Weather

Weather effects add to scenery during a game session and allow a change of the environment, while also posing some risks and challenges to the players. Weather effects don't always occur during a session, however introducing them every other session or so (even in brief intervals) can help break up some monotony or introduce new challenges for the player.

If you don't know or cannot decide the general season, temperature, or other aspects of the weather you can roll randomly.

Roll 1d12 for the temperature. 1 for Cold (below -20 F), 2-3 for Cold (below 40 F), 4-9 for Normal, 10-11 for Heat (above 90 F), and 12 for Heat (above 140 F).
Roll 1d8 to determine precipitation. 1-5 for no precipitation. 6-7 for precipitation. And 8 for severe precipitation.
Lastly roll 1d100 to determine natural disaster-tier weather. 1-95 there is no natural disaster. 96-99 there is a natural disaster. 100 there are two simultaneous natural disasters.
If there's precipitation, roll 1d4. 1-3 is light rain / light snow. 4 is heavy rain / heavy snow.
If there's severe precipitation, roll 1d6. 1-4 is heavy rain / heavy snow. 5 is a thunderstorm or hail. 6 is a hurricane, sandstorm, or blizzard.

Weather Conditions

Coldness

Unless a character is immune or resistant to cold weather, being exposed has a risk for those within it. An unprotected character in a cold environment (below 40 degrees Fahrenheit) takes 1d6 point of damage per round if they are hit by an attack to Bodily Defense (+8 Attack, and +2 for every minute unprotected in the cold). The damage is nonlethal, however if it brings the sufferer of the damage to 0 HP, the target henceforth takes lethal damage and will die. They are rendered unconscious when brought to -1 HP due to the damage.

An unprotected character in a freezing environment (below -20 degrees Fahrenheit) instantly begins taking 3d6 lethal damage per minute unless the attack to Bodily Defense (+12 Attack, +4 for every minute unprotected in the cold) fails, in which it deals 2d6 nonlethal damage instead, using the cold environment above for 10 minutes in-game time.

Fog

Fog occurs when light wind or no wind occurs so as to not blow the fog away, and usually is not found during mid-day where the heat from the sun can burn it away. Regardless of the kind of fog however, all kinds obscure vision in some way shape or form.

Light fog doesn't reduce your vision overall but instead only imposes a -4 penalty to Sight checks.

Moderate fog reduces your ability to see and imposes a -10 penalty to Sight checks. Creatures with Standard Vision can only see out to 8 squares, Enhanced Vision can only see out to 12 squares, and Darkvision can see out to 36 squares.

Heavy fog reduces your ability to see completely and imposes a -25 penalty to Sight checks. Creatures with Standard Vision can only see out to 3 squares, Enhanced Vision can only see out to 6 squares, and Darkvision can see out to 12 squares.

Heat

Unless a character is immune or resistant to hot weather, being exposed has a risk for those within it. An unprotected character in a hot environment (above 90 degrees Fahrenheit) takes 1d6 point of damage per round if they are hit by an attack to Bodily Defense (+8 Attack, and +2 for every minute unprotected in the heat). The damage is nonlethal, however if it brings the sufferer of the damage to 0 HP, the target henceforth takes lethal damage and will die. They are rendered unconscious when brought to -1 HP due to the damage.

An unprotected character in a scorching hot environment (above 140 degrees Fahrenheit) instantly begins taking 3d6 lethal damage per minute unless the attack to Bodily Defense (+12 Attack, +4 for every minute unprotected in the heat) fails, in which it deals 2d6 nonlethal damage instead, using the hot environment above for 10 minutes in-game time.

Rain

Rain is the precipitation which comes from the sky often, giving water to crops and citizens below. Some areas get rain less often (such as deserts) and others get it more often (such as jungles), however regardless of the locale rain is usually alike.

Normal rain imposes a -2 to Sight and Hearing, as well as a -2 to ranged attack rolls. Fires have a 30% chance of being put out each round it is out in the rain with no covering.

