Does Weather Really Matter in a RPG?

[@maromania7]

Everyone thinks it's fluff until the tornado hits.

[@haroldcharlie2103]

I know it is quite off topic but does anybody know a good site to watch newly released series online?

[@karsonali241]

@Harold Charlie i watch on Flixzone. Just google for it :)

[@pexthegnome5454]

I use weather constantly. Most of my party flies and they tend to go in the woods and into mountain terrain frequently, so they’re always watching the weather. It has affected situations several times. As always, love the video Guy.

[@calebcampbell9280]

I had never even thought of implementing weather as more than a bit of aesthetic design. Now I’m seeing so many possibilities for interesting situations and challenges! Heat makes heavy armor a liability. Storms and fog reduce visibility and hamper ranged weapons but make sneaking easier. Cold makes lock picking and somatic movements harder and makes staying warm and fed tougher but could make tracking something easier. So many ways to give a party challenging, even desperate, conditions where certain characters can save the day with their ability to overcome the weather. Players might even plan to wait for a certain type of weather where they have an advantage over their enemies.

[@Progentius]

Hey Guy, I would love to hear your opinion on something. How much do you peel back the curtain for your players? Like if they ask you after a session "So what would've happened if we attacked those guards?" Or during a session, if they're having difficulty with a decision and they ask you for some hints about the outcomes. Do you find that it reduces too much of the mystery and magic of the story? Or do you think it can add to it? Might be a good video topic!

[@larsdahl5528]

For my case I would say: It depends... If it is an ongoing campaign, I would not reveal much. (As it may be relevant later.) But for one shot scenarios, I would be more revealing. I have even revealed: That did not happen, so I did never figure out what the consequences would have been! That surprises players sometimes to get to know how little I was running the scenario on. I do let people know, if it was the case, as I thereby let them know that GM-ing is not so hard as you do not need to know the answer to each and every question. Questions with obvious answers, I will always give the answer to. Like the "So what would've happened if we attacked those guards?" -> "Then some of the guards would have run off and sounded the alarm, which most likely would have ruined your chances entirely." --- Often I will (especially in a campaign) ask the players about their motivations for what they did! (As it can reveal misunderstandings in my communication!)

[@tripple-a6031]

Everything where I'm almost 100% sure it won't matter in the future is fair game after the session, I always make a little "what if" if there were some alternative ways. During a session they can of course ask NPC and maybe they even know something that could help them, but normally the players have to think of the outcome for themselves, maybe a little "Are you sure about that? this can go horribly wrong if you fail this check you know?" but that's about it.

[@dynamicworlds1]

I try to keep player and character knowledge as aligned as possible to increase immersion, so my default response to such a question would be "you don't know." Much as we may want answers as players, there is enjoyment to be found in mystery, and giving said answer distances player POV from character POV and starts to make things feel more like a video game where you can just try all the options (even if you have to load old saves to do so), and that's never a mindset you want to encourage as it's all to easy to fall into. If you're running more narrative style it gets even worse as too many of those questions and you have to start either lying to hide the steps you take to hide your attempts to guide the plot, admit you had nothing planned for it, or otherwise break the illusion you're weaving for the sake of the story. Reguardles of style, I see multiple problems and no benefits unless your finished with the game (not just the session) and talking GM tips with someone 1 on 1, so I recommend not doing it and answering only in terms of what the characters could reasonably know/figgure out. Maybe a boring answer and one we all (myself included) may wish wasn't the correct one, but part of the GM skillset is having a pokerface, so there you go. All I can say is to learn to enjoy knowing more than you show.

[@maxstone3779]

I think these questions. This would make great video by itself. The post session interaction.

[@michaelguth4007]

Depends on the context. Sometimes i tell them "behind the curtain" stuff afterwards. Last week, they skipped part of an encounter that would have given them information in how my campaign setting differs from the usual understanding of D&D lore. They as players would have learned something about the game world that their characters should already know. I decided to tell them, as players, about it, because it will be important that they know this when an event takes place. But i don't want to interrupt the event to explain it then. Once i had the idea to answer a bunch of question i had refused to answer prior by creating an adventure where they were stuck in a hall full of mirrors that showed them alternate realities. They needed to find their own world. The best part was that it spawned two follow up adventures, as they decided to react upon their revelations. They took revenge on a noble that they learned had double crossed them and they sought a cure for a disease they didn't knew they were responsible for.

