d30 Months of Weird Weather

 

by Odd Nerdrum

d30 Weirder Weather-Months:

This is part two of my weather trilogy. In Part One I made up a yearly calendar of weather with each month being composed of a single unchanging type of weather. I explain my reasoning for this in the post. Each weather type had some simple, yet concrete and impactful, mechanical effects - like campaign level status effects. Check it out here. This Weather-Calendar kept it quite straight - a fairly generic seasonal year with a few flourishes but you (🫵) could be much more creative. You've read the title, we're doing weird weather today. I owe thanks to Mikesmix of Sheep and Sorcery, Whisper of Glass Ziggurat and maxcan7 of Weird and Wonderful Worlds for their creative contributions to this list. 

While it is of my opinion that one should use ‘weirdness’ carefully, one can’t always be mundane. THAT’S BORING! Here are d30 other monthly options, they range from reasonable to gonzo. I tried to consider gameplay first, I broke some of the rules I proposed in part one but if you have ideas for better implementation, please suggest! I think weather 11 is my favourite but there are plenty of mechanics in here you can mine and use for other things.

d30 Weird Months of Weather

1. Pollen: The realm is wreathed in a ruffle-petalled raiment of gaudy, blooming flowers. The air is clouded with yellow fragrant spores that settle and form drifts and banks in the spring grass. On character creation roll a d10, on a 1 your character has hayfever and suffers a -1 to all rolls during this sneezesome month, otherwise you are ok. Plant creatures always have maximum HP.

2. Battle: The seasonal struggle between Law and Chaos. The night sky scintillates with the sparks of cosmic battle, the earth rattles and multitudinous rainbows jaggedly streak the sky fading to black and white and back to colour again. All magic cast by Chaotic beings is treated as if cast 1 level higher but Lawful entities’ saves vs all magical phenomena are at +2.

3. The Big Bustard Hunt: Around this time of year, strong and warm westerly squalls blow over desert dust and huge flocks of plump and juicy bustards. While fewer of these dumb, delicious birds get blown over each year, I wouldn't worry about it, get hunting! - the most common encounter on your encounter table is replaced by small flocks of 2d12 Bustards. By the way, each bustard is worth a ludicrous amount of XP.

4. The Haze: Velvety purple vapours cloud the skies and valleys with their cloying, narcotic scent, the grass turns plump, succulent and soft - everyone is high for the whole month as if on a random drug. You can ‘reroll’ your drug by immersing yourself in cold water. Upon resurfacing a new drug is rolled for. This ‘reroll’ can only be done once per day. 

5. Steroid Rain: It rains steroids - everyone is considered to have a Strength score of 18 for the month. Neutral results on reaction rolls (6-8) have a grumpy, macho tone. These heavenly steroids are not potable. 

6. Feeding Season: This annual pseudo-weather event occurs when the man-eating Yateveo plants release their prey hormone - all mammals are considered to have a Wisdom score of 3 for the month and automatically fail saves Vs Paralysis.

7. Portalmas: The air tastes metallic, hairs stand on end. The landscape is littered with vantablack portals - wherever one is, there is a 5-6 chance that one of these portals is within the immediate vicinity. If entered teleport to a random campaign hex. Once entered both ends of the portal collapse within 10 minutes. Criminals love this season.

8. Vampiric Fog: A thin terracotta coloured mist thirsts for blood - damage rolls of 1 deal max die-size damage instead (ie 6 for a d6 weapon) as the drawn blood spins out into the hungry, sucking fog + Death and Dismemberment rolls are one deviation worse. 

9. The Boiling: All unadulterated water boils - rivers, lakes, oceans, the water in your canteen. The month prior all non-immune water-life, sensing the approaching danger fled. The air is filled with steam. Folk prize milk, beer and other such drinks which are oddly unaffected. The effects - splashed boiling water does 1 point of damage, submersion = 1d6 damage per round. Torrid, you must consume one inventory slot worth of some kind of drink to benefit from any kind of healing, magical or otherwise. The steam purifies, +2 saves vs disease. 

10. Drutefall: The long dormant drute plant's fruit pods burst forth from the soil and, geyser-like, expel their stinking gases and saprogenic fruit. The land is carpeted with foul, purple sweating puck-shaped fruit and thick green clouds vein the sky. The effects: the drute’s green gasses rapidly rot all other food stuffs (and corpses) to mush (ten minutes for corpse mushification, regular food stuffs - almost instantly). Only the drute (and canned goods, quickly gulped down) can be eaten. While omni-abundant, drute has no nutritional value and the body can only extract so much calorific value from it. Drute heals only 0-1 HP regardless of how much is eaten during the day. Additionally, all one can smell is the stench of Drute, the DM cannot describe any other smell. Drute tastes like hog-fat fried rubber tires with a citrus twist.

