SGAM Ryuutama Session 1: Tholo the Peddler

This is the first session of my Ryuutama game for SGAM. The goal of this first week is to try out a RPG I've never played before. I've heard some talk about the game Ryuutama and some of its themes and mechanics. So, I thought I'd give it a try.

A Brief Bit About The Game

Ryuutama is a Japanese TTRPG that is made for beginners in mind, to teach people about Western TTRPGS like D&D. The game itself is labelled as honobono, which is a more pastoral, heart-warming style of game. It has a charm and style that reminds me heavily of Studio Ghibli films as well as the Dragon Quest video games, both of which I'm very fond of. Instead of a focus on dungeon delving and combat, Ryuutama's adventures revolve around travelling, exploration, and meeting new people.  You gain experience by exploring different sections of the map, with more difficult terrains and weather granting more XP. You also gain XP from combat, but you only get it from the toughest encounter of that session. The standard classes of fighter, mage, thief, and cleric are replaced by professions, like merchant and farmer. In addition, there are three Types that dictate how your character approaches obstacles. They are Attack (the fighter), Technical (the skilled), and Magic (the mage). There are only four attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Spirit) and the scores are all even numbers from 4 to 12. They are tied to the different dice you have. So if you have a Strength 6, you roll a d6 for your checks. Skills don't exist. You just roll the correct combination of attributes and meet or beat a Target Number to succeed. So for Perception, you roll Dex+Int. If my Dex is a 4 and my Int is a 6, then I would roll a d4+d6. Rolling snake eyes is a fumble, while rolling either boxcars or the maximum of each dice is a critical check.

What is interesting about this game is that it has a GMNPC called the Dragon (or Ryuutama). In the implied setting, these dragons latch onto travelers and feed off of adventures and stories. The Dragon has some GM moves that can either help the players along, or complicate their lives a bit. As the players go through different sessions, this Dragon actually will level up and gain new abilities (called Benedictions and Reveils). After some time, the dragon will grow enough to fly off and leave an egg for the players. The game is an interesting blend of the different styles of Western TTRPGs. There are aspects of classic OSR style gaming with exploration and hexcrawling being big, but also some characteristics of narrative games and story games with the Dragon GMNPC. What I really like about the game is the implied setting, where people simply just decide to travel the world and see new things. It's a rite of passage in a way and while it can seem like a flimsy way to explain why there are adventurers, I think it works with the theme of the game.

I decided that I would give this game a try. Presented below is the first session of Tholo the Peddler, a merchant that has decided to uproot and travel north of his village of Gretelburg. The dragon I chose is the basic Green Dragon (a Midori-Ryuu) named Bard. This dragon is all about exploration and is the suggested one for beginners. For things like random weather, procedural terrain, and encounters, I use The Perilous Wilds' generators as well as Save Vs Dragon's free hex terrain generator found here. For music, since I was inspired by classic JRPGs I played as a child, I used Dragon Quest's Unknown Lands and Never-Ending Journey for travelling, and Final Fantasy VI's battle music.

Session 1: Northward Ho!

Tholo is a young man of lithe build with tawny skin and white hair. Today, he is embarking on his journey, a rite of passage to the people of Gretelburg. Tholo hopes to get a taste of the adventuring life, even if only for a few weeks. With his pack animals fed and equipment set up, Tholo sets out!

It is April 7th, and it is bright and sunny outside. The weather is clear but unseasonably hot for springtime. Tholo wipes the sweat off his brow and travels through the grasslands along the dirt path with his two pack mules and loyal dog, Uno.

Terrain+Weather Difficulty Class (This is the Target Number to beat with the checks down below): 7. Grasslands are fairly safe, but the heat is making it a bit rough.

Condition Check (this is Tholo's current fatigue level): 8. Tholo is feeling pretty good.

Travel Check (this is to see if an injury or exhaustion happens): 8. Tholo doesn't encounter any hardships.

Direction Check (this is to navigate the wilds): Tholo is travelling the roads, so he doesn't get lost.

Encounter: Yes, Friendly.

