Use of weather?

[Squaredeal Sten]

Do you habitually give a weather report for each game day?  If not. How often would you say you have weather in your games?

I ask because I started out religiously giving date and weather, and rolled weather in accord with regional seasonal weather tables.  I gradually stopped that except when the scenario demanded it.  But I am now thinking that's a mistake because a sudden weather report may telegraph an event.  

 

[dumuzid]

I've got a Helering in my player group and she makes a Predict Weather roll every in-game week to get a sense of what's likely to happen.  On the actual day I usually use a chance die to determine what the weather is like if it comes up, with the outcomes of the roll based on the accuracy, or lack thereof, of the Helering's prediction.

[svensson]

Not having cultists who deal specifically with weather issues [Heler, etc], I assume that the weather is 'average' for the season until a plot requires otherwise.

Something I learned in the Army that helps with the adventurer mindset is 'The job has to get done no matter what the sky is doing. Bring a coat and a tee-shirt and get back to work.' Of course, when the weather becomes a threat to life and limb, the job is postponed... but that means that something else that needed to get done won't be done. The trick to the whole thing is managing the jobs so that the ones that are inevitably delayed by weather are the jobs you can live without.... Thatching the roof rather than fixing the fence, that sort of thing.

I say all this because adventurers [or at least players, who are not feeling the frostbite soak into their feet] often push harder than a senior NCO with a big inspection coming up... forced marches become routine, working their animals to death ['Well, he's gonna die in a couple of years anyway" said one PC in my game], pushing their tenant farmers as hard as they push themselves [but remember, Player Character Bob... all that extra work only enriches YOU, not them], etc. etc. etc. I've even had one PC look at me and ask, completely seriously, "How many toes does 'Regrow Limb' grow back?" when the stupid SOB didn't get the hint and marched three days in a blizzard wearing sandals thereby losing all the toes on one foot. Jesus, you'd think somebody could take a hint, but....

Fortunately, I have a far more sensible group of players now. They [usually] take the hint when the weather socks them in. I have also learned to tell them when the weather is part of the plot. And I am VERY careful to manage their movement and 'tasks completed list' for weather conditions as well. You just don't get as far towards your goals when it's too hot or too cold or raining or whatever else have you, and I've 'taught' my players to factor that into their planning.

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by svensson

[Joerg]

There have been such impossible marches in history, like the Birkebeiner retreat/regrouping of King Sverre of Norway where he led the remnants of an army out of an otherwise inescapable valley across a blizzard. Many a toe was lost in that march, and many a comrade, but in the end the fighting force was preserved, and the king came back and remained in office.

Weather causes maintenance demands of mounts/beasts of burden as well as equipment. Malia lingers where exposure strikes.

There are few conditions that don't make wearing armor uncomfortable in the short term and chafing and causing sores in the long term, but carrying armor rather than wearing it makes it harder and bulkier to transport yourself. Dust on dry roads can be as bad as humidity giving rise to mold and making padding cling to skin in ways it wasn't designed for.

Hit point attrition can be counteracted with magical Heal but leads to magic point attrition, and loss of general hit points from exposure requires way stronger healing magics.

When it comes to action scenes, weather affects movement and footing, incurring rather steep penalties on skill use, or requiring successful characteristic or skill rolls to avoid such penalties for a bit. Passion rolls might be required to avoid a Demoralized state. "Hate NCO" might work.

I guess I use difficult terrain or weather in about one third of my action scenes, and descriptions of discomfort maybe as often.

[French Desperate WindChild]

8 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

Do you habitually give a weather report for each game day?  If not. How often would you say you have weather in your games?

I ask because I started out religiously giving date and weather, and rolled weather in accord with regional seasonal weather tables.  I gradually stopped that except when the scenario demanded it.  But I am now thinking that's a mistake because a sudden weather report may telegraph an event.  

 

in all case not a mistake because "it must be". It may be a mistake if your table, and you, need it to have fun. But the mistake may be to do it and to be bored by it (so the mistake or not depends on you, not on me or any other 😛 )

 

Personaly I don't. I talk about weather when :

- the party moves to a new location (for sure you have to describe the weather when you enter in Prax the first time.

- a new season is coming  (for sure there is a lot of rain and snow when it is storm and darkness seasons in Sartar after a sunny summer)

- the weather is important for the scenario

- I want to give a lot of unuseful informations and among them the important one for the scenario. If you never talk about something, of course the first time you talk about it, the players will imediatly notice it and act (or think) accordingly. So the important one could be the weather, the hair color, the number of cows,... what you want

[Akhôrahil]

9 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

Do you habitually give a weather report for each game day?  If not. How often would you say you have weather in your games?

I ask because I started out religiously giving date and weather, and rolled weather in accord with regional seasonal weather tables.  I gradually stopped that except when the scenario demanded it.  But I am now thinking that's a mistake because a sudden weather report may telegraph an event.  

I frequently use weather for framing the scenario (”it’s a calm, icy cold night in Dark Season”). It also comes up when the weather is particularly relevant (mountaineering, cattle raiding in an off-season). And with several PCs being Orlanth worshipers, they often ask about the cloud cover for spells like Thunderbolt and Rain, in which case I roll it.

