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Game Weather
Weather in RPGs is one of the most overlooked and simplest way to add flavor and attitude to a game. Because weather rarely comes into play as far as logistics goes, it often goes ignored. In the last four years, the only time I have heard players ask about the status of weather, it was because they were wondering if they could use a storm or wind based spell that required certain weather conditions.
How do you create weather in RPGs that is realistic, interesting and doesn’t come across as repetitive? Go outside on a regular basis during different times of day and write down whatever weather patterns are presenting themselves. Learn the conditions when dew turns into a misty fog in the early morning, or whatever else you can gleam. Use these descriptions to create a scene for your players to imagine in their heads.
For instance, here is a description of adventurers waking up in the woods without weather being part of the description:
The last watch shift ends at dawn, and you begin breaking down the campsite and hiding any record of your presence lest you be tracked. Calls of wild-life emanate from within the forest.
Compare this to a description of the same scene with weather included as a factor:
The last watch shift ends at dawn, and you begin breaking down the campsite and hiding any record of your presence lest you be tracked. A low fog rolls over the ground, forcing you to go up a tree in order to scout the surrounding area and get your bearings. Looking out over the forest, many patches are filled with an obscuring mist. Calls of wild-life emanate from beyond the mists, reminding you of how little you see of what’s around you.
These scenes are essentially the same as far as any mechanics go, and there may or may not be an ambush or other peril waiting for them within the fog. The image of it, however, is quite evocative and sets a mood for the players. Encouraging them to imagine the scene allows them to create an image of it in their minds, forcing them to interact with the game and become more immersed in it.
How do you create weather scenes and descriptions?
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10 Responses to “Game Weather”
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You are a crafty one, you :)…. I can almost see where you get your inspiration…
Expect a follow up post later today on my side dear Narrator…
ChattyDm’s last blog post..RPG Lessons from my kids: Never curb your enthusiasm!
What can I say? You inspired me.
Lol! No sweat… We’re so different on so many things, should we ever decide to tackle the exact same subjects for a week we’d have vastly different articles…
And difference is Good (TM)…
Peace out and don’t look at the snow picture too much…
ChattyDm’s last blog post..RPG Lessons from my kids: Never curb your enthusiasm!
That might be a good thing to do, not just with you and me but several others as well. We set up in advance topics that we’ll all cover on the same day and put them out.
[…] wondering… Shortly after that Omnius, who’s allergic to snow I’m told, wrote a weather-themed […]
Weather. A nice tool.
As a GM, I use it to set a mood (dark and stormy nights may be overused, but doesn’t make them ineffective) or as a weapon by antagonists. This is the primary use.
As a secondary benefit, weather is a great consequence for failed skill checks. The track check didn’t succeed? They were caught in a sudden downpour that pretty much sweeped away the tracks, and now are in hostile territory and hostile weather with little protection against either. Touch luck. Or a PC wants to know if the weather will favour their war expedition; I have the player roll relevant skill with high or moderate difficulty, where success means good weather and failure means bad one. No need for random weather charts that way.
A further benefit is the use of weather as a signifier of the strange. Sudden changes look majestetic and are pretty powerful in the enviromental perspective, but do comparatively little to player characters, so they are an excellent method of demonstrating that something powerful is happening.
Tommi Brander’s last blog post..Alignment
Nicely put, Tommi. Using weather as the reason for a skill check after the fact, instead of putting it in place ahead of time resulting in penalties, is very interesting. It doesn’t always require the weather to change, as moisture from rain the previous night before can be the reason a balance check was failed in a particular location, even if most places are dry enough not to cause a problem.
“Signifier of the strange.” Very nice.
[…] enough to slaughter anyone with a good hit of fist, tree of rock, has nice powers. Inspired by Daniel’s post on game weather, I decided for weather to change according to Nifur’s mood. This gives a few […]
When would be the best time to use this description of fog? When your PC’s have something planned in the morning, I imagine, so the fog will still be there. You wouldn’t just randomly take two minutes describing the PC’s getting up in the morning. Unless you were trying to set them on edge by describing things in great detail for no reason? When else would you use it?
Anytime random encounters are in play, its fair to assume that they could happen at pretty much any time of day - which makes it fair to assume you could declare the event as taking part at any time during the day.
Fog can occur in the evening when the air starts to cool, especially if there’s been heavy rainfall or there’s a near-by body of water.