Do you track/check weather?

RPGPundit · April 18, 2015, 01:54:57 AM

In your D&D games, do you regularly/meticulously track the weather?

Or only in those rare occasions where you feel it really matters?

S'mon · April 18, 2015, 02:01:04 AM

I've been rolling a d6 daily for the wet season IMC - 1: lightning storm, 2-5: rain to overcast 6: sunny. That's about all I want. I saw someone with a 'weather die' - d6 with various weathers on it - which looked cool.

tuypo1 · April 18, 2015, 02:38:35 AM

its usually sunny i will occasionally have other situations but i dont really track it i just decide to have it rain that day or something

its not very realistic but its good enough.

trechriron · April 18, 2015, 03:19:14 AM

For my Harn game I use the weather tracker in there per Watch, a 4 hour time period. It's actually very well done. I kind of like generating things like weather and encounters. It makes the sandbox feel alive, ya know?

Sommerjon · April 18, 2015, 03:20:20 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;826425In your D&D games, do you meticulously track the weather?

Yes.

I really like what weather can add to a game.

jeff37923 · April 18, 2015, 03:27:41 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;826425In your D&D games, do you regularly/meticulously track the weather?

Or only in those rare occasions where you feel it really matters?

No, because I've stopped playing D&D.

However, in Traveller a solar flare can really fuck up your ethically challenged merchant run.

Spinachcat · April 18, 2015, 03:37:56 AM

It's all dark and stormy nights!

That's a running gag in my Warhammer games!

Cave Bear · April 18, 2015, 04:42:29 AM

No, but I would if it fit the adventure and if I had a really good, easy to use table for that.

nDervish · April 18, 2015, 05:26:13 AM

Depending on the campaign, I usually either look up historical weather records or find software that can be used to generate a year's worth of weather at a time, taking past weather into account. While I have plenty of "roll on this table for weather" tables laying around, it bothers me that past weather has no influence on future weather, so I try to find better options.

And then, after being so careful about generating properly-realistic weather, half the time I forget to check what the weather for the current in-game day is. Even when I remember to check, it generally ends up being cosmetic because I hardly ever remember to apply any effects which might result from the weather.

Exploderwizard · April 18, 2015, 08:10:42 AM

I have a running campaign journal that I use to track PC activities. I have the weather conditions fairly mapped out about a couple months ahead of current campaign time and I fill in what the PCs are doing and let them know the general weather conditions each day.

Its handy to have as a reference in case of PCs using abilities to predict the weather, and since I don't really know what the PCs will be doing and when exactly, the weather for their activities is always a crap shoot. Sometimes it works out that important dramatic stuff just so happens to be taking place during a storm.

Terateuthis · April 18, 2015, 08:16:15 AM

The game I run is set in the aftermath of what was more or less Ragnarok. Gods are dead, universe out of balance, vaults of heaven shattered, overworlds and earthly spheres unnaturally commingled, etc.

With no overgod to regulate it, weather is random, with effects ranging into the apocalyptic: rains of boiling blood; auroras of screaming, madness-inducing colors; whirlwinds of crystallized thought-forms connected by random arcs of lightning; etc.

So I definitely take weather into account and check for unnatural phenomena, as this reinforces the Moorcockian psychedelia I'm striving for. When stumped for ideas, I typically use the weather table from Elfmaids & Octopi's Planet Psychon (http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/planet-psychons-wierd-wild-weather.html).

One Horse Town · April 18, 2015, 08:42:29 AM

I think that the weather and environmental conditions are one of the most under-utilised aspects of gaming TBH. The weather makes a huge difference when you're out and about in today's world, let alone in medieval times. Add in that a lot of games require tracking to inhospitable places and it should be a real threat.

Then again, tracking the effects of hypothermia, or catching a nasty virus 'cos you got drenched in Death Swamp can be kinda boring to some in a table-top game, so i can understand why most people don't bother and most games only pay lip service to those kinds of problems.

I don't really track it, but mention it on occasion.

snooggums · April 18, 2015, 09:02:53 AM

I don't use it nearly enough, but I started trying to do a better job in the last couple of sessions.

languagegeek · April 18, 2015, 10:32:09 AM

I got one of those nifty weather d6s and I use it on hexcrawls. Including weather effects changes the tactics of an encounter or scouting mission. For example, trying to hide from the giants in a grassland hex is a lot easier if the weather is foggy than sunny. Walking in the mountains can be much more treacherous in the rain.

I did want to track food and exposure to the elements as well, but the players said they weren't interested in including that in the game. Weather, on the other hand, added fun.

LordVreeg · April 18, 2015, 10:40:36 AM

Weather is such a great way to easily add verisimilitude. And mood.

And it is funny, but while I always work with the weather (I have a chart modified by season modified by trend), I do the live game rolled while we are playing, but the online game is done way ahead of time.