As Tholo travels north, he spots a wagon on the side of the road with two people by it. They seem to be fixing the wagon wheel and having a rough time of it. Tholo lends a hand, helping the couple fix their wagon to get back on the road. Gratefully for the assistance, the couple introduce themselves as Gregori and Priscilla. Both are newlyweds that have decided to leave their professions and become mail carriers. They go between the frontier towns, bring mail and supplies to them. Greg and Priss also sell things occasionally, dabbling in the mercantile arts here and there. Tholo asks where they are going, and Priscilla says they are going north to Hanselboro from Gretelburg to drop off supplies. Tholo offers to travel with them for a time and the couple agree. The trio set off to the north.

Camping Check (this is to see how they rest for the night and regain HP and MP): 8. The trio have a restful night under the stars, enjoying the cured fish and each other's company.

April 8th. The group is still travelling along the prairies. The weather is pretty hot and muggy, and now there's a rainstorm slowing the party down!

DC: 8. Grasslands are hot and visibility is low due to rain and wind

Condition: 9. Tholo is feeling pretty great

Travel: 8. The trio doesn't encounter any issues travelling

Direction: Despite the rain, they are still along the worn roads so don't need to make this check.

Encounter: No

The rains pelt the canvas-covered wagon, but this doesn't stop our intrepid adventurers. Instead, they talk about their lives before going on their journeys, their goals and dreams, and their homes. Gregori was a bricklayer at a town called Rumplestilton. His claim to fame was helping to rebuild an old bridge that led into the town. Priscilla was a fisher-woman at the same town, responsible for bringing in trouts and bass to the dockside mongers. Both ran into each other during the reopening ceremony of the bridge and decided on a whim to go on their journey together. Greg and Priss fell in love, and when they returned, they had a quaint wedding and decided to live out on the frontier as mail carriers.

Tholo is happy for the couple, and their story inspires him to push forward on his journey even longer. He remarks about how his father was an owner of the village's general store, and that's where Tholo got the itch to become a travelling peddler of wares and goods. But first, he wants to go onto his journey to prove to his family and himself that this is a good idea. He's had Uno for a year and the boxer dog is a great companion.

Camping: 9. The rains clear up some, though there is no starry night tonight. Tholo can't sleep well, as the ground is muddy and uncomfortable.

April 9th. The trio approach a forested area. The rains from the previous day have cooled the area off, but now there is a nasty thunderstorm brewing above Tholo and the gang.

DC: 11. Forests are harder to traverse, and the thunderstorm is slowing the party down greatly.

Condition: 2. Tholo is feeling Out of Shape. He gets the [Poisoned:4] Status Effect, which drops his Strength down to a d4.

Travel: 7. Because of his food poisoning, it complicates travelling. He is at Half HP [8 HP].

Direction: 9. The road is less defined here and the rains are making it hard to travel. The trio only go halfway through the hex.

The heavy rain and winds have made it harder for Tholo and his crew to traverse the forest road. The wagon slows down some as Tholo and Priscilla try to keep the canvas from flying off and Gregori tries to keep the pack animals calm. As they travel, they see a bunch of logs and trees have fallen onto the road, blocking their travel! Tholo is suspicious, but before he can check it out, the shrill cries of something terrible ring out. It's an ambush! Four calico konekogoblins jump from the thickets, clubs in hand, and ready to waylay the trio.

Round 1

Greg is first to react. He draws his short sword and strikes at the first cat goblin. He is able to hit the creature, but barely grazes the cat's shoulder. Priss is next, and she barely misses the second konekogoblin. The koneko strike together, but only the second one lands a hit on the beleaguered Tholo. Luckily for our sick protagonist, his armor helps deflect most of the damage. Tholo has one hand over his sick stomach and the other on a dagger. He strikes at the first konekogoblin that Gregori hit and lands a solid hit, knocking out the first cat monster.

Round 2

Gregori goes again, smacking the second koneko with the flat of his blade. Priscilla tries to hit the second one again, and lands a mighty blow on the feline creature, almost knocking it out! The remaining konekogoblins attack, but all miss. The third one missed so terribly that he drops his weapon on the ground! A boon for our heroes! Tholo takes advantage of this and strikes at the second konekogoblin, felling him in one swoop!