[@TheBronzeDog]

Bit of backstory in my Chronicles of Darkness setting: The area was hit by a hurricane caused by the God Machine. An analogy the creators used to describe the God Machine is that it can calculate which butterfly needs to flap its wings at the right time and place to cause a hurricane, and will build the Infrastructure for the occult matrix that puts that butterfly where it needs to be.

[@carsonm7292]

I like to use weather to add a layer of complexity to obstacles the party has to overcome as well as to make setpiece encounters more dramatic. Just the other night for example, my party was setting up a trap at the edge of a cliff for a beast that had been stalking them for the past few sessions, and their plan heavily revolved around fire. So on the morning before the battle would take place, I played some ambient sounds of distant rolling thunder from a KZbin video. Then I started playing multiple instances of the video as the day progressed, and by the time the trap was ready to be sprung, it had grown to another video of a full-blown thunderstorm in a forest. When the encounter started, I began playing 2SFH's percussion album "All Drums Go to Hell" over the thunderstorm as lightning strikes, forest fires, low visibility, loud noises, wet equipment, and a slippery stone cliff edge all came into play during the climactic battle. The ultimate effect was a tense situation that required the players to adapt to an unexpected element - nature - throwing a wrench into their plans, which they ultimately overcame in a satisfying conclusion. So yeah, I would say weather is a pretty valuable tool in the DM's kit. At the very least it gives you some ambient sounds to play to set the mood.

[@chuckchuckerson5364]

I had this genius idea to start my own youtube channel to impart my 20+ years of game experience with D&D to the world in a more in depth way than others have done (e.g. The Matt's). That is, until I discovered your channel and found that someone has not only already done it, but has done it almost perfectly. As I've mentioned in a previous comment you are a wonderful teacher, please keep it up! I listen to your videos all day at work, just to hear your perspective on aspects of my favorite game.

[@markymark2266]

Another great video, Guy! I was just thinking about when and how to use weather this morning so this video was exactly what i needed!

[@larsdahl5528]

My favourite first weather 'move' is is to have the group travel (if they are by foot, or otherwise travel exposed to weather conditions), and on day two, when they are out in the open, to have it start raining. Enough to get them soaked. Quite simple to do, and interesting in that it reveals something about the characters in how they react to a (what I would consider normal) weather condition.

[@supercalifragic1551]

A Realm Weather generator tool would be amazing. I can just imagine it existing, you click a button saying Generate and out pops a Calendar segmented into seasons, and each day on the calendar has a two-ringed circle for 1-24 hours marked with weather symbols with a central symbol for the overall weather average of the day. Before clicking the button you can add Qualities (Coastal, Northern, Desert, Mountainous, ect)

[@stevebreedlove9760]

Any world builder GM should read a college textbook chapter on geography and weather. Whether you start with terrain features and drive weather or start with desired weather elements and develop terrain to produce the desired weather, the geography aspect could also flesh out the world, transitions between eco tones, etc. Great video!

[@GymbalLock]

Arizona has interesting weather this part of the year. First, it's brutally hot. The air temperature breaks 100° by 7:00 am. Temperature peaks to about 115° and stays there until sunset. After sunset, the air cools down to about 100° for several hours. So it's both hot and dark, making sleep impossible. At about 11:00 at night, things drop down to about 90°. Any outdoor recreation (jogging) is done at about 4:30 in the morning. Second, there are combination rain/dust storms that coat everything with mud. The dust will turn the air yellow and then stick to wet surfaces, leaving little mud spots on cars and houses.

[@fhuber7507]

keeping track of weather means keeping track of time and that is more hassle than most DMs want. I like keeping track of seasons and weather. If you ONLY have rain or fog when something associated will be happening, then as soon as you say "its foggy" the players say "VAMPIRES!"

[@XenBass]

Running a frigid Ravenloft campaign with warmth meters, the party nearly froze to death. So far they're still alive. So yes weather can be very important.

[@COMBATKYLE4]

my entire campaign plays in the far frozen north, and the farther north they go, the more extreme weather conditions they encounter. at the start they didnt pay much mind to the weather but after some near death experiences they started to pay attention and they now go around enchanting their armours and items, buying potions to counter the vision debuffs. And im planning on some items along the way to help them through the frozen wasteland if they start to get annoyed with it.

