Calendar-Weather/Weather-Calendar

The Cloud, Odd Nerdrum

I asked myself, "Why must the Weather change?"

The weather and the calendar are one and the same. 
13 Weather-Months of 4 weeks each. 364 days. No randomisation. No weather rolls. 

Each month is named for its constituent weather. Each weather’s effect lasts for that month only.  

1. Chill 

Quiet, still and colourless. The stinging cold bites at exposed skin and slows the limbs.   

- When out in the cold wear a warm coat* or reduce your maximum HP by -1 per HD (to a minimum of 1). When warm, restore your max HP to its previous amount.

2. Rime 

Frost blooms across the world like a deathly moss. Hearts work hard to warm the body.

- Wear a warm coat and one other item (hat, scarf, gloves, etc) of warming clothing. For each missing item, reduce maximum HP by -1 per HD (to a minimum of 1). When warm, restore your max HP to its previous amount. 

- Bodies of still water, like ponds and lakes, have frozen over but may crack under weight. 

- If soaked wet you die within the hour unless dried and warmed.

3. Snow 

Snow falls thickly. Thrown water freezes in the air. Icicles fruit the trees. Blood runs cold.

- Wear a coat and two other items of warm clothing, or -1 HP per HD for each missing item - up to -3 to MAX HP per HD.

- Overland travel takes twice as long. 

- All still water, rivers and some calmer ocean hexes have frozen over solidly.

- If soaked wet you die within 10 minutes unless dried and warmed.

4. Rain

The cold breaks as the snow is washed away by cool downpours. Nature shivers to life.

- If you spend 10 minutes in the rain you become wet. -1 to all rolls until you have dried yourself. A wool coat will gives one an additional 10 minutes of protection. 

- You become automatically ill if you sleep while wet.

- Chunks of snow, ice and slush are still melting away during the first week of Rain.

5. Mild

Trees bud green, shoots sniff the cool air. Farmers sow in the churned, dark and damp soil. 

- It's just a nice month, no bonuses or maluses

- Foliage is restored during this month, lasting until Fog.

6. Pleasant

Dew in the morning. Blue skies and white clouds patchwork the skies. Blossom falls softly.

- Inspired, for this month gain a +2 modifier to your lowest stat.

7. Sun

Glory! Skins bronze and nature sings, thrumming with life. 

- Everything is great. For this month gain a +1 modifier to all your stats.

8. Scorch

The earth cracks, wisened it thirsts and crumbles to dust. Beasts succumb or seek shade.

- You really shouldn’t travel between hexes during midday¹. If you attempt to, Save Vs Death or collapse on 0 HP. On a successful saving throw you make it, but the journey takes half of your current HP.

- You must consume one inventory slot worth of water to benefit from any kind of healing, magical or otherwise.

9. Thunder

Under dusty, lightning-veined skies; the dry, electric atmosphere belies a violent redolence.

- Critical Hit ranges are extended by one for all combatants. For dramatic games, critical hits are always coolly backlit with lightning strikes.

10. Humid

Wet heat builds. Mosquitoes swarm and contagion spreads in the heavy foetid air. 

- Without a day’s dose of expensive medicines (50gp per day), one automatically fails saving throws against disease, sickness and nausea.

- You must consume one inventory slot worth of water to benefit from any kind of healing, magical or otherwise.

11. Reprieve

Creation exhales. The sun spins out its final rays of strength above the yellow-flecked trees.

- Heal maximum HP from sleep (ie if regular sleep heals 1d6 HP, during Reprieve it always heals 6).

12. Harvest

The leaves droop heavy and coppery. The leaf-strewn fields are lined with bushels of grain.

- All fresh food stuffs heal +2 HP.

13. Fog

The ochres of Harvest give way to grey. The trees turn black and bare. Fog consumes all.

- Ranged attacks have a maximum range of 30ft.

- The chance of getting lost while hex travelling increases by one deviation. 

- Most vegetation is bare until Mild.

*On Coats and Warming Clothing:
These items always take up one inventory slot, even hats, gloves, scarves, bandanas and earmuffs. Though fine coats might count as two warming items despite taking up one inventory slot. Fur armour is also a godsend during the winter. 
A critical hit destroys one item of warming clothing. As does each instance of appropriate elemental damage, a blast of fire - even for 1 point of damage would destroy your coat, a splash of acid would destroy your earmuffs, etc. 
Whenever a character is reduced to 0 HP all items of warming clothing are assumed to be damaged beyond repair or destroyed.
-1 HP per HD means a level 6 character’s maximum HP would decrease by 6 if unprotected in the cold.