Note: the critical fumble combat effect for the koneko was something I added. I felt it made sense for the scenario, but it's not actually a part of the rules.

Round 3

Here I decided to make a morale roll against the konekogoblins' Condition, since they are now outnumbered. They failed their roll and will now run away. This isn't a part of Ryuutama, just something I generally do for combat in my games.

The remaining two konekogoblins realize that these travellers aren't nearly as easy to ambush as others before them. And so they take off, leaving their fallen cat comrades to the trio. Unsure of what to do to the would-be highwaymen, Tholo and Priscilla tie them up. Using the pack animals and their own two hands, the crew are able to move the logs in about an hour. As they set up camp, Tholo looks at the hungry konekogoblins they captured and feels a bit of pity for them. He takes some of his cured fish rations and give them to the two cat monsters.

Negotiation To Befriend the Konekogoblins: DC 9; I rolled a 13!

The konekogoblins are a bit cautious at first as Tholo approaches, but he presents the cured fish to them and unties the monsters. They sniff the fish as they stare at Tholo to judge his intentions, but soon, hunger takes over and they gobble the food down. 

Camping: 7. It's a rough night for the quintet, and they don't quite regain all of their Health and Mental focus for the night.

April 10th. The party is still in the same hex as before, but now it's a clear and beautiful day!

DC: 8. The weather is clear and temperate, so it's just a matter of travelling through the trees.

Condition: 8. Tholo is able to kick the food poisoning and feels a lot better. [Poison; 4] is now cleared.

Travel: 9. There aren't any hitches in their journey to leave the hex.

Direction: 11. Despite the roads being unclear, the trio make it through to the next hex.

Encounter: Yes; Passive

Tholo and his compatriots travel deeper into the forest, making it to a fork in the road. Hanselboro is more to the west from here, while Tholo wants to keep going north, into the heart of the forest. Gregori and Priscilla warn our hero that in the depths of the overgrown forest, few humans reside. Instead, the spirits of the forest as well as monsters dwell there, waiting to prey on travelers like Tholo. Not one to be dissuaded, Tholo appreciates the concern, but knows that he must continue this journey to prove to himself that he can be a travelling merchant. The konekogoblins, inspired by the kind treatment of Tholo and his willingness to go on, decide to stay with Greg and Priss as helping hands. Priscilla is a little hesitant, but Gregori is more than happy to expand their mail carrier business to their first two employees. Tholo waves goodbye to his newfound friends and heads northeast, ever deeper into the forest.

Along the fading road in the afternoon, Tholo spots something on the ground. Footprints! Giant footprints! Whatever made these prints must be huge! Curiousity overtakes fear, and Tholo runs headfirst into the true wilderness of the lands. What has made these prints, and will Tholo survive the perils of the deep woods? We'll find out in the next session!

GMing Challenge: Non-Sapient Wilderness Encounters

The last couple of months has seen me running a really fun sci fi game where the players are part of an expeditionary force going planetside to explore and colonize a lush but dangerous garden world. This is to ensure the survival of a dying human race, suffering from a shattered moon that has made the Earth unlivable for humanity. It's inspired by media such as Interstellar, Mass Effect: Andromeda, and Alpha Centauri/Civ: Beyond Earth. 

So this has been my sci-fi, planet-focuses hex crawl that I have been running. The maps are bigger because the players have an all-terrain, and there are lasers and such, but essentially, it's a good little excursion into surviving a deadly and alien wilderness. Because this is a brand new world that is mostly untouched by civilization (more on that another time), one of the biggest challenges I imposed on myself was to have wilderness encounters that didn't involve ancient ruins, forts, or dungeons. Essentially, nothing built by a sapient species, except for certain things that fit the metaplot of the game (for example, crashed resources pods launched ahead of their expedition). I wanted to make all of the encounters based on the xenowildlife on the planet and showcase a world virtually untouched by advanced civilization.

