When preparing a game most GMs include a mix of random adversaries and challenges and a few that are planned.

It seems the weather could be approached the same way. The GM generating random weather when its really not an issue or purposefully plugging in a storm or heatwave when it lends something to the adventure.

Is this they way you approach weather in your game, or do you do something different?

I have read a few times that some believe weather should always be random, that forcing a snow storm or something is GM overstepping and yet GMs place specific monsters in a room or bandits on a road all time. Is there a difference? If you think so, explain.

I think I've always rolled for weather (d8 for weather, d8 for wind direction). The only time I'd use set piece weather is if it was part of a published adventure I was running.

Rolling for weather can throw up a lot of cool stuff, eg recently the PCs were sailing south along the Orichan coast towards Rallu when a north-easterly gale blew up, forcing their ship SW into the Straits of Oricha, taking shelter (after sailing check) in islands on the edge of hostile Amiondel Elf territory, and an adventure I'd not expected. They met pixies and captured two Amiondel spies, but they never did reach Rallu!

Quote from: S'mon;1013990I think I've always rolled for weather (d8 for weather, d8 for wind direction). The only time I'd use set piece weather is if it was part of a published adventure I was running.

Rolling for weather can throw up a lot of cool stuff, eg recently the PCs were sailing south along the Orichan coast towards Rallu when a north-easterly gale blew up, forcing their ship SW into the Straits of Oricha, taking shelter (after sailing check) in islands on the edge of hostile Amiondel Elf territory, and an adventure I'd not expected. They met pixies and captured two Amiondel spies, but they never did reach Rallu!

Their sailors didnt know how to tack?

Quote from: rgrove0172;1013993Their sailors didnt know how to tack?

They tacked north ok after the sudden storm blew over. The wind had shifted from NE to I think N or NW by then though.
But I really hate treating voyages by sail as car or plane journeys. Ships do deviate from course, certainly with the roughly AD 900 tech of my Wilderlands ships. It was about a 20 mile deviation in that case AIR.

Oh I was just funnin ya.

Quote from: rgrove0172;1014010Oh I was just funnin ya.

Careful there, I've had a bad few days!

Quote from: rgrove0172;1013988When preparing a game most GMs include a mix of random adversaries and challenges and a few that are planned.

It seems the weather could be approached the same way. The GM generating random weather when its really not an issue or purposefully plugging in a storm or heatwave when it lends something to the adventure.

Is this they way you approach weather in your game, or do you do something different?

I have read a few times that some believe weather should always be random, that forcing a snow storm or something is GM overstepping and yet GMs place specific monsters in a room or bandits on a road all time. Is there a difference? If you think so, explain.

As with most random charts, I think it's best to let the dice decide UNLESS you've already rolled a particular result several times before and want something different for a change, or you don't find a seventh straight day of sleet storms (for example) terribly plausible.

Now, if you're using something like the Events Tables from OA (where storms and acts of nature are among many other kinds of events for that day/week/month/year) or rolling dice just for weather, or you decree as DM that a violent thunderstorm will happen the day after tomorrow, you need to play it straight and honest with your players if their PCs have the means to accurately predict weather. Otherwise, you're just being a dick.

Unless I have something planned, it's almost always rolled.  Except, as Elfdart posits, when it becomes implausible.

I like both random and set piece weather. But mostly random.

Interesting question. Not something I've really thought about, probably because I don't generally make a great deal of use of weather. I've sometimes gone into a campaign planning to roll random weather regularly, but I've never stuck with it.

Anyway, on giving it some thought my answer is:

If the weather is being described mainly for mood/setting, it will be whatever I think is appropriate.

If the weather is likely to actually have a significant impact on play and is something the PCs should be considering, I'll generally go with random, unless the outcome is pretty much inevitable under the prevailing circumstances anyway.

My moon phases are always either based on the correct phase for the in-game date (including what logically follows from the last phase that was established in game) or, if I don't have that information, determined randomly as required.