11. The Aggressively Pacifistic Murmuration of Paradoxical Utungo: For the month, the sky is clouded with one vast murmuration of philosophical finches. They’re engaging in their seasonal stratospheric debate. They argue in the language of birds about all things but there is one belief they all agree on… their beady little eyes and black-gold plumage conceal a soul violently dedicated to pacifism. Whenever combat takes place the murmuration reacts! The murmuration takes part in the combat attacking one participant (per 4 combatants) for d12 damage each round of combat. This swarm attack cannot be blocked meaningfully by an unprepared individual and automatically deals this damage. Likewise, the finch swarm is so vast it cannot be meaningfully damaged or repelled. When combat ends, so do the finch’s attacks. Human disputes are settled via ritualised ‘dueling caves’ where they are safe from the murmuration.

12. The Fizz: The air carbonates, a reverse rain of pinkish bubbles percolate up from the buzzing earth and into the hazy, salmon-coloured sky. Likewise, leaves, dust and detritus are carried, floating up, into the air. The rich recline on marble slabs or are carried in sealed sedans as the bubbles do itch. However, for the month, one can jump twice as far/high and falling damage is halved. The bubbles cannot pass through thick non-porous materials, so this effect does not work inside of most stone-floored buildings, dungeons or stoney caves. If sleeping on or above bare earth, one only gains half the usual healing from sleep. 

13. The Sweating: Slick green beads of moisture bud up on all things. The sky goes blotchy, bruised - all chartreuse and plum-coloured. All creatures are unsteady, sweaty and irritable. Critical failure ranges extend by one, average reaction rolls (6-8) in miserly, disgusted or sick moods. Academics are still unsure as to whether this phenomenon is extracting the green ectoplasm from matter or merely depositing it upon things. 

14. Black Sun, Bright Moon: The Month in which (as legends tell us) Lord Sun and Lady Moon agree to swap roles, swap clothes, swap souls but retain their minions. The Sun turns black and plunges the land into a shivering, quivering pseudo-night and the Moon radiates a brilliant white light that bathes the world in a sterile glow. Day and Night have swapped illumination! Day/Night encounters remain the same but suffer -2 to their encounter roles as they resent the unnatural light. Dreams now occur during waking hours so the DM is free to add individualised hallucinations when and wherever they see fit.

15. Month of the Living Dead: A silvery mist descents upon the land and curls, coiling tendril-wise along the ground (ranged attacks cannot be made beyond 60ft). The sun turns dim and the moon glows a blood red. The tree's bare black branches knot themselves and no wild game can be hunted, for it has all fled the unnatural, necrotic stillness of the air. Any slain creature rises from the dead as a zombie after 1 round unless its brain is destroyed. 

16. Acid Rain!: Acid rain. You know what it is. But how does one protect against it? Alkaline grease pots! They cost 1 gp and grease 1 item. Pots can be stacked 10 to an inventory slot. Greased items are protected for one entire journey through the acid rain (only). Any unprotected items receive the ‘acid-etched’ descriptor (or just an X on your character sheet), if any ‘acid-etched’ items are damaged again by the acid rain they become ‘corroded’ (or XX), if a ‘corroded’ weapon is unprotected/ungreased in the acid rain it is destroyed. ‘Acid-etched’ items can be repaired, ‘corroded’ weapons cannot. If a ‘corroded’ weapon receives a notch it is instantly destroyed. Some cheapskate players will try to hide things in greased bags, sure, just don’t take their contents out in the rain.  

17. Radioactive Death Cloud: The southern wind blows down nuclear fallout from the ruined and wasted northern hemisphere around this time of year - big comically green clouds of the stuff with its geiger-counteresque clicking - you’d better put your gasmask on. At character creation, roll your character’s maximum age, perhaps 50+2d20 years. Everytime a player whose character does not have a gasmask (with filter) rolls a dice, their character loses 1 year off their maximum lifespan. Filters cost 1 GP, take up one inventory slot and last one day once removed from their protective seal. Filters are destroyed by water, falling damage and damage rolls of 1. Characters die should their current age exceed their maximum age. During this month, each Death and Dismemberment roll is supplemented by an additional roll on your mutation table. An expensive RadAway equivalent might be able to restore lost lifespan. 

18. The Death-Defying Breath of the Green G-d: The sky turns a clear and vivid cyan. The Green G-d exhales, its breath - a hot, dewy murmuring wind that flows through all living things, filling them to the brim with vitality and health. New growth whips and tangles, beasts are born big and bellowing. Effects: saves vs death and dismemberment are one deviation better, sleep heals double the usual amount, forest hexes and similar are treated as very difficult terrain as they swell densely with thorns, tangled branches and berried thickets. Monsters have as a minimum their average HD’s worth of HP.

19. The Not At All Horrifying and Actually Quite Delicious Gravy Drizzle: The sky turns the deepest brown (vantabrown), black shapes dart between the cloudbound rivulets of ‘gravy’. A mysterious beefy mist buffets the landscape and those who dare walk in its salty, fatty slickness. It’s warm. The plant world dislikes this moisture and most vegetation shrivels considerably. Water tastes bad. Animalia loves it as the meaty dew is very nutritious. Food stuffs coated in the brown translucent spray heal an extra +2 HP. Predators, satiated, have +2 to their reaction rolls - they’re not hungry. However, if the PCs are coated with gravy, bite attacks performed against them deal damage equal to one die size higher than normal (as the characters have become tastier). 