Hows and Whys - presented via incoherent babbling (optional reading):

• I made a bad weather system. While trying to think up some other, newer, 'better' method I was left asking myself ‘Why must the weather change?’
• You see, rolling for random weather per day, or even multiple times per session, is just another burden on my tiny brain. I could spare myself and my players this cognitive load niggle by just not doing it. But I still wanted weather.
• Another ‘problem’ with rolling for weather is that some weather types might be so rare as to never be encountered.
• Additionally, is random/changeable weather really that important? Why should the weather change session to session, or even mid-session? WHY? IMPORTANT? WHY? HUH?
• This weather can and is managed via clothing, equipment and gear. Another reason for your inventory and encumbrance systems to matter. 
• Players act on known information, if they can predict the weather they can make plans around it. If they want to carouse through the worst of the winter months, good! Spring and Summer is the perfect time to adventure. I’m not ever memorising a hex-flower however neat they are. Please forgive me 🙇‍♂️.
• Weather control spells become meaningful with monthly weather. Now, even nondramatic weather types have mechanical effects = ‘I can prevent my friend from dying from exposure by making it sunny’.
• The more weather types there are, the more the players must remember. Especially if the weather is very changeable. That’s not a good recipe for player memory. Too few and it will become boring. Longer, more predictable stretches of weather (with effects that try to balance impact and simplicity) should fare a bit better for everyone at the table.
• The clothing management in winter is the trickiest thing IMHO, but it is spread over 3 months/12 weeks of in-world play. That should be enough time to internalise the system without it overstaying its welcome. If you have alternative ideas, suggest them please!
• I didn’t want weather to become irrelevant to higher level players, with characters who could just tank certain effects. I don’t care if you’ve slain the eel-god, fought off armies with nothing but a rusty trident and looted all the jewels of 99th Dimension, if you walk around unprotected in arctic conditions you are going to have a bad time.
• I didn't want to affect stats via stat damage. It's just too fiddly (even for a semi-casual games) to remember to alter values that depend on a given stat or modifier to be worth it. HP is constantly going up and down (max HP less so) but it's something players are used to constantly adjusting. Other bonuses/negatives are static - flat - and last the whole month. 
• That said, in my experience players are more likely to remember positive bonuses to their stats - as with the optimising effects of the nicer summer and spring months. 
• I’d endeavour not to rule any additional mechanical effects/impacts for weather types any more than is necessary. The weather effects are expressly not simulationist, they're gameplay forward. Simulation can be a rabbit hole of needless boredom. 
• The weather cycle I have presented is not very realistic. Humidity should precede Thunder but I sided with what I think would make for better gameplay. Your weather-calendar would look different to mine
• Why is the weather always in 4 week blocks? What is the reason? Who cares, Nerd! Anything is possible in the fantastical world of Dungeons and Dragons™! 
• Long periods of weather allow you (🫵) the DM to consider how the world and its inhabitants react to and live with that weather, any kind. Don't forget to always describe the weather conditions. I tie this to my overloaded encounter die, which as a 'describe the scene' result. 
• 4 weeks seems like the right length of time to me, 1 week is too short, any longer would start to become a drag.
• Speaking of the fantastical, I’ve presented some relatively mundane types of weather. However, the benefit for weather patterns lasting for entire months is that even weird weather can be made understandable, cognizable and verisimilitudinous. Check part two for some weird weather.

If you have better suggestions for distilling these, or any other, weather types into simple, flavourful rules please share!