Random or (plot-relevant) planned encounter?
There's a third way: use real weather data.

Just a few days ago Oakes Spalding (of the "neo clone" Seven Voyages of Zylarthen) published three books about medieval weather data (England, Iceland, Indea).

Last year this was posted here in a thread relevant to this one:

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.

In the 80s I thought about noting local weather info in a pocket calendar but never started because I realized that such a project would be too long-term to be usable in my games.

Quote from: rgrove0172;1013988When preparing a game most GMs include a mix of random adversaries and challenges and a few that are planned.

It seems the weather could be approached the same way. The GM generating random weather when its really not an issue or purposefully plugging in a storm or heatwave when it lends something to the adventure.

Is this they way you approach weather in your game, or do you do something different?

I have read a few times that some believe weather should always be random, that forcing a snow storm or something is GM overstepping and yet GMs place specific monsters in a room or bandits on a road all time. Is there a difference? If you think so, explain.

I've used both. Random rolls where needed and occasionally "timed events" that will happen no matter. and with the timed events its usually with forewarning that a storm is coming. But I prefer to have a timed event type weather as an area prepped for a weather condition instead and then leave it to a roll for the if/when it happens.

Depends on the time of year and such too.

On rare occasions I'll open an adventure with a weather type to set mood or later reveal it wasnt natural. Or is the trigger for the adventure. Like the flood in Deep Carbon Observatory. Burned Bush Wells for example starts during a particularly harsh winter.

Quote from: Sable Wyvern;1014100My moon phases are always either based on the correct phase for the in-game date (including what logically follows from the last phase that was established in game) or, if I don't have that information, determined randomly as required.

How do moon phases influence your game - are you using a magic system that relies on lunar cycles, or is it mainly for colour description? I ask because I'm contemplating tracking lunar phases for a dark fairytale type WFRP game, but I'm not sure whether it's worth the effort, especially since one of the moons is random and erratic.

How I treat weather depends a lot on what sort of campaign I'm running. If I'm running a sandbox fantasy campaign where time is continuously tracked then weather matters and it should seem like real weather for the setting. So there I prefer having or creating weather charts to roll randomly or if fantasy land is similar enough to earth, find an earth location as a proxy model for the location in the campaign and use the actual weather. For a historical campaign where time is continuously tracked I'd do the same thing though I might lean more towards using real earth weather as a model.

If I'm not tracking time continuously e.g. in a mission-based campaign, I'm ambivalent about how I do weather. For some missions weather, tide, or phase of the moon may be a key factor or even a necessary precondition for the mission. You might not even send in frogmen for an amphibious attack unless the tide is right and the night is cloudily and/or the moon isn't up. So picking the weather may work better here or having a really simple dice off for the weather.
If I'm playing Star Trek or Star Wars there are way too many planets, climates, and calendars to track weather. There I just pick based on what my initial state is for the setup for the mission.

Quote from: Herr Arnulfe;1014179How do moon phases influence your game - are you using a magic system that relies on lunar cycles, or is it mainly for colour description?

Sometimes. In Glorantha the Lunar Empire's magic users have a heavy correlation to the lunar cycle for the Red Moon. Which is not at all like earth's moon and which does have a consistent, short (7-day) cycle. In my Honor+Intrigue game certain spells could only be cast during certain cycles of the moon, e.g. some fertility spells needed a full moon and the converse death and decay spells needed the dark of the moon.

Quote from: Bren;1014191Sometimes. In Glorantha the Lunar Empire's magic users have a heavy correlation to the lunar cycle for the Red Moon. Which is not at all like earth's moon and which does have a consistent, short (7-day) cycle. In my Honor+Intrigue game certain spells could only be cast during certain cycles of the moon, e.g. some fertility spells needed a full moon and the converse death and decay spells needed the dark of the moon.

How does that work out in gameplay? Do players get excited about planning rituals around brief windows of opportunity, or does it just feel like a limitation on when they can do stuff?