[Jim Rickel]

I have played a druid in other games so I think about weather a bit.  Really I think how little control of the weather is allowed in D&D and how useful it could be.  A dreary wet day could be used by a group to get around a village unseen.  People being driven indoors by the bad weather may see people but with few details.    Fog in a sea battle could be very interesting especially something like Californian Tule fog.  Ships completely invisible until 20 feet away.  Frost Giants that attack with the first snowfall or during a blizzard could be thematic and fun.

[Gary Norton]

A few months ago, I came to the conclusion that I need to include environmental effects (weather and lighting conditions) for all of the combat encounters.

Weather conditions (cloudy, sunny, rainy) affect some spells. You might have windy conditions making archery more difficult. Storm season is an obvious candidate for windy conditions and inclement weather.

I also include light conditions. Sometimes it is obvious, such as darkness in a cave. You can have twilight conditions with limited visibility or deep shadows in the early morning or late afternoons. Lighting conditions can be a factor when stealth is called for.

I prefer to select the weather and light conditions ahead of time while preparing the adventure rather than putting myself on the spot when a player asks. This helps ensure that I'm consistent for the particular adventure. It also helps to compare particular choices against other adventures to ensure that PCs are exposed to a number of different environmental factors. Otherwise, it can be too easy for every encounter to be in conditions that are bright, sunny, and with no wind.

[Mechashef]

I have a spreadsheet containing generated weather for each day of the year (min/max temperature, wind and rain) for my non-Gloranthan world.

This is for a few reasons:

• In my opinion, some missile weapons are over powered if the detrimental effects of wind on accuracy are not played.  
• Rain can slow down travel, leading to interesting encounters
• Ship travel becomes much less predictable and reliable
• The character following the Storm God has the useful ability to often predict the weather for the next day (2 days on a special roll, 3 on a critical)
• It just adds flavour.

 

I use a calendar so the players know when their next holy day is, when long term sorcery spells expire etc.  Having generated weather on the calendar wasn't hard to add.

[Darius West]

On 8/23/2022 at 8:34 AM, Squaredeal Sten said:

Do you habitually give a weather report for each game day? 

"It were always raining in Far Point, except on days when it were fine; and there weren’t many of those - not if you include drizzle as rain. And even if it weren’t drizzling, it were overcast and there were a lot of moisture in the air. You’d come home as though it had been raining, even though there had been no evidence of precipitation in the rain gauge outside Heler Shrine in Tula.”

The Testing of Eric Olthwaite

Edited August 29, 2022 by Darius West

[soltakss]

On 8/22/2022 at 11:34 PM, Squaredeal Sten said:

Do you habitually give a weather report for each game day?  If not. How often would you say you have weather in your games?

It depends on where I am running.

For Balazar and Dorastor, yes, as I have tables to generate the weather, so I normally generate the natural weather a Season in advance, which helps drive out changes to the weather, or unnatural weather.

On 8/22/2022 at 11:34 PM, Squaredeal Sten said:

I ask because I started out religiously giving date and weather, and rolled weather in accord with regional seasonal weather tables.  I gradually stopped that except when the scenario demanded it.  But I am now thinking that's a mistake because a sudden weather report may telegraph an event.  

If the party has Orlanth worshippers, they can sense changes to the weather, or know what the weather will be the next day, something that they love to show off.

So, for me it was important to be able to nonchalantly reel off the weather.

[svensson]

On 8/23/2022 at 12:41 PM, Jim Rickel said:

I have played a druid in other games so I think about weather a bit.  Really I think how little control of the weather is allowed in D&D and how useful it could be.  A dreary wet day could be used by a group to get around a village unseen.  People being driven indoors by the bad weather may see people but with few details.    Fog in a sea battle could be very interesting especially something like Californian Tule fog.  Ships completely invisible until 20 feet away.  Frost Giants that attack with the first snowfall or during a blizzard could be thematic and fun.

Well, even RQ doesn't 'control' weather all that much. You can Call or Clear cloud cover, and establish small areas of local weather conditions for short periods, but at the cost of major expenditures of Rune Points. It would be a serious expenditure of RP for, say, a Heler Rune level to cause rain in an area larger than 100 sq. meters, and even that's a gentle life-supporting rain, not an 'everybody-get-inside' downpour. The same goes for a Valind Rune level [who are **significantly** rarer on the ground Helerians in Sartar] causing snow, although they ought to be able to cause blizzard conditions more easily I should think.

I'm pretty sure that much of this discussion will be significantly changed with the release of God of Glorantha in any event. That'll have detailed writeups on all the 'weather gods' including special rune spells that will probably go beyond just Cloud Call, Cloud Clear, Rain, Sunripen, etc.

Edited August 24, 2022 by svensson

[jajagappa]

On 8/22/2022 at 6:34 PM, Squaredeal Sten said:

Do you habitually give a weather report for each game day?  If not. How often would you say you have weather in your games?

I typically note it just to provide a sense of what the characters are dealing with.  Sometimes it is of more importance (slower travel time, need for fire or get out of the rain), but usually just color.