Heavy rain instead imposes a -8 to Sight and Hearing, as well as a -10 to ranged attack rolls. Fires have a 50% chance of being put out each round it is out in the rain with no covering. In addition to this, heavy rain obscures visibility - normal vision allows you to see 6 squares out, enhanced vision 8 squares, and darkvision 16 squares.

Sandstorm

Being produced by sand kicked up by intense winds, sandstorms impose a -10 penalty to Sight, Search, and Hearing checks while within it, and deals 1d4 points of nonlethal damage to all creatures stuck in the sandstorm for each round they remain in it unprotected. In addition, all creatures stuck within a sandstorm have their visibility obscured, normal vision allows you to see 6 squares out, enhanced vision 8 squares, and darkvision 16 squares.

Snow

Snow is the frozen precipitation replacing rain in colder temperatures, and usually covers the terrain and buildings in a blanket of white. These come in two forms, regular snow and heavy snow depending on the severity of the weather and how much precipitation is occurring or whether there is a storm. In order for snow to occur without supernatural effects modifying the weather, the area must be cold or freezing.

Snow leaves 1 inch of snow per 2 hours, and creates difficult terrain at 2 inches or more without appropriate gear. At least 1 foot of snow or more imposes difficult terrain regardless if you wear snow gear. Snow imposes a -2 penalty on Sight, Search, and Hearing checks. Snow lasts 2d6 hours.

Heavy snow leaves 1d4 inches per hour, and creates difficult terrain at 2 inches or more without appropriate gear. At least 1 foot of snow or more imposes difficult terrain regardless if you wear snow gear. Heavy Snow imposes a -8 penalty on Sight, Search, and Hearing checks, and imposes a -5 on ranged attack rolls. Heavy snow lasts 2d8 hours.

While heavy snow is active, it can generate a thunder storm or become a blizzard if the weather changes enough; this is determined by a d12 roll for every 2 hours the heavy snow is active. On a 1, the heavy snow tames and becomes regular snow again. 2 to 10 offers no change and the heavy snow persists. 11 generates a thunderstorm inside the snow storm. 12 transforms the heavy snow into a blizzard.

Hail sometimes occurs before a thunderstorm, blizzard, or other various storms, even occurring in the middle of rain or snow. Hail on its own imposes a -4 penalty on Hearing checks and every 1d4 hours a random character is attacked by a block of hail dropping on them (+8 attack versus Physical Defense) and deals 2d6 points of bludgeoning damage to the head.

Thunderstorm

Occurring during heavy rain or rarely during heavy snowfall, thunderstorms impose additional dangers beyond the usual as there's a small chance of lightning strikes against those not utilizing proper shelters. Every 10 minutes during a thunderstorm a random unsheltered creature is struck by lightning; this is an attack against Physical Defense at +14 and deals 10d8 electricity damage to the target (or half damage on a failed attack roll) as well as inflicting Paralysis at Low Intensity for 1 minute. This electricity damage is counted as going against the body even though it is coming from above. If a character is brought to 0 HP or below by this damage they fall unconscious, their HP not reducing below 0 from the electricity damage and counting them as suffering from Paralysis at Severe Intensity for 1d4 hours (even after being healed and returned to consciousness).

Wind

Although slight variations in wind are normal, more extreme variations of wind can be the catalyst for some storms and be a natural hazard in and of itself. Normally wind imposes no penalties on movement or causes extreme deviation with ranged attack rolls, and may otherwise just be a mild nuisance.

Strong winds impose a -4 penalty on ranged weapon attack rolls (though not ranged attack rolls from spells or siege weapons) and imposes a -5 penalty to all Physical skill checks made in this wind (doubling this penalty on Balance checks). Flying creatures consider strong wind as difficult terrain for the purpose of their fly speed.

Storm winds instead outright prevent ranged weapon attack rolls and cause them to always fail, and impose a -5 penalty to siege weapons, and causes the Stamina cost of spells to be doubled as well as doubling the Stamina cost required to move additional squares past your normal movement.