This proved to be incredibly difficult.

Wilderness encounters were much more limited to either finding evidence of an animal, encountering it, then fight or flight. While there has been some variation here and there, many of the encounters have felt the same sadly. And without intelligent, sapient aliens, there isn't too much in the way of role-playing opportunities. To my players' credit, they have spent a lot of time taming the animals in the wild rather than killing them. But I can really only get so much mileage out of throwing an animal-of-the-week at them and exploration of forests and caves before things get boring.

One solution I did was to take advantage of the fact that it's an alien planet, so I can get away with crazy, gonzo things for the players to explore. I found that I could write up a dungeon as a ruined keep, but then reflavor it as something natural. For example, the players found a massive mound-like structure with several tunnels throughout it, similar to a termite mound. It was essentially one big dungeon, but it was easy to explain as part of the alien wildlife. Same with having trees that grow rooms, or massive vines that excrete a sap that slows the players, or natural burrows of some trap-door predators. I've gotten pretty adept at making these encounters for the game, though I do have a hankering for adding some kind of alien ruins in the future. 

I'm curious how everyone else would do a game of just wildlife and wilderness adventures, with no dungeons, no ruins, and no sapient creatures and structures.

Tension, Stress, Fear, And Fatigue

I've been wanting to do a mechanic for stress and tension in the game to add a bit more atmosphere to my games while having mechanical bonuses/penalties for such things. In making this, I'm looking at something that is easy to run and adjudicate and adds a bit of difficulty and nuance to adventuring. An extra complication to consider before setting off into the great wilds. Much of this is inspired by Darkest Dungeon, a really great game where stress and fear play a big part of adventuring. Some of the rules part and rules decision is inspired by Goblin Punch's sanity rules here as well as the rules in Torchbearer. A lot of this is also inspired by reading my brother's journals about fatigue and mental stress and how the two combine. Here we go!

Fatigue

Fatigue is when your character pushes themselves too hard mentally and physically and their body suffers from it. Forced marches, constant adventuring, dungeon delving, starving themselves, staying up for 24+ hours... these are all physically and mentally taxing on a person. Whenever someone overdoes it and fails their Constitution save, they become Fatigued. Fatigued means you gain a -2 to all d20 rolls made.

A character can still continue to go even when fatigued. Caffeine, adrenaline, and stim packs could be very useful for keeping you up. Every hour you spend doing something while Fatigued, make a Constitution check (DC 10 + 1 for every additional hour active). Failure means you are Exhausted. You take -4 to all d20 rolls and can only move up to half your speed. You also lose your Dexterity to your AC.

If the character still keeps going while Exhausted, then they make the same Constitution checks as before (DC 10 + 1 for every additional hour active). Failure means you are Disabled. You take a -6 to all d20 rolls. You can't make any physical action without making a Constitution check. People that attack you automatically hit. If your GM does coup de grace, then that can happen to you. You're just a human lump at this point, and every hour spent awake or active forces a Constitution check like normal. Failure means you die of exhaustion.

Getting rid of Fatigue generally requires a couple hours of rest. Getting rid of Exhaustion is a whole day affair of rest and relaxation. Getting rid of Disabled is a week minimum of bed rest and some medical attention. 

Tension

Adventuring is a dangerous and stressful career that can be cut short if you don't keep a level head. Any time you encounter something that can make you uneasy, cause some stress, or surprised/shock ed, you gain a point of Tension. This is like a tally mark. Things like seeing a dead body, or the lights going out on you, or hearing the sounds of a crazed monster in the woods at night can all add Tension. Then, the players that gained the Tension Point roll 1d20 + Wis, against a Target Number of 10 + the amount of Tension points. If you meet or beat the TN, your character is fine. If you roll below it. then you get Stressed. Most scenarios should really only give 1 or 2 Tension Points to each player, but some truly gruesome and horrific stuff could give 3 or more.