[@dongeonmaster8547]

I've actually bought a calendar and pre-rolled weather for the campaign from nice days to light drizzle to heavy storms and blizzards. I also made up holidays for the calendar for different races.

[@zacharyjohnson6416]

The weather system in Rolemaster: Gamemaster Law is really stellar. I use it combined with a yearly planner to determine weather for my games. Works for pretty much any system.

[@lostbutfreesoul]

Oooh, the Mayan Long Calendar? Was used for calculating religious days, including many that fell after 2012. It was the western world that went nuts over that slab of stone, the Mayans focused more on the Short Calendar which predicted seasons... knowing when the wet season begun was useful, for reasons explained within this video.

[@alurker441]

"rains every other day all year round" Sounds like normal British weather. Unlike this insufferable heat.

[@marek011011]

a few games back our group has made a weather table that we rolled on everyday. the outcomes were divided into the 4 seasons and it was awesome. we also had to waste 4 days waiting for wind to pick up for our ship to be able to sail.

[@VoidplayLP]

marek011011 Well thats pretty accurate. One of my Parties used a combination of Blizzards and Heat waves do Drive of an invading Army...little did they know that ive done my Research and comcluded that would cause massive flooding and with that massive outbreaks of diseases(hot and wet is the weather mosquitoes Just Love after all)

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

Nice video full of ideas, there, Guy! AND I would posit that rather similar to terrain specifics, the particular weather in-game matters about as much or as little as it NEEDS to matter in the effort to create or encourage the Narrative of the game... It's still worth keeping tabs on about all the time, in a sense of climate scheduling, seasonal shifts, and all... BUT if you want to run a "living world" you already need some kind of reference and log-work to keep the books up on things like festivals, harvests, tax-times, and other general societal goings on for keeping time (or adhering to it)... Vassal states (for instance) in a political campaign arc, would gather the taxes and liquidate assets as necessary to pay their respective nobles and policy holders to upkeep the treaties and agreements, likely at a certain time of year... Weather would certainly matter when it's outside of a "normal" in such a way as to effect the party directly or influence battle should they be involved in such things... Rain adds to mud, limits visibility, generally dampens moods, and makes textile based armor dubiously heavier (in some cases at least) and less useful... Humidity can certainly lead to heat exhaustion, mostly because it renders the natural order of sweating absolutely useless. Your body still sweats to disperse heat, but nothing evaporates, and you just slowly stew in your own fluids... Dehydration can certainly also set in, since the sweat never dries up, you're not always aware that you've lost the ability to sweat at all. Sometimes, I have even been known to kick up a "mysterious storm" or other weather influence just to give some narrative shift in rhythm for one reason or another... Action picks up to a climactic level, but the Party isn't quite managing a die roll to grab the McGuffin to "fix" this thing... Why not lend a stormy hand to interfere with the onslaught of enemy troops chasing after the Party and their quarry... slowing everything down a little bit as mud makes the race more treacherous??? It's fun. It's dirty. It's dangerous. It's difficult anyway... I call that a win-win. ;o)

[@BigMonMulgrew]

I have been considering building an app for weather in my games, something I can put on the TV or a tablet. Something that will track an in game calendar and select appropriate randomized weather, but will have a manual override so I as the GM could decide to have a freak storm, or skip a few days to go to a full moon. This way I am not forced to hang a lantern on weather conditions that give clues to the story, because its always showing when we play. I could of course decide as GM to call attention to the weather on the horizon, or point out last nights moon was almost full.

[@sherylcascadden4988]

Back in the 80's when I was designing a world for my campaign, I divided it into climate zones. I took two years of weather reports (newspaper archives are fun) for a similar climate zone on earth, and planned to vary the weather patterns when appropriate. My campaign never got off the ground, but the research is still there should I ever need it. I also planned in advance for earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis. I made a tidal chart based on the position of the world's three moons. It may have been overkill, but I enjoyed doing it, and would do it again if I ever took up being a DM.

[@TheDesknight]

Its hot in Belgium France and Spain too, i feel your pain

[@derfzgrld]

I got an 100% custom calendar for my campaign and every day I announce the exact date. I do also think its important to have a feeling that time progresses and dont just look at every day individually because its much more atmospheric if the players know that they just spent a half year which the villain could use for something than if they just know they used some time which doesnt matter.