Characters moving on the ground are considered as being in difficult terrain and must succeed a DC 20 Balance check at the beginning of their turn, and on a failure are knocked prone. Creatures flying are blown in the directions of the wind and are unable to control themselves. Roll a 1d8 for a random direction (using 1 as north, 3 as east, 5 as south, and 7 as west) and then roll 1d12 x 4 for the amount of squares they are pushed in by the wind at the beginning of their turn.

Natural Disaster

Natural disasters are incredibly dangerous events which rarely occur, however when they do occur they cause extreme damage to all caught in its path. Some are more dangerous to individual creatures while others are dangerous to creatures and buildings alike.

Blizzard

Everything within a blizzard (including creatures, objects, and even buildings) receive concealment, and those in the blizzard are at risk of freezing; counting as being freezing cold temperatures (below -20 F) for the purposes of exposure, and finally a blizzard produces snow as per Heavy Snow.

Blizzards last 2d12 hours, and those within the blizzard suffer a -14 to all Sight, Search, and Hearing checks as well as counting as difficult terrain.

Hurricane

Hurricanes function as storm winds except that both flying and grounded creatures are blown in random directions, and both are battered and harmed by the intensity of the winds. After being pushed about they are knocked prone, and take 4d4 points of nonlethal bludgeoning damage. If you would collide with a wall or other solid surface as part of being pushed you are stopped at the solid surface/wall and take 3d6 points of bludgeoning damage for every square the solid surface stopped them from being pushed (minimum of 3d6). Finally, creatures who suffer damage to their Hit Points due to either the buffeting or due to colliding with a wall suffer from Dazed at Moderate Intensity.

Hurricanes normally last 2d6 hours and cover a massive area (normally measured in miles).

Tornado

Shorter but deadlier than hurricanes due to the intensity of their winds (reaching upwards of 300 mph at their most deadly), tornados are incredibly short lived by comparison. In addition to this they can suck up other materials to create new effects (firenados, snow devils, and dust devils), although due to this their speed is heavily reduced and they are less dangerous (though not harmless by any means). Sizes for a tornado vary however they are usually as large as a Gargantuan sized creature (4 x 4 squares) and their pushing effect occurs when someone's square intersects with the tornados' square.

Tornados function as hurricanes except they deal 6d10 points of lethal bludgeoning damage when pushing others about, and push them 2d20 x 5 squares out instead of the usual 1d12 x 4. In addition to this at the beginning of the turn order during combat, tornados move 8 squares in a random direction (as determined by a 1d8 roll just like determining which direction a creature is pushed) and any creature in the path of its movement has an attack (+18 vs. Physical Defense) made to attempt to suck them up in order to push them out on the beginning of their turn. If the attack roll misses, the character dodges out of the way and is automatically moved into the nearest available square out of harms way.

Firenados are tornados which are created in wildfires or areas where massive fires have occurred (and are incredibly common in realms of nothing but fire) these kinds of tornados don't suck creatures into them or throw them out but instead burn them with the intense heat and flame emanating from it and deals 10d10 fire damage to those intersecting with the firenados square(s). It moves as normal but within the area of the fire (dissipating within 1d4 rounds if it loses contact with the area of fire) and makes the attack roll to suck creatures in as normal but this doesn't suck creatures in, instead burning them as per the above fire damage.

Snow Devils, also known as "snownados" informally or as ice spout, snow devils are slower and don't harm those who intersect with its squares but instead deals 4d4 points of ice damage and inflicts Staggered at Low Intensity. This uses the same attack roll as above (+18 vs. Physical Defense). Snow Devils are smaller, taking up less space (between 1 square or 3 by 3 squares as per Huge).

Dust Devils are smaller, taking up less space (between 1 square or 3 by 3 squares as per Huge) and deal no damage to those within it but inflict Stagger at Low Intensity to all who intersect with its squares. This uses the same attack roll as above (+18 vs. Physical Defense). Dust Devils are smaller, taking up less space (between 1 square or 3 by 3 squares as per Huge).

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