20. The Greyful Hum of Taos: In this dry month of winter, having burrowed up from their grey trackless dunes on the far side of the earth, come the Achromicidae - a cacophonous swirl of swarming locust-like insects, vast as to dim the sky. It is not crops the swarms will devour but colour itself. For this month the DM cannot describe colour at all beyond black, white and shades of grey. Additionally, the hum-chittering of the swarm is almost unbearable, so overpowering in fact that the DM cannot describe the sound of things beyond sight of the party. Elves are not so affected by these effects they can still see colour, albeit somewhat desaturated and noises, while audible are muffled and indistinct. Characters cannot gain the full benefits of sleep without earplugs. 

Extra Weird Weather Submissions:

Here are submissions from my creative friends, Mikesmix of Sheep and Sorcery (entries 21-26), Whisper of Glass Ziggurat (entries 27-28) and maxcan7 of Weird and Wonderful Worlds (entries 29-30). The bracketed mechanics are of my own devisal.

21. Anti-Rain: Moisture is drawn out of living things and back into the sky.  (Drink fluids to heal as with Scorch in part 1)

22. Oobleck: Black goop. Drowns everything in sticky inedible goop. A curse left behind by a king who refused to accept the world on its own terms. (Increase a Saving Throw of your choice by 1 for each hour spent in the Oobleck. Should a saving throw reach 20 you start to drown. It takes 1 hour of cleaning to recover 2 points of your Saving Throws. High is bad for Saving Throws remember)

23. Chaos Storm: Magic is broken. The world is angry. It rages for the injury done to it by reckless mages who bent the world until it broke. Now magic pure, chaotic and furious rages over the surface. It could do anything to you, anything bad that is. (All characters roll a random curse from your curse table. They are afflicted by this curse for the day. A new curse rolled the following dawn. Likewise, random encounters are also burdened with a random curse. One can purchase lucky talismans that when crushed allow the one doing the crushing to 'reroll' their curse)

24. Fog of War: With the fog comes the ghosts of those who died in an ancient war. They continue to fight their war again anywhere the fog appears. (Whenever combat occurs either side is aided by 1d6 1HD semi-spectral soldiers (or a detachment in ItO style games). Ranged combat has a maximum of 30ft. The chance of getting lost increases by 1 deviation)

25. Vengeful Cloud: You offended this cloud somehow and now it's following you and hitting you with the worst kind of storms it can. (This sentient, rancorous cloud only targets players that perform or act in certain predetermined behaviours that the cloud dislikes such as impoliteness/impiety/bad taste etc. Targeted characters are affected as in Rain in part one. Whenever a player exhibits a certain disliked trait, displeased thunder is heard. They can seek reprieve from the storm by apologising to the cloud. If they apologize for the wrong behaviour they are struck by lightning for 2d12 damage. The cloud's whims change per week)

26. Cloud Giant War: Enormous weapons and gore come crashing down from overhead as cloud giants duke it out. (Every turn of combat drop a number of dice of two types/colours onto the battle map equal to the number of players. The first type of die represents giant's blood, should the dice land on a player/NPC token they must pass a save Vs Death or be knocked prone. If the other die type lands on a player/NPC they are squashed by a shard of the giant's weapon/armour and must save Vs Paralysis or suffer 1d6 damage. Not sure about this one, any other suggestions?)

27. Hypergravity: Mother Earth becomes envious. For the duration of the month, fall damage is increased and nothing can lift itself from the ground.

28. Radio: Metal objects act as receivers for extraterrestrial pop songs, ads, and talk shows. Stealth is impossible if you have any metal on your person, but once per rest you can learn the answer to one question about 1d6: 1) local politics 2) automobile maintenance 3) insurance products 4) romance 5) medication side effects 6) Taylor Swift. (or any 6 topics of your choosing. Obviously)

29. Humboldt Fog: When Pan and his orgiastic party ascend Cypress Grove, their orgone energy summons the blue ribbon bridge to the moon. The milk of their orgy floods the moon and ferments, then melts like fondue back down to the world. The gamey goat cheese flows with abundance and many cultures engage in festivities around the vent akin to a debauched Christmas. (Characters move and hex-crawl at half speed as they wade through the celestial cheese-stuff. Fall prone and become trapped until a save Vs Paralysis is passed. Engaging in hedonistic activities heals a minimum of 1d6 HP. Cheese rations are infinitely available but appear disgusting once the month is over)

30. Gray Goo Greenhouse: Gray goo particles permeate the sky, augmenting and entrapping echoes of ideas that expand like heat through glass. Reality comes apart like a frog boiled in increasingly warming water. Those trapped within a Gray Goo Greenhouse rarely realize what's happening to them. The goo like microplastics, slowly congealing within their brains and minds. (All players, NPC's, monsters, random encounters, items, all inanimate objects infact and some concepts - all roll a random insanity for the month. That or all your players must smoke/inject a nasty and synthetic drug of your choice for sessions that take place during this weird weather month)

Try playing in a game with this as the calendar!

