Quote from: Nihilistic Mind;904837I've only ever used weather to set the tone for a scene, setting, or challenge. Nothing really formal like a random table, or a weather "system" or anything, but I've applied some penalties to perception rolls, etc, things of that nature.

Ditto, pretty much.

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That aside: I recall this text file coming from from pre-2000 alt. -something group. It described in funny way same weather conditions under various systems. I can't seem to find it anywhere. Hmmm...

A lot, actually.  In Dark Heresy, our first mission started on a Garden World during a rainstorm.  Out in the rain, we took an aim penalty.  The GM described the effects of it quite well, even the effects of las-shots cutting through rain.

Sometimes, when there's lots of staying outside. I've got a random weather table in FWTD and it's even got a random generator on the game website, which works for many cities with temperate climate.

Or, as Ravenswing suggested, you can use any city's weather forecast, that's a nice trick.

Quote from: Spellslinging Sellsword;904853I haven't done it in the past, but I'm going to include it in my campaign that starts up next month. However, rather than rolling, I'm going to use Wolfram Alpha to access historical data. Even though I'm using the Forgotten Realms, I'm going to just pick a real world city that is approximately the same location/climate as whatever location in the Forgotten Realms the characters are currently at that day. Example:

https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=weather+london+united+kingdom+june+29,+1977

It's really cool with times of day charts for temperature, weather, wind, etc.

I also use real world data.  Makes it easy for me.

I used a small third-party product with some weather tables during a recent Slumbering Tsar game. The near-constant inclement weather wasn't a major issue for an 8th-level party, but it was one of the ways that the inhospitable environment drained their resources, keeping them from operating at maximum efficiency most of the time.

Quote from: Sommerjon;905035I also use real world data.  Makes it easy for me.

Me too. I'll find an area that corresponds to what I think the local game weather should be and go from there.

Shemek

I use weather in almost every session, mostly to set the mood or scene, but probably half the time it will have some kind of effect on the PCs whether it is damp, bugs, cold, hot, mud whatever.  I don't use any kind of charts or look up specific effects, just make it up on the fly. Systems with fatigue or squishy HP make it pretty easy to make whether and survival significant to PC's calculus.

Quote from: daniel_ream;904801The old Greyhawk boxed set had fairly sophisticated weather rules, but I know of no one who ever used them.

I use them!.. thanks to this excellent widget.

Yes. Weather (and terrain) are a big part of making the world meaningful, and giving the experience of it to the players.

Try spending 24 hours outdoors some time, on a day with some rain. Weather is a big deal when you're outdoors...

Quote from: daniel_ream;904801How about you?  Have you ever used (or had a GM who used) weather as part of the background setting in your RPGs?  How was it used?

Of course!

I mean, sure, it's great to add to flavor text and whatnot. But if it's brought to the foreground, actually affecting action and information, it adds an immense amount to the game for the relatively small investment of tracking one more thing. And I find you don't really have to track it as much as simply be mindful of it.

Quote from: Lunamancer;905259Of course!

I mean, sure, it's great to add to flavor text and whatnot. But if it's brought to the foreground, actually affecting action and information, it adds an immense amount to the game for the relatively small investment of tracking one more thing. And I find you don't really have to track it as much as simply be mindful of it.

Absolutely.  Seriously, even if you're caught for any other method -- and my weather site trick takes all of five seconds flat -- just roll a d10.  What's the temperature?  1 is low, 10 is high.  What's the precipitation?  1 is torrential rain, 4 is overcast, 6 is sunny.  What's the wind?  2 is light breeze, 10 is a howling gale.  Easy.  That takes all of four seconds flat.

Howdy, folks. This is my first post here, although I've been lurking for a while. I first started playing D&D (as my group's local DM) in 1979, but stopped playing in 1982 (went to college and had to study so much I didn't have time to be a worthwhile DM). Around Christmas 2015 I had a friend say her 20 year old son & a friend of his wanted to play "old school D&D," so I dusted off the old AD&D 1st Edition stuff, and away we went. We now have 6 players, and may soon add 2 more (but that's about the limit).

Anyway, I felt I had to chime in about the weather. When I DMed 30+ years ago, I never had any weather charts, and the weather was mostly always fair. Although if I wanted to give my party of adventurers a little trouble tracking the bad guy(s), I might have a sudden rainstorm brew up and wash away any tracks.

So now, in the modern era, I have some adapted weather charts. I assume my world (I use the old Judges Guild Wilderlands maps and main settings) is fairly temperate/moderate, with only a chance of real cold weather in the northern Wilderlands maps, and up in the mountains in those areas.

