Weather, sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, phase

[Mr. Grogg]

I have players that frequently ask about the weather, or how much moonlight is available, or things like that. So, prior to starting my KM campaign, I took the time to generate weather data.

Looking at the world map and where the greenbelt is situated, I chose a similar latitude on Earth with similar distance from mountains and water, and pulled realworld weather for a period of three years.

(Don't ask me exactly where - I did that part months ago. It was in Canada somewhere near the Great Lakes.)

Today I decided to add moon phases along with moonrise and moonset times as well as sunrise and sunset. So I took a similar area and pulled one year of data (2013, actually, because I couldn't remember exactly what years my three year weather span covered), and repeated that three times since those are cyclical anyway.

Then I fudged some of the moon phases to get them to line up a little nicer with the not quite a realworld-year-long calendar.

The result is a very handy chart. Now you can tell them that yes, there will be a full moon tonight but it won't rise until 10pm, and since sunset is at 7pm, it'll be very very dark at 9pm. (I didn't pull that example from the actual data, but you get the idea.)

It has average, low, and high temperatures as well as average and peak wind speeds. It also has amount of precipitation. Temperatures below freezing are highlighted in blue to warn that precipitation may take the form of snow.

And all of this is way to useful to keep to myself, so I've moved it into a Google Doc that you can see here: Kingmaker Weather

One house-rule I have is this: If somebody wants to know what the moonphase will be tonight (or some other night), or if they want to predict weather, they need to make an appropriate skill check. The base DC depends on how in-tune you feel the populace of your world is with the weather and lunar cycles, so just use what you think fits. I then add +2 to the DC for each day/night in the future they want to predict. I also give a -2 to the DC for each day (to a maximum of -10) that they have been keeping notes on the phenomenon that they are predicting. They don't know if they fail - they just get an incorrect answer.

Enjoy!

[Mr. Grogg]

(By the way, one thing I like about the weather in my chosen region is that summer's sometimes get swelteringly hot while winters get cold enough to cause problems but without so much precipitation that PCs are likely to be completely snowbound.)

And this is meant to be the weather near Oleg's. If they travel closer to mountains you might want to increase wind. If they go up any mountains maybe drop temperatures. As they head south it might be a bit warmer. And so forth.

[Philip Knowsley]

Nice!

[Tauric]

By the gods old and new, thank you for this. i've been going month by month with the random generator from the srd. This makes it much easier.

I might up the precip levels, though.

[Andostre]

Nice work!

[Golarion Goblin]

DOT!

[Mr. Grogg]

And, unless your players are ludicrously detailed in their notes and positively psychotic about analyzing session notes from long ago, they'd never notice if you just repeat these three years over and over for however long your campaign goes. ;)

[JohnB]

I have one player interested in the weather - and that is basically to see if she can get extra damage from a call lightning spell. I got her a nice d6 with weather symbols on :P

[Mr. Grogg]

I used to do the random weather thing, but it adds a lot of verisimilitude to have realistic weather.

[Thorri Grimbeard]

I just want to say "thank you" for posting this!

[El Ronza]

This is amazing. I'm prepping to run Kingmaker, so the timing is spot-on, too. It'll take me a while to convert everything to metric measurements, but still, a fantastic resource!

[Rickmeister]

El Ronza, if you are finished with the metric measurement, could you inform us here? I would be in your debt if you could share it :)

[El Ronza]

I'll be sure to post it here when I'm done with it! =)

[donnald johnson]

Have you finished that metric conversion yet El Ronza?

[RelicBlackOUT]

wow that is amazing, once again I find something on the boards that will add some depth to the game. I wonder if the players will even care.....