SPECIAL NOTICE
Malicious code was found on the site, which has been removed, but would have been able to access files and the database, revealing email addresses, posts, and encoded passwords (which would need to be decoded). However, there is no direct evidence that any such activity occurred. REGARDLESS, BE SURE TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS. And as is good practice, remember to never use the same password on more than one site. While performing housekeeping, we also decided to upgrade the forums.
This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

How Useful are Koppen/Other Climate Maps to You

Started by MeganovaStella, March 02, 2024, 09:45:27 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

MeganovaStella

When I make a new campaign world, I start with a koppen climate map of the world. This is so I can determine where cities go and what materials they're made out of, what the people who live in them wear, and so on and so forth.



Are climate maps important to you?

S'mon

Climate is important to me, but I don't normally have access to maps like that for the Wilderlands, Toril, Mystara etc.
Shadowdark Wilderlands (Fridays 6pm UK/1pm EST)  https://smons.blogspot.com/2024/08/shadowdark.html

swzl

I use a random map from Donjon, https://donjon.bin.sh/world/ , for the base map. Then add ocean and wind currents. Then I approximate latitude with terrain for what I think are reasonable approximations. I'm sure anyone with any real knowledge would be amused. But I do try to ground the campaign in a real seeming setting. I also enjoy that this influences weather. In our last session, one of the players donated a large load of pelts to the village women's circle to be made into gloves and hats for the poorer members of the village. It's fall in hill country. The player appreciates winter and has begun to get ready.

jeff37923

Nope. Most climate models based on Earth get thrown right out the window.

Case in point -

QuoteI've got an Earth sized moon of a Jupiter sized gas giant. It has a dense atmosphere tainted with carbon dioxide and a hydrographics of A. So it reads X89A000-0. It orbits the gas giant every seven days, is tidally locked to it, and the gas giant orbits its G3 V Star about once every 365 days.

What I'm thinking is that do to no large land masses to break up the wind, and tidal forces from the gas giant and it's other moons, plus the fact that it is a moon itself causing uneven heating, that I'm going to have a near constant band of equatorial hurricanes stretching about a quarter of the way both north and south. The only calm weather is at the poles.

Each world is unique, the weather part takes some thought.
"Meh."

Chris24601

I use the various regions described by the Koppen model to present a consistent climate/seasons in a campaign region (Cfb; oceanic/maritime as is found in England, France, and Western Germa is my preferred default).

I do not bother with global climate patterns.

zircher

If I have a world map, I do think about currents, mountain ranges, shadows deserts and the like.  I usually don't go to the level of making a climate map.  But, the thought process is there to make the world machine turn smoothly and realistically for the setting.
You can find my solo Tarot based rules for Amber on my home page.
http://www.tangent-zero.com

Rhymer88

I have used Köppen maps for planets that were very Earth-like.

Mishihari

Climate's important, but I usually go the other way 'round.  I want society X here, so I'll put climate Y in this region. 

Also, I never start out at the world level - I end up doing work for things that will never affect the game.  Usual starting scale is the kingdom/whatever play begins in and regions that can affect it by being adjacent, having immigrants from there, etc.  Then I work outward as needed.

And I'm fond of nonstandard world-types, so frequently real world logic for climates don't apply.

Glak

Köppen was designed to describe European climates (which I assume that it does well), and then extended to the rest of the world.  It does an absurdly bad job of describing the part of the world that I live in (eastern United States), so I can't take it seriously.