Odd Nerdrum

Another Rambling Postscript:

Again, as I rambled about in Part 1, the benefit of the month-long weather format over the random roll is that it gives players time to internalize the weirdness of the world rather than being constantly shaken about by dozens of short, weird phenomena (that even the world itself barely has time to react to). If that kind of play persists, the players will eventually become inured to the world’s fantasy and any future high strangeness might lose its charm.

Stay tuned for Part Three, Weather Festivals!

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 (It's Here!), 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

Death in the Dark - Meaningful Torchlight and Light-based Initiative

Some find that torches and light management generally to be easily forgotten during play. Something easily glossed over. This omission comes, often unknowingly, to the detriment of both the atmosphere and play of dungeon-delving adventure. So, what to do? 

This house-rule bakes light into initiative, taking light source management directly into and during combat. Presenting new dilemmas and meaningful choices as your party manages light to tip or rebalance combat in their favour - will they attempt to light that new torch or try to push on despite the disadvantage?

Once you have trained your players (and possibly even yourself) to regularly consider the darkness, and their provisions against it, you can start to use light/dark more and more in all different facets of play. Here’s how it works:

Use side initiative: roll once per round of combat (before the round begins), the highest roll determines which side (monsters or party) acts first.

• Monsters roll 1d6.
• The party rolls a d4 with no light, a d6 with one light and a maximum of d8 with two or more light sources (but the more spare light sources the better).
• (Alternatively, the party rolls 1d4, +1 per active light source, to a maximum of +2)
• The party wins ties but a light source is destroyed in the process.

The Role: 

Like the Caller, Mapper, or Chronicler roles, your group might appoint a Lightkeeper (Pointman, Underscout, Warden, etc). This player:

• Tracks the party’s active light sources.
• Rolls for initiative.
• Optionally, manages marching order and/or makes all the encounter rolls (though this can be its own separate player role).

The Lightkeeper player could use a simple tracker like this, with a number of counters/tokens/beads equal to whatever torches/lanterns/runes/lightbulbs/flashlights/glow-rods that the party possesses, placing them in the light bonus boxes or spare light 'pool' respectively. 

 LIGHT?:     

 ▢     ▢

(d6) (d8)

   POOL

[‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾]

[                     ]

[________]

Or

 LIGHT?:     

 ▢     ▢

(+1) (+2)

   POOL

[‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾]

[                     ]

[________]

On Light Destruction, Tips and Optional Rules:

• A light source is automatically destroyed on matched initiative rolls - the party cannot elect to lose initiative, so it's best to carry more than 2 light sources. 
• As the DM, don't neglect to describe how each light source is destroyed. How a light source is destroyed is deeply tied to the context of the combat - a giant bat might bite the candle out of your hand, a lamp might get flung into a nearby pool of slime, a candle might be dropped and trampled in the jostle of combat, a gnollish arrow might pierce your lantern or the darkness itself might swallow up the light of a torch leaving nothing but a burning ember. This description is important.
• Destroyed light sources cannot be reused, torches cannot be relit, lanterns cannot be repaired or refuelled.
• This form of light source destruction is in addition to light source depletion via rolls on the Overloaded Encounter Die.
• During daylight or well lit sections of the dungeon use normal d6 vs d6 side initiative.
• Your party will often run at the maximum initiative bonus but don't worry, they will burn through light sources quickly enough.
• Lanterns. Lanterns are better than torches in that they can be covered when the light wants to be hidden (unlike torches which must be extinguished and therefore, destroyed) and again, unlike torches, are not destroyed/depleted by overloaded encounter rolls that cause light depletion, they just run out of oil. Lanterns are only destroyed on joint initiative rolls. But feel free to house rule this as you see fit. 
• Use a good, workable encumbrance system. If using a slot-based encumbrance system, one torch should take up one slot. 
• Light Destruction on initiative roll draws is the most elegant thing about this - you can continue to use d6 vs d6 side initiative with just this tweak. 
• Dwarves have infravision, not dark vision so they still they still benefit from light sources in combat.
• Populate dungeons with monsters that target characters carrying light sources and creatures/traps that target light sources directly. 

Optional: Deader in the Dark
You can increase the severity of the darkness by altering the light to die size threshold. For more severe play; players without any light automatically lose initiative, roll 1d4 for initiative with one light source, 1d6 with two light sources and a maximum of 1d8 with a three or more light sources. Light source destruction on tied initiative rolls continues as normal. However, automatically losing initiative can become a predictable IGOUGO. It looses the 'appeal' of players managing to win initiative, despite their disadvantage, only for the monsters to predictably snatch back the initiative and effectively have 'another go' - performing their actions back-to-back.

