent's quen s powerful andimportants definitely an Jnstanoeof the soda contract Bot players betel um game where quens are eonsbstently powerful and important. Therefor, the players decde to obey those ules even wea they are ‘sudvantageous believe that's good example ofthe Social Contract concept, actual. The obvious el worl example island enforcement, ~ose2525 Ang35 121.00 ike to ad some more real-world weather effects, that could affect the party too. Things get interesting, when you are near water medtng/ freezing poit (0 degrees), iin the + Ifyou set your bivonae neara stream and ignore rain, you can find yourself food inthe riddle of he night, + Onthe other hand, a good stream inthe evening may rede or completely dry out inthe morning, if it is fended by meting glacier (which doosn' melt at night) So you ean cross it ‘oryou can find water any mote + When ifs above 0 C itcan tke slot of time and effort to walkin snow - upto ies slower. But ast gets below o (ie at night), snow is freezed into frn and fas just ike frm aground. + Inthe mountains rock usually falls at dawn and at dust, when water mlts/freezes ‘Avalanhes are more possible when sun hts the anow in the morning + Sudden (or unfoescen) snow can cover not only he ground, but aso the gear ofthe ‘arty, So before starting to fightback, the’ hae o dig out thee swords + Night fost can make all the wet clothes sti and impossible to wear without making fire and warming i + Byen mild wind (or heavy snowfall) can make olf/roten tees fl + Being surrounded by snow during a bright day ora couple of hours ean easy make you ‘svowblind if you dont protect your ees + In the og, rainfall and snowal visibility drastically decreases - sometimes down to couple of foe. allthese “disasters, though small, cen be really inating, and even cause bad accidents when ‘ignored. But the effects an be cancelled or softened by making right decisions, such as choosing when to wake up, where tose ou hivouse ad ito go father oF sop. pment ‘Ther are alot of diferent importants In regards to one typeof important, make various ‘penalties for weather effects BUT also make ations the players ean do to mitigate the penalty {nd they ean just do them when the weather happens, they have to keep doing them. $0 ‘maybe the cold makes your aword stick in ifs sheath, making the first attack -9 to hit But ifthe players every o often as part of ther rlepey sy they oll or move thelr sword in their sheath, Stbecomes only hipstrpgstackexchange comiquestons/10889/han-do--make-weater-ar-Impariantpart-obthe-gamepsrr2720168 ‘gm techriques- How do make weather an important part ofthe game? - Role-playing Games Stack Exchange: callin hnpsrpgstackexchange com/questons/10888IhoW-do--make-weather-an-impartant- part