But what I really use are sunrise/sunset times. I made a chart of all days in a year, and amount of sunshine for each particular day, then figured equal time for sunrise & sunset. So I can tell players "it's about an hour before sunset" etc. And what I really take note of are the phases of the moon. It makes a difference if there is a full moon, new moon, or sometimes the moon never rises at all during the night-time (some days, the moon is only in the sky when it is daytime!). Knowing the moon phases helps keep track of when some clerics need to celebrate their rites (like sacrificing someone on the night of a full moon). Also, if you don't know exactly when Midsummer's Eve is, how do the druids know when to go out and harvest mistletoe? The moon phases (when it rises and sets) can also tell you when the tides come in and go out, so if a group needs to sail out of a harbor at "high tide" you can figure when that will be. Basically, when the moon is either rising or setting (just at the horizon) then you will have the lowest part of a tide. Then figure the time halfway between the moon rising and setting, and you will know when the high tides are. I use 2 high and 2 low tides per day. Characters aren't always near the sea, so you only need to use this data occasionally (usually). (Who would have known there would be so much of the real world in a fantasy game!?)

Of course, it's still easy to foil characters who want to travel at night during a full moon, as I can "fudge" complete cloud cover to dim the light below a usable value.

RustyDM

On a similar note, rather than a play anecdote, I have in the past used old almanacs and calendars to track dates and weather conditions. Not extensively, especially the almanacs... another great GMing plan that didn't quite play out as I'd hoped, but I do hate all these 'near future' games that just assume we either already know if the fifth of august in, say 2050 is a Tuesday, or assume we don't actually care.

I fucking care! Give me at least a starting point!!!   Though, of course, computers have solved that little problem for me.


For the record? It's a friday. Expect bad traffic in the afternoon getting out of the megaplex.

Quote from: RustyDM;905586Howdy, folks. This is my first post here, although I've been lurking for a while. I first started playing D&D (as my group's local DM) in 1979, but stopped playing in 1982 (went to college and had to study so much I didn't have time to be a worthwhile DM). Around Christmas 2015 I had a friend say her 20 year old son & a friend of his wanted to play "old school D&D," so I dusted off the old AD&D 1st Edition stuff, and away we went. We now have 6 players, and may soon add 2 more (but that's about the limit).

Anyway, I felt I had to chime in about the weather. When I DMed 30+ years ago, I never had any weather charts, and the weather was mostly always fair. Although if I wanted to give my party of adventurers a little trouble tracking the bad guy(s), I might have a sudden rainstorm brew up and wash away any tracks.

So now, in the modern era, I have some adapted weather charts. I assume my world (I use the old Judges Guild Wilderlands maps and main settings) is fairly temperate/moderate, with only a chance of real cold weather in the northern Wilderlands maps, and up in the mountains in those areas.

But what I really use are sunrise/sunset times. I made a chart of all days in a year, and amount of sunshine for each particular day, then figured equal time for sunrise & sunset. So I can tell players "it's about an hour before sunset" etc. And what I really take note of are the phases of the moon. It makes a difference if there is a full moon, new moon, or sometimes the moon never rises at all during the night-time (some days, the moon is only in the sky when it is daytime!). Knowing the moon phases helps keep track of when some clerics need to celebrate their rites (like sacrificing someone on the night of a full moon). Also, if you don't know exactly when Midsummer's Eve is, how do the druids know when to go out and harvest mistletoe? The moon phases (when it rises and sets) can also tell you when the tides come in and go out, so if a group needs to sail out of a harbor at "high tide" you can figure when that will be. Basically, when the moon is either rising or setting (just at the horizon) then you will have the lowest part of a tide. Then figure the time halfway between the moon rising and setting, and you will know when the high tides are. I use 2 high and 2 low tides per day. Characters aren't always near the sea, so you only need to use this data occasionally (usually). (Who would have known there would be so much of the real world in a fantasy game!?)

Of course, it's still easy to foil characters who want to travel at night during a full moon, as I can "fudge" complete cloud cover to dim the light below a usable value.

RustyDM

welcome

Quote from: RustyDM;905586Howdy, folks. This is my first post here, although I've been lurking for a while.

Welcome. Thanks for posting.

QuoteBut what I really use are sunrise/sunset times. I made a chart of all days in a year, and amount of sunshine for each particular day, then figured equal time for sunrise & sunset. So I can tell players "it's about an hour before sunset" etc. And what I really take note of are the phases of the moon. It makes a difference if there is a full moon, new moon, or sometimes the moon never rises at all during the night-time (some days, the moon is only in the sky when it is daytime!). Knowing the moon phases helps keep track of when some clerics need to celebrate their rites (like sacrificing someone on the night of a full moon).

I agree day length and lunar phases are important. My Honor+Intrigue game is set in France. Most of Europe is pretty far north. For example, Paris (48.8566° N) is farther north than Quebec, Canada and farther north than almost everywhere in the continental USA outside of a tiny bit of Minnesota. It doesn't make it colder than Quebec, but day length is even longer in the summer and shorter in the winter than it is in the USA. I ran a loup garou adventure in the middle of winter and both the very short day and the phases of the moon mattered a lot as the PCs planned their hunt. I recently posted a bunch of links to sites that allow you to calculate an annual calender, the lunar phases, day length, and stuff like that for both the past and the future.