Optional: Dungeon Scarring

If you want dungeon DARKNESS to be a fantastic and corrosive phenomenon, to feel like a living force that hates you - consider Dungeon Scarring. For every 10 minutes the party spend without a source of light (or whenever encounters are rolled for) the characters suffer from dungeon scarring - each affected player must pinch off a piece of their character sheet, no more than a few millimetres, that or poke a hole with a sharp pencil. To be even harsher, you can enforce dungeon scarring for each initiative roll the party makes without a light source. Your players will never forget their torches again. 

Postscript:

This is something of an adaptation of a method employed by James Young, which in turn I believe was inspired by Veins of the Earth's initiative system. Also, check out this cool meta house rule for initiative by Benign Brown Beast and this mega list of different initiative systems by Knight at the Opera.

The Hunting Die - Improving Encounter Rolls, Again!

The Hunting Die - Improving Encounter Rolls or, a Predatory Encounters/Underclock Alternative

Rather recently, I shared PREDATORY ENCOUNTERS which is a method to increase the number of random encounters and create a greater sense of tension in your games. Now, I'm sharing another method, a slight twist on the random encounter roll called 'The Hunting Die'. First, check out ANOTHER UNDERCLOCK by James Young, which deeply influenced this post (and special thanks to Goblin's Henchmen). Now, let's get into it: 

Take your Overloaded Encounter Die, usually a d6, decide on a formula you like (examples, here, here, here, here, here, here, here) and have encounters occur on a 1. THEN grab another set of polyhedral dice - big, scary ones. These are your Hunting Dice - they represent the dungeon inhabitants searching out your players. You'll only ever use one of these dice at a time. This Hunting Die starts as a d20 and is rolled simultaneously with the overloaded encounter die. 

Use the overloaded encounter die as you would normally, fulfilling its results as they occur (light depletion, dungeon effects, etc), with encounters happening as normal on results of 1. At the same time, you are rolling the Hunting Die. The Hunting Die only comes into effect on results of 1. Rolling a 1 on the Hunting Die triggers an encounter with the dungeon's 'main faction'. Rolling any other result causes the Hunting Die to decrease one Die size, but more on that later. 

What? 'Main Faction'? Huh? This is whichever faction, being or entity is most dominant in whatever area the party are currently in. For example, C.H.U.Ds in the Cannibal Clan Sewers, Doleful Shades in the Katabatic Cave, the Driller-Killer himself in the Lair of the Driller-Killer or the Slime Duke and his cohorts but only in the slimy northern chambers of the Chaos Kings's Megadungeon. This is not to say that the dungeon's dominant party should not appear on your usual, regular encounter table but it's good to promote encounters with the dungeon's main movers and shakers - you wouldn't want to run a vampire dungeon and encounter no, or not many vampires, would you? It's happened to me. Rolling two dice for encounters has its quirks, overloaded encounter die results can trigger at the same time as the Hunting Die encounter and if both the Encounter Die and Hunting Die roll 1's, you know what that means, double encounter!

For example

After rolling the Encounter Die and the Hunting Die (whether the Encounter Die results in an encounter or not) reduce the die size of the Hunting Die from a d20 to a d12. This represents that the dungeon inhabitants are getting closer to finding your players. Reduce the size of the Hunting Die each time it is rolled and does not result in an encounter (any result other than 1). Continue to reduce the Hunting Die (d12 to d10 and so on) after every encounter roll until it rolls a 1 and triggers a faction encounter. After the Hunting Die's encounter is resolved, the die resets in size back up to d20. This helps to keep both the feel of rising tension and the idea that an encounter can occur at any moment.

If the players draw attention to themselves you have a few options. Instant reduction in the size of the Hunting Die, or, if the characters are particularly overt, instantly roll the Hunting Die with the Encounter Die regardless of how much time that has passed. You can even do both at once. How you play this is up to your discretion as a DM.

Tips, Tricks, Options, Opinions and Alternatives 

• Keep the Hunting Die visible. Your players should know how close they are to being attacked, but, keeping die based will ensure more tension than a static and obvious 'right now' point. Consider it being a player role to keep track of the Hunting Die and roll for encounters.
• Certain actions may permanently reduce the maximum size of the Hunting Die. The Hunting Die max size will only reset to d20 if the players leave the dungeon. These actions may include sleeping in the dungeon, stealing particularly important treasure or killing dungeon leaders. 
• A more unforgiving option is that the first faction encounter, the Hunting Die only resets to d12. The die never resets to d20 until players leave the dungeon.
• There is no bespoke method for stealth with this method but reward your players for being sneaky and trying to waylay or hide from their pursuers. There is no reason to not have your players hide. It's fun. 
• This method also works for wilderness or overland encounters. For example, in the Mutated March of the Mad Mage you'd be pursued by the Mad Mage's Mutoids and in the Splendiferous Spirelands your party would be questioned by a patrol of Sir Spike Spiral's Spiny Spearmen (and so on). In particularly large regions consider local lairs, landmarks, hideouts, towns, etc when considering what/who the Hunting Die should represent. Consider that the Hunting Die encounter may have different results during the day and the night.
• Just as the Overloaded Encounter Die has things occur on any result of 1 through 6, could this be applied to the Hunting Die? For example, a result of 2 on the Hunting Die could represent that the Faction Encounter is close by. Any hasty/loud action could alert them. I would not do much more than this for the sake of my own cognitive load. 
• Consider how a Hunting Die's encounter should be different to a standard encounter. In dungeons and other underworld spaces, these encounters should, more often than not, be hostile, like white blood cells attempting to extirpate any outside intruders. 