Month Names:
One may keep the weather names for each as is - named for their weather, ie Harvestmonth or just Harvest. It does aid memory. However, you could rename them. The oldschool worldbuilding trick of translating the weather words into another language still works! They needn’t be direct translations - assonance is king. Here's some Danish, Tamil and good old fashioned Latin month names:

1. Kølige - Kuḷircciyāṉa - Algus
2. Rim - Uṟaipaṉi - Gelum
3. Snevejr - Paṉippoḻivu - Nix
4. Regnfuld - Maḻai Pluvia
5. Blid - Lēcāṉa - Mollis
6. Behagelig - Iṉimaiyāṉatu - Jucundus
7. Solrig - Cūriyaṉ - Solis
8. Svie - Eriyum - Letalis
9. Torden - Iṭi - Tonitrus
10. Myg - Īramāṉa - Culex
11. Tilbageholde - Vilakku - Dilatio
12. Høst - Aṟuvaṭai - Ceres
13. Tåge - Mūṭupaṉi - Caligo

Weird Weather in part 2 (hold on), Weather Festivals in part 3 (watch this space).  

¹: Thanks to Jenx of Gorgon Bones for the suggestion. 

A painting of my wife and I at rest. Yet I rise from my stupor having thought of a good mechanic for representing a certain type of weather. In truth, I am deluded. Please don't use this artwork to dox me.
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Actually, The Black Cloud by Odd Nerdrum

Meta Magic - Experimental Extra-Diegetic Spellcasting (an Alternate Magic System plus Oracular Bingo, Sigil Minigames, IRL Material Components and More)

Herein I present a smorgasbord - a spittlesome spitball - of dumb ideas (most half-formed) for meta, extradiegetic gimmicks and novelties relating to magic and spell casting.

[Is this your card?]

META MAGIC:

The more psychic ability you have as a player, the more effective your magic-user 😏.

We will be using James Young’s magic system as a basis* - a Magic-User has mana equal to their level, begins at first level with four or so levelless spells and learns 1 new random spell per level. To safely cast a spell they must expend 1 mana. Spells can be cast without mana though this ranges from taxing, to deadly, to the uncanny and the grotesque. Spellcasting can go wrong via Mishaps - Chaos Bursts or much worse via Cosmic Horror. Let's get psychical;

Each Magic-User player has a deck of cards with the Jokers left in.

To cast a spell, the player declares the spell and whether they are casting with mana or without mana, then - their deck in hand - attempts to predict the next card by naming its rank and suit, then they draw the top card. Compare the prediction vs the drawn card and consult the following:

Casting with Mana:

• If incorrect, lose 1 mana and the spell is cast as normal
• If one card element (numeral/face or suit) is correct, either - cast the spell at 1 level lower but lose no mana or cast the spell as 1 level higher and lose 1 mana.
• If all elements are correct, cast at double your level, gain 1 temporary mana and learn an additional spell upon levelling up (or during the next downtime, it’s up to you as a DM).
• If Joker, experience a Chaos Burst.

 

Casting without Mana:

• If incorrect, lose HP equal to the card’s value and experience a Chaos Burst.
• If one card element (numeral/face or suit) is correct, the spell casts as normal but you lose HP equal to your level.
• If all elements are correct, the spell is cast as normal + regain 1 mana
• If Joker, experience a Cosmic Horror.

One cannot guess ‘Joker’. Not even if your psychic mega-brain knows a Joker is up next, you can only plan accordingly.

Place drawn cards to one side. One can try to count the cards. At the end of the day/session (whichever comes first), the deck must be reshuffled.

There. A wacky, experimental alternate sketch of a magic system. I wouldn’t use it! While psychic powers would be beneficial, I mostly like the probabilities non-psychic players have to deal with on a mathematical level and accurately predicting the card makes you feel like a real bigtime wizard. You can test it online here. What I am most unsure of is how frequently the (non-psychic) player is wrong, it's never nice to feel so wrong. The system could be reversed where you have to guess what the next drawn card isn’t, but that feels worse - clunky, boring. The concept can be taken in other ways. The deck could have 52/54 distinct arcane sigils sharpied on the back of the cards that can be studied, this would aid the players’ guesses and make them feel like they are learning real magic (perhaps these as they are varied and unique enough). OR, one could simplify the guessing by using a single suit - or better yet - just use the face cards. One could also use a tarot deck’s major arcana or those cards used to test for real psychic powers - Zener Cards although these cards lack the concreteness of playing cards. It goes without saying that with any of these changes the prediction-vs-card results would have to be rethought and rebalanced. Perhaps, this line of thought is just an evolutionary dead end.

Frank Frazetta

EVEN MORE META MAGIC:

Oracular Bingo - Player Driven Campaigns via Omens and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies:

Each square on your campaign’s bingo board is an omen, when an omen is observed… something happens. When a row is filled, the prophecy is fulfilled and… something BIG happens! I am a genius! Now there are two options, two paths to take.

