Weather Dice

In my olden days, I used to like long, complicated tables (like these) for weather generation. Now I am more in favour of quick-and-easy methods for pretty much everything when I'm GMing, including weather generation.

I had bought a 'weather die' such as the one depicted on the left to generate weather when GMing, but it soon turned out that it was yielding results that were (a) too simple, and (b) often inappropriate for a given season.

So what I did, I bought a second 'weather die'. And I believe the combination of the two 'weather dice' is now giving satisfactory results.

If you do not have such a pair of dice (they're about £1 each in most shops), you can use 2D6 but it is going to be less fun. Let us describe the faces, and let us number them 1 to 6, for those who do not have the weather dice.

1= Overcast.
2= Snowstorm.
3= Thunderstorm.
4= Rainstorm.
5= Partly Cloudy.
6= Fair.

The illustration above shows the Raining (4), Partly Cloudy (5), and Fair (6) faces of the 'weather die'.

Use Of The Weather Dice to Determine Weather
Now, depending on the season you will use 1 or 2 weather dice.

Spring
Use 1 weather die only. Read the results as rolled, except Snowstorm (2) is replaced with Monsoon.

Summer
Use 2 weather dice and choose the "nicer" result, e.g., if you roll Partly Cloudy (5) and Fair (6), then choose Fair (6).
If you roll two 2's, then replace Snowstorm (2) with Hailstorm.

Autumn
Use 1 weather die only. Read the results as rolled, except Snowstorm (2) is replaced with Drizzle.

Winter
Use 2 weather dice and choose the "worse" result, e.g., if you roll Partly Cloudy (5) and Fair (6), then choose Partly Cloudy (5).

Scarlet Heroes Kickstarter

I am wary of Kickstarter projects now. Most projects are late or haven't delivered, and I prefer the time-proven tranquillity of the product that has been written and playtested by its author before it eventually hits the shelves of my FLGS. I know, I'm old-fashioned.

However, I did back the Scarlet Heroes Kickstarter project, and for several reasons.

First and foremost, because of the south-east Asian setting. Second, because Sine Nomine Publishing has a solid history of delivering on time. Third, because I am curious of the sandbox tools, of the "adventure tags", and of the one-on-one gaming rules that will be part of Scarlet Heroes.