An Epilogue on Encumbrance

This whole post was inspired by James Young's 'Another Underclock'. The one thing this method does not take into account is encumbrance as James Young's system does. I can only think of this - and it's slightly dumb - the more encumbered the party, the larger the faction encounter becomes. For example, if you are using encumbrance levels and your most encumbered player has an encumbrance of 4, then the faction encounter has an additional 4 HD. This works better for encounters with lots of individuals, the party are moving slower and their pursuers can better organise, so an extra eight 1/2 HD goblins - ouch. But this works less so for lone wandering monsters. Why would the minotaur have an extra 4 HD because the party thief is carrying too much treasure? It doesn't quite fit. Perhaps encumbrance could affect chances of the party being surprised or someone on encumbrance '3' would cause the Hunter Die encounter to be triggered on 1, 2 or 3 - but that might result in far too many encounters. 

PREDATORY ENCOUNTERS - IMPROVING THE RANDOM ENCOUNTER

PREDATORY ENCOUNTERS - IMPROVING THE ENCOUNTER DIE WITH TENSION, STEALTH & DUNGEON REACTIVITY, OR - A SIMPLE UNDERCLOCK ALTERNATIVE

Do you want encounters to occur more regularly?  

Do you want the dungeon to respond to your players' foolishness?  

Do you want your players to feel hunted and pursued?

Try the Predatory Encounter Die!*

The dungeon has found them - all art is from Down in the Dungeon, 1981

Standard Encounter Rolls

At its most basic level, the typical encounter roll looks like this:  

"Every 10 minutes, roll 1d6. On a 1, a random encounter occurs."  

Overloaded Encounter Rolls
A sagely fellow (Necropraxis I believe) once asked “what about the other numbers?”. Overloaded Encounter rolls largely function the same as Standard Encounter rolls, save that there are results for rolls of 2-6. Meaning that rolling is always meaningful. These results typically include things such as light source depletion, a description of the environment or signs/spoors/omens/clues that hint at nearby wandering monsters. Everyone has their own formula for a good Overloaded Encounter die. Until I share mine, find some here, here and here (but there are many more). BUT, some still felt this roll was lacking - ‘is 1-in-6 frequent enough?’ or ‘this is fun, but still feels static’. I know I have certainly run dungeon sessions and one-shots where due to the whims of the dice, there have been no actual encounters. Many have tried to fix this, which leads us to…

The Underclock
Somewhat recently, Arnold K of Goblin Punch tackled this problem by introducing The Underclock which is essentially a countdown to a guaranteed encounter. The Underclock does a few things, it is meant to ensure an encounter, suggest that the dungeon is responding to the actions of the players and create a sense of tension, a feeling of pursuit. However, in practice, (I have played in games with the Underclock) it introduces too much predictability  - players feel safe when the Underclock is high, plus it's just that bit fiddlier than rolling a die. But what if there was…

Another Way - The PREDATORY ENCOUNTER DIE
What if we could combine the variated, meaningful results of the Overloaded Encounter Die, the tension of The Underclock and ensure encounter frequency in a simple manner? That's this method. The standard encounter roll becomes a measure of the dungeon’s awareness as it shifts and searches for the players. It's very simple, surely done before, but, this is it:

They are hunted

How It Works
1. Start with a d6 (this is your Encounter Die) as standard.  
2. Roll it whenever you would normally check for encounters, every ten minutes, every three rooms, etc.
3. If the result is 6 (or higher), an encounter occurs. 
4. Results of 2-5 trigger standard Overloaded Encounter effects (light depletion, environmental signs, etc.) according to your taste. In addition to any effect on rolls 2-5, the encounter die increases in size (d8 → d10 → d12 → d20) as the dungeon hones in on the party. When you next roll for encounters, do so with the new die size. Encounters continue to occur on a 6 or higher. The probability grows - the monsters are getting nearer!
5. A result of 1, lowers the Predatory Encounter Die size by one increment. 
6. Importantly, the Predatory Encounter die also increases in size whenever player characters make loud noises, allow intelligent/organised enemies to escape or otherwise draw attention to themselves.
7. Once an encounter does occur and is resolved (or the party leave the dungeon), the encounter die resets back to d6. However, the minimum encounter die size can increase if the dungeon becomes particularly alert.  
8. Hiding successfully for 10 minutes (which still requires an encounter roll as time passes) can reduce the encounter die back to a d6. 