• First and more radically, these omens can be written collectively by the party before they embark on a new arc of an already long-running campaign. This is an attempt by the players to predict events, themes, encounters, aesthetics and consequences they feel they may encounter (and to an extent, things they might want to see happen). I imagine this works best in established campaigns where the players know a lot about the world and might be able to make informed predictions or new campaigns but with very thematic worlds. In doing this, I imagine the campaign will take on a very different character. The players will try to fulfill these omens and in doing so steer the campaign - you as a DM can also include some of their ideas. It could be very useful for players who sometimes lack direction.
• Secondly, you the DM may write them. This will likewise inform the trajectory of the campaign. It’s something like in Mythic Bastionland but instead of the Myths being a mystery you give them to your players on a big bingo card right at the start.

Now, what could these BIG and small somethings be? Fulfilling individual squares could result in minor boons or positive changes in the setting, like the waters of the Stinking Bog run clear, the blood-snow stops. Certainly a bingo could result in an instant level up or major positive change in the world.

The direction of the bingo could also matter, a horizontal bingo would be good for the players whereas a vertical bingo could spell some calamity or a boon for (or arrival of) the BBEG.

You can generate some custom bingo cards on osric.com (no relation).

Not this complex

An Even More Half-Baked Idea for a Ritualistic Sigil Drawing Minigame:
One can draw magic symbols, glyphs, sigils and runes on squared or hexagonal paper/whiteboard to cast distinct spells. The complications your character faces (enemies, lack of magical resources/ingredients, character skill, encumbrance, etc) are represented by a number of dice which are rolled on the paper before you draw the glyph. One must attempt to draw the symbol around these dice, intersecting as few as possible. Each die your sigil intersects introduces some chaos to the magic - perhaps it works on a free form, improvisational system. For example, the SERVANT sigil summons an indestructible humanoid golem to perform a single task of the sigil drawer’s command. If the sigil is trisected (drawn over two die complications) the Golem appears but the DM rules that it is 1: hideously terrifying for all to behold, 2: will achieve the command via the most murderous methods possible.

THE SCRABBLE MAGIC OF THE RANDOM CONJURERS:
I can’t stop thinking of dumb stuff. A magic-user can conjure up anything they can spell out using any number of the 7 randomly drawn Scrabble letters they have drawn at the start of a session. They have a pool of tricks equal to their level - they may use these tricks to swap letters and/or draw new replacement letters after using some for a summoning. I currently have no idea how to balance this, a player can summon ‘GOD’ quite easily. The player with the letters should keep them secret, but can show them to the other players for assistance at a cost of 1HP per level. This may work better with Bananagrams letters. The question is, does/can the player build off of words they have already summoned like in the regular Scrabble game? If so, why?

Meta-Material Components:
James Young* has a rule where if he is bought a beverage, the party gains a d30. The d30 can be substituted for any one d20 roll (or use it to increase the die size of any other roll). What if this was extended and taxonomised into a bewildering array of magical nonsense? Bear with me, I think this may actually have the most potential yet. Take your game’s spell list and attach an extradiegetic material component or ritual to each one. Players may prepare these components/rituals ahead of a session for specific spells their character knows. Doing this weird out-of-game/in-game ritual would see the spell massively boosted in scope, power, duration, effect or size. For example, if a player’s Magic-User knows the spell Web, they also know its meta material component/ritual - that player can bring in a piece of real cobweb to a session, burn/singe it before casting Web and see the spell go nuts. Rather than the web blocking a 10 foot cube, they can block an area equal to a 100’ foot cube

ARGHHHHHHH! What a sloppy start to 2026. This spittlesome spitball of a post is actually a thank you gift for Empedocles of Elemental Reductions for organising the OSR Secret Santa. They wanted an Alternate Magic System. Empedocles oversaw a 100% gift rate and put up with my constant demands for blood of non-delivering crooks (see below). Maybe I’ll return to this post and spin something or two out into a workable, playable thing. Probably the Meta-Material Components post.

If you like the Extradiegetic angle, check out my other META posts, I’d recommend one one about drugs and the other about diseases.

*According to Elmcat’s masterpiece blogosphere map, I am one of James Young’s biggest simps.