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| 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.
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:
- Kølige - Kuḷircciyāṉa - Algus
- Rim - Uṟaipaṉi - Gelum
- Snevejr - Paṉippoḻivu - Nix
- Regnfuld - Maḻai Pluvia
- Blid - Lēcāṉa - Mollis
- Behagelig - Iṉimaiyāṉatu - Jucundus
- Solrig - Cūriyaṉ - Solis
- Svie - Eriyum - Letalis
- Torden - Iṭi - Tonitrus
- Myg - Īramāṉa - Culex
- Tilbageholde - Vilakku - Dilatio
- Høst - Aṟuvaṭai - Ceres
- Tåge - Mūṭupaṉi - Caligo
1: Thanks to Jenx of Gorgon Bones for the suggestion.
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| 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. ... ... ... Actually, The Black Cloud by Odd Nerdrum |
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