Whether Or Not To Weather

I spent quite a bit of the first thirty five years of my life at sea. My grandfather was a commercial fisherman, as was my uncle and, seasonally, at least, my father. So weather was a big part of my early life. It determined when we could work, and when we couldn't; it made some work days miserable, and others fairy tale beautiful. It could become a monster and threaten to devour us. That the sea was a harsh mistress was a truism in my young life before the age of ten. So perhaps it's understandable that I have certain views about the roles weather can play in fantasy fiction, and fantasy role playing games.

Weather As A Fact Of Life

Today, we live in air conditioned houses or flats in concrete jungles, and travel in air conditioned cars and buses and planes. Natural disasters not withstanding, weather is usually little more than a minor irritation or point of idle conversation. It didn't use to be that way. When it was cold, it was hard to keep warm. When it was hot, there were few ways to cool down. To travel, you had to be out in the weather. Even if you were rich enough to own a coach and horses, you weren't going to order it for a trip to the market. You would walk, in the rain, in the snow, or in the heat. Weather affected crops and cattle, and unlike today, production was low enough that a poor harvest brought on by a hot, dry summer always seriously affected the poor. Weather was a fact of life - for everybody!

Because weather was a fact of life, it was more than just a topic of polite conversation. It was a matter of serious daily, and seasonal, concern. Those whose livelihood depended on accurately predicting the weather got very good at it, and to this day, still use every tool at hand to help with the task. So important was (and is) weather to farmers, that the American Old Farmer's Almanac dates back to 1792, nearly to the founding of the Republic, and certainly to the earliest days of scientific weather prediction. Sailors learned to read the sky and the sea it self, mountain men the sky and the behavior of the animals, to discern the weather ahead. Misreading the weather could be a death sentence for either. Sailors and adventurers were some of the first meteorologists.

Weather As A Character

Weather then, in a non-industrial world, is a character in almost every story, written or roleplayed.

• Fog makes it impossible to see for creatures with normal sight, but increasing hearing distances.
• Rain not only makes it hard to hear, it can also wholly or partially blind creatures with non-human vision. Creatures dependant upon "infravision" will see poorly. Objects will become indistinct, and sometimes be indistinguishable from the background, rendering them effectively invisible. Creatures dependant upon active forms of vision such as "ultravision" will be blinded by the back scatter off of the raindrops.
• High winds will ground pretty much everything that can fly, from song birds to dragons. The latter might be powerfully magical creatures, but they're not omnipotent. Planets are much bigger, and more powerful.
• Blizzards kill; cold is living thing that will find the smallest chink in thermal protection. Characters caught unprepared in a snow storm are doomed!

Of course, weather can also be a benign, even romantic, character, too: The light, summer breeze that carries the the sweet scent of the flowers in its breath; the warm, cleansing summer rain that damps the dust and clears the air; the long winters snow and hard freeze that makes sledding and ice skating on the lake possible - just in time for WinterFest, of course!

Weather As A Local Phenomenon

When I designed the weather system we use for Menelon, I created regional weather charts that are then applied locally. One weather chart, for example, applies to the entire Caspian Valley, because the geography is so unique. The rest of Cascadia is divided into two regions: North and South, because of the differences in latitude between the southern wine country and the northern frontier. The Free City of Newport, Kierkkenland, and the heart of Balkland, are all different regions with different regional weather charts. Obviously, Püran-Khir, Angelique's former home on the Continent of Sylantia, is yet another weather chart; but all of these allow weather to be interpreted locally.

Each roll of the dice determines the speed and direction of weather phenomena through the region. Reading the result allows us to interpret the data in a way that helps us tell the story. Over time, weather patterns reveal themselves that are unique to each area. Every year will be different, but every year will fit into the larger pattern of weather appropriate to the locale. The system will produce "the blizzard of '56", the "rainy summer of '62", but both are as rare as they are predictible. There will be another blizzard in Fernwall, just like there will be another blizzard in Boston; but nobody can predict exactly when.

Now it's your turn: How do you deal with weather in your games and stories?