Stressed

When your character gets Stressed, they have a sort of minor breakdown. They might panic a bit, need to sit down, or vomit. That's up to the character. A Stressed character becomes Fatigued. Being Stressed doesn't go away until you take a couple hours to chill out and relax, generally away from the thing causing stress. Every time your character fails a Tension Roll, they get more Stressed. This becomes Exhaustion, then Disabled, then Death. Eliminating these stress levels can take much longer.

Being Stressed can also be a form of fear, depending on the situation. This works out like normal Stressed, only with some different reactions. Generally, reactions to being stressed out go under the four F's: Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn.

• Fight: You engage the source of fear in combat, with disregard for the situation.
• Flight: You panic and flee away as fast as humanly possible, leaving behind anyone
• Freeze: You are paralyzed with fear and cannot move, hoping that the thing doesn't notice you
• Fawn: You beg, flatter, or try and reason with the source of fear, praying it will spare you.

A player can choose which action their character takes, or you can roll randomly. I prefer the former, but they have to commit. Sometimes one of the F's works out. Other times it lands you into trouble.

A GM can give a madness to players. This is optional and there are plenty of sites and books with examples, from manias to phobias. I'd suggest picking one that fits the situation, instead of rolling.

Reducing Tension

It's hard to reduce Tension while you are in the scenario causing it, but it is possible. If out adventuring in a dungeon or wilderness, taking a break to shoot the shit with your fellow PCs and NPCs can help drop it by 1 or 2. Finding a safe spot to rest also helps. In a more urban, social adventure, maybe taking an hour or two in the castle courtyard can help you find your center before tackling the corrupted vizier, dropping your Tension down 1 or 2 points. These also make great points for roleplaying with your compatriots, or other friendly NPCs that you know. Leaving the scenario that is causing Tension lets you reduce it all to 0.

Adrenaline Rush

Tension isn't all bad. When the chips are down and you need a boost, you can activate your Tension and get an Adrenaline Rush. For a number of rounds equal to half of your Tension Points (round up, minimum 1 round), you gain advantage on all attack rolls and ability checks. In addition, you ignore all Fatigue effects for these rounds. At the end of your rush, however, you are immediately Stressed out and gain a level of Fatigue. If you were Disabled and did an adrenaline rush, then you die. You pushed your body too far.

Jaded

Adventurers that survive have seen it all and don't get as easily spooked as veterans as they did when they were novices. When players survive a tense scenario or adventure, they can become jaded. That same scenario won't give them any Tension Points. So a player that keeps a level head while getting attacked by zombies won't get Tension Points when encountering future zombies. The only way to affect a jaded individual is escalating the scenario. So a jaded character won't get tense when being attacked by zombies, but maybe seeing them slaughter an entire village trapped in a church might. Fighting ghouls may be fine, but seeing a ghoul drag off your good friend while he's screaming and begging for help will make you Tense. It's all about context, and I encourage GMs not to overly abuse it.

Design Notes

One thing people might notice is that I've created the Fatigue, Exhausted, and Disabled conditions and tied them to stress and fear. Why is that? Well, my brother was once a Marine and I remember reading and hearing him talk about the humps and the fear and tension of being out in Afghanistan. And one thing that stuck from him and other soldiers is how the fear and fatigue really go hand in hand out there. So that's why I united the Fear/Stress mechanic with Fatigue. It simplifies the mechanics and I can use the Fatigue model for other things, like a project I'm working on for clerics.

In addition, I was looking for something a bit less drastic and more down-to-earth with these mechanics. I didn't want random madness tables or sanity scores. Just something a bit more low key.

These rules have been used in one game and were okay, but not enough to test them out. I think they work fine, but I can't wait to put them through their paces more. Tell me what you think about them, and any changes to the ruleset.

An Exercise in Improvisation, Procedural Generation, and Small Scale Adventuring

For a very long time, I've run games in the same setting. That is, a world that takes influence from aspects of the Early Modern Period, the Age of Sail, and Columbian Exchange in an island chain that is a pastiche of the Caribbean. There you see aspects of swashbuckling tales like The Three Musketeers and Pirates of the Caribbean, weird magic a la Clark and Howard, ancient aliens, gritty sword and sorcery, tales of endemic warfare, and Caribbean folklore, both Taino/Carib and Post Columbian. So you're likely to battle alongside hupia against vicious colonist militia men on the remains of an ancient alien space craft.