[@jamesstaton3265]

Another important thing with wind is smell. If the party is upwind from something with a keen nose, or not even that keen if they've lit a fire to camp or whatever, whatever it is will know they're coming. With my gnoll character, I've managed to turn this around, as I'd bargained a bonus to checks that smell could feasibly be a part of, and we either avoided or had the advantage on a number of encounters where the wind carried the scent of orcs or whatnot.

[@Dargoni]

If anybody is here who has read the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson, they will attest to you the importance of weather. In the book, nearly everything from geography to religion to construction to culture is, if not determined, heavily influenced by the highstorm weather system in his books

[@osonhouston]

Not being a player or gm I think one of the best uses of weather would be droughts, floods, storms etc as reasons for conflict. A long drought, bad crops and starving people who are migrating or raiding other lands place your party in the middle of that and you have the making of a good story.

[@The_Custos]

I am a fan of dehydration and frostbite rules, but I will say this, unless you are playing a high con or high fort wizard, some spellcasters (and multiclass characters) are brutally impacted by certain harsh weather rules. We found this out in various harsh campaigns, and we had one poor fellow, a wizard rogue with almost no fort at all that was exhausted and debilitated by a trek that required plenty of fort saves. He died, weakened, heavily burdened by the treasure he was carrying, and impaled by javelins from the indigenous. A double fort multiclass character suited for harsh conditions was just fine.

[@ryanbeverley1546]

In my Iron Kingdoms RPG game, I actually play as a Stormsmith. This means my character can, to some degree, alter the weather around the battlefield. I can create heavy winds to knock enemies down, or rains which make the battlefield a muddy mess, making the terrain difficult to charge across. I can also create lightning strikes to hit the enemy forces. It gives the GM a lot of chances to create unique encounters depending on what I do

[@VoidplayLP]

Ryan Beverley If hes an asshole he will make that mess Up the climate...i would certainly do that.

[@Darkwintre]

Oh yes I wish I used it more in my games to be honest!

[@felixrivera895]

My party is traveling up river (towards gently higher elevation), and I have been using this cloud that has persisted on the horizon to indicate the state of the weather. Now, the cloud itself was just something fun I threw in like "oh you rolled a 2 on perception? You see a smilely face cloud. A little poof poof dash". Now of course I've decided that that's where a portal into the elemental air exists and that the cloud will change to reflect the weather, but the important thing is that I'm gonna use that seemingly random cloud as a constant in the world that will always be present as long as they are on the map I drew, and as a plot hook if they look into it. I plan on eventually setting up a scenario where they must travel along a path in a field during a thunderstorm with the cloud having a detailed face and a [undecided] expression. I'm planning on using this scenario to shed light onto my Tempest Cleric's relationship with her god, as well as Zeus's particular relationship with nature. I have no clue what they might do through the day, but unless they outright avoid the storm I will have a 4d10 [She's super buff because she rolled well for hp] bolt of lightning smite her. This will of course be precedented with a Wis Check to recognise the feeling of lightning incoming, followed by a Con or Dex save of her choice with advantage if she succeeds the Wis Check. I want to use this to make travel interesting, world build, and I want to see whether [lol] she will blame Zeus for sending the bolt, or thank him for warning her.

[@The_Custos]

Know about Sargava in pathfinder? Perfect for humidity.

[@Starius65]

Thank you!

[@TheRenji696]

I always think of Avatar music at the end of his videos. Like Iroh is talking

[@tripple-a6031]

I tend to forget the weather way too often, but it does matter, though you shouldn't do a roll on weather if it could hurt your plot. A festival would be canceled in heavy rain for example.

[@e-jlehti1489]

Hey, Welcome to Finland, unless you already visited. :) What are your plans?

[@Bluefoot65]

A flash flood in a dungeon (Temple of Doom) and the like Use of calendars to track What your villains are doing and NPC groups, holy days, festivals

[@Raptor8415]

I have a very important question: Why are you wearing four layers when it's 40C in Tokyo?

[@b_hollow_]

Yes it matters.

[@madvulcan8964]

In D&D, Isn't there a spell to predict the weather?

[@blackcorp0001]

Damn good question

[@FelipeKana1]

Japan??? Woa

[@larsdahl5528]

I remember some years ago: Some Palestinians would make a demonstration in front of the town hall (Something about the Israel - Palestine situation). However the demonstration did not last long, as it started raining, so they did go home early...!