Encounter Probability by Die Size

Die Size_____Encounter Chance

d6__________16.67% 

d8__________37.5% 

d10_________50% 

d12_________58.33%  (weird!)

d20_________75% 

It works! The probability is weird and lumpy but your players will get it, big = bad. This method is meant to be player-facing. Let your players see the die grow, make them roll it. Having it out on the table will give rise to tension and be a constant reminder that something is looking for them and that it is getting closer. However, if the encounter rate seems too high, check out the alternate method below.

The dungeon takes its prisoners

Tips, Adjustments and Options

• A roll of 1 on the encounter die can represent a lull or lapse in alertness and lowers the die size by one.
• What constitutes a rise in the encounter die? You know already, explosions, throwing skeletons down wells, kicking down doors, any kind of demolition/destruction, if intelligent enemies are able and allowed to report the party’s location, and depending on your setting and opinion - the use of firearms. Anything that feels like it should increase the dungeon’s alertness levels - should.
• If needed, use a small tracker to help keep on top of the encounter die, all that would be needed is 5 boxes, labelled d6 through to d20 and a bead to place on the current encounter die size. Let the players see this.
• When hiding, players should think about how and where they are hiding and describe it as they would any other action, such as with inspecting and disarming traps for instance. If your system has a stealth skill, that can be used only if an encounter is rolled while the party is hidden. On a successful stealth roll, reroll the encounter die or bypass the encounter - it's up to you. Their description and hiding place may give them a bonus or malus to the roll. It might be so good they don’t even need to roll!  This will increase that particular feeling of stealth in your games and allow for scenes I’d never or very rarely seen before - the DM describing the party hiding while a monster walks past them. I can see the various rolls, results and DM description in this classic LotR scene.
• This is optional; If players severely disrupt the dungeon, increase the minimum die size (e.g. it defaults to a d8 instead of d6). Perhaps if the party steals the all-important Blue Jewel or the Dragon’s egg, slay the High-Priest, get sprayed with stinking monster-bait, stab the dungeon’s beating heart, insult the Goblin Queen. Any dramatic event might qualify and reducing the minimum die size would be bespoke to whatever caused its rise.
• Generous DMs can offer a reprieve by temporarily using a d4 encounter die that cannot trigger encounters.
• Predatory Encounters are tougher than regular encounter mechanics, this is ok. It will make your players tougher in kind.

The Alternate Method

• However, to reduce the encounter rate, consider this - remove the out of turn and automatic increases to the encounter die. Instead, during a 10 minute turn, ask yourself as the DM, 'do the player's actions warrant an increase in the size of encounter die?' if yes, increase the die size, if not keep the encounter die size and roll as normal. There are no automatic increases with this method, instead you would immediately roll for encounters with the current die size whenever the party do anything that might draw attention to themselves. Otherwise, the mechanic remains the same.

Why Use this Rule?

This slight change for rolling for encounters retains meaning with every roll, creates tension, meaningful choices and gives the dungeon another avenue to feel like a living thing.
- It maintains traditional encounter mechanics while adding a rising feeling of escalation and responsiveness.  
- The dungeon feels more alive, it can react more dynamically to the players' actions and will feel less empty.
- The dungeon responds organically, the more players create a ruckus, the more alert its inhabitants become in trying to find them.
- The encounter die, always increases in size. Players will feel hunted, pursued, like the intruders they are. Even after an encounter, there is no assumed safety or reprieve unless earned.
- Encounters remain unpredictable. Players never know exactly when the next encounter will happen, but they know how much more likely it will be. HP low, Encounter Die big 😱, let's roll…. a 3! Phew!
- Stealth and caution become meaningful, not assumed. As stated, players can attempt to lower the encounter die size by hiding, taking special precautions or otherwise satiating the dungeon. I understand adventurers are assumed to be moving quietly at all times but this change brings that behaviour to the fore. Player’s will devote time to hiding (which they would never otherwise do) and search out places to hide. Using Predatory Encounter rolls is like a stealth system in of itself, the higher the encounter die size the harder it is to hide. 

 

Try it out in your next session, see how the game changes.
Let me know how it works for you, what you tweaked or changed and if you like this post, do follow. I’ve got a small post about making light a mechanically important resource coming very soon. It has some elegance to it if I do say so myself.

No exit

*(It's so simple, I'm sure a million people have thought of it before me)

Choose-Your-Own Death & Dismemberment

Bodies Shall Be Broken: A Free-Form Wound and Dismemberment System for TTRPGs.

- Lets lose some body parts.

Once per level (e.g. once at level one, again at level two, and so on) a PC can avoid death by taking a serious wound. Should something reduce a character to a death state, typically 0 HP or lower, the player can elect for their PC to receive a wound instead. Of course, this is only an option if the character hasn’t already used this feature at their current level - if they have their character would be killed as normal.