However, I've been really interested in trying a campaign where I control very little of the world itself. One that is as randomly created as humanly possible, from the hexmap to the landmarks and adventures that can be found. Doing this was to be an exercise in drawing inspiration from the random and interpreting results to be interesting for adventures, no matter how crazy it may combine. I want to improve my improvisation abilities and remain flexible against weird results, especially since it's a good preparation for dealing with the most random aspect of gaming; your players.

I also had a second goal for this. I've been playing a hell of a lot of Witcher 3 and in that game, you have all this adventure crammed into an area that could be smaller than a six-mile hex. So, I wanted to replicate that feeling of tons of adventure packed in almost 15,000 acres of land. I want each sub hex to have something there that was interesting. Whether it's tracks and spoor of a local creature, a lair of a demon, a city, ruins, landmark... anything that is interesting.

Doing this was interesting, as after a couple hours, I had enough adventures and a campaign that could easily last me weeks, if not months. The books I used were

• d30 Sandbox Companion: An amazing toolkit that I probably used the most when doing this. I also used the d30 Terrain Hex Generator a great deal.
• The Perilous Wilds: The second most used book. Even though it's Dungeon World, the Ask the Fates section was great for populating each of my sub hexes.
• Hex Map Pack: I used this for my hex map. I preferred the 6:1 ratio, but you can use less granular ones if you wish.
• Dodeca Series: Primarily the Weather generator, because I feel it's the most in-depth climate and weather rules out there. My game is meant to be a wilderness survival game, so weather is important. But everything else in this cheap book is really useful.
• The Disoriented Ranger's Random Narrative Generator: Along side the adventure generator in the d30SC, +Jens D. blog really helped to add some interesting twists and complications to different things going on.
• Dice Dungeon Generator: I used my dice dungeon generator whenever a dungeon or ruin rolled itself on my hex map.
• Vornheim: Despite being a wilderness adventure, I also have a city and ruins to be explored. And this book has always been a staple in my games.
• Adventure, Conqueror, King: I used this to stock my dungeons and for the economy. The world building aspect is really great too, but I didn't use that this time. Mostly it's because that's better for a top-down approach of campaign building and I was going from a bottom-up approach. If Lairs and Encounters ever come out, I'd love to use that.

My Approach

My only rules were to keep it as random as possible. Things like town names and NPC names and number were created by me.

1. I started with a single six-mile hex and had several one-mile hexes as the sub hexes. Counting the half and third hexes as separate hexes, this gave me over forty adventuring locations in a single six-mile hex. 
2. Using the d30 Hex Terrain Generator, I randomly rolled what the middle hex terrain would be, then rolled what each surrounding sub hex's terrain would be until I filled up the six-mile hex.
3. I used the d30 Natural Features and Phenomena table to fill up the sub hexes with crazy stuff.
4. I'd then roll a d3 to see how many special and interesting discoveries there were in a given hex. Then, using Perilous Wild's Discovery table, I rolled for each sub hex to see what would be there. I got a lot of threes so this took a bit. Next time I might skip the d3 roll.
5. For each result of a dungeon, I used my Dice Dungeon Generator to create them. For things like ruins or intact keeps, I used Vornheim's building generator.
6. I stocked the dungeons and ruins using ACKS, though I tweaked the table to have monsters that would fit a tropical setting. I also used this for treasure stocking.
7. I rolled for the weather for 14 days. I started the campaign on a New Moon and set up tides at 8A/2P/8P/2A for times. Whenever I roll weather, I always seem to get a tornado result. It's become a joke among my friends.
8. I then took a look at everything on the hex map and interpreted the results, making connections that seemed like they would work and filling in some results with monsters or NPCs that caught my eye. Also used the d30 NPC Maker to make a lot of NPCs for the area.
9. For each possible adventure, I used the Random Narrative Generator. For simple quests, I only rolled on it once or twice. For more in depth adventures, I rolled three to four times, and for longer campaigns, I rolled five times.
10. Made a random encounter table
11. Had a beer

The original terrain map after rolling

Above is the preliminary hex map. Big hex is 6 miles and the sub hexes are 1 mile. The letters are the terrain for the area. W is water, H is hill, F is forest, S is swamp, and P is plain. WZ stands for Wild Zone, which is a campaign specific hex that I talk about here and here. 