[@mikewinans5091]

Is the title a real question? Obviously weather matters.

[@christianrobinson5857]

Mike Winans well I think that's the point Guy is driving at here but I think we're are debating weather based on region... like if your campaign happens in a very temperate climate weather may not be as big of an impacting force on your party... however if they detour into an Africa-esque climate suddenly water becomes radically more important and mosquitoes and insects every where... forced marches happen during the day time not the night any more but they means they are moving through darkness weakening the daytime races... or if they go to an arctic climate with heavy winds in high altitude we discover the need for excessive amounts of food and water and planning before movement as every step could kill those behind you leading to a Donner party scenario... but not every place has weather that is so dire that it is a consideration... so it's more or less varying degrees of importance

[@kyliepoe6231]

How to make weather matter in your RPG" would be a better fit

[@sammy3212321]

My current campaign is centred around the impending threat of hurricanes, so I feel like a heavy-handed novelist with all my pathetic fallacy 😂

[@clericofchaos1]

only if it creates difficult terrain or if you have fliers in the party, other than that it's just fluff.

[@kalten1380]

clericofchaos1 Visibility. Heavy Rain or Snow makes everything lightly obscured (disadvantage on sight-based perception) and rain extinguishes open flames and disadvantage on hearing perception

[@larsdahl5528]

Well, if all the ongoing is in dungeons, then there are not much useful in knowing what the weather is outside. Though I would consider flood to be an interesting option, as it may drown the party!

[@clericofchaos1]

man, I so don't want to deal with that. either as a player or a dm. if you do that's great, I don't.

[@clericofchaos1]

I don't think flood counts as weather. that's a natural disaster.

[@VoidplayLP]

clericofchaos1 Well If youre in a Dungeon and theres heavy Rain outside that Thing might get flooded. You should give Clues about that though...

[@abelsampaio389]

TLDW: Yes, it does.

[@edwardnigma9756]

Next video: Does Real Leather Matter in a RPG?

[@ampeyro]

Lesson of the day: Naked red coats in africa are still red.

[@mrplatypus100]

Dont forget mud. The German army was stopped in its tracks invading Russia because the spring soil is nothing but mud.

[@stefanb6539]

You sure about that? Cos this guy: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIeTpqapl8p5eac makes a pretty good case, that it wasn't really the weather, that stopped them.

[@vanhovemare]

also in the Western Front 1914-1918.

[@derfzgrld]

I didnt watch the video and dont plan to but im shure the weather had a huge impact. Not only the mud in spring but also the extreme cold in winter. Both impacted in so many ways that I dont want to go in detail here.

[@dynamicworlds1]

Stefan B Agincourt may be a better example, but the general point remains IMO. Also in that vain, spring rains and snowmelt can make some streams impassable, even without flooding.

[@grozaAC]

You're referring to the 'rasputitsa' which happens in early spring and fall. In the case of the invading Germans, their struggle was largely with the rainy fall, followed by an earlier-than-normal winter. It is also disingenuous to reduce the failure of such a massive campaign to one single factor. The invasion of Russia was big and complicated. Reduction doesn't help people actually understand what happened.

[@almightyk11]

For me, weather is something that is usually saved for Survival scenarios and has a percentage to detriment you in combat or skill checks. Keeps it a thing without taking too much time

[@drandana3661]

A nerd spending 10 minutes first convincing you that the weather is indeed real.

[@CuriousKey]

First thing: Literally anything in a story-telling medium, when written into a story, matters to that story. Second: Weather prediction is only relevant if, in your setting, predicting it is possible. Maybe all weather systems are the will of a weather god? The idea that weather in a fantasy setting *must* be realistic to the real world is patently ridiculous. Long story short, it matters if you want it to. In that regard, it's the same as every other ambient part of an rpg setting.

[@merandasomnolentgamer8323]

How does one event calculate the effect that say.. weather spells from a game like D&D have on a natural climate? I shudder at the thought.

[@VoidplayLP]

Meranda Autumn ive actually done that when my party used weather spells to Drive of an invading Army. they used multiple Blizzards and extreme Heat eaves in the southern european summer basically and by doing that caused floods and a mass outbreak of malaria. suddenly making it cold when everything Else is Pretty hot tends to cause vicious storms and with that Lots of Rain...and flooding makes mosquitoes boom.