To determine the wound, the player will reflect on the damage their character has received and will present two different outcomes to the other players and the DM - the best and worst case scenarios of what could happen to the character. In other words, a wound and an even worse wound. For example; a lost finger vs a lost hand, a facial scar vs a lost eye, violent vomiting vs internal bleeding, a few lost teeth vs a broken jaw. 

Then the player rolls a d20 under their character’s Wisdom score (or Luck, if you use it), and on success the character receives the lesser wound. On failure, they suffer the greater wound. The DM will adjudicate the specific mechanical effects of the wound from here. Then the PC gains 1d4-2 HP. If 0 or -1 HP is rolled the character is unconscious until aid is administered.

Other Advice:

It is the DM’s responsibility to ensure players do not understate the damage or severity of the wounds they may receive. If a suggested wound feels too minor the DM can elevate it. The DM can do this in a few different ways. For example, the DM can ask the wounded player (or even another player at the table) to make the suggested wound more severe. Alternatively, the DM provide two different elevated versions of the suggested wound that the player must pick between. The serious wound must be something that causes a permanent effect or loss - lost limbs, hands, blindness, loss of senses, scorched lungs, horrific scarring or things more esoteric in the case of magical damage. Have a look at different Death and Dismemberment systems for ideas for wounds and ways to rule them. Try Hackjack and So It Looks Like You're Gonna Die for some wound ideas that range in severity. 

Characters don’t ‘bank’ wounds for unused levels. This ability is once per level, not one per level. If a character reaches level 5 without being wounded, they can still only avoid death once - until they reach level 6.

How to determine where the wound hits? The DM should always give some description to attacks and damage dealt during play so that a player has a springboard on which to suggest wounds when the need arises. However, if unsure, the player can use a wound location table, rolling 2d10, choosing between the two results and suggesting their best and worst case scenario wounds for that location.

1d10 Wound Locations

1. Head

2. Face or Throat

3. Arm/s

4. Hand/s

5. Upper torso (heart and lungs)

6. Lower torso (including groin, stomach and other organs)

7. Back/Spine

8. Leg/s

9. Foot/feet

10. Any skin, flesh, blood, muscle, organ or bone/s.

Some Examples:

• For example, the 2nd level fighter, Grongo Beetleweather has been thrown from a cliff and reduced to -9 HP. At first level, he avoided death when bitten by a Leaping-Eel and was lucky to have only lost a toe, rather than his whole foot. He hasn’t used his 2nd level wound. Grongo’s player suggests that Grongo can either suffer a head-wound that makes him feel vertigo at height or break a leg. The DM asks the player to their right to make the worst case scenario wound worse to which that player says “Umm, two broken legs?”. Grongo’s player rolls a d20 vs their Wisdom and… succeeds! The DM narrates what happens to Grongo Beetleweather and the player rolls a d4-2 to determine their current HP… a 2, 2-2=0. Grongo is unconscious at the bottom of the cliff.
• Mistwhistelian the Murmuring is a 3rd level Magic-User. They were injured last session, and now wear an eye-patch. This session, Mistwhistelian has fallen in a pit full of acid. Having already used their wound for this level, Mistwhistelian the Murmuring is melted. How unfortunate. 
• Glubgub the Toroid-Transporter has been stabbed by a Cloaked Invisi-Zombie and reduced to -1 HP! DEATH?! No, Glubgub is a level 1 Halfling and hasn’t been wounded yet, so wounded he shall be. Shall Glubgub suffer an arcane scar that stings in the presence of the undead or shall the tip of the Invisi-Zombie’s arcane-blade lodge itself in in Glubgub’s breast, never to heal, slowly poisoning him and causing his own slow transformation into an invisi-zombie? How would you adjudicate that?

Author’s thoughts:

Death and Dismemberment systems, grisly as they may be, are something I really want in games but am never satisfied with. I started the year with a Death and Dismemberment system (Hackjack, which was this overwrought, unwieldy thing) and I’m ending the year with another. Though I'm sure it's not my last attempt, I’m more satisfied with this system for quite a few reasons - it gives the player a bit of control (but not too much), remains tense, it caters for any kind of damage received because it is powered by a player’s imagination rather than tables, it doesn't require a large subsystem to explain or intrude mechanically on other parts of the game, it doesn't make PCs too hardy (it actually gives an advantage to lower level characters) and only distributes dramatic, cool wounds that player's would be happy with. I'm sure this Death and Dismemberment method can be expanded on, for example, you might be able to 'recharge' the ability to be wounded by carousing or Dwarves/Barbarians/Orcs might be able to receive two wounds per level rather than one. It would also work as an Insanity system.

Summary:

Once per level, a PC reduced to 0 HP or lower can avoid death by taking a wound.

Propose Wounds: The Wounded character’s player suggests a lesser and a greater wound (e.g., lost finger vs lost hand).

DM’s Role: Escalate understated wound suggestions.

Roll d20: Under Wisdom (or Luck).

Success: Take the lesser wound.

Failure: Take the greater wound.

HP Recovery: Roll 1d4-2. If at 0 or -1 HP, the PC is unconscious until aided.