At this point, I had made all the connections and was essentially ready to run the campaign. I wrote down all of the adventure ideas that I had randomly rolled up and interpreted and I have to say, I was really excited for what was created. The biggest thing I like is that each 1 mile hex has at least three interesting hooks in there for adventures. Everything from treasure maps to tracks of a creature to dungeons to NPCs. And the best part is that despite the results looking quite disparate, the adventure narrative between things really work out. On paper, this looks fun and I can't wait to run this for a group. Once I get my scanner working, I'll have to post my notes up on everything.

I learned that there is a greater value to random rolls than I honestly first imagined, even with my love of random tables. I feel a bit more in the right headspace for the world because I've had to interpret everything instead of creating, though there was plenty of creating from the inspiration of the rolls. I think that my improvisation skills will benefit from this little exercise. Now I just need  a chance to run it.

My next post, I want to post up the final map and the notes I made for each area that I rolled up. With the move and packing, my time will be a bit limited on what I can post.

Survivor Series I: Weather Forecasting

Fun fact, before I decided to be a chef and go to culinary school, I went to college to be a meteorologist. I have always been enamored by the weather and decided I wanted to do that for a living. Sadly, I wasn't the best at it, mostly the math sections. You'd be surprised how much math we had to take. I think only the mathematicians beat us. But enough about that.

I've always loved tornadoes and got to chase them! (Source: Wikipedia)

When I started DMing 3.5 and later Pathfinder, I would incorporate a lot of OSR survival stuff into my games. I always focused a lot more on the Man vs. Nature battles as players would deal with wildlife, natural disasters, disease, and weather. Weather is awesome and a game changer, and most players don't expect to deal with the blistering heat or cold, let alone storms and tornadoes. One of the most memorable moments in a game was when a PC tied himself to a pole and survived a tornado going over them, all while screaming and shouting obscenities. This earned him a place of honor among the tribes of kobolds that saw what he accomplished and he became a hero to them.

Of course, when adding more survival stuff into your game, it helps to know a little bit about the rules as well as how it works in real life, especially in a world very different from our modern world. For today. it's weather forecasting. In Pathfinder, one can forecast the weather using the Survival skill. And I use this in my ACKS game too, with a 16+ roll to do it, but those with Survival gain a +4 to it. However, many of my players have wondered how, without modern equipment, did our ancestors divine the weather?

We have to remember that people didn't use the scientific methods that we use today. A lot of weather forecasting was pattern recognition, based on astronomy, observing animal behavior, and simply looking at patterns in the sky. This would be compiled into almanacs as weather lore. You can see a pretty good list of them on the Wikipedia article about it. You can use these or have them as inspiration to make up your own weather lore for your game. Remember, it's all based on observations, not rigorous testing. If a bunch of crows gather the night before a rainstorm, you can bet that people will assume that a murder of crows brings the rain. And with running a magical fantasy setting, maybe that is actually the case! There are more magic methods of forecasting the weather, Dowsing and haruspicy are some real world examples. The classical definitions of pyromancy and aeromancy are also good to use for divining the weather (among other things).

Forecasting the weather is an important tool if you make weather a decent obstacle. Players dealing with torrential rainstorms and the flash floods that come with them will value a survivalist's prediction in the future. Or, the players trap an enemy army in a terrible thunderstorm to weaken and gain an advantage on them. Anything is possible! The more you use weather, the more of an impact it will have. I generally use the Pathfinder rules for weather, since they are pretty robust, but use or make up whatever you like! For a generator, I like to use the Dodeca Generator here. I find it is a good weather generator that takes into account the previous day's weather as well as the climate.