As a bit of an ecology/physical geography nerd, I personally love the attention to weather patterns, but that is completely self serving and needless for actual players.

I guess you could use it to establish what kinds of ecosystems would have developed in a region and how their seasonal variations would take shape.

Quote from: mightyuncle;770999As a bit of an ecology/physical geography nerd, I personally love the attention to weather patterns, but that is completely self serving and needless for actual players.

I guess you could use it to establish what kinds of ecosystems would have developed in a region and how their seasonal variations would take shape.

In 20 years, I don't think I've ever had a player ask me what season it was in game. Obviously, I don't think my experiences mimic anyone elses. I'm just sayin'.

If seasons and weather patterns are important to your game, or if keeping track of such things is important to you or your game, then you should totally do that.

For me, I can't imagine EVER caring even in the slightest about things like that for my games. Just seems like needless work that will never produce anything, to me.

Different strokes for different folks.

My way of designing a setting seems to be different than most everything I've read on the 'net, so I'm probably just the weirdo.

Quote from: everloss;771093In 20 years, I don't think I've ever had a player ask me what season it was in game. Obviously, I don't think my experiences mimic anyone elses. I'm just sayin'.

If seasons and weather patterns are important to your game, or if keeping track of such things is important to you or your game, then you should totally do that.

For me, I can't imagine EVER caring even in the slightest about things like that for my games. Just seems like needless work that will never produce anything, to me.

Different strokes for different folks.

My way of designing a setting seems to be different than most everything I've read on the 'net, so I'm probably just the weirdo.

weirdos are the norm.
however, weather affects matter in a long campaign.  BUt that means your calendars must be posted, clear, consistent, etc.

How the fuck can you have holidays without a calendar?

time is mostly meaningless in my games, beyond travel times, combat rounds, and casting times (and even then I make most things instant).

I usually use holidays sparingly and only in places the PCs probably aren't going to spend a year's worth of time in (ie: the village you just checked in to is celebrating it's annual Wash Underwear in the River Day).

Every time I've attempted to use more strict rulings on time, it's sucked and no one enjoyed it, so I stopped.

The thing about seasons is that they can provide variety in a relatively limited amount of square mileage. Ask any hunter, forager, fisher, mountain biker, hiker, or kitchen gardener about the role weather patterns and seasons play into their passtimes and you'll get a range of responses. The connecting thread is that they will all go to some considerable lengths to adapt to changing conditions whether it's to migrate, change activities, or alter activity to current conditions. That change and adaptation are, to me, great inspirations to change up familiar settings and already semi-traveled regions an adventuring party has come through, or regularly travels through.

Think about it, you've got changing food supplies, animal (monstrous or mundane) migration patterns, harsher/slower travel conditions (possibly more random encounters), heck, even more direct, drastic weather patterns like hurricanes, monsoons, tornadoes, and blizzards could be pivotal mechanisms for an adventure. Would I use every single one of these in my game to painstaking detail? No, but it's a fairly simple and personally fun way to spice up a familiar dish.

Quote from: everloss;770726Bat in the Attic has some interesting stuff sometimes, but who the fuck is actually going to spend time thinking about air and ocean currents? Unless that is somehow central to the underlying theme of the setting, it's pointless and time-consuming.

The above image is what is called an "Eyeball Earth". It is a planet very similar to Earth tidally locked to its parent star, which means one side always faces the star and one always faces away from it giving you a hot pole and a cold pole with a habitable band between the two poles. These worlds may be more common than ones like our own Earth.

I bet that this planet is a more interesting setting for your game than the bog-standard fantasy one. Yup, air and ocean currents might be an important consideration there.

Quote from: jeff37923;771237

The above image is what is called an "Eyeball Earth". It is a planet very similar to Earth tidally locked to its parent star, which means one side always faces the star and one always faces away from it giving you a hot pole and a cold pole with a habitable band between the two poles. These worlds may be more common than ones like our own Earth.

I bet that this planet is a more interesting setting for your game than the bog-standard fantasy one. Yup, air and ocean currents might be an important consideration there.

I think its a great concept but and it reminds me of Chronicles of Riddick among many other sources but I have always had a hard time imagining how an atmosphere would survive with no rotation.

Quote from: Marleycat;771248I think its a great concept but and it reminds me of Chronicles of Riddick among many other sources but I have always had a hard time imagining how an atmosphere would survive with no rotation.

