Weather For Pseudodragon
Weather is very important in real life, of course. It presents serious obstacles for travel and life. This is a straightforward system which I have used effectively for many weeks in my campaign, with occasionally serious impacts on player character's travel behavior. I run this combined with a 12-mile hex map, but the system presented here is normalized for a 6-mile map.
Some speeds for comparison are given below:
- Unencumbered humans and draft horses make 4 6-mile hexes per day
- Armored humans make 3 6-mile hexes
- Fully-laden beasts of burden travel 2 6-mile hexes
- Light horses travel 8 6-mile hexes
- Heavier warhorses travel 6 6-mile hexes.
WEATHER CATEGORIES
Weather can be SUNNY, RAINY, or SNOWY. For each day, roll 1d8 for this day's specific weather and then 1d10 for the next day's weather category.
SUNNY
IN SPRING: 1-5 stays sunny, 6-9 becomes rainy, 10 becomes snowy
IN SUMMER: 1-8 stays sunny, 9-10 becomes rainy
IN AUTUMN: 1-4 stays sunny, 5-9 becomes rainy, 10 becomes snowy
IN WINTER: 1-2 stays sunny, 3-8 becomes rainy, 9-10 becomes snowy
1-5: Clear (no effects)
6-7: Wind (Penalty to ranged attacks.)
8: Meteor shower, 1 in 10 is a comet. Wishes made upon a comet have a 1% chance of coming true.
RAINY
All random encounters start at half distance. Mud imposes a 1-hex movement penalty the next day; in summer, reduce all "mud" results by one day.
IN SPRING: 1-4 becomes sunny, 5-8 stays rainy, 9-10 becomes snowy
IN SUMMER: 1-6 becomes sunny, 7-10 stays rainy
IN AUTUMN: 1-3 becomes sunny, 4-8 stays rainy, 9-10 becomes snowy
IN WINTER: 1 becomes sunny, 2-7 stays rainy, 8-10 becomes snowy
1-2: Foggy (no other effects.)
3-5: Light Rain (-1 hex of movement today, 1 day mud.)
6-7: Heavy Rain (-1 hex of movement today, rivers impassable, 2 days mud.)
8: Thunderstorm (Heavy Rain + 1 in 20 chance of being hit by lightning if any movement is made.)
SNOWY
The worst weather to travel in.
IN SPRING: 1-4 becomes sunny, 5-8 becomes rainy, 9-10 stays snowy. Snow leaves Mud in spring.
IN SUMMER: Impossible.
IN AUTUMN: 1-4 becomes sunny, 5-7 becomes rainy, 8-10 stays snowy. Snow leaves Mud in autumn.
IN WINTER: 1-3 becomes sunny, 4-6 becomes rainy, 7-10 stays snowy. Snow leaves Snowdrifts (-1 hex of movement, 1 point of damage to everyone travelling today) in Winter.
1-2: Hail (1 damage to everyone travelling today.)
3-5: Light Snow (-1 hex of movement today + 1 damage to everyone travelling today.)
6-7: Heavy Snow (-2 hexes of movement today + 1d4 damage to everyone travelling today.)
8: Blizzard (travel is impossible, 1d6 damage to anyone outside of a town today.
In a 5e game, I might bump the damage up to losing one HD on a day with Light Snow or Snowdrifts and 2 HD on a day with Heavy Snow.