Gravity holds it on the surface.

That is where the air currents come in. You will end up with prevailing winds travelling from the hot pole to the cold pole in the upper atmosphere and when the hot air cools, it flows back from the cold pole to the hot pole closer to the surface. Ocean currents will follow a similar pattern.

The winds and currents will be stronger or weaker depending on the orbital eccentricity of the planet, so it will have seasons after a fashion.

I question if it can have a magnetosphere without rotation. Mars and Venus both started out like the Earth, but neither have the dynamo effect for a magnetosphere. Ionizing radiation strips the oxygen-nitrogen, iirc.

Quote from: mightyuncle;771131The thing about seasons is that they can provide variety in a relatively limited amount of square mileage. Ask any hunter, forager, fisher, mountain biker, hiker, or kitchen gardener about the role weather patterns and seasons play into their passtimes and you'll get a range of responses. The connecting thread is that they will all go to some considerable lengths to adapt to changing conditions whether it's to migrate, change activities, or alter activity to current conditions. That change and adaptation are, to me, great inspirations to change up familiar settings and already semi-traveled regions an adventuring party has come through, or regularly travels through.

Think about it, you've got changing food supplies, animal (monstrous or mundane) migration patterns, harsher/slower travel conditions (possibly more random encounters), heck, even more direct, drastic weather patterns like hurricanes, monsoons, tornadoes, and blizzards could be pivotal mechanisms for an adventure. Would I use every single one of these in my game to painstaking detail? No, but it's a fairly simple and personally fun way to spice up a familiar dish.

I agree wholeheartedly. I just don't believe it's at all necessary to think about when creating a setting. That is all stuff that happens during play. Nothing you describe necessitates creating a weather system for an entire planet, as Bat in the Attic wants you to do.

Quote from: dragoner;771311I question if it can have a magnetosphere without rotation. Mars and Venus both started out like the Earth, but neither have the dynamo effect for a magnetosphere. Ionizing radiation strips the oxygen-nitrogen, iirc.

IIRC, but I'd have to check, you can have a planetary core rotating independantly of the crust and outer mantle, the inner mantle acting like a fluid bearing.

Quote from: jeff37923;771434IIRC, but I'd have to check, you can have a planetary core rotating independantly of the crust and outer mantle, the inner mantle acting like a fluid bearing.

Earth's does so it should certainly be possible.

Quote from: Marleycat;771444Earth's does so it should certainly be possible.

Dragoner's got a solid point, though. A good magnetosphere comes from a rotating magnetic core and without that the ionizing radiation from the pimary star will strip the atmosphere right off a world even if there is a huge amount of it. It just takes a longer or shorter amount of time, millions instead of billions of years.

If you are doing fantasy, you can ignore this. If you are doing hard science fiction, it becomes vital. Worldbuilding at this point becomes an art in and of itself because the world you create must be scientifically sound by the standards of that period so that the Players' disbelief suspenders do not get stretched too far.

EDIT: Fuckin' A, I'm sounding like a patronizing douchebag tonight. I gotta quit watching House while posting.

Snip...

Quote from: jeff37923;771450A good magnetosphere comes from a rotating magnetic core and without that the ionizing radiation from the pimary star will strip the atmosphere right off a world even if there is a huge amount of it.

Kind of like how my daughter wears down the inlaws for me...

Seriously though-I've read some stuff on world building. It's what made me decide to try my hand at other fiction.

The lists defiantly bring up things to think about. And as others are doing, building your own is certainly a good idea for reference.

Thanks for posting this.

Quote from: everloss;771313I agree wholeheartedly. I just don't believe it's at all necessary to think about when creating a setting. That is all stuff that happens during play.

Not in your games, judging from your comments about time, though, right?

For my part, I can't imagine gaming without weather; Mightyuncle's laundry list aside, how do you do sea travel as anything beyond "So, okay, you sail for a week, and you're there" handwaving?

Heck, the first adventure for my newest group had them traveling in the mountains in very early spring after a hard winter, and included the various trials and tribulations involved in mountaineering when the high country ravines still are 20' deep in snow (but watch for crevasses and undermining!) and the cliff walls have hanging ice just waiting to tumble down ...  Waitaminit.  You want to go up the ravine wall after those orcs, a half hour before sundown, above tree line, with a